A reflection on the close of the year

Is this a theme of mirth? who can rejoice

Author: Anne Steele
Published in 1 hymnal

Representative Text

Is this a theme of mirth? who can rejoice
That time, important time so swiftly flies;
And scorn reflection's monitory voice,
The friendly power that wooes us to be wise?

For ever ye departed months, adieu!
What heart that knows your value can be gay?
What heart that asks reflection's conscious view,
How many hours fled unimprov'd away?

Yet oft her warning voice, e'er yet they past,
Cry'd, "seize the precious minutes make them thine:
Ah how wilt thou account for so much waste
Or treasure lent for purposes divine?

O let my heart her needful dictates hear,
To her the solemn midnight hour I give,
And ask, while musing on the finish'd year,
How I have spent the time, and why I live?

How have I spent the time? reflection say?
She answers "wasted many a precious hour,
In careless indolence lost many a day,
When heaven demanded every active power.

Why do I live? "Past errors to deplore,
Low at the feet of sovereign grace to bow,
For strength divine intreat (while I adore,)
To dedicate to heaven the fleeting now."

Jesus, to thee, to thy atoning blood,
To thy unsully'd righteousness I fly:
O thou, my judge, my Saviour, and my God,
Instruct me how to live and how to die.

Source: Miscellaneous Pieces in Verse and Prose #94

Author: Anne Steele

Anne Steele was the daughter of Particular Baptist preacher and timber merchant William Steele. She spent her entire life in Broughton, Hampshire, near the southern coast of England, and devoted much of her time to writing. Some accounts of her life portray her as a lonely, melancholy invalid, but a revival of research in the last decade indicates that she had been more active and social than what was previously thought. She was theologically conversant with Dissenting ministers and "found herself at the centre of a literary circle that included family members from various generations, as well as local literati." She chose a life of singleness to focus on her craft. Before Christmas in 1742, she declined a marriage proposal from contemporar… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Is this a theme of mirth? who can rejoice
Title: A reflection on the close of the year
Author: Anne Steele
Language: English
Publication Date: 1780
Copyright: This text is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before 1929.

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Miscellaneous Pieces in Verse and Prose #94

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