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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=461151" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>To The Christian Reader</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Reader, I am a fool;<br>And have adventured<br>To play the fool this once for Christ,<br>The more his fame to spread.<br>If this my foolishness<br>Help thee to be more wise,<br>I have attained what I seek,<br>And what I onely prize.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thou wonderest perhaps,<br>That I in Print appear,<br>Who to the Pulpit dwell so nigh,<br>Yet come so seldome there.<br>The God of Heaven knows<br>What grief to me it is,<br>To be with-held from Serving Christ:<br>No sorrow like to this.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This is the sorest pain<br>That I have felt of feel:<br>Yet have I stood some shocks that might<br>Make stronger Men to reel.<br>I find more true delight<br>In serving of my Lord,<br>Tan all the good things upon Earth,<br>Without it, can afford.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And could my strength endure,<br>That work I count so dear;<br>Not all the Riches of Peru<br>Should hire me to forbear;<br>But I'm a Prisoner,<br>Under a heavy Chain:<br>Almighty God's afflicting hand,<br>Doth me perforce restrain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet some (I know) do judge,<br>Mine inability,<br>To come abroad and do Christ's Work,<br>To be Melancholy;<br>And that I'm not so weak,<br>As I my self conceit,<br>But who, in other things have found<br>Me so conceited yet?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Or who of all my friends,<br>That have my tryals seen,<br>Can tell the time in seven years,<br>When I have dumpish been?<br>Some think my voice is strong,<br>Most times when I do Preach:<br>But ten days after what I feel<br>And suffer, few can reach.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">My prisoned thoughts break forth,<br>When open'd is the door,<br>With greater force and violence,<br>And strain my voice the more.<br>But vainly do they tell,<br>That I am growing stronger,<br>Who hear me speak in half an hour,<br>Till I can speak no longer.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some for, because they see not<br>My chearfulness to fail,<br>Nor that I am disconsolate,<br>Do think I nothing ail.<br>If they had born my griefs,<br>Their courage might have fail'd them,<br>And all the Town (perhaps) have known<br>(Once and again) what ail'd them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But why should I complain<br>That have so good a God,<br>That doth mine heart with comfort fill,<br>Ev'n whilst I feel his Rod?<br>In God I have been strong,<br>When wearied and worn out;<br>And joy'd in him, when twenty woes<br>Assail'd me round about.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Nor speak I this to boast;<br>But make Apology<br>For mine own self, and answer those<br>That fail in Charity.<br>I am (alas) as frail,<br>Impatient a Creature,<br>As most that tread upon the ground,<br>And have as bad a nature.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Let God be magnify'd,<br>Whose everlasting strength<br>Upholds me under sufferings<br>Of more than ten years length.<br>Through whose Almighty pow'r<br>Although I am surrounded<br>With sorrows more than can be told,<br>Yet am I not confounded.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For his dear sake have I<br>This service undertaken,<br>For I am bound to honour Him,<br>Who hath not me forsaken.<br>I am a Debtor too,<br>Unto the sons of Men;<br>Whom wanting other means, I would<br>Advantage with my Pen.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I would, But (ah!) my strength,<br>When tried, proves so small,<br>That to the ground without effect,<br>My wishes often fall.<br>Weak heads, and hands, and states,<br>Great things cannot produce:<br>And therefore I this little Piece<br>Have publish'd for thine use.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Although the thing be small,<br>Yet my good will therein,<br>Is nothing less then if it had<br>A larger Volumn been.<br>Accept it then in Love,<br>And read it for thy good:<br>There's nothing in't can do thee hurt,<br>If rightly understood.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The God of Heaven grant<br>These Lines so well to speed,<br>That thou the things of thine own peace,<br>Through them may'st better heed,<br>And may'st be stirred up<br>To stand upon thy guard,<br>That Death and Judgment may not come,<br>And find thee unprepar'd.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Oh get a part in Christ,<br>And make the Judge thy Friend:<br>So shalt thou be assured of<br>A happy, glorious end.<br>Thus prayes thy real Friend,<br>And Servant for Christ's Sake,<br>Who had he strength would not refuse,<br>More pains for thee to take.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Michael+Wigglesworth">Michael Wigglesworth</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=461151" data-title="To The Christian Reader de Michael Wigglesworth" data-description="Reader, I am a fool;
And have adventured
To play the fool this once for Christ,
The more his fame to spread.
If this my foolishness
Help thee to be more wise,
I have attained what I seek,
And what I onely prize.

Thou wonderest perhaps,
That I in ..."></div>
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