HOUR-GLASS AND BIBLE. William Lisle Bowles Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Bowles, William Lisle, 1762-1850. The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. I. With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan. Edinburgh James Nichol, 9 North Bank Street... 1855 pp. 29-30.

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HOUR-GLASS AND BIBLE . Look , Christian , on thy Bible , and that glass That sheds its sand through minutes , hours , and days , And years ; it speaks not , yet , methinks , it says , To every human heart : so mortals pass On to their dark and silent grave ! Alas For man ! an exile upon earth he strays , Weary , and wandering through benighted ways ; To-day in strength , to-morrow like the grass That withers at his feet ! — Lift up thy head , Poor pilgrim , toiling in this vale of tears ; That book declares whose blood for thee was shed , Who died to give thee life ; and though thy years Pass like a shade , pointing to thy death-bed , Out of the deep thy cry an angel hears , And by his guiding hand thy steps to heaven are led !