---
title: 'Retirement With Jesus: A meditation by George Burrowes'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2020-04-21
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2020-retirement-with-jesus-a-meditation-by-george-burrowes
---

# Retirement With Jesus: A meditation by George Burrowes

In solitude, meditation with Christ is sweet. [George Burrowes](/authors/george-burrowes), renowned commentator on the Song of Solomon, and poet, has written a meditation on this very topic, from his volume of poems titled *Octorara, A Poem: And Occasional Pieces* (1856).

**Retirement With Jesus**

There will I give thee my loves. — Song vii.12.

> Come to this tranquil shade
> Of forest boughs in spring’s rich freshness wove;
> And on this turf with early flowers inlaid,
> Bring filled with fervent love,
> 
> The censer of the heart;
> And offer sacrifice of praise and prayer,
> To Him whose Holy Spirit doth impart
> Peace calm as this pure air.
> 
> Here are no rolling wheels,
> No mammon’s pomp, nor envy, strife, nor jar;
> Unfelt the din of life around us steals,
> Like the dull waves afar.
> 
> From Salem’s crowds at even,
> To the lone mount was Jesus e’er withdrawn;
> There, with no voice to hear, he poured to Heaven
> His prayer at early dawn.
> 
> There does he linger yet,
> Revealed to faith’s pure eye, to meet and bless
> Souls who, for his blest smiles and voice, forget
> Earth’s phantom happiness.
> 
> When rosy morning fills,
> In heaven’s dewy borders, her golden urn,
> And bright her altars on the eastern hills,
> With balmy incense burn;
> 
> When pensive eve doth gaze,
> With wondering silence, on the starry throng,
> That crowd the darkening courts of heaven, and raise
> Their full adoring song;
> 
> Then haste, my soul, to meet
> This confidential Friend, where none intrudes;
> Feel Mary’s joy, while falling at his feet
> In these blest solitudes.
> 
> Here, speaks He face to face,
> With our o’erwhelmed and gladdened souls; our heart
> He gathers to his bosom; and his grace
> In melting streams imparts.
> 
> The hidden manna here,
> Our spirits find by more than angels given;
> And brighter than on Tabor’s mount, appear
> O’erpowering gleams of heaven.
> 
> In this divine retreat,
> Where breathes the fainting soul reviving air,
> The spirit healthful grows, and feels it sweet
> Its toils and woes to bear.
> 
> And when my soul alone
> Must pass away from earth, through death’s dark shade,
> He whom my heart has here so frequent known,
> Will meet me with his aid;
> 
> And gathered in his arms,
> A trembling lamb, my trusting soul he’ll bear
> Safe through death’s terrors and the grave’s alarms,
> His home in heaven to share.