Holy Willie's Prayer
"And send the godly in a pet to pray."--Pope.
Argument.
Holy Willie was a rather oldish bachelor elder, in the parish of
Mauchline, and much and justly famed for that polemical chattering,
which ends in tippling orthodoxy, and for that spiritualized bawdry
which refines to liquorish devotion. In a sessional process with a
gentleman in Mauchline--a Mr. Gavin Hamilton--Holy Willie and his
priest, Father Auld, after full hearing in the presbytery of Ayr, came
off but second best; owing partly to the oratorical powers of Mr. Robert
Aiken, Mr. Hamilton's counsel; but chiefly to Mr. Hamilton's being one
of the most irreproachable and truly respectable characters in the
county. On losing the process, the muse overheard him [Holy Willie]
at his devotions, as follows:--
O Thou, who in the heavens does dwell,
Who, as it pleases best Thysel',
Sends ane to heaven an' ten to hell,
A' for Thy glory,
And no for ony gude or ill
They've done afore Thee!
I bless and praise Thy matchless might,
When thousands Thou hast left in night,
That I am here afore Thy sight,
For gifts an' grace
A burning and a shining light
To a' this place.
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