NOT long after Robert Murray MacCheyne’s conversion, he heard that Constance Bullen, a friend of his family, had “determined to keep by the world.” Upon this he wrote the following lines:—
She has chosen the world, and its paltry crowd—
She has chosen the world and an endless shroud !
She has chosen the world with its misnamed pleasures,
She has chosen the world before heaven’s own treasures.
She hath launched her boat on life’s giddy sea,
And her all is afloat for eternity.
But Bethlehem’s star is not in her view ;
And her aim is far from the harbour true.
When the storm descends from an angry sky,
Ah ! where from the winds shall the vessel fly
When stars are concealed, and rudder gone,
And heaven is sealed to the wandering one ?
The whirlpool opes for the gallant prize ;
And, with all her hopes to the deep she hies !
But who may tell of the place of woe,
Where the wicked dwell—where the worldlings go ?
For the human heart can ne’er conceive
What joys are the part of them who believe ;
Nor can justly think of the cup of death
Which all must drink who despise the faith.
Away, then—oh, fly from the joys of earth !
Her smile is a lie—there’s a sting in her mirth.
Come, leave the dreams of this transient night,
And bask in the beams of an endless light.
Later, he appealed to her again, warning her of the danger of putting the godless joys of the world before the salvation of her soul :—
Go, ask of the butterfly, who are its friends,
And where is its sheltering bower,
When the pitiless storm on the garden descends,
And the beauty is stripped from the flower.
In mirth and in mildness it revels to-day,
But seek for its glory to-morrow—
In the cold breath of night it has withered away,
It has vanished in darkness and sorrow.
Yet Constance held on her giddy way and would have none of Christ. It was not till eleven years had passed and the news of MacCheyne’s death reached her, that she turned to her Saviour. Thirty-three years after her conversion she met Dr Andrew Bonar, MacCheyne’s biographer, at a Mildmay Conference, and drew him aside to tell him the solemn story of her salvation.—“The Bulwark.”