O could this desert as the rose rejoice, Spread sacred bloom, and breathe immortal scent! O could the broken tribes, in spots apart Of these far woods who plant their shifting home, The Shepherd of their souls receive in heart, Own his blest voice, and owning cease to roam ! And God be thank'd! the process is begun ; Through the crude mass, and do it's destined work. See on the margin of the ruddy stream (So named) where meads in boundless level The stock once sprung from many a lawless bed: 6 The seat of the Red River Settlement. с See now with these in every social tie And Christian bond,-oh, sight to glad the mind! Sweet children of the woods with lustrous eye And old Europa's paler sons combined. Greek, Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, Come on, blest hour, when by a sure decree O faithful labour of a little band', In all these happier fruits how prime your share! High-favour'd Zion of our parent land Still stretch, and wider still, thy fostering care. Thy workmen here for shame have little cause: Powerful through faith and prevalent in love, 7 The Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society in the Territory. Doubly they give the roving Indian laws, Guide him for earth, and mould him for above. They train his docile child with wise control; Prompt him to build, to graze, to till the soil. Strong be the structure which their pains upraise, Believers built on Christ the corner-stone ! Full be their folds, to God's eternal praise, Rich be the harvest which their hands have sown! Yes, stedfast brethren, he whose feeble pen 8 Has traced these lines, to others now returns Bound to himself by closer claim, and men Not few, whose zeal his fervent tribute earns. 8 These lines were finished at the Red River Settlement. 9 The Clergy of the Church of England in Lower Canada chiefly Missionaries of the Incorporated Society for the Pro 20 THE ROSE OF THE WILDERNESS. There lies his constant task;-yourselves, per chance, He sees below no more; yet oft to you, Oft to your charge well-pleased will memory glance, And all be yours his humble prayer can do pagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the early nurse, and the bountiful, persevering protectress of the Colonial Churches. Some account of their labours and privations may be found in my journals of 1840 and 1843, published by the Society, and sold by Rivingtons, Hatchard, and Burns, particularly in pp. 13, 23, 47, and 76, of the latter. Wisd. xi. 20. Isa. xxv. 1. See Job xxviii. 25. Isa. xl. 12. 26. Cant. ii. 1. 1 Pet. ii. 25. John x. 4. Eph. ii. 14. 2 Tim. ii. 15. Eph. ii. 20, and 1 Pet. ii. 5. John iv. 35, and Matt. ix. 38. Notes ON THE ROSE OF THE WILDERNESS. THE plants of larger and smaller growth, which are mentioned by name in the preceding poem, are all found in one portion or other of the route to the Red River, commencing from the banks of the St. Lawrence, and almost all of them are very widely diffused over that extent of country. The tryllium (in some of its varieties) and the sanguinaria appear in profusion about Quebec, in the former part of May, while the woods, in that locality, are still leafless, |