7
T?W
THE
CHRISTIAN YEAR
THOUGHTS IN VERSE
SUNDAYS AND HOLYDAYS
THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.
In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. Isaiah xxx. 15.
SECOND EDITION.
OXFORD,
PRINTED BY W. BAXTER,
FOR J. PARKER;
AND C. AND J. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUI/S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO
PLACE, LONDON.
1827.
ADVERTISEMENT.
NEXT to a sound rule of faith, there is nothing
of so much consequence as a sober standard of
feeling in matters of practical religion : and it is
the peculiar happiness of the Church of England
to possess, in her authorized formularies, an ample
and secure provision for both. But in times of
much leisure and unbounded curiosity, when ex
citement of every kind is sought after with a
morbid eagerness, this part of the merit of our
Liturgy is likely in some measure to be lost, on
many even of its sincere admirers : the very
tempers, which most require such discipline,
setting themselves, in general, most decidedly
against it.
The object of the present publication will be
attained, if any person find assistance from it in
b
ii Advertisement.
bringing his own thoughts and feelings into more
entire unison with those recommended and ex
emplified in the Prayer Book. The work does
not furnish a complete series of compositions ;
being, in many parts, rather adapted with more or
less propriety to the successive portions of the
Liturgy, than originally suggested by them.
Something has been added at the end concerning
the several Occasional Services : which constitute,
from their personal and domestic nature, the most
perfect instance of that soothing tendency in the
Prayer Book, which it is the chief purpose of these
pages to exhibit.
Nov. 30, 1827.
I
CONTENTS.
Page
Morning. ........ 1
Evening. ........ 5
Advent Sunday 8
Second Sunday in Advent. The Signs of the Times. 12
Third Sunday in Advent. The Travellers. . . 15
Fourth Sunday in Advent. Dimness. ... 19
Christmas Day 22
St. Stephen s Day 26
St. John s Day 29
The Holy Innocents 31
First Sunday after Christmas. The Sun-dial of Ahaz. 34
The Circumcision. . 37
Second Sunday after Christmas. The Pilgrim s Song. 41
The Epiphany 45
First Sunday after Epiphany. The Nightingale. . 48
Second Sunday after Epiphany. The Secret of per
petual Youth. ... ... 51
Third Sunday after Epiphany. The Good Centurion. 55
iv Contents.
Page
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. The World is for
Excitement, the Gospel for Soothing. . . 59
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany. Cure Sin and you
cure Sorrow. ....... 63
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany. The Benefits of Un
certainty. ....... 67
Septuagesima Sunday. ...... 72
Sexagesima Sunday. .... .75
Quinquagesima Sunday. .... .79
Ash Wednesday 82
First Sunday in Lent. The City of Refuge. . . 85
Second Sunday in Lent. Esau s Forfeit. . . 88
Third Sunday in Lent. The Spoils of Satan. . . 92
Fourth Sunday in Lent. The Rosebud ... 95
Fifth Sunday in Lent. The Burning Bush. . . 99
Sunday next before Easter. The Children in the
Temple. 103
Monday before Easter. Christ waiting for the
Cross 106
Tuesday before Easter. Christ refusing the Wine
and Myrrh. 109
Wednesday before Easter. Christ in the Garden. . 112
Thursday before Easter. The Vision of the latter
days. 117
Good Friday. 120
Easter Eve. ........ 123
Easter Day. . . ... 127
Contents. v
Page
Monday in Easter week. St. Peter and Cornelius. 130
Tuesday in Easter week. The Snow-drop. . . 134
First Sunday after Easter. The Restless Pastor re
proved. . . . 137
Second Sunday after Easter. Balaam. . . . 141
Third Sunday after Easter. Languor and Travail. . 144
Fourth Sunday after Easter. The Dove on the Cross. 147
Fifth Sunday after Easter. The Priest s Intercessor. 152
Ascension Day. ....... 156
Sunday after Ascension Day. Seed-time. . . 159
Whitsunday . 163
Monday in Whitsun-week. The City of Confusion. 166
Tuesday in Whitsun-week. Holy Orders. . . 171
Trinity Sunday. . . . . . . .175
First Sunday after Trinity. Israel among the Ruins
of Canaan. ....... 179
Second Sunday after Trinity. Charity the Life of
Faith 181
Third Sunday after Trinity. Comfort for Sinners in
the presence of the Good. .... 185
Fourth Sunday after Trinity. The Groans of Nature. 188
Fifth Sunday after Trinity. The Fishermen of Beth-
saida 193
Sixth Sunday after Trinity. The Psalmist repenting. 197
Seventh Sunday after Trinity. The Feast in the Wil
derness. 200
vi Contents.
Page
Eighth Sunday after Trinity. The Disobedient Pro
phet 204
Ninth Sunday after Trinity. Elijah in Horeb. . 207
Tenth Sunday after Trinity. Christ weeping over
Jerusalem. ....... 210
Eleventh Sunday after Trinity. Gehazi reproved. . 213
Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. The Deaf and Dumb. 216
Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. Moses on the Mount. 220
Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. The Ten Lepers. 225
Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity. The Flowers of the
Field 228
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. Hope is better than
Ease 231
Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity. Ezekiel s Vision
in the Temple 234
Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity. The Church in the
Wilderness 238
Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity. Shadrach, Me-
shach, and Abednego 243
Twentieth Sunday after Trinity. Mountain Scenery. 246
Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity. The Redbreast
in September. ....... 249
Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity. The Rule of
Christian Forgiveness. ..... 252
Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity. Forest Leaves
in Autumn. 255
Contents. vii
Page
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity. Imperfection
of Human Sympathy. ..... 258
Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity. The two Rainbows. 262
Sunday next before Advent. Self-examination before
Advent 265
St. Andrew s Day 270
St. Thomas the Apostle 273
Conversion of St. Paul. ...... 277
Purification of St. Mary the Virgin. . . . 282
St. Matthias Day 286
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. . . 289
St. Mark s Day 292
St. Philip and St. James s Day. . . . . 294
St. Barnabas the Apostle 297
St. John Baptist s Day. . . 301
St. Peter s Day 304
St. James the Apostle. ..... . 308
St. Bartholomew the Apostle. .... 311
St. Matthew the Apostle 315
St. Michael and all Angels. ... . 319
St. Luke the Evangelist 323
St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles 328
All Saints Day. . 331
Holy Communion. . . 334
Holy Baptism. 338
Catechism . 341
Confirmation. 343
v iii Contents.
Page
346
Matrimony.
Visitation and Communion of the Sick. .
o^o
Burial of the Dead.
356
Churching of Women.
. 358
Commmation. .
MORNING.
His compassions fail not ; they are new every morning.
Lament, iii. 22, 23.
HUES of the rich unfolding morn,
That, ere the glorious sun be born,
By some soft touch invisible
Around his path are taught to swell ;
Thou rustling breeze so fresh and gay,
That dancest forth at opening day.
And brushing by with joyous wing,
Wakenest each little leaf to sing ;
Ye fragrant clouds of dewy steam,
By which deep grove and tangled stream
Pay, for soft rains in season given,
Their tribute to the genial heaven ;
Morning .
Why waste your treasures of delight
Upon our thankless, joyless sight ;
Who day by day to sin awake,
Seldom of heaven and you partake ?
Oh ! timely happy, timely wise,
Hearts that with rising morn arise !
Eyes that the beam celestial view,
Which evermore makes all things new a !
New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove ;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life, and power, and thought.
New mercies, each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray ;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
If on our daily course our mind
Be set to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.
a Revelations xxi, 5.
Morning.
Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,
As more of heaven in each we see :
Some softening gleam of love and prayer
Shall dawn on every cross and care.
As for some dear familiar strain
Untir d we ask, and ask again,
Ever, in its melodious store,
Finding a spell unheard before ;
Such is the bliss of souls serene.
When they have sworn, and stedfast mean,
Counting the cost, in all to espy
Their God, in all themselves deny.
O could we learn that sacrifice,
What lights would all around us rise !
How would our hearts with wisdom talk
Along Life s dullest dreariest walk !
We need not bid, for cloistered cell,
Our neighbour and our work farewell,
Nor strive to wind ourselves too high
For sinful man beneath the sky :
Morning.
The trivial round, the common task,
Would furnish all we ought to ask ;
Room to deny ourselves ; a road
To bring us, daily, nearer God.
Seek we no more ; content with these,
Let present Rapture, Comfort, Ease,
As Heaven shall bid them, come and go
The secret this of Rest below.
Only, O Lord, in thy dear love
Fit us for perfect Rest above ;
And help us, this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray.
Evening.
EVENING.
Abide with us, for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent.
St. Luke xxiv. 29.
gone, that bright and orbed blaze,
Fast fading from our wistful gaze ;
Yon mantling cloud has hid from sight
The last faint pulse of quivering light.
In darkness and in weariness
The traveller on his way must press,
No gleam to watch on tree or tower,
Whiling away the lonesome hour.
Sun of my soul ! Thou Saviour dear,
It is not night if Thou be near :
Oh may no earth-born cloud arise
To hide Thee from thy servant s eyes.
When round thy wondrous works below
My searching rapturous glance I throw,
6 Evening.
Tracing out Wisdom, Power, and Love,
In earth or sky, in stream or grove ;
Or by the light thy words disclose
Watch Time s full river as it flows,
Scanning thy gracious Providence,
Where not too deep for mortal sense :
When with dear friends sweet talk I hold,
And all the flowers of life unfold ;
Let not my heart within me burn,
Except in all I Thee discern.
When the soft dews of kindly sleep
My wearied eyelids gently steep,
Be my last thought, how sweet to rest
For ever on my Saviours breast.
Abide with me from morn till eve,
For without Thee I cannot live :
Abide with me when night is nigh,
For without Thee I dare not die.
Thou Framer of the light and dark,
Steer through the tempest thine own ark :
Evening. 7
Amid the howling wintry sea
We are in port if we have Thee h .
The Rulers of this Christian land,
Twixt Thee and us ordained to stand,
Guide Thou their course, O Lord, aright,
Let all do all as in thy sight.
Oh by thine own sad burthen, borne
So meekly up the hill of scorn,
Teach Thou thy Priests their daily cross
To bear as thine, nor count it loss !
If some poor wandering child of thine
Have spurn d, to-day, the voice divine,
Now, Lord, the gracious work begin ;
Let him no more lie down in sin.
Watch by the sick : enrich the poor
With blessings from thy boundless store :
Be every mourner s sleep to-night
Like infant s slumbers, pure and light.
b Then they willingly received Him into the ship : and immediately
the ship was at the land whither they went. St. John vi. 21.
8 Advent Sunday.
Come near and bless us when we wake,
Ere through the world our way we take :
Till in the ocean of thy love
We lose ourselves in heaven above.
ADVENT SUNDAY.
Now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. Romans xiii. 11.
AWAKE again the Gospel-trump is blown
Erom year to year it swells with louder tone,
From year to year the signs of wrath
Are gathering round the Judged path,
Strange words fulfill d, and mighty works achieved,
And truth in all the world both hated and believ d.
A wake 1 why linger in the gorgeous town,
Sworn liegemen of the Cross and thorny crown ?
Up from your beds of sloth for shame,
Speed to the eastern mount like flame,
Nor wonder, should ye find your King in tears,
Even with the loud Hosanna ringing in his ears.
Advent Sunday. 9
Alas ! no need to rouse them : long ago
They are gone forth, to swell Messiah s show :
With glittering robes and garlands sweet
They strew the ground beneath his feet :
All but your hearts are there O doom d to prove
The arrows wing d in Heaven for Faith that will not love!
Meanwhile He paces through th adoring crowd,
Calm as the march of some majestic cloud,
That o er wild scenes of ocean-war
Holds its still course in heaven afar :
Even so, heart-searching Lord, as years roll on,
Thou keepest silent watch from thy triumphal throne :
Even so, the world is thronging round to gaze
On the dread vision of the latter days,
Constraint to own Thee, but in heart
Prepared to take Barabbas part :
" Hosanna" now, to-morrow " Crucify,"
The changeful burden still of their rude lawless cry.
Yet in that throng of selfish hearts untrue
Thy sad eye rests upon thy faithful few,
Children and childlike souls are there,
Blind Bartimeus humble prayer,
10 Advent Sunday.
And Lazarus waken d from his four days" sleep,
Enduring life again, that Passover to keep.
And fast beside the olive-border d way
Stands the bless d home, where Jesus deign d to stay,
The peaceful home, to Zeal sincere
And heavenly Contemplation dear,
When Martha lov d to wait with reverence meet,
And wiser Mary lingered at thy sacred feet.
Still through decaying ages as they glide,
Thou lov st thy chosen remnant to divide ;
Sprinkled along the waste of years
Full many a soft green isle appears :
Pause where we may upon the desert road,
Some shelter is in sight, some sacred safe abode.
When withering blasts of error swept the sky%
And Love s last flower seem d fain to droop and die,
How sweet, how lone the ray benign
On sheltered nooks of Palestine !
Then to his early home did Love repair d ,
And cheered his sickening heart with his own native air.
c Arianism in the fourth century.
d See St. Jerome s Works, i. 123. edit. Erasm.
Advent Sunday. 1 I
Years roll away : again the tide of crime
Has swept thy footsteps from the favoured clime.
Where shall the holy Cross find rest ?
On a crown d monarch s 6 mailed breast :
Like some bright angel o er the darkling scene,
Through court and camp he holds his heavenward course
serene.
A fouler vision yet ; an age of light,
Light without love, glares on the aching sight :
O who can tell how calm and sweet,
Meek Walton ! shews thy green retreat,
When wearied with the tale thy times disclose,
The eye first finds thee out in thy secure repose ?
Thus bad and good their several warnings give
Of His approach, whom none may see and live :
Faith s ear, with awful still delight,
Counts them like minute bells at night,
Keeping the heart awake till dawn of morn,
While to her funeral pile this aged world is borne.
But what are heaven s alarms to hearts that cower
In wilful slumber, deepening every hour,
/J*
e St. Louis in the tenth century.
\ 2 Second Sunday in Advent.
That draw their curtains closer round,
The nearer swells the trumpet s sound ?
Lord, ere our trembling lamps sink down and die,
Touch us with chastening hand, and make us feel Thee
nigh.
SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT.
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up
your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh. St. Luke xxi. 28.
NOT till the freezing blast is still,
Till freely leaps the sparkling rill,
And gales sweep soft from summer skies,
As o er a sleeping infant s eyes
A mother s kiss ; ere calls like these,
No sunny gleam awakes the trees,
Nor dare the tender flowerets show
Their bosoms to th 1 uncertain glow.
Why then, in sad and wintry time,
Her heavens all dark with doubt and crime,
Why lifts the Church her drooping head,
As though her evil hour were fled ?
Second Sunday in Advent. 1.3
Is she less wise than leaves of spring, *
Or birds that cower with folded wing ?
What sees she in this lowering sky
To tempt her meditative eye ?
She has a charm, a word of fire,
A pledge of love that cannot tire ;
By tempests, earthquakes, and by wars,
By rushing waves and falling stars,
By every sign her Lord foretold,
She sees the world is waxing old f ,
And through that last and direst storm
>
Descries by faith her Saviour s form.
Not surer does each tender gem,
Set in the figtree s polished stem,
-
Foreshew the summer season bland,
Than these dread signs thy mighty hand :
But oh ! frail hearts, and spirits dark !
The season s flight unwarn d we mark,
f 2 Esdras xiv. 10. The world hath lost his youth, and the times
begin to wax old.
14 Second Sunday in Advent.
But miss the Judge behind the door&,
For all the light of sacred lore :
Yet is He there : beneath our eaves
Each sound his wakeful ear receives :
Hush, idle words, and thoughts of ill,
Your Lord is listening: peace, be still.
Christ watches by a Christian s hearth,
Be silent, " vain deluding mirth,"
Till in thine altered voice be known
Somewhat of Resignation s tone.
But chiefly ye should lift your gaze
Above the world^s uncertain haze,
And look with calm unwavering eye
On the bright fields beyond the sky,
Ye, who your Lord s commission bear,
His way of mercy to prepare :
Angels He calls ye : be your strife
To lead on earth an AngePs life.
Think not of rest ; though dreams be sweet,
Start up, and ply your heaven-ward feet.
S See St. James v. 9.
Third Sunday in Advent. 15
Is not God s oath upon your head,
Ne er to sink back on slothful bed,
Never again your loins untie,
Nor let your torches waste and die,
Till, when the shadows thickest fall,
Ye hear your Master s midnight call ?
THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT.
What went ye out into the wilderness to see ? a reed shaken with the
wind ? But what went ye out for to see 1 a prophet ? yea, I say unto
you, and more than a prophet. St. Matt. xi. 7, 8.
WHAT went ye out to see
O er the rude sandy lea,
Where stately Jordan flows by many a palm,
Or where Gennesaret s wave
Delights the flowers to lave,
That o er her western slope breathe airs of balm ?
All through the summer night
Those blossoms red and bright"
l Rhododendrons : with which the western bank of the lake is said to
be clothed down to the water s edge.
10 Third Sunday in Advent.
Spread their soft breasts, unheeding, to the breeze,
Like hermits watching still
Around the sacred hill,
Where erst our Saviour watch d upon his knees.
The Paschal moon above
Seems like a saint to rove,
Left shining in the world with Christ alone ;
Below, the lake s still face
Sleeps sweetly in th embrace
Of mountains terrass d high with mossy stone.
Here may we sit, and dream
Over theheavenly theme.
Till to qfctr, soul the former days return ;
.JTill bh the grassy bed,
Where thousands once He fed,
The world s incarnate Maker we discern.
O cross no more the main,
Wandering so wild and vain,
To count the reeds that tremble in the wind,
On listless dalliance bound,
Like children gazing round,
Who on God s works no seal of Godhead find :
Third Sunday in Advent. 17
Bask not in courtly bower,
Or sun-bright hall of power,
Pass Babel quick, and seek the holy land
From robes of Tyrian die
Turn with undazzled eye
To Bethlehem s glade, or Carmers haunted strand.
Or choose thee out a cell
In Kedron s storied dell,
Beside the springs of Love, that never die,
Among the olives kneel
The chill night-blast to feel.
And watch the Moon that saw thy Master s agony.
Then rise at dawn of day,
And wind thy thoughtful way,
Where rested once the Temple s stately shade,
With due feet tracing round
The city s northern bound,
To th 1 other holy garden, where the Lord was laid.
Who thus alternate see
His death and victory,
Rising and falling as on angel wings,
18 Third Sunday in Advent.
They, while they seem to roam,
Draw daily nearer home,
Their heart untravelPd still adores the King of kings.
Or, if at home they stay,
Yet are they, day by day,
In spirit journeying through the glorious land,
Not for light Fancy s reed,
Nor Honour s purple meed,
Nor gifted Prophet s lore, nor Science wondrous wand,
But more than Prophet, more
Than Angels can adore
With face unveiPd, is He they go to seek :
Blessed be God, whose grace
Shews him in every place
To homeliest hearts of pilgrims pure and meek.
FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT.
The eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that
hear shall hearken. Tsaiah xxxii. 3.
OFj-the bright things in earth and air
How little can the heart embrace !
Soft shades and gleaming lights are there
I know it well, but cannot trace.
,
Mine eye unworthy seems to read
One page of Nature s beauteous book ;
It lies before me, fair outspread
I only cast a wishful look.
I cannot paint to Memory s eye
The scene, the glance, I dearest love
Unchanged themselves, in me they die,
Or faint, or false, their shadows prove.
In vain, with dull and tuneless ear,
I linger by soft Music s cell,
20 Fourth Sunday in Advent.
And in my heart of hearts would hear
What to her own she deigns to tell.
Tis misty all, both sight and sound
I only know tis fair and sweet
Tis wandering on enchanted ground
With dizzy brow and tottering feet.
But patience ! there may come a time
When these dull ears shall scan aright
Strains, that outring Earth s drowsy chime,
As Heaven outshines the taper s light.
These eyes, that dazzled now and weak,
At glancing motes in sunshine wink,
Shall see the King s 1 full glory break,
Nor from the blissful vision shrink :
In fearless love and hope uncloy d
For ever on that ocean bright
Empowered to gaze ; and undestroy d,
Deeper and deeper plunge in light.
1 Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty; they shall behold the
land that is very far off. Isaiah xxxiii. 17.
Fourth Sunday in Advent. 21
Though scarcely now their laggard glance
Reach to an arrow s flight, that day
They shall behold, and not in trance,
The region " very far away."
If Memory sometimes at our spell
Refuse to speak, or speak amiss,
. We shall not need her where we dwell
Ever in sight of all our bliss.
Meanwhile, if over sea or sky
Some tender lights unnotic d fleet,
Or on lov d features dawn and die,
Unread, to us, their lesson sweet ;
Yet are there saddening sights around,
Which Heaven, in mercy, spares us too,
And we see far in holy ground,
If dulypurg d our mental view.
The distant landscape draws not nigh
For all our gazing ; but the soul,
That upward looks, may still descry
Nearer, each day, the brightening goal.
22 Christmas Day.
And thou, too curious ear, that fain
Wouldst thread the maze of Harmony,
Content thee with one simple strain,
The lowlier, sure, the worthier thee ;
Till thou art duly trained, and taught
The concord sweet of Love divine
Then, with that inward Music fraught,
For ever rise, and sing, and shine.
CHRISTMAS DAY.
And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly
host, praising God. St. Luke ii. 13.
W^HAT sudden blaze of song
Spreads o er th expanse of Heaven ?
In waves of light it thrills along,
Th 1 angelic signal given
" Glory to God !" from yonder central fire
Flows out the echoing lay beyond the starry quire;
Christmas Day. 23
Like circles widening round
Upon a clear blue river,
Orb after orb, the wondrous sound
Is echoed on for ever :
" Glory to God on high, on earth be peace,.
"And love towards men of love k salvation and release/
Yet stay, before thou dare
To join that festal throng ;
Listen and mark what gentle air
First stirr d the tide of song ;
Tis not, " the Saviour born in David s home,
" To whom for power and health obedient worlds should
Tis not, " the Christ the Lord :"
With fix d adoring look
The choir of Angels caught the word,
Nor yet their silence broke :
But when they heard the sign, where Christ should be,
In sudden light they shone and heavenly harmony.
k I have ventured to adopt the reading of the Vulgate, as being ge
nerally known through Pergolesi s beautiful composition, " Gloria in excelsis
Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bone voluntatis."
2-1 Christmas Day.
Wrapp d in his swaddling bands,
And in his manger laid,
The hope and glory of all lands
Is come to the world s aid :
No peaceful home upon his cradle smiPd,
Guests rudely went and came, where slept the royal child,
But where Thou dwellest, Lord,
No other thought should be,
Once duly welcomed and ador d,
How should I part with Thee ?
Bethlehem must lose Thee soon, but Thou wilt grace
The single heart to be thy sure abiding-place.
Thee, on the bosom laid
Of a pure virgin mind,
In quiet ever, and in shade,
Shepherd and sage may find ;
They, who have bow d untaught to Nature"^ sway,
And they, who follow Truth along her star-pav d way.
The pastoral spirits first
Approach Thee, Babe divine,
For they in lowly thoughts are nurs d,
Christmas Day. 25
Meet for thy lowly shrine :
Sooner than they should miss where Thou dost dwell,
Angels from Heaven will stoop to guide them to thy cell.
Still, as the day comes round
For Thee to be reveal d,
By wakeful shepherds Thou art found,
Abiding in the field.
All through the wintry heaven and chill night air,
In music and in light Thou dawnest on their prayer.
O faint not ye for fear
What though your wandering sheep,
Reckless of what they see and hear,
Lie lost in wilful sleep ?
High Heaven in mercy to your sad annoy
Still greets you with glad tidings of immortal joy.
Think on th eternal home,
The Saviour left for you ;
Think on the Lord most holy, come
To dwell with hearts untrue :
So shall ye tread untir d his pastoral ways,
And in the darkness sing your carol of high praise.
ST. STEPHEN S DAY.
He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and
saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.
Acts vii. 55.
AS rays around the source of light
Stream upward ere he glow in sight,
And watching by his future flight
Set the clear heavens on fire ;
So on the King of Martyrs wait
Three chosen bands, in royal state 1 ,
And all earth owns, of good and great,
Is gathered in that choir.
1 Wheatley on the Common Prayer, c. v. sect. iv. 2. " As there are
three kinds of martyrdom, the first both in will and deed, which is the
highest ; the second in will but not in deed ; the third in deed but not in
will ; so the Church commemorates these martyrs in the same order : St.
Stephen first, who suffered death both in will and deed ; St. John the
Evangelist next, who suffered martyrdom in will but not in deed ; the holy
Innocents last, who suffered in deed but not in will."
St. Stephen s Day.
One presses on, and welcomes death :
One calmly yields his willing breath,
Nor slow, nor hurrying, but in faith
Content to die or live :
And some, the darlings of their Lord,
Play smiling with the flame and sword,
And, ere they speak, to his sure word
Unconscious witness give.
Foremost and nearest to his throne,
By perfect robes of triumph known,
And likest Him in look and tone,
The holy Stephen kneels,
With stedfast gaze, as when the sky
Flew open to his fainting eye,
Which, like a fading lamp, flashed high,
Seeing what death conceals.
Well might you guess what vision bright
Was present to his raptur d sight,
Even as reflected streams of light
Their solar source betray
The glory which our GOD surrounds,
The Son of Man, th atoning wounds
28 St. Stephen s Day.
He sees them all ; and earth s dull bounds
Are melting fast away.
He sees them all no other view
Could stamp the Saviour s likeness true,
Or with his love so deep embrue
Man s sullen heart and gross
" Jesu, do Thou my soul receive :
" Jesu, do Thou my foes forgive :"
He who would learn that prayer, must live
Under the holy Cross.
He, though he seem on earth to move,
Must glide in air like gentle dove,
From yon unclouded depths above
Must draw his purer breath ;
Till men behold his angel face
All radiant with celestial grace,
Martyr all o er, and meet to trace
The lines of Jesus death.
m And all that were in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw
his face as it had been the face of an angel. Acts vi. 15.
ST. JOHN S DAY.
Peter seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do]
Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
follow thou me. St. John xxi. 21, 22.
" LORD, and what shall this man do?"
Ask st thou, Christian, for thy friend ?
If his love for Christ be true,
Christ hath told thee of his end :
This is he whom God approves,
This is he whom Jesus loves.
Ask not of him more than this,
Leave it in his Saviour s breast,
Whether, early call d to bliss,
He in youth shall find his rest,
Or armed in his station wait
Till his Lord be at the gate :
Whether in his lonely course
(Lonely, not forlorn) he stay,
Or with Lovers supporting force
30 St. John s Day.
Cheat the toil and cheer the way :
Leave it all in His high hand.
Who doth hearts as streams command".
Gales from heaven, if so He will,
Sweeter melodies can wake
On the lonely mountain rill
Than the meeting waters make.
Who hath the Father and the Son,
May be left, but not alone.
Sick or healthful, slave or free,
Wealthy, or despised and poor
What is that to him or thee,
So his love to Christ endure ?
When the shore is won at last,
Who will count the billows past ?
Only, since our souls will shrink
At the touch of natural grief,
When our earthly lov d ones sink,
n The king s heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water
he turneth it whithersoever he will. Proverbs xxi. 1.
The Holy Innocents. 31
Lend us, Lord, thy sure relief;
Patient hearts, their pain to see,
And thy grace, to follow Thee.
THE HOLY INNOCENTS.
These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto
God and to the Lamb. Revelations xiv. 4.
SAY, ye celestial guards, who wait
In Bethlehem, round the Saviour s palace gate,
Say, who are these on golden wings,
That hover o er the new-born King of kings,
Their palms and garlands telling plain
That they are of the glorious martyr train,
Next to yourselves ordain d to praise
His name, and brighten as on Him they gaze ?
But where their spoils and trophies ? where
The glorious dint a martyr s shield should bear ?
How chance no cheek among them wears
The deep- worn trace of penitential tears,
32 The Holy Innocents.
But all is bright and smiling love,
As if, fresh-borne from Eden s happy grove,
They had flown here, their King to see,
Nor ever had been heirs of dark mortality ?
Ask, and some angel will reply,
" These, like yourselves, were born to sin and die,
" But ere the poison root was grown,
" God set his seal, and mark d them for his own.
" Baptized in blood for Jesus* sake,
" Now underneath the cross their bed they make,
" Not to be scared from that sure rest
" By frightened mother s shriek, or warrior s waving
Mindful of these, the first-fruits sweet
Borne by the suffering Church her Lord to greet ;
Bless d Jesus ever loVd to trace
The " innocent brightness" of an infant s face.
He rais d them in his holy arms,
He bless d them from the world and all its harms :
Heirs though they were of sin and shame,
He bless d them in his own and in his Father s name.
The Holy Innocents. 33
Then, as each fond unconscious child
On th everlasting Parent sweetly smil d,
(Like infants sporting on the shore,
That tremble not at Ocean s boundless roar)
Were they not present to thy thought,
All souls, that in their cradles thou hast bought ?
But chiefly these, who died for Thee,
That Thou might st live for them a sadder death to see.
And next to these, thy gracious word
Was as a pledge of benediction, stor d
For Christian mothers, while they moan
Their treasur d hopes, just born, baptized, and gone.
Oh joy for Rachel s broken heart !
She and her babes shall meet no more to part;
So dear to Christ her pious haste
To trust them in his arms, for ever safe embraced.
She dares not grudge to leave them there,
Where to behold them was her heart s first prayer,
She dares not grieve but she must weep,
As her pale placid martyr sinks to sleep,
Teaching so well and silently
How, at the shepherd s call, the lamb should die :
34 First Sunday after Christmas.
How happier far than life the end
Of souls that infant-like beneath their burthen bend.
FIRST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS.
So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone
down. Isaiah xxxviii. 8. Compare Josh. x. 13.
TiS true, of old th unchanging sun
His daily course refused to run,
The pale moon hurrying to the west
Paused at a mortal s call, to aid
Th avenging storm of war, that laid
Seven guilty realms at once on earth s defiled breast.
But can it be, one suppliant tear
Should stay the ever-moving sphere ?
A sick man s lowly breathed sigh,
When from the world he turns away ,
And Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall, and prayed unto
the Lord.
First Sunday after Christmas. 3->
And hides his weary eyes to pray,
Should change your mystic dance, ye wanderers of
the sky ?
We too, O Lord, would fain command,
As then, thy wonder-working hand,
And backward force the waves of Time,
That now so swift and silent bear
Our restless bark from year to year ;
Help us to pause and mourn to Thee our tale of crime.
Bright hopes, that erst the bosom warni d,
And vows, too pure to be performed,
And prayers blown wide by gales of care ;
These, and such faint half waking dreams,
Like stormy lights on mountain streams,
Wavering and broken all, athwart the conscience glare.
How shall we scape th 1 o er whelming Past ?
Can spirits broken, joys o ercast,
And eyes that never more may smile :
Can these th avenging bolt delay,
Or win us back one little day
The bitterness of death to soften and beguile ?
36 First Sunday after Christmas.
Father and Lover of our souls !
Though darkly round thine anger rolls,
Thy sunshine smiles beneath the gloom,
Thou seek s^to warn us, not confound.
Thy showers would pierce the harden d ground,
And win it to give out its brightness and perfume.
Thou smil st on us in wrath, and we,
Even in remorse, would smile on Thee ;
The tears that bathe our offer d hearts,
We would not have them stain d and dim,
But dropped from wings of seraphim,
All glowing with the light accepted Love imparts.
Time s waters will not ebb, nor stay,
Power cannot change them, but Love may ;
What cannot be, Love counts it done.
Deep in the heart, her searching view
Can read where Faith is fixM and true,
Through shades of setting life can see Heaven s work
begun.
O Thou, who keep st the Key of Love,
Open thy fount, eternal Dove,
The Circumcision of Christ. 37
And overflow this heart of mine,
Enlarging as it fills with Thee,
Till in one blaze of charity
Care and remorse are lost, like motes in light divine;
v
Till, as each moment wafts us higher,
By every gush of pure desire,
And high-breath d hope of joys above,
By every sacred sigh we heave,
Whole years of folly we outlive,
In His unerring sight, who measures Life by Love.
THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST.
In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made with
out hands. Colossians ii. 11.
1 HE year begins with Thee,
And Thou beginn st with woe,
To let the world of sinners see
That blood for sin must flow.
3 8 Circumcision of Christ .
Thine infant cries, O Lord,
Thy tears upon the breast,
Are not enough the legal sword
Must do its stern behest.
Like sacrificial wine
Pour d on a victim^ head
Are those few precious drops of thine,
Now first to offering led.
They are the pledge and seal
Of Christ s unswerving faith
Given to his Sire, our souls to heal,
Although it cost his death.
They to his church of old,
To each true Jewish heart,
In Gospel graces manifold
Communion blest impart.
Now of thy love we deem
As of an ocean vast.
Mounting in tides against the stream
Of ages gone and past.
Circumcision of Christ. 39
Both theirs and ours Thou art,
As we and they are thine ;
Kings, Prophets, Patriarchs all have part
Along the sacred line.
By blood and water too
God s mark is set on Thee,
That in Thee every faithful view
Both covenants might see.
O bond of union, dear
And strong as is Thy grace !
Saints, parted by a thousand year,
May thus in heart embrace.
Is there a mourner true,
Who fallen on faithless days,
Sighs for the heart-consoling view
Of those, Heaven deign d to praise ?
In spirit may st thou meet
With faithful Abraham here,
W T hom soon in Eden thou shalt greet
A nursing Father dear.
40 Circumcision of Christ.
Wouldst thou a Poet be ?
And would thy dull heart fain
Borrow of Israel s minstrelsy
One high enraptured strain ?
Come here thy soul to tune,
Here set thy feeble chant,
Here, if at all beneath the moon,
Is holy David s haunt.
Art thou a child of tears,
Cradled in care and woe ?
And seems it hard, thy vernal years
Few vernal joys can shew ?
And fall the sounds of mirth
Sad on thy lonely heart,
From all the hopes and charms of earth
Untimely calPd to part ?
Look here, and hold thy peace :
The Giver of all good
Even from the womb takes no release
From suffering, tears, and blood.
Second Sunday after Christmas. 41
If thou wouldst reap in love,
First sow in holy fear :
So life a winter s morn may prove
To a bright endless year.
SECOND SUNDAY AFTER
CHRISTMAS.
When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their
tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will
not forsake them. Isaiah xli. 17.
AND wilt Thou hear the fever d heart
To Thee in silence cry ?
And as th 1 inconstant wildfires dart
Out of the restless eye,
Wilt Thou forgive the wayward thought,
By kindly woes yet half untaught
A Saviour s right, so dearly bought,
That Hope should never die ?
42 Second Sunday after Christmas.
Thou wilt : for many a languid prayer
Has reach d Thee from the wild,
Since the lorn mother, wandering there,
Cast down her fainting child p ,
Then stole apart to weep and die,
Nor knew an angel form was nigh
To shew soft waters gushing by
And dewy shadows mild.
Thou wilt for Thou art Israel s God,
And thine unwearied arm
Is ready yet with Moses rod,
The hidden rill to charm
Out of the dry unfathom d deep
Of sands, that lie in lifeless sleep.
Save when the scorching whirlwinds heap
Their waves in rude alarm.
Those moments of wild wrath are thine
Thine too the drearier hour
When o er th horizon s silent line
Fond hopeless fancies cower,
P Hagar. See Gen. xxi. 15.
Second Sunday after Christmas. 43
And on the traveller s listless way
Rises and sets th unchanging day,
No cloud in heaven to slake its ray,
On earth no sheltering bower.
Thou wilt be there, and not forsake,
To turn the bitter pool
Into a bright and breezy lake,
The throbbing brow to cool :
Till left awhile with Thee alone
The wilful heart be fain to own
That He, by whom our bright hours shone,
Our darkness best may rule.
The scent of water far away
Upon the breeze is flung :
The desert pelican to-day
Securely leaves her young,
Reproving thankless man, who fears
To journey on a few lone years,
Where on the sand thy step appears,
Thy crown in sight is hung.
44 Second Sunday after Christmas.
Thou, who didst sit on Jacob s well
The weary hour of noon* 1 ,
The languid pulses Thou canst tell,
The nerveless spirit tune.
Thou from whose cross in anguish burst
The cry that own d thy dying thirst r ,
To thee we turn, our last and first,
Our Sun and soothing Moon.
From darkness, here, and dreariness
We ask not full repose,
Only be Thou at hand, to bless
Our trial hour of woes.
Is not the pilgrim s toil overpaid
By the clear rill and palmy shade ?
And see we not, up Earth s dark glade,
The gate of Heaven unclose ?
* St. John iv. 6. r St. John xix. 28.
THE EPIPHANY.
Behold, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till
it came and stood over where the young child was : when they saw the
star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. St. Matt. ii. 9, 10.
STAR of the East, how sweet art Thou,
Seen in Life s early morning sky,
Ere yet a cloud has dimm d the brow,
While yet we gaze with childish eye ;
When father, mother, nursing friend,
Most dearly lov d, and loving best.
First bid us from their arms ascend,
Pointing to Thee in thy sure rest.
Too soon the glare of earthly day
Buries, to us, thy brightness keen,
And we are left to find our way
By faith and hope in Thee unseen.
46 Epiphany.
What matter ? if the way marks sure
On every side are round us set,
Soon overleap d, but not obscure ?
"Tis ours to mark them or forget.
What matter ? if in calm old age
Our childhood s star again arise,
Crowning our lonely pilgrimage
With all that cheers a wanderer s eyes ?
Ne er may we lose it from our sight,
Till all our hopes and thoughts are led
To where it stays its lucid flight
Over our Saviours lowly bed.
There, swath d in humblest poverty,
On Chastity s meek lap enshrin d,
With breathless Reverence waiting by,
When we our sovereign Master find,
Will not the long-forgotten glow
Of mingled joy and awe return,
When stars above or flowers below
First made our infant spirits burn ?
Epiphany. 47
Look on us, Lord, and take our parts
Even on thy throne of purity !
From these our proud yet grovelling hearts
Hide not thy mild forgiving eye.
Did not the Gentile Church find grace,
Our mother dear, this favour d day ?
With gold and myrrh she sought thy face,
Nor didst Thou turn thy face away.
She too 8 , in earlier, purer days,
Had watch d Thee gleaming faint and far
But wandering in self-chosen ways
She lost Thee quite, thou lovely star.
Yet had her Father s finger turned
To Thee her first enquiring glance :
The deeper shame within her burned,
When wakenM from her wilful trance.
Behold, her wisest throng thy gate,
Their richest, sweetest, purest store,
(Yet own d too worthless and too late)
They lavish on Thy cottage-floor.
s The Patriarchal Church.
48 First Sunday after Epiphany.
They give their best O tenfold shame
On us their fallen progeny,
Who sacrifice the blind and lame 1
Who will not wake or fast with Thee !
FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY.
They shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water
courses. Isaiah xliv. 4.
-LESSONS sweet of spring returning,
Welcome to the thoughtful heart !
May I call ye sense or learning,
Instinct pure, or heav n-taught art ?
Be your title what it may,
Sweet the lengthening April day,
While with you the soul is free,
Ranging wild o er hill and lea.
Soft as Memnon s harp at morning,
To the inward ear devout,
Touched by light, with heavenly warning
Your transporting chords ring out.
1 Malachi i. 8.
First Sunday after Epiphany. 49
Every leaf in every nook,
Every wave in every brook,
Chanting with a solemn voice,
Minds us of our better choice.
Needs no show of mountain hoary,
Winding shore or deepening glen,
Where the landscape in its glory
Teaches truth to wandering men :
Give true hearts but earth and sky,
And some flowers to bloom and die,
Homely scenes and simple views
Lowly thoughts may best infuse.
See the soft green willow springing
Where the waters gently pass,
Every way her free arms flinging
CTer the moist and reedy grass.
Long ere winter blasts are fled,
See her tipp d with vernal red,
And her kindly flower display d
Ere her leaf can cast a shade.
Though the rudest hand assail her,
Patiently she droops awhile,
50 First Sunday after Epiphany,
But when showers and breezes hail her,
Wears again her willing smile.
Thus I learn Contentment s power
From the slighted willow bower,
Ready to give thanks and live
On the least that Heaven may give.
If, the quiet brooklet leaving.
Up the stony vale I wind,
Haply half in fancy grieving
For the shades I leave behind,
By the dusty wayside drear,
Nightingales with joyous cheer
Sing, my sadness to reprove,
Gladlier than in cultured grove.
Where the thickest boughs are twining
Of the greenest darkest tree,
There they plunge, the light declining
All may hear, but none may see.
Fearless of the passing hoof,
Hardly will they fleet aloof;
So they live in modest ways,
Trust entire, and ceaseless praise.
SECOND SUNDAY AFTER
EPIPHANY.
-
Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine, and when men
have well drunk then that which is worse : but thou hast kept the good
wine until now. St. John ii. 10.
THE heart of childhood is all mirth :
We frolic to and fro
As free and blithe, as if on earth
Were no such thing as woe.
But if indeed with reckless faith
We trust the flattering voice,
Which whispers, " Take thy fill ere death,
" Indulge thee and rejoice ;"
Too surely, every setting day,
Some lost delight we mourn,
52 Second Sunday after Epiphany.
The flowers all die along our way,
Till we, too, die forlorn.
Such is the world s gay garish feast,
In her first charming bowl
Infusing all that fires the breast,
And cheats th unstable soul.
And still, as loud the revel swells,
The fever d pulse beats higher,
Till the seared taste from foulest wells
Is fain to slake its fire.
Unlike -the feast of heavenly love
Spread at the Saviour s word
For souls that hear his call, and prove
Meet for his bridal board.
Why should we fear, youth s draught of joy,
If pure, would sparkle less ?
Why should the cup the sooner cloy,
Which God hath deign d to bless ?
For, is it Hope, that thrills so keen
Along each bounding vein,
Second Sunday after Epiphany. 53
Still whispering glorious things unseen ?
Faith makes the vision plain.
The world would kill her soon : but Faith
Her daring dreams will cherish,
Speeding her gaze o er time and death
To realms where nought can perish.
Or is it Love, the dear delight
Of hearts that know no guile,
That all around see all things bright
With their own magic smile ?
The silent joy, that sinks so deep,
Of confidence and rest,
LulPd in a Father s arms to sleep,
Clasp d to a Mother s breast ?
Who, but a Christian, through all life
That blessing may prolong ?
Who, through the world s sad day of strife,
Still chant his morning song ?
Fathers may hate us or forsake,
God s foundlings then are we :
54 Second Sunday after Epiphany.
Mother on child no pity take u ,
But we shall still have Thee.
We may look home, and seek in vain
A fond fraternal heart,
But Christ hath given his promise plain
To do a brother s part.
Nor shall dull age, as worldlings say,
The heavenward flame annoy :
The Saviour cannot pass away,
And with him lives our joy.
Ever the richest tenderest glow
*
Sets round th 1 autumnal sun
But there sight fails : no heart may know
The bliss when life is done.
Such is thy banquet, dearest Lord ;
O give us grace, to cast
Our lot with thine, to trust thy word,
And keep our best till last.
u Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb ? yea, they may forget, yet will I not
forget thee. Isaiah xlix. 15.
THIRD SUNDAY AFTER
EPIPHANY.
When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed,
Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel.
St. Matthew viii. 10.
I MARK D a rainbow in the north,
What time the wild autumnal sun
From his dark veil at noon look d forth,
As glorying in his course half done,
Flinging soft radiance far and wide
Over the dusky heaven and bleak hill-side.
It was a gleam to Memory dear,
And as I walk and muse apart,
When all seems faithless round and drear,
I would revive it in my heart,
And watch how light can find its way
To regions farthest from the fount of day.
56 Third Sunday after Epiphany.
Light flashes in the gloomiest sky,
And Music in the dullest plain.
For there the lark is soaring high
Over her flat and leafless reign,
And chanting in^so blithe a tone,
It shames the weary heart to feel itself alone.
Brighter than rainbow in the north,
More cheery that the matin lark,
Is the soft gleam of Christian worth,
Which on some holy house we mark ;
Dear to the pastor s aching heart
To think, where er he looks, such gleam may have a
part;
May dwell, unseen by all but Heaven,
Like diamond blazing in the mine ;
For ever, where such grace is given,
It fears in open day to shine v .
v Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof.
" From the first time that the impressions of religion settled deeply
in his mind, he used great caution to conceal it ; not only in obedience to
the rule given by our Saviour, of fasting, praying, and giving alms in secret,
but from a particular distrust he had of himself; foi he said he was afraid he
Third Sunday after Epiphany. 57
Lest the deep stain it owns within
Break out, and Faith be sham d by the believer s sin.
In silence and afar they wait,
To find a prayer their Lord may hear :
Voice of the poor and desolate,
You best may bring it to his ear.
Your grateful intercessions rise
With more than royal pomp, and pierce the skies.
Happy the soul, whose precious cause
You in the sovereign Presence plead
" This is the lover of thy laws*,
" The friend of thine in fear and need 11
For to the poor thy mercy lends
That solemn style, " thy nation and thy friends."
He too is blest, whose outward eye
The graceful lines of art may trace,
should at some time or other do some enormous thing, which if he were
looked on as a very religious man, might cast a reproach on the profession of
it, and give great advantages to impious men to blaspheme the name of
God." Burnet s Life of Hale, in Wordsworth s Eccl. Biog. vi. 73.
x He loveth our nation.
Third Sunday after Epiphany.
While his free spirit, soaring high,
Discerns the glorious from the base ;
Till out of dust his magic raise y
A home for prayer and love^ and full harmonious praise,
Where far away and high above.
In maze on maze the tranced sight
Strays, mindful of that heavenly love
Which knows no end in depth or height,
While the strong breath of Music seems
To waft us ever on, soaring in blissful dreams.
What though in poor and humble guise
Thou here didst sojourn, cottage-born ?
Yet from thy glory in the skies
Our earthly gold Thou dost not scorn.
For Love delights to bring her best,
And where Love is, that offering evermore is blest.
Love on the Saviour s dying head
Her spikenard drops unblam d may pour,
He hath built us a synagogue.
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. 59
May mount his cross, and wrap him dead
In spices from the golden shore z ;
Risen, may embalm his sacred name
With all a Painter s art, and all a Minstrel s flame.
Worthless and lost our offering seem.
Drops in the ocean of his praise ;
But Mercy with her genial beam,
Is ripening them to pearly blaze,
To sparkle in His crown above,
Who welcomes here a child s as there an angel s love.
FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER
EPIPHANY.
When they saw him, they besought him to depart out of their coasts.
St. Matthew viii. 34.
THEY know th Almighty s power,
Who, waken d by the rushing midnight shower,
Watch for the fitful breeze
To howl and chafe amid the bending trees,
* St. John xii. 7. xix. 30.
60 Fourth Sunday after Epiphany.
Watch for the still white gleam
To bathe the landscape in a fiery stream,
Touching the tremulous eye with sense of light
Too rapid and too pure for all but angel sight.
They know th Almighty s love,
Who, when the whirlwinds rock the topmost grove,
Stand in the shade, and hear
The tumult with a deep exulting fear,
How, in their fiercest sway,
Curb d by some power unseen, they die away.
Like a bold steed that owns his rider s arm,
Proud to be check d and sooth "d by that o er-mastering
charm.
But there are storms within
That heave the struggling heart with wilder din,
And there is power and love
The maniac s rushing frenzy to reprove,
And when he takes his seat,
Cloth d and in calmness, at his Saviour s feet%
Is not the power as strange, the love as blest,
As when He said, Be still, and ocean sank to rest ?
a St. Mark v. 15. iv. 39.
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. (jl
Woe to the wayward heart,
That gladlier turns to eye the shuddering start
Of Passion in her might,
Than marks the silent growth of grace and light;
Pleas d in the cheerless tomb
To linger, while the morning rays illume
Green lake, and cedar tuft, and spicy glade,
Shaking their dewy tresses now the storm is laid.
The storm is laid and now
In his meek power He climbs the mountain s brow,
Who bade the waves go sleep,
And lash d the vex^d fiends to their yawning deep.
How on a rock they stand,
Who watch his eye, and hold his guiding hand !
Not half so fix d, amid her vassal hills,
Rises the holy pile that Kedron s valley fills.
And wilt thou seek again
Thy howling waste, thy charnel-house and chain,
And with the demons be,
Rather than clasp thine own Deliverer s knee?
(\ l Fourth Sunday after Epiphany.
Sure tis no heav n-bred awe
That bids thee from his healing touch withdraw,
The world and He are struggling in thine heart,
And in thy reckless mood thou bidd st thy Lord depart.
He, merciful and mild,
As erst, beholding, loves his wayward child ;
When souls of highest birth
Waste their impassioned might on dreams of earth,
He opens Nature s book,
And on his glorious Gospel bids them look,
Till by such chords, as rule the choirs above,
Their lawless cries are tun d to hymns of perfect love.
FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER
EPIPHANY.
Behold, the Lord s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither
his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated
between you and your God. Isaiahlix. 1, 2.
" WAKE, arm divine ! awake,
" Eye of the only Wise !
" Now for thy glory s sake,
" Saviour and God, arise,
" And may thine ear, that sealed seems,
" In pity mark our mournful themes !"
Thus in her lonely hour
Thy Church is fain to cry,
As if thy love and power
Were vanished from her sky ;
Yet God is there, and at his side
He triumphs, who for sinners died.
(> I Fifth Sunday after Epiphany,
Ah ! tis tin* world enthralls
Tin- heaven-betrothed breast :
The traitor Sense recalls
The soaring soul from rest.
That bitter sigh was all lor earth,
For glories gone, and vanishM mirth.
Age won Id to youth return,
Farther from heaven would be,
To feel the wildfire burn,
On idolizing knee
Again to fall, and rob thy shrine
Of hearts, the right of love divine.
Lord of this erring flock !
Thou whose soft showers distil
On ocean waste or rock,
Free as on Ilermon hill,
Do Thou our craven spirits cheer,
And shame away the selfish tear.
"Twas silent all and dead b
Beside the barren sea,
t> Sec Acts viii. 26 40.
Fifth Sundny after Kjii
\Yhere Philip s steps were led,
I AH! by a voiee from Thee
He rose and went, nor ask\l Thee why.
Nor stayed to heave one faithless sigh ;
Upon his lonely way
The hio-h-born traveller eaine,
Heading a mournful lav
Of" One who bore our shame 1 ,
u Silent himself, his name untolil,
" And yet his glories were of old."
To muse what Heaven might mean
His waiulerino- brow he raisM,
And met an eye serene
That on him watehful ga/ d.
No Hermit e er so welcome crossM.
A child s lone path in woodland lost.
Now wonder turns to love ;
The scrolls of sacred lore
No darksome mazes prove ;
The desert tires no more :
c Isaiah liii. ti B.
I
66 Fifth Sunday after Epiphany.
They bathe where holy waters flow,
Then on their way rejoicing go.
They part to meet in heaven ;
But of the joy they share,
Absolving and forgiven.
The sweet remembrance bear.
Yes mark him well, ye cold and proud,
Bewilder d in a heartless crowd,
Starting and turning pale
At Rumour s angry din
No storm can now assail
The charm he wears within.
Rejoicing still, and doing good,
And with the thought of God imbu d.
JNo glare of high estate,
No gloom of woe or want,
The radiance can abate
Where Heaven delights to haunt.
Sin only hides the genial ray,
And, round the Cross, makes night of day.
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany. 67
Then weep it from thy heart ;
So may st thou duly learn
The intercessor s part,
Thy prayers and tears may earn
For fallen souls some healing breath.
Ere they have died th"* Apostate s death.
SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER
EPIPHANY.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what
we shall be : but we know, that, when He shall appear, we shall be like
Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1 St. John iii. 2, 3.
THERE are, who darkling and alone,
Would wish the weary night were gone,
Though dawning morn should only shew
The secret of their unknown woe :
Who pray for sharpest throbs of pain
To ease them of doubt s galling chain :
" Only disperse the cloud," they cry,
" And if our fate be death, give light and let us die d ."
4 Be Oiatt KKI
68 Sixth Sunday after Epiphany.
Unwise I deem them, LORD, unmeet
To profit by thy chastenings sweet,
For thou wouldst have us linger still
Upon the verge of good or ill,
That on thy guiding hand unseen
Our undivided hearts may lean,
And this our frail and foundering bark
Glide in the narrow wake of thy beloved ark.
Tis so in war the champion true
Loves victory more, when dim in view
He sees her glories gild afar
The dusky edge of stubborn war,
Than if th untrodden bloodless field
The harvest of her laurels yield ;
Let not my bark in calm abide,
But win her fearless way against the chafing tide.
Tis so in love the faithful heart
From her dim vision would not part,
When first to her fond gaze is given
That purest spot in Fancy "s heaven,
For all the gorgeous sky beside,
Though pledged her own and sure t abide :
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany. 69
Dearer than every past noon-day
That twilight gleam to her, though faint and far away.
So have I seen some tender flower
Priz d above all the vernal bower,
Sheltered beneath the coolest shade,
Embosomed in the greenest glade,
So frail a gem, it scarce may bear
The playful touch of evening air ;
When hardier grown we love it less,
And trust it from our sight, not needing our caress.
And wherefore is the sweet spring tide
Worth all the changeful year beside ?
The last-born babe, why lies its part
Deep in the mother s inmost heart ?
But that the LORD and source of love
Would have his weakest ever prove
Our tenderest care and most of all
Our frail immortal souls, His work and Satan s thrall.
So be it, LORD ; I know it best,
Though not as yet this wayward breast
Beat quite in answer to thy voice,
Yet surely I have made my choice ;
70 Sixth Sunday after Epiphany.
\
I know not yet the promised bliss.
Know not if I shall win or miss ;
So doubting, rather let me die,
Than close with aught beside, to last eternally.
What is the heaven we idly dream ?
The self-deceiver s dreary theme,
A cloudless sun that softly shines,
Bright maidens and unfailing vines,
The warrior s pride, the hunter s mirth,
Poor fragments all of this low earth :
Such as in sleep would hardly soothe
A soul that once had tasted of immortal Truth.
What is the Heaven our GOD bestows ?
No Prophet yet, no Angel knows ;
Was never yet created eye
Could see across Eternity ;
Not seraph s wing for ever soaring
Can pass the flight of souls adoring,
That nearer still and nearer grow
To th unapproached LORD, once made for them so low,
Unseen, unfelt their earthly growth,
And self-accus d of sin and sloth
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany. 71
They live and die : their names decay,
Their fragrance passes quite away ;
Like violets in the freezing blast
No vernal steam around they cast,
But they shall flourish from the tomb,
The breath of GOD shall wake them into od rous bloom.
Then on th incarnate SAVIOUR S breast,
The fount of sweetness, they shall rest,
Their spirits every hour imbu d
More deeply with his precious blood.
But peace still voice and closed eye
Suit best with hearts beyond the sky,
Hearts training in their low abode,
Daily to lose themselves in hope to find their Gou.
SEPTUAGES1MA SUNDAY.
The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly
seen, being understood by the things which are made. Romans i. 20.
THERE is a book, who runs may read,
Which heavenly truth imparts,
And all the lore its scholars need,
Pure eyes and Christian hearts.
The works of God above, below,
Within us and around,
Are pages in that book, to shew
How God himself is found.
The glorious sky embracing all
Is like the Maker s love,
Wherewith encompass d, great and small
In peace and order move.
Septuagesima Sunday.
.
The Moon above, the Church below,
A wondrous race they run,
But all their radiance,- all their glow,
Each borrows of its Sun.
The Saviour lends the light and heat
That crowns his holy hill ;
The saints, like stars, around his seat,
Perform their courses still 6 .
The saints above are stars in Heaven
What are the saints on earth ?
Like trees they stand whom God has given f ,
Our Eden^s happy birth.
Faith is their fix d unswerving root,
Hope their unfading flower,
Fair deeds of charity their fruit,
The glory of their bower.
The dew of heaven is like thy grace g ,
It steals in silence down ;
But where it lights, the favoured place
By richest fruits is known.
Dan. xii. 3. f Isaiah ix. 21. g Psalm Ixviii. 9.
74 Septuagesima Sunday,
One Name above all glorious names
With its ten thousand tongues
The everlasting sea proclaims,
Echoing angelic songs.
The raging Fire h , the roaring Wind,
Thy boundless power display :
But in the gentler breeze we find
Thy Spirifs viewless way .
Two worlds are ours : tis only Sin
Forbids us to descry
The mystic heaven and earth within,
Plain as the sea and sky.
Thou, who hast given me eyes to see
And love this sight so fair,
Give me a heart to find out Thee,
And read Thee every where.
h Hebrews xii. 29. * St. John iii. 8.
SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY.
So he drove out the man, and placed at the east of the garden of Eden
Cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way
of the tree of life. Gen. iii. 24. Compare c. vi.
FOE of mankind ! too bold thy race :
Thou runn st at such a reckless pace,
Thine own dire work thou surely wilt confound
Twas but one little drop of sin
We saw this morning enter in,
And lo ! at eventide the world is drown d.
See here the fruit of wandering eyes,
Of worldly longings to be wise,
Of Passion dwelling on forbidden sweets :
Ye lawless glances, freely rove ;
Ruin below and wrath above
Are all that now the wildering fancy meets.
76 Sexageaima Sunday.
Lord, when in some deep garden glade,
Of Thee and of myself afraid,
From thoughts like these among the bowers I hide,
Nearest and loudest then of all
I seem to hear the Judge s call :
" Where art thou, fallen man? come forth, and be
" thou tried."
Trembling before Thee as I stand,
Where er I gaze on either hand
The sentence is gone forth, the ground is cursed :
Yet mingled with the penal shower
Some drops of balm in every bower
Steal down like April dews, that softest fall and first.
If filial and maternal love k
Memorial of our guilt must prove,
If sinful babes in sorrow must be born.
Yet, to assuage her sharpest throes,
The faithful mother surely knows,
This was the way Thou cam st to save the world forlorn.
In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children.
Sexagesima Sunday. 77
If blessed wedlock may not bless 1
Without some tinge of bitterness
To dash her cup of joy, since Eden lost,
Chaining to earth with strong desire
Hearts that would highest else aspire,
And o er the tenderer sex usurping ever most ;
Yet by the light of Christian lore
J Tis blind Idolatry no more,
But a sweet help and pattern of true love,
Shewing how best the soul may cling
To her immortal Spouse and King,
How He should rule, and she with full desire approve.
If niggard Earth her treasures hide m ,
To all but labouring hands denied,
Lavish of thorns and worthless weeds alone,
The doom is half in mercy given
To train us in our way to Heaven,
And shew our lagging souls how glory must be won.
1 Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
m Cursed is the ground for thy sake.
78 Sexagesima Sunday.
If on the sinner s outward frame"
God hath impressed his mark of blame,
And even our bodies shrink at touch of light,
Yet mercy hath not left us bare :
The very weeds we daily wear
Are to Faith s eye a pledge of God s forgiving might.
And oh ! if yet one arrow more p ,
The sharpest of th Almighty s store,
Tremble upon the string a sinner s death
Art Thou not by to soothe and save,
To lay us gently in the grave,
To close the weary eye and hush the parting breath ?
Therefore in sight of man bereft
The happy garden still was left,
The fiery sword that guarded shew d it too,
Turning all ways, the world Jto teach,
That though as yet beyond our reach,
Still in its place the tree of life and glory grew.
n I was afraid because I was naked.
The Lord God made coats of skins, and he clothed them.
P Thou shalt surely die.
QUINQUAGES1MA SUNDAY.
I do set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be for a token of a
covenant between me and the earth. Gen. ix. 13.
,
SWEET Dove ! the softest, steadiest plume
In all the sunbright sky,
Brightening in ever-changeful bloom
As breezes change on high ;
Sweet Leaf ! the pledge of peace and mirth,
" Long sought, and lately won,"
Bless d increase of reviving Earth,
When first it felt the Sun ;-
Sweet Rainbow ! pride of summer days,
High set at Heaven s command,
Though into drear and dusky haze
Thou melt on either hand ;
80 Quinquagesima Sunday.
Dear tokens of a pardoning God,
We hail ye, one and all,
As when our fathers walk d abroad,
Freed from their twelvemonths * thrall.
How joyful from th imprisoning ark
On the green earth they spring !
Not blither, after showers, the Lark
Mounts up with glistening wing.
So home-bound sailors spring to shore,
Two oceans safely past ;
So happy souls, when life is o er,
Plunge in th empyreal vast.
What wins their first and fondest gaze
In all the blissful field,
And keeps it through a thousand days ?
Love face to face reveal d :
Love imag d in that cordial look
Our Lord in Eden bends
On souls that sin and earth forsook
In time to die His friends.
Quinquagesima Sunday. 81
And what most welcome and serene
Dawns on the Patriarch s eye,
In all th emerging hills so green,
In all the brightening sky ?
What but the gentle rainbow s gleam.
Soothing the wearied sight,
That cannot bear the solar beam,
With soft undazzling light ?
Lord, if our fathers turned to thee
With such adoring gaze,
Wondering frail man thy light should see
Without thy scorching blaze.
Where is our love, and where our hearts,
We who have seen thy Son,
Have tried thy Spirit s winning arts,
And yet we are not won ?
The Son of God in radiance beam d
Too bright for us to scan,
But we may face the rays that streamed
From the mild Son of Man.
Ash- Wednesday.
There, parted into rainbow hues,
In sweet harmonious strife,
We see celestial love diffuse
Its light o er Jesus life.
God, by His bow, vouchsafes to write
This truth in Heaven above ;
As every lovely hue is Light,
So every grace is Love.
ASH-WEDNESDAY.
When thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that them
appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret.
St. Matthew vi. 17.
YES deep within and deeper yet
" The rankling shaft of conscience hide,
" Quick let the swelling eye forget
" The tears that in the heart abide.
" Calm be the voice, the aspect bold,
" No shuddering pass o er lip or brow,
" For why should Innocence be told
" The pangs that guilty spirits bow ?
Ash- Wednesday. 83
" The loving eye that watches thine
" Close as the air that wraps thee round
" Why in thy sorrow should it pine,
" Since, never of thy sin it found ?
" And wherefore should the heathen see q
" What chains of darkness thee enslave,
" And mocking say, Lo, this is he
" Who own d a God that could not save ?"
Thus oft the mourner s wayward heart
Tempts him to hide his grief and die,
Too feeble for Confession s smart,
Too proud to bear a pitying eye ;
How sweet, in that dark hour, to fall
On bosoms waiting to receive
Our sighs, and gently whisper all !
They love us will not God forgive ?
Else let us keep our fast within,
Till Heaven and we are quite alone,
Then let the grief, the shame, the sin,
Before the mercy-seat be thrown.
1 Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God 1 ?
Joel ii. 17.
84 A sh- Wednesday .
Between the porch and altar weep,
Unworthy of the holiest place,
Yet hoping near the shrine to keep
One lowly cell in sight of grace.
Nor fear lest sympathy should fail
Hast thou not seen, in night-hours drear,
When racking thoughts the heart assail,
The glimmering stars by turns appear,
And from th eternal home above
With silent news of mercy steal?
So Angels pause on tasks of love,
To look where sorrowing sinners kneel.
Or if no Angel pass that way,
He who in secret sees, perchance
May bid his own heart-warming ray
Toward thee stream with kindlier glance,
As when upon His drooping head
His Father s light was pour d from Heaven,
What time, unsheltered and unfed 1 ,
Far in the wild His steps were driven.
r St. Matt. iv. 1.
First Sunday in Lent. 85
High thoughts were with Him in that hour,
Untold, unspeakable on earth
And who can stay the soaring power
Of spirits wean d from worldly mirth,
While far beyond the sound of praise
With upward eye they float serene,
And learn to bear their Saviour s blaze
When Judgment shall undraw the screen ?
FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT.
Haste thee, escape thither, for I cannot do any thing till thou be come
thither : therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. Genesis xix. 22.
"ANGEL of wrath ! why linger in mid air,
" While the devoted city s cry
" Louder and louder swells ? and canst thou spare,
" Thy full-charged vial standing by ? v
Thus, with stern voice, unsparing Justice pleads :
He hears her not with soften d gaze
His eye is following where sweet Mercy leads,
And till she gives the sign, his fury stays.
8(> First Sunday in Lent.
Guided by her, along the mountain road,
Far through the twilight of the morn,
With hurrying footsteps from th accurs d abode
He sees the holy household borne :
Angels, or more, on either hand are nigh,
To speed them o er the tempting plain,
Lingering in heart, and with frail sidelong eye
Seeking how near they may unharnTd remain.
" Ah wherefore gleam those upland slopes so fair ?
" And why, through every woodland arch,
" Swells yon bright vale, as Eden rich and rare,
" Where Jordan winds his stately march ;
" If all must be forsaken, ruin d all,
" If God have planted but to burn ?
" Surely not yet th 1 avenging shower will fall,
" Though to my home for one last look I turn."
Thus while they waver, surely long ago
They had provoked the withering blast,
But that the merciful Avengers know
Their frailty well, and hold them fast.
" Haste, for thy life escape, nor look behind"
Ever in thrilling sounds like these
First Sunday in Lent. 87
They check the wandering eye, severely kind,
Nor let the sinner lose his soul at ease.
And when, overwearied with the steep ascent,
We for a nearer refuge crave,
One little spot of ground in mercy lent,
One hour of home before the grave,
Oft in his pity o er his children weak,
His hand withdraws the penal fire,
And where we fondly cling, forbears to wreak
Full vengeance, till our hearts are wean d entire.
Thus, by the merits-of one righteous man,
The Church, our Zoar, shall abide,
Till she abuse, so sore, her lengthen d span,
Even Mercy s self her face must hide.
Then, onward yet a step, thou hard-won soul ;
Though in the Church thou know thy place,
The mountain farther lies there seek thy goal,
There breathe at large, overpast thy dangerous race.
Sweet is the smile of home ; the mutual look
When hearts are of each other sure ;
Sweet all the joys that crowd the household nook,
The haunt of all affections pure ;
88 Second Sunday in Lent.
Yet in the world even these abide, and we
Above the world our calling boast :
Once gain the mountain top, and thou art free :
Till then, who rest, presume ; who turn to look, are
lost.
SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT.
And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and
exceeding hitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O
my father. Gen. xxvii. 34. (Compare Hebrews xii. 17. He found no place
for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.) s
" AND is there in GorCs world so drear a place
" Where the loud bitter cry is raised in vain ?
" Where tears of penance come too late for grace,
" As on th uprooted flower the genial rain ?"
5 The author earnestly hopes, that nothing in these stanzas will be under
stood to express any opinion as to the general efficacy of what is called " a
death-bed repentance." Such questions are best left in the merciful obscurity
with which Scripture has enveloped them. Esau s probation, as far as his
birthright was concerned, was quite over when he uttered the cry in the text.
His despondency therefore is not parallel to any thing on this side the grave.
Second Sunday in Lent. 89
1p Tis even so : the sovereign Lord of souls
Stores in the dungeon of his boundless realm
Each bolt, that o er the sinner vainly rolls,
With gathered wrath the reprobate to whelm.
Will the storm hear the sailor s piteous cry 1 ,
Taught to mistrust, too late, the tempting wave,
When all around he sees but sea and sky,
A God in anger, a self-chosen grave ?
Or will the thorns, that strew intern perance bed,
Turn with a wish to down ? will late remorse
Recall the shaft the murderer s hand has sped,
Or from the guiltless bosom turn its course ?
Then may th unbodied soul in safety fleet
Through the dark curtains of the world above,
Fresh from the stain of crime ; nor fear to meet
The God, whom here she would not learn to love :
Then is there hope for such as die unblest,
That angel wings may waft them to the shore,
Nor need th n unready virgin strike her breast,
Nor wait desponding round the bridegroom s door.
1 Compare Bp. Butler s Analogy, p. 5464. ed. 1736.
90 Second Sunday in Lent.
But where is then the stay of contrite hearts ?
Of old they lean d on thy eternal word,
But with the sinner s fear their hope departs,
Fast linked as thy great Name to Thee, O Lord :
That Name, by which thy faithful oath is past.
That we should endless be, for joy or woe ;
And if the treasures of thy wrath could waste,
Thy lovers must their promised Heaven forego.
But ask of elder days, earth s vernal hour,
When in familiar talk God s voice was heard,
When at the Patriarch s call the fiery shower
Propitious o er the turf-built shrine appeared.
Watch by our father Isaac s pastoral door
The birthright sold, the blessing lost and won,
Tell, Heaven has wrath that can relent no more,
The Grave, dark deeds that cannot be undone.
We barter life for pottage ; sell true bliss
For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown ;
Thus, Esau-like, our Father s blessing miss,
Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown.
Second Sunday in Lent. 91
Our faded crown, despis d and flung aside,
Shall on some brother s brow immortal bloom,
No partial hand the blessing may misguide ;
No flattering fancy change our Monarch s doom :
His righteous doom, that meek true-hearted Love
The everlasting birthright should receive,
The softest dews drop on her from above",
The richest green her mountain garland weave :
Her brethren, mightiest, wisest, eldest born,
Bow to her sway, and move at her behest :
Isaac s fond blessing may not fall on scorn,
Nor Balaam s curse on Love, which God hath blest.
u Genesis xxvii. 27, 28.
THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT.
When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods aie in peace.
But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he
taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.
St. Luke xi. 21, 22.
SEE Lucifer like lightning fall
Dash d from his throne of pride ;
While, answering Thy victorious call,
The Saints his spoils divide,
This world of thine, by him usurped too long,
Now opening all her stores to heal thy servants 1 wrong.
So when the first-born of thy foes
Dead in the darkness lay,
When thy redeem d at midnight rose
And cast their bonds away,
The orphaned realm threw wide her gates, and told
Into freed Israel s lap her jewels and her gold.
Third Sunday in Lent. 93
And when their wondrous march was o er,
And they had won their homes,
Where Abraham fed his flock of yore,
Among their fathers tombs ;
A land that drinks the rain of heaven at will,
Whose waters kiss the feet of many a vine-clad hill;
Oft as they watched, at thoughtful eve,
A gale from bowers of balm
Sweep o er the billowy corn, and heave
The tresses of the palm,
Just as the lingering Sun had touch d with gold,
Far o er the cedar shade, some tower of giants old ;
It was a fearful joy, I ween,
To trace the Heathen s toil,
The limpid wells, the orchards green
Left ready for the spoil,
The household stores untouch d, the roses bright
Wreathed o^er the cottage walls in garlands of delight.
And now another Canaan yields
To thine all-conquering ark ;
94 Third Sunday in Lent.
Fly from the " old poetic" fields x ,
Ye Paynim shadows dark !
Immortal Greece, dear land of glorious lays,
Lo ! here the " unknown God" of thy unconscious
praise !
The olive wreath, the ivied wand,
" The sword in myrtles drest,"
Each legend of the shadowy strand
Now wakes a vision blest :
As little children lisp, and tell of Heaven,
So thoughts beyond their thought to those high Bards
were given.
And these are ours : Thy partial grace
The tempting treasure lends:
These relics of a guilty race
Are forfeit to thy friends :
What seem d an idol hymn, now breathes of Thee,
Tun d by Faith s ear to some celestial melody.
x Where each old poetic mountain
Inspiration breath d around. Gray.
Fourth Sunday in Lent. 95
There s not a strain to Memory dear y ,
Nor flower in classic grove,
There s not a sweet note warbled here,
But minds us of thy Love.
O Lord, our Lord, and spoiler of our foes,
There is no light but thine : with Thee all beauty
glows.
FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT.
Joseph made haste, for his bowels did yearn upon his brother ; and
he sought where to weep ; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there
Gen. xliii. 30.
There stood no man with them, while Joseph made himself known unto
his brethren. Gen. xlv. 1.
WHEN Nature tries her finest touch,
Weaving her vernal wreath,
Mark ye, how close she veils her round,
Not to be trac d by sight or sound,
Nor soil d by ruder breath ?
X See Burns s Works, i. 293. Dr. Currie s edition.
96 Four tli Sunday in Lent.
Who ever saw the earliest rose
First open her sweet breast ?
Or, when the summer sun goes down,
The first soft star in evening s crown
Light up her gleaming crest ?
Fondly we seek the dawning bloom
On features wan and fair,
The gazing eye no change can trace,
But look away a little space,
Then turn, and, lo ! tis there.
But there s a sweeter flower than e er
Blush d on the rosy spray
A brighter star, a richer bloom
Than e er did western heaven illume
At close of summer day.
Tis Love, the last best gift of Heaven ;
Love gentle, holy, pure :
But tenderer than a dove s soft eye.
The searching sun, the open sky,
She never could endure.
Fourth Sunday in Lent. 97
Even human Love will shrink from sight
Here in the coarse rude earth :
How then should rash intruding glance
Break in upon her sacred trance
Who boasts a heavenly birth ?
So still and secret is her growth,
Ever the truest heart,
Where deepest strikes her kindly root
For hope or joy, for flower or fruit,
Least knows its happy part.
God only, and good angels, look
Behind the blissful screen
As when, triumphant o er his woes,
The Son of God by moonlight rose,
By all but Heaven unseen :
As when the holy Maid beheld
Her risen Son and Lord :
Thought has not colours half so fair
That she to paint that hour may dare,
In silence best ador d.
98 Fourth Sunday in Lent.
The gracious Dove, that brought from Heaven
The earnest of our bliss,
Of many a chosen witness telling,
On many a happy vision dwelling,
Sings not a note of this.
So, truest image of the Christ,
Old Israel s long-lost son,
What time, with sweet forgiving cheer,
He calPd his conscious brethren near,
Would weep with them alone.
He could not trust his melting soul
But in his Makers sight
Then why should gentle hearts and true
Bare to the rude world s withering view
Their treasure of delight !
No let the dainty rose awhile
Her bashful fragrance hide
Rend not her silken veil too soon,
But leave her, in her own soft noon.
To flourish and abide.
FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the
bush is not burned. Exodus iii. 3.
TH historic Muse, from age to age,
Thro many a waste heart-sickening page
Hath traced the works of Man :
JBut a celestial call to-day
Stays her, like Moses, on her way,
The works of GOD to scan.
Far seen across the sandy wild,
Where, like a solitary child,
He thoughtless roam d and free,
One towering thorn z was wrapt in flame
Bright without blaze it went and came :
Who would not turn and see ?
z " Seneh :" said to be a sort of Acacia.
100 Fifth Sunday in Lent.
Along the mountain ledges green
The scattered sheep at will may glean
The Desert s spicy stores :
The while, with undivided heart,
The shepherd talks with God apart,
And, as he talks, adores.
Ye too, who tend Christ s wildering flock,
Well may ye gather round the rock
That once was Sion s hill ;
To watch the fire upon the mount
Still blazing, like the solar fount,
Yet unconsuming still.
Caught from that blaze by wrath divine,
Lost branches of the once-Wd vine,
Now withered, spent, and sere,
See Israel s sons, like glowing brands,
Tost wildly o^er a thousand lands
For twice a thousand year.
God will not quench nor slay them quite,
But lifts them like a beacon light
Th 1 apostate Church to scare :
Fifth Sunday in Lent. 101
Or like pale ghosts that darkling roam,
Hovering around their ancient home,
But find no refuge there.
Ye blessed Angels ! if of you
There be, who love the ways to view
Of Kings and Kingdoms here ;
(And sure, tis worth an Angel s gaze,
To see, throughout that dreary maze,
God teaching love and fear :)
Oh say, in all the bleak expanse,
Is there a spot to win your glance,
So bright, so dark as this ?
A hopeless faith, a homeless race,
Yet seeking the most holy place,
And owning the true bliss !
Salted with fire they seem% to shew
How spirits lost in endless woe
May undecaying live.
Oh sickening thought ! yet hold it fast
Long as this glittering world shall last,
Or sin at heart survive.
a St. Mark ix. 49.
102 Fifth Sunday in Lent.
And hark ! amid the flashing fire,
Mingling with tones of fear and ire,
Soft Mercy s undersong
Tis Abraham s God who speaks so loud,
His peopled cries have pierced the cloud,
He sees, He sees their wrong b ;
He is come down to break their chain ;
Though never more on Sion s fane
His visible ensign wave ;
Tis Sion, wheresoever they dwell,
Who, with His own true Israel,
Shall own Him strong to save.
He shall redeem them one by one,
Where er the world-encircling sun
Shall see them meekly kneel :
All that He asks on Israel s part,
Is only, that the captive heart
Its woe and burthen feel.
Gentiles ! with fix d yet awful eye
Turn ye this page of mystery,
b Exod. iii. 7, 8.
Palm Sunday. 103
Nor slight the warning sound :
" Put off thy shoes from off thy feet
" The place where man his God shall meet,
" Be sure, is holy ground."
PALM SUNDAY.
And He answered and said unto them, I tell you, that if these should
hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. St. Luke xix. 40.
YE whose hearts are beating high
With the pulse of Poesy,
Heirs of more than royal race,
Framed by Heaven s peculiar grace,
God s own work to do on earth,
(If the word be not too bold,)
Giving virtue a new birth,
And a life that ne er grows old
Sovereign masters of all hearts !
Know ye, who hath set your parts ?
104 Palm Sunday.
He who gave you breath to sing,
By whose strength ye sweep the string,
He hath chosen you, to lead
His Hosannas here below ;
Mount, and claim your glorious meed ;
Linger not with sin and woe.
But if ye should hold your peace,
Deem not that the song would cease
Angels round His glory-throne,
Stars, His guiding hand that own,
Flowers, that grow beneath our feet,
Stones in earth s dark womb that rest,
High and low in choir shall meet,
Ere His Name shall be unblest.
Lord, by every minstrel tongue
Be thy praise so duly sung,
That thine angels harps may ne er
Fail to find fit echoing here :
We the while, of meaner birth,
Who in that divinest spell
Dare not hope to join on earth,
Give us grace to listen well.
Palm Sunday. 105
But should thankless silence seal
Lips, that might half Heaven reveal,
Should bards in idol-hymns profane
The sacred soul-enthralling strain,
(As in this bad world below
Noblest things find vilest using,)
Then, thy power and mercy shew,
In vile things noble breath infusing ;
Then waken into sound divine
The very pavement of thy shrine,
Till we, like Heaven s star-sprinkled floor,
Faintly give back what we adore.
Childlike though the voices be,
And untunable the parts,
Thou wilt own the minstrelsy,
If it flow from childlike hearts.
MONDAY BEFORE EASTER.
Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant, of us, and
Israel acknowledge us not. Isaiah Ixiii. 16.
" FATHER to me Thou art and Mother dear,
" And Brother too, kind husband of my heart"
So speaks Andromache c in boding fear,
Ere from her last embrace her hero part
So evermore, by Faith s undying glow,
We own the Crucified in weal or woe.
Strange to our ears the church-bells of our home,
The fragrance of our old paternal fields
May be forgotten ; and the time may come
When the babe s kiss no sense of pleasure yields
Even to the doting mother : but thine own
Thou never canst forget, nor leave alone.
c Iliad, vi, 429.
Monday before Easter. 107
There are who sigh that no fond heart is theirs,
None loves them best O vain and selfish sigh !
Out of the bosom of His love He spares
The Father spares the Son, for thee to die :
For thee He died for thee He lives again :
CTer thee He watches in His boundless reign.
Thou art as much His care, as if beside
Nor man nor angel liv d in heaven or earth :
Thus sunbeams pour alike their glorious tide
To light up worlds, or wake an insect s mirth :
They shine and shine with unexhausted store
Thou art thy Saviour s darling seek no more.
On thee and thine, thy warfare and thine end,
Even in His hour of agony He thought,
When, ere the final pang His soul should rend,
The ransom d spirits one by one were brought
To his mind^s eye two silent nights and days 1
In calmness for His far-seen hour He stays.
d ln Passion week, from Tuesday evening to Thursday evening : during
which time Scripture seems to be nearly silent concerning our Saviour s
proceedings.
108 Monday before Easter.
Ye vaulted cells where martyr d seers of old
Far in the rocky walls of Sion sleep,
Green terraces and arched fountains cold,
Where lies the cypress shade so still and deep,
Dear sacred haunts of glory and of woe,
Help us, one hour, to trace His musings high and low :
One heart-ennobling hour ! It may not be :
Th unearthly thoughts have pass d from earth away,
And fast as evening sunbeams from the sea
Thy footsteps all in Sion s deep decay
Were blotted from the holy ground : yet dear
Is every stone of hers; for Thou wast surely here.
There is a spot within this sacred dale
That felt Thee kneeling touched thy prostrate brow :
One angel knows it. O might prayer avail
To win that knowledge ! sure each holy vow
Less quickly from th unstable soul would fade,
Offered where CHRIST in agony was laid.
Might tear of ours once mingle with the blood
That from His aching brow by moonlight fell,
Tuesday before Easter. 109
Over the mournful joy our thoughts would brood,
Till they had fram d within a guardian spell
To chase repining fancies, as they rise,
Like birds of evil wing, to mar our sacrifice.
So dreams the heart self-flattering, fondly dreams ;
Else wherefore, when the bitter waves overflow,
Miss we the light, Gethsemane, that streams
From thy dear name, where in His page of woe
It shines, a pale kind star in winter s sky ?
Who vainly reads it there, in vain had seen Him die.
TUESDAY BEFORE EASTER.
They gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh : but he received it
not. St. Mark xv. 23.
FlLL high the bowl, and spice it well, and pour
" The dews oblivious : for the Cross is sharp,
" The Cross is sharp, and He
" Is tenderer than a lamb.
1 1 Tuesday before Easter.
" He wept by Lazarus grave how will He bear
" This bed of anguish ? and his pale weak form
" Is worn with many a watch
" Of sorrow and unrest.
" His sweat last night was as great drops of blood,
" And the sad burthen press d him so to earth,
" The very torturers paus d
" To help Him on His way.
" Fill high the bowl, benumb His aching sense
" With medicin d sleep." O awful in thy woe !
The parching thirst of death
Is on thee, and thou triest
The slumbrous potion bland, and wilt not drink :
Not sullen, nor in scorn, like haughty man
With suicidal hand
Putting his solace by :
But as at first thine all-pervading look
Saw from thy Father s bosom to th abyss,
Measuring in calm presage
The infinite descent ;
Tuesday before Easter. 1 1 1
So to the end, though now of mortal pangs
Made heir, and emptied of thy glory* awhile,
With unaverted eye
Thou meetest all the storm.
Thou wilt feel all, that Thou may st pity all ;
And rather wouldst Thou wrestle with strong pain,
Than overcloud thy soul,
So clear in agony,
Or lose one glimpse of Heaven before the time.
O most entire and perfect sacrifice,
Renewed in every pulse
That on the tedious Cross
Told the long hours of death, as, one by one,
The life-strings of that tender heart gave way ;
Even sinners, taught by Thee,
Look Sorrow in the face,
And bid her freely welcome, unbeguil d
By false kind solaces, and spells of earth :
And yet not all un soothed ;
For when was Joy so dear,
112 Wednesday before Easter.
As the deep calm that breath d, " Father, forgive"
Or, " Be with me in Paradise to-day ?"
And, though the strife be sore,
Yet in His parting breath
Love masters agony ; the soul that seenTd
Forsaken, feels her present God again,
And in her Father s arms
Contented dies away.
WEDNESDAY BEFORE EASTER.
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me : nevertheless,
not my will, but thine be done. .St. Luke xxii. 42.
LORD my God, do Thou thy holy will
I will lie still
1 will not stir, lest I forsake thine arm,
And break the charm,
Which lulls me, clinging to my Father s breast,
In perfect rest.
Wednesday before Easter. 113
Wild Fancy, peace ! thou must not me beguile
With thy false smile :
I know thy flatteries and thy cheating ways ;
Be silent, Praise,
Blind guide with siren voice, and blinding all
That hear thy call.
Come, Self-devotion, high and pure,
Thoughts that in thankfulness endure,
Though dearest hopes are faithless found,
And dearest hearts are bursting round.
Come, Resignation, spirit meek,
And let me kiss thy placid cheek,
And read in thy pale eye serene
Their blessing, who by faith can wean
Their hearts from sense, and learn to love
God only, and the joys above.
They say, who know the life divine,
And upward gaze with eagle eyne,
That by each golden crown on high e ,
Rich with celestial jewelry,
c . . . . that little coronet or special reward which God hath prepared
(extraordinary and besides the great Crown of all faithful souls) for those
114 Wednesday before Easter.
Which for our Lord s redeemed is set,
There hangs a radiant coronet,
All gemm d with pure and living light,
Too dazzling for a sinner s sight,
Prepared for virgin souls, and them
Who seek the martyr s diadem.
Nor deem, who to that bliss aspire,
Must win their way through blood and fire.
The writhings of a wounded heart
Are fiercer than a foeman s dart.
Oft in Life s stillest shade reclining,
In Desolation unrepining,
Without a hope on earth to find
A mirror in an answering mind,
Meek souls there are, who little dream
Their daily strife an Angel s theme,
Or that the rod they take so calm
Shall prove in Heaven a martyr s palm.
And there are souls that seem to dwell
Above this earth so rich a spell
" who have not defiled themselves with women, but follow the (virgin)
Lamb for ever." Bp. Taylor, Holy Living, c. xi. sect. 3.
Wednesday before Easter. 115
Floats round their steps, where er they move,
From hopes fulfill d and mutual love.
Such, if on high their thoughts are set,
Nor in the stream the source forget,
If prompt to quit the bliss they know,
Following the Lamb where er he go,
By purest pleasures unbeguil d
To idolize or wife or child ;
Such wedded souls our God shall own
For faultless virgins round his throne.
Thus every where we find our suffering God,
And where He trod
May set our steps : the Cross on Calvary
Uplifted high
Beams on the martyr host, a beacon light
In open fight. "
To the still wrestlings of the lonely heart
He doth impart
The virtue of His midnight agony,
When none was nigh,
Save God and one good angel, to assuage
The tempest s rage.
1 16 Wednesday before Easter.
Mortal ! if life smile on thee, and thou find
All to thy mind,
Think, who did once from Heaven to Hell descend
Thee to befriend ;
So shalt thou dare forego, at His dear call,
Thy best, thine all.
" O Father ! not my will, but thine be done"
So spake the Son.
Be this our charm> mellowing Earth s ruder noise
Of griefs and joys ;
That we may cling for ever to thy breast
In perfect rest !
THURSDAY BEFORE EASTER.
At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and
I am come to shew thee, for thou art greatly beloved ; therefore understand
the matter, and consider the vision. Daniel ix. 23.
" O HOLY mountain of my God,
" How do thy towers in ruin lie,
" How art thou riven and strewn abroad,
" Under the rude and wasteful sky !"
Twas thus upon his fasting-day
The " Man of Loves" was fain to pray,
His lattice open f toward his darling west,
Mourning the ruin d home he still must love the best.
Oh for a love like Daniel s now,
To wing to Heaven but one strong prayer
f Daniel vi. 10.
118 Thursday before Easter.
For GOD S new Israel, sunk as low,
Yet flourishing to sight as fair,
As Sion in her height of pride,
With queens for handmaids at her side.
With kings her nursing-fathers, throned high,
And compassed with the world s too tempting blazonry.
Tis true, nor winter stays thy growth,
Nor torrid summer s sickly smile ;
The flashing billows of the south
Break not upon so lone an isle,
But thou, rich vine, art grafted there,
The fruit of death or life to bear,
Yielding a surer witness every day.
To thine Almighty Author and his stedfast sway.
Oh grief to think, that grapes of gall
Should cluster round thine healthiest shoot !
God s herald prove a heartless thrall,
Who, if he dar d, would fain be mute !
Even such is this bad world we see,
Which, self-condemn d in owning Thee,
Yet dares not open farewell of Thee take,
For very pride, and her high-boasted Reason s sake.
Thursday before Easter. 119
What do we then ? if far and wide
Men kneel to CHRIST, the pure and meek,
Yet rage with passion, swell with pride,
Have we not still our faith to seek ?
Nay but in stedfast humbleness
Kneel on to Him, who loves to bless
The prayer that waits for Him; and trembling strive
To keep the lingering flame in thine own breast alive.
Dark frown d the future even on him,
The loving and beloved Seer,
What time he saw, through shadows dim,
The boundary of th 1 eternal year ;
He only of the sons of men
Nanrfd to be heir of glory then g .
Else had it bruis d too sore his tender heart
To see GOD^S ransomed world in wrath and flame
depart.
Then look no more : or closer watch
Thy course in Earth s bewildering ways,
For every glimpse thine eye can catch
Of what shall be in those dread days :
8 Dan. xii. 13. See Bp. Kenn s Sermon on the character of Daniel.
120 Good Friday.
So when th ArchangeFs word is spoken,
And Death s deep trance for ever broken,
In mercy thou may^st feel the heavenly hand,
And in thy lot unharm d before thy Saviour stand 1 .
GOOD FRIDAY.
He is despised and rejected of men. Isaiah liii. 3.
IS it not strange, the darkest hour
That ever dawn d on sinful earth
Should touch the heart with softer power
For comfort, than an angel s mirth ?
That to the Cross the mourner s eye should turn
Sooner than where the stars of Christmas burn ?
Sooner than where the Easter sun
Shines glorious on yon open grave,
And to and fro the tidings run,
" Who died to heal, is ris n to save."
Sooner than where upon the Saviour s friends
The very Comforter in light and love descends.
h Dan. xii. 13. Thou shall rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the
days.
Good Friday. 121
Yet so it is : for duly there
The bitter herbs of earth are set,
Till tempered by the Saviour s prayer,
And with the Saviour s life-blood wet,
They turn to sweetness, and drop holy balm,
Soft as imprisoned martyr s deathbed calm.
All turn to sweet but most of all
That bitterest to the lip of pride,
When hopes presumptuous fade and fall,
Or Friendship scorns us, duly tried,
Or Love, the flower that closes up for fear
When rude and selfish spirits breathe too near.
Then like a long-forgotten strain
Comes sweeping o er the heart forlorn
What sunshine hours had taught in vain
Of JESUS suffering shame and scorn,
As in all lowly hearts he suffers still,
While we triumphant ride and have the world at will.
His pierced hands in vain would hide
His face from rude reproachful gaze,
His ears are open to abide
The wildest storm the tongue can raise,
122 Good Friday.
He who with one rough word 1 , some early day,
Their idol world and them shall sweep for aye away.
But we by Fancy may assuage
The festering sore by Fancy made,
Down in some lonely hermitage
Like wounded pilgrims safely laid.
Where gentlest breezes whisper souls distressed,
That Love yet lives, and Patience shall find rest.
O shame beyond the bitterest thought
That evil spirit ever framed,
That sinners know what Jesus wrought,
Yet feel their haughty hearts untani d
That souls in refuge, holding by the Cross,
Should wince and fret at this workPs little loss.
Lord of my heart, by Thy last cry,
Let not thy blood on earth be spent
Lo, at thy feet I fainting lie,
Mine eyes upon thy wounds are bent,
Upon thy streaming wounds my weary eyes
Wait like the parched earth on April skies.
1 Wisdom of Solomon xii. 9.
Easter Eve. 123
Wash me, and dry these bitter tears,
O let my heart no further roam,
"Tis thine by vows, and hopes, and fears,
Long since O call thy wanderer home ;
To that dear home, safe in Thy wounded side,
Where only broken hearts their sin and shame may
hide.
EASTER EVE.
As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy pri
soners out of the pit wherein is no water. Zech. xi. 11.
AT length the worst is o er, and Thou art laid
Deep in thy darksome bed ;
All still and cold beneath yon dreary stone
Thy sacred form is gone ;
Around those lips where power and mercy hung,
The dews of death have clung ;
The dull earth o er Thee, and thy foes around,
Thou sleep st a silent corse, in funeral fetters wound.
124 Easter Eve.
Sleep^st Thou indeed ? or is thy spirit fled,
At large among the dead ?
Whether in Eden bowers thy welcome voice
Wake Abraham to rejoice,
Or in some drearier scene thine eye controuls
The thronging band of souls ;
That, as thy blood won earth, thine agony
Might set the shadowy realm from sin and sorrow free-
Where er Thou roanTst, one happy soul, we know,
Seen at thy side in woe k ,
Waits on thy triumph even as all the blest
With him and thee shall rest.
Each on his cross, by Thee we hang a while,
Watching thy patient smile,
Till we have learn d to say, " Tis justly done,
" Only in glory, LORD, thy sinful servant own."
Soon wilt Thou take us to thy tranquil bower
To rest one little hour,
Till thine elect are numbered, and the grave
Call Thee to come and save :
k St. Luke xxiii. 43.
Easter Eve. 125
Then on thy bosom borne shall we descend,
Again with earth to blend,
Earth all refin d with bright supernal fires,
Tinctur d with holy blood, and wing d with pure
desires.
Meanwhile with every son and saint of thine
Along the glorious line,
Sitting by turns beneath thy sacred feet
We ll hold communion sweet,
Know them by look and voice, and thank them all
For helping us in thrall,
For words of hope, and bright examples given
To shew through moonless skies that there is light in
Heaven.
O come that day, when in this restless heart
Earth shall resign her part,
When in the grave with Thee my limbs shall rest,
My soul with Thee be blest !
But stay, presumptuous CHRIST with thee abides
In the rock s dreary sides :
He from the stone will wring celestial dew
If but the prisoner s heart be faithful found and true.
126 Easter Eve.
When tears are spent, and thou art left alone
With ghosts of blessings gone,
Think thou art taken from the cross, and laid
In JESUS burial shade ;
Take Moses 1 rod, the rod of prayer, and call
Out of the rocky wall
The fount of holy blood ; and lift on high
Thy grovelling soul that feels so desolate and dry.
Prisoner of Hope thou art l look up and sing
In hope of promised spring.
As in the pit his father s darling lay m
Beside the desert way,
And knew not how, but knew his GOD would save
Even from that living grave,
So, buried with our LORD, we ll close our eyes
To the decaying world, till Angels bid us rise.
1 Zechariah ix. 12. Turn ye to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope.
m Gen. xxxvii. 24. They took him and cast him into a pit, and the pit
was empty, there was no water in it.
EASTER DAY.
And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they
said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here,
but is risen. St. Luke xxiv. 5, 6.
OH ! day of days ! shall hearts set free
No " minstrel rapture" find for Thee ?
Thou art the Sun of other days,
They shine by giving back thy rays :
Enthroned in thy sovereign sphere
Thou shedd st thy light on all the year :
Sundays by Thee more glorious break,
An Easter Day in every week :
And week-days, following in their train,
The fullness of thy blessing gain,
Till all, both resting and employ,
Be one Lord s day of holy joy.
128 Easter Day.
Then wake, my soul, to high desires,
And earlier light thine altar fires :
The World some hours is on her way,
Nor thinks on thee, thou blessed day :
Or, if she think, it is in scorn :
The vernal light of Easter morn
To her dark gaze no brighter seems
Than Reason s or the Law s pale beams.
" Where is your Lord ?" she scornful asks
" Where is his hire ? we know his tasks ;
" Sons of a king ye boast to be ;
" Let us your crowns and treasures see."
We in the words of Truth reply,
(An angel brought them from the sky,)
" Our crown, our treasure is not here,
" Tis stored above the highest sphere :
" Methinks your wisdom guides amiss,
" To seek on earth a Christian s bliss ;
" We watch not now the lifeless stone ;
" Our only Lord is risen and gone.""
Easter Day. 129
Yet even the lifeless stone is dear
For thoughts of Him who late lay here ;
And the base world, now Christ hath died,
Ennobled is and glorified.
No more a charnel-house, to fence
The relics of lost innocence,
A vault of ruin and decay ;
Th imprisoning stone is roll d away :
"Tis now a cell, where angels use
To come and go with heavenly news,
And in the ears of mourners say,
" Come see the place where Jesus lay :*"
Tis now a fane, where Love can find
Christ every where embalm d and shrin d ;
Aye gathering up memorials sweet,
Where er she sets her duteous feet.
Oh ! joy to Mary first allowed,
When rous d from weeping o er his shroud y
By his own calm, soul-soothing tone,
Breathing her name, as still his own !
K
130 Monday in Easter Week.
Joy to the faithful Three renewed,
As their glad errand they pursued !
Happy, who so Christ s word convey,
That he may meet them on their way !
So is it still : to holy tears,
In lonely hours, Christ risen appears :
In social hours, who Christ would see,
Must turn all tasks to Charity.
MONDAY IN EASTER WEEK.
Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons ; but in every
nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.
Acts x. 34, 35.
GO up and watch the new-born rill
Just trickling from its mossy bed,
Streaking the heath-clad hill
With a bright emerald thread.
Monday in Easter Week. 131
Canst thou her bold career foretel,
What rocks she shall o erleap or rend,
How far in Ocean s swell
Her freshening billows send ?
Perchance that little brook shall flow
The bulwark of some mighty realm,
Bear navies to and fro
With monarchs at their helm.
Or canst thou guess, how far away
Some sister nymph, beside her urn
Reclining night and day,
Mid reeds and mountain fern,
Nurses her store, with thine to blend
When many a moor and glen are past,
Then in the wide sea end
Their spotless lives at last ?
Even so, the course of prayer who knows ?
It springs in silence where it will,
Springs out of sight, and flows
At first a lonely rill :
132 Monday in Easter Week.
But streams shall meet it by and by
From thousand sympathetic hearts,
Together swelling high
Their chant of many parts.
Unheard by all but angel ears
The good Cornelius knelt alone,
Nor dream d his prayers and tears
Would help a world undone.
The while upon his terrac d roof
The lov d Apostle to his Lord
In silent thought aloof
For heavenly vision soar d.
Far o er the glowing western main
His wistful brow was upward rais d,
Where, like an angel s train,
The burnish d water blaz d.
The saint beside the ocean pray d,
The soldier in his chosen bower,
Where all his eye surveyed
SeemM sacred in that hour.
Monday in Easter Week. 133
To each unknown his brother s prayer,
Yet brethren true in dearest love
Were they and now they share
Fraternal joys above.
There daily through Christ s open gate
They see the Gentile spirits press,
Brightening their high estate
With dearer happiness.
What civic wreath for comrades sav d
Shone ever with such deathless gleam,
Or when did perils brav d
So sweet to veterans seem ?
TUESDAY IN EASTER WEEK.
And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy,
and did run to bring His disciples word. St. Matthew xxviii. 8.
TO THE SNOW-DROP.
THOU first-born of the year s delight,
Pride of the dewy glade,
In vernal green and virgin white,
Thy vestal robes, array d ;
not because thy drooping form
Sinks graceful on its nest,
When chilly shades from gathering storm
Affright their tender breast ;
Nor for yon river islet wild
Beneath the willow spray,
Where, like the ringlets of a child,
Thou weav st thy circle gay ;
Tuesday in Easter Week. 135
Tis not for these I love thee dear
Thy shy averted smiles
To Fancy bode a joyous year,
One of Life s fairy isles.
They twinkle to the wintry moon,
And cheer th ungenial day,
And tell us, all will glisten soon
As green and bright as they.
Is there a heart, that loves the spring,
Their witness can refuse ?
Yet mortals doubt, when angels bring
From Heaven their Easter news :
When holy maids and matrons speak
Of Christ s forsaken bed,
And voices, that forbid to seek
The living mid the dead,
And when they say, " Turn wandering heart,
" Thy Lord is ris n indeed,
" Let Pleasure go, put Care apart,
" And to His presence speed ; n
136 Tuesday in Easter Week.
We smile in scorn : and yet we know
They early sought the tomb,
Their hearts, that now so freshly glow,
Lost in desponding gloom.
They who have sought, nor hope to find,
Wear not so bright a glance :
They, who have won their earthly mind.
Less reverently advance.
But where, in gentle spirits, fear
And joy so duly meet,
These sure have seen the angels near,
And kissed the Saviour s feet.
Nor let the Pastor s thankful eye
Their faltering tale disdain,
As on their lowly couch they lie,
Prisoners of want and pain.
O guide us, when our faithless hearts
From Thee would start aloof,
Where Patience her sweet skill imparts
Beneath some cottage roof:
First Sunday after Easter. 137
Revive our dying fires, to burn
High as her anthems soar,
And of our scholars let us learn
Our own forgotten lore.
FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.
Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath sepa
rated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to Himself?
Numbers xvi. 9.
FIRST Father of the holy seed,
If yet, invoked in hour of need,
Thou count me for thine own,
Not quite an outcast if I prove,
(Thou joy st in miracles of love)
Hear, from thy mercy-throne !
Upon thine altar s horn of gold
Help me to lay my trembling hold,
138 First Sunday after Easter.
Though stain d with Christian gore ;
The blood of souls by Thee redeemed,
But, while I rov d or idly dream d,
Lost to be found no more.
For oft, when summer leaves were bright,
And every flower was bath d in light,
In sunshine moments past,
My wilful heart would burst away
From where the holy shadow lay,
Where Heaven my lot had cast.
I thought it scorn with Thee to dwell,
A Hermit in a silent cell,
While, gaily sweeping by,
Wild Fancy blew his bugle strain,
And marshalPd all his gallant train
In the world s wondering eye.
I would have join d him but as oft
Thy whispered warnings, kind and soft,
My better soul confessed.
" My servant, let the world alone
" Safe on the steps of Jesus 1 throne
" Be tranquil and be blest.
First Sunday after Easter. 139
" Seems it to thee a niggard hand
" That nearest Heaven has bade thee stand,
" The ark to touch and bear,
" With incense of pure heart s desire
" To heap the censer s sacred fire,
" The snow-white Ephod wear ?"
Why should we crave the worldling s wreath,
On whom the Saviour deign d to breathe,
To whom his keys were given,
Who lead the choir where angels meet,
With angels food our brethren greet,
And pour the drink of Heaven ?
When sorrow all our heart would ask,
We need not shun our daily task,
And hide ourselves for calm ;
The herbs we seek to heal our woe
Familiar by our pathway grow,
Our common air is balm.
Around each pure domestic shrine
Bright flowers of Eden bloom and twine,
1 40 First Sunday after Easter.
Our hearths are altars all ;
The prayers of hungry souls and poor,
Like armed angels at the door,
Our unseen foes appal.
Alms all around and hymns within
What evil eye can entrance win
Where guards like these abound ?
If chance some heedless heart should roam,
Sure, thought of these will lure it home
Ere lost in Folly s round.
O joys, that sweetest in decay,
Fall not, like withered leaves, away,
But with the silent breath
Of violets drooping one by one,
Soon as their fragrant task is done,
Are wafted high in death !
SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.
He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge
of the Most High; which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into
a trance, but having his eyes open : I shall see him, but not now : I shall
behold him, but not nigh : there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a
Sceptre shall arise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab,
and destroy all the children of Sheth. Numbers xxiv. 16, 17.
O FOR a sculptor s hand,
That thou might st take thy stand,
Thy wild hair floating on the eastern breeze,
Thy tranc d yet open gaze
Fix d on the desert haze,
As one who deep in heaven some airy pageant sees.
In outline dim and vast
Their fearful shadows cast
The giant forms of empires on their way
To ruin : one by one
They tower and they are gone,
Yet in the Prophet s soul the dreams of avarice stay.
J42 Second Sunday after Easter.
No sun or star so bright
In all the world of light
That they should draw to heaven his downward eye :
He hears th Almighty s word,
He sees the angel s sword,
Yet low upon the earth his heart and treasure lie.
Lo from yon argent field,
To him and us reveal d,
One gentle star glides down, on earth to dwell.
Chain d as they are below
Our eyes may see it glow,
And as it mounts again, may track its brightness well.
To him it glar d afar,
A token of wild war,
The banner of his Lord s victorious wrath :
But close to us it gleams,
Its soothing lustre streams
Around our home s green walls, and on our church-
way path.
We in the tents abide
Which he at distance eyed
Second Sunday after Easter. 143
Like goodly cedars by the waters spread,
While seven red altar-fires
Rose up in wavy spires.
Where on the mount he watch d his sorceries dark and
dread.
He watched till morning s ray
On lake and meadow lay,
And willow-shaded streams, that silent sweep
Around the bannered lines,
Where by their several signs
The desert-wearied tribes in sight of Canaan sleep.
He watched till knowledge came
Upon his soul like flame,
Not of those magic fires at random caught :
But true prophetic light
Flashed o er him, high and bright,
Flash d once, and died away, and left his darkened
thought.
And can he choose but fear,
Who feels his GOD so near,
That when he fain would curse, his powerless tongue
1 44 Third Sunday after Easter.
In blessing only moves ?
Alas ! the world he loves
Too close around his heart her tangling veil hath flung.
Sceptre and Star divine.
Who in thine inmost shrine
Hast made us worshippers, O claim thine own ;
More than thy seers we know
O teach our love to grow
Up to thy heavenly light, and reap what Thou hast
sown.
THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come :
but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the
anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. St. John xvi. 21 .
W^ELL may I guess and feel
Why Autumn should be sad ;
But vernal airs should sorrow heal,
Spring should be gay and glad :
Third Sunday after Easter. 145
Yet as along this violet bank I rove,
The languid sweetness seems to choke my breath,
I sit me down beside the hazel grove,
And sigh, and half could wish my weariness were death.
Like a bright veering cloud
Grey blossoms twinkle there,
Warbles around a busy crowd
Of larks in purest air.
Shame on the heart that dreams of blessings gone,
Or wakes the spectral forms of woe and crime,
When nature sings of joy and hope alone,
Reading her cheerful lesson in her own sweet time.
Nor let the proud heart say,
In her self-torturing hour,
The travail pangs must have their way,
The aching brow must lower.
To us long since the glorious Child is born,
Our throes should be forgot, or only seem
Like a sad vision told for joy at morn,
For joy that we have wak d and found it but a dream.
Mysterious to all thought
A mother s prime of bliss,
146 Third Sunday after Easter.
When to her eager lips is brought
Her infant s thrilling kiss.
O never shall it set, the sacred light
Which dawns that moment on her tender gaze,
In the eternal distance blending bright
Her darling s hope and hers, for love and joy and praise.
No need for her to weep
Like Thracian wives of yore,
Save when in rapture still and deep
Her thankful heart runs o er.
They mourn d to trust their treasure on the main,
Sure of the storm, unknowing of their guide :
Welcome to her the peril and the pain,
For well she knows the home where they may safely
hide.
She joys that one is born
Into a world forgiven,
Her Father s household to adorn,
And dwell with her in heaven.
So have I seen, in spring s bewitching hour,
When the glad earth is offering all her best,
Some gentle maid bend o er a cherished flower,
And wish it worthier on a Parent s heart to rest.
FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth : it is expedient for you that I go away :
if 1 go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you : but if I depart.
for if 1 go not away,
I will send him unto you. St. John xvi. 7.
MY Saviour, can it ever be
That I should gain by losing Thee ?
The watchful mother tarries nigh
Though sleep have clos d her infant s eye.
For should he wake, and find her gone,
She knows she could not bear his moan.
But I am weaker than a child,
And Thou art more than mother dear;
Without Thee Heaven were but a wild :
How can I live without Thee here ?
" Tis good for you, that I should go,
" You lingering yet awhile below ;"
148 Fourth Sunday after Easter.
0fgftt
Tis thine etn? gracious promise, Lord !
Thy saints have prov d the faithful word.
When Heaven s bright boundless avenue
Far open d on their eager view,
And homeward to thy Father s throne,
Still lessening, brightening on their sight,
Thy shadowy car went soaring on ;
They tracked Thee up th abyss of light.
Thou bidst rejoice ; they dare not mourn,
But to their home in gladness turn,
Their home and God s, that favoured place,
Where still he shines on Abraham s race,
In prayers and blessings there to wait
Like suppliants at their monarch s gate,
Who bent with bounty rare to aid
The splendours of his crowning day,
Keeps back awhile his largess, made
More welcome for that brief delay :
In doubt they wait, but not unblest ;
They doubt not of their Master s rest,
Nor of the gracious will of Heaven
Who gave his Son, sure all has given
Fourth Sunday after Easter. 149
But in ecstatic awe they muse
What course the genial stream may choose,
And far and wide their fancies rove,
And to their height of wonder strain,
What secret miracle of love
Should make their Saviour s going gain.
The days of hope and prayer are past,
The day of comfort dawns at last,
The everlasting gates again
Roll back, and lo I a royal train
From the far depth of light once more
The floods of glory earth-ward pour :
They part like shower-drops in mid air,
But ne^er so soft fell noon-tide shower,
Nor evening rain-bow gleam d so fair
To weary swains in parched bower.
Swiftly and straight each tongue of flame
Through cloud and breeze unwavering came,
And darted to its place of rest
On some meek brow of Jesus blest.
Nor fades it yet, that living gleam,
And still those lambent lightnings stream ;
150 Fourth Sunday after Easter.
Where er the Lord is, there are they ;
In every heart that gives them room.
They light His altar every day,
Zeal to inflame, and vice consume.
Soft as the plumes of Jesus Dove
They nurse the soul to heavenly love :
The struggling spark of good within,
Just smothered in the strife of sin,
They quicken to a timely glow,
The pure flame spreading high and low.
Said I, that prayer and hope were o er ?
Nay, blessed Spirit ! but by Thee
The Church s prayer finds wings to soar,
The Church s hope finds eyes to see.
Then, fainting soul, arise and sing
