Zinzendorff and Other Poems/Thoughts on Returning from Church
THOUGHTS ON RETURNING FROM CHURCH.
The listening ear the hallow'd strain
Has caught from lips devoutly wise,
But what my heart has been thy gain
From all these precepts of the skies?
Contrition s lesson have they taught?
The oft-forgotten vow renew'd?
Or gently touch'd thy glowing thought
With the blest warmth of gratitude?
Say, from the low delights of time
Thy best affections have they won?
Inciting thee with zeal sublime
Earth's fleeting pilgrimage to run?
If not, how vain the band to join
Who toward the house of God repair,
To pour the song of praise divine
Or kneel in pharasaic prayer;
And ah! how vain when Death's cold hand
Shall sternly reap time's ripen'd field,
How worse than vain when all must stand
The last, the dread account to yield.