POETRY. EXPERIENCE. Leland. 1835 Signs

POETRY.

EXPERIENCE.

Come old and come young, and hear me relate
My life and adventures, and my present state;
I pray you all give ear to what you now shall hear,
And my story will create pleasure and sorrow.

My childhood and youth in vanity were spent,
Regardless of truth, and follies intent;
For more than eighteen years, I shed no mourning tears,
But pled for my sins and refused to relent.

Inflexibly hard, impenetrably blind,
The pleasures of sense bewildered my mind:
To me, it did appear God’s law was too severe—
To the cross of the Gospel, I was not inclined.

But O! what love the love of God to man!
That everlasting love that drew the saving plan;
That love persued my soul when I was sick and foul,
Too great to resist and too strong to withstand.

And when all my hopes had nearly fled away,
And hell from beneath was gaping for its prey,
The Saviour did appear to dissipate my fear,
And washed all my sins away in a moment.

What freedom I felt, what joy I did receive,
It was easy to repent—it was a pleasure to believe;
I freely gave him all, and at his feet did fall,
And the glory, all glory, to him I did give.

His voice then I heard in a sweet, majestic sound:
I’ve loved you, and sought you, and closed up your wound,
I’ve worked for you to do, be faithful, just, and true,
And proclaim to the world what a Saviour you’ve found.

Not money nor fame did ever send me forth,
But love to his name and love to his truth;
I will girt my armour on and venture forth alone,
Trusting only in God to preserve me as a youth.

O’er mountains and waters as duty led me on,
Through snow-storms, and tempests, and a hot burning sun:
I’ve run with all my might, and labored day and night,
To proclaim to the world what a Saviour I had found.
LEELAND