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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

VERSES DESIGNED FOR AN INFIRMARY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dear loving sirs! Behold, as ye pass by
Last Line: "come, ye true friends, and be for ever blest."
Subject(s): Blessings; Compassion; Healing; Physicians; Sickness; Cures; Doctors; Illness


DEAR loving sirs! Behold, as ye pass by,
The poor sick people with a pitying eye:
Let pains, and wounds, and suff'rings of each kind,
Raise up a just compassion in your mind;
Indulge a gen'rous grief at such a sight,
And then bestow your talent, or your mite.

Thus to bestow is really to obtain
The surest blessing upon honest gain:
To help th' afflicted, in so great a need,
By your supplies, is to be rich indeed:
The good, the pleasure, the reward of wealth
Is to procure your fellow-creatures health.

In other cases, men may form a doubt,
Whether their alms be properly laid out;
But in the objects, here, before your eyes,
No such distrust can possibly arise;
Too plain the miseries! which well may melt
A heart, sincerely wishing them unfelt.

The wise consider this terrestrial ball,
As Heav'n's design'd INFIRMARY for all,
Here came the GREAT PHYSICIAN of the soul,
To heal man's nature, and to make him whole:
Still, by his SPIRIT, present with all those,
Who lend an aid to lessen human woes.

A godlike work; who forwards it is sure
That ev'ry step advances his own cure;
Without benevolence, the view to self
Makes worldly riches an unrighteous pelf;
While blest thro' life, the giver, for his love,
Dies to receive its huge reward above.

To them who tread the certain path to bliss,
That leads thro' scenes of charity like this,
Think what the Saviour of the world will say—
"Ye blessed of my Father, come your way;
"'Twas done to me, if done to the distress'd:
"Come, ye true friends, and be for ever blest.





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