Hinder them not!—even Love may spare
In blindness many a wayward shoot,—
Or weakly let the usurping tare
Divert the health-stream from their root,
Oh! by that negligence supine
Which oft the fairest page doth blot,
And shroud the ray of light divine,
Hinder them not.
Cold world!—the teachings of thy guile
Awhile from these young hearts restrain;
Oh spare that unsuspicious smile
Which never must return again;
By folly's wile, by falsehood's kiss
Too soon acquir'd, too late forgot,
By sins that shut the soul from bliss,
Hinder them not.
SALE OF ARDENT SPIRITS BY CHRISTIANS.
There rose a cry of violence and pain,
And of the earth I ask’d—if nought remained
Amid her moral lazar-house, to cleanse
This vital taint, and make the leprous whole?
—"Yea, she replied, The followers of Christ!—
They are the purifying principle,
The salt of earth."
Then I beheld a flood
Of dark corruption.—Far and wide it spread,—
And many sported on its fatal brink,
