James Montgomery (poet)

"Nature's prime favourites were the Pelicans; High-fed, long-lived, and sociable and free."

"Nimbly they seized and secreted their prey, Alive and wriggling in the elastic net, Which Nature hung beneath their grasping beaks; Till, swoln with captures, the unwieldy burden Clogg'd their slow flight, as heavily to land, These mighty hunters of the deep return'd. There on the cragged cliffs they perch'd at ease, Gorging their hapless victims one by one; Then full and weary, side by side, they slept, Till evening roused them to the chase again."

"The nursery of brooding Pelicans, The dormitory of their dead, had vanish'd, And all the minor spots of rock and verdure, The abodes of happy millions, were no more."

"When the good man yields his breath (For the good man never dies)."

"Gashed with honourable scars, Low in Glory's lap they lie; Though they fell, they fell like stars, Streaming splendour through the sky."

"Distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea."

"Once, in the flight of ages past, There lived a man."

"Counts his sure gains, and hurries back for more."

"Hope against hope, and ask till ye receive."

"Joys too exquisite to last, And yet more exquisite when past."

"Bliss in possession will not last; Remembered joys are never past; At once the fountain, stream, and sea, They were, they are, they yet shall be."

"Friend after friend departs; Who hath not lost a friend? There is no union here of hearts That finds not here an end."

"Nor sink those stars in empty night: They hide themselves in heaven's own light."

"'T is not the whole of life to live, Nor all of death to die."

"Beyond this vale of tears There is a life above, Unmeasured by the flight of years; And all that life is love."

"Night is the time to weep, To wet with unseen tears Those graves of memory where sleep The joys of other years."

"Who that hath ever been Could bear to be no more? Yet who would tread again the scene He trod through life before?"

"Here in the body pent, Absent from Him I roam, Yet nightly pitch my moving tent A day's march nearer home."

"If God hath made this world so fair, Where sin and death abound, How beautiful beyond compare Will paradise be found!"

"Return unto thy rest, my soul, From all the wanderings of thy thought, From sickness unto death made whole, Safe through a thousand perils brought."

"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed,— The motion of a hidden fire That trembles in the breast."

"Prayer is the burden of a sigh, The falling of a tear, The upward glancing of an eye When none but God is near."

"Hymns should have unity,graduation and mutual dependence in the thoughts,a conscious progress,a sense of completeness..and be easily understood."

"When to the cross I turn my eyes, And rest on Calvary, O Lamb of God, my sacrifice, I must remember Thee."

"Baptize the nations! far and nigh, The triumphs of the cross record The name of Jesus glorify, Till every people call Him Lord."

"As a poet Montgomery stands well to the front. His poetic genius was of a high order."