The Christian year thoughts in verse for the Sundays and holidays throughout the year ... hundredth edition [by John Keble] |
The Christian year | ||
DEDICATION.
I sought a strain not all unworthy Thee,
My heart, still ringing with wild worldly talk,
Gave forth no note of holier minstrelsy.
Strong supplication must call down the charm,
And thus with untuned heart I feebly prayed,
Knocking at Heaven's gate with earth-palsied arm;
By whom the troubled waves of earthly sound
Are gathered into order, such as best
Some high-souled bard in his enchanted round
Thy dovelike wing that makes confusion fly,
Over my dark, void spirit, summoning
New worlds of music, strains that may not die.
With pure hands ever holding up on high
The guiding Star of all who seek Thy gate,
The undying lamp of heavenly Poesy.
Is my frail arm, O Lord; but I would fain
Track to its source the brightness, I would bask
In the clear ray that makes Thy pathway plain.
The evil spirit from the troubled breast;
Enough for me if I can find such grace
To listen to the strain, and be at rest.
Morning.
Lament. iii. 22, 23.
That, ere the glorious sun be born,
By some soft touch invisible
Around his path are taught to swell;—
That dancest forth at opening day,
And brushing by with joyous wing,
Wakenest each little leaf to sing;—
By which deep grove and tangled stream
Pay, for soft rains in season given,
Their tribute to the genial heaven;—
Upon our thankless, joyless sight;
Who day by day to sin awake,
Seldom of heaven and you partake?
Hearts that with rising morn arise!
Eyes that the beam celestial view,
Which evermore makes all things new .
Our wakening and uprising prove;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restor'd to life, and power, and thought.
Hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of Heaven.
Be set to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.
As more of Heaven in each we see:
Some softening gleam of love and prayer
Shall dawn on every cross and care.
Untir'd we ask, and ask again,
Ever, in its melodious store,
Finding a spell unheard before;
When they have sworn, and stedfast mean,
Counting the cost, in all t' espy
Their God, in all themselves deny.
What lights would all around us rise!
How would our hearts with wisdom talk
Along Life's dullest, dreariest walk!
Our neighbour and our work farewell,
Nor strive to wind ourselves too high
For sinful man beneath the sky:
Would furnish all we ought to ask;
Room to deny ourselves; a road
To bring us, daily, nearer God.
Let present Rapture, Comfort, Ease,
As Heaven shall bid them, come and go:—
The secret this of Rest below.
Fit us for perfect Rest above;
And help us, this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray.
Evening.
St. Luke xxiv. 29.
Fast fading from our wistful gaze;
Yon mantling cloud has hid from sight
The last faint pulse of quivering light.
The traveller on his way must press,
No gleam to watch on tree or tower,
Whiling away the lonesome hour.
It is not night if Thou be near:
Oh! may no earth-born cloud arise
To hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes.
My searching rapturous glance I throw,
Tracing out Wisdom, Power, and Love,
In earth or sky, in stream or grove;—
Watch Time's full river as it flows,
Scanning Thy gracious Providence,
Where not too deep for mortal sense:—
And all the flowers of life unfold;
Let not my heart within me burn,
Except in all I Thee discern.
My wearied eyelids gently steep,
Be my last thought, how sweet to rest
For ever on my Saviour's breast.
For without Thee I cannot live:
Abide with me when night is nigh,
For without Thee I dare not die.
Steer through the tempest Thine own ark:
Amid the howling wintry sea
We are in port if we have Thee .
'Twixt Thee and us ordain'd to stand,—
Guide Thou their course, O Lord, aright,
Let all do all as in Thy sight.
So meekly up the hill of scorn,
Teach Thou Thy priests their daily cross
To bear as Thine, nor count it loss!
Have spurn'd, to-day, the voice divine,
Now, Lord, the gracious work begin;
Let him no more lie down in sin.
With blessings from Thy boundless store:
Be every mourner's sleep to-night
Like infants' slumbers, pure and light.
Ere through the world our way we take;
Till in the ocean of Thy love
We lose ourselves in Heaven above.
Then they willingly received Him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went. St. John vi. 21.
Advent Sunday.
From year to year it swells with louder tone,
From year to year the signs of wrath
Are gathering round the Judge's path,
Strange words fulfill'd, and mighty works achiev'd,
And truth in all the world both hated and believ'd.
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,
E'en with the loud Hosanna ringing in His ears.
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!
Calm as the march of some majestic cloud,
That o'er wild scenes of ocean-war
Holds its still course in Heaven afar:
E'en so, heart-searching Lord, as years roll on,
Thou keepest silent watch from Thy triumphal throne:
On the dread vision of the latter days,
Constrain'd to own Thee, but in heart
Prepar'd to take Barabbas' part:
“Hosanna” now, to-morrow “Crucify,”
The changeful burden still of their rude lawless cry.
Thy sad eye rests upon Thy faithful few,
Children and childlike souls are there,
Blind Bartimeus' humble prayer,
And Lazarus waken'd from his four days' sleep,
Enduring life again, that Passover to keep.
Stands the bless'd home, where Jesus deign'd to stay,
The peaceful home, to Zeal sincere
And heavenly Contemplation dear,
Where Martha lov'd to wait with reverence meet,
And wiser Mary linger'd at Thy sacred feet.
Thou lov'st Thy chosen remnant to divide;
Full many a soft green isle appears:
Pause where we may upon the desert road,
Some shelter is in sight, some sacred safe abode.
And Love's last flower seem'd fain to droop and die,
How sweet, how lone the ray benign
On shelter'd nooks of Palestine!
Then to his early home did Love repair ,
And cheer'd his sickening heart with his own native air.
Has swept Thy footsteps from the favour'd clime.
Where shall the holy Cross find rest?
On a crown'd monarch's mailèd breast:
Like some bright angel o'er the darkling scene,
Through court and camp he holds his heavenward course serene.
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?
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.
In wilful slumber, deepening every hour,
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.
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' uncertain glow.
Her heavens all dark with doubt and crime,
Why lifts the Church her drooping head,
As though her evil hour were fled?
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?
A pledge of love that cannot tire;
By tempests, earthquakes, and by wars,
By rushing waves and falling stars,
She sees the world is waxing old ,
And through that last and direst storm
Descries by faith her Saviour's form.
Set in the fig-tree's polish'd 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,
But miss the Judge behind the door ,
For all the light of sacred lore:
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 alter'd voice be known
Somewhat of Resignation's tone.
Above the world's uncertain haze,
And look with calm unwavering eye
On the bright fields beyond the sky,
His way of mercy to prepare:
Angels He calls ye: be your strife
To lead on earth an Angel's life.
Start up, and ply your heavenward feet.
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.
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?
Those blossoms red and bright
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.
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 terrac'd high with mossy stone.
Over the heavenly theme,
Till to our soul the former days return;
Till on the grassy bed,
Where thousands once He fed,
The world's incarnate Maker we discern.
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:
Or sun-bright hall of power,
Pass Babel quick, and seek the holy land—
From robes of Tyrian dye
Turn with undazzled eye
To Bethlehem's glade, or Carmel's haunted strand.
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.
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' other holy garden, where the Lord was laid.
His death and victory,
Rising and falling as on angel wings,
They, while they seem to roam,
Draw daily nearer home,
Their heart untravell'd still adores the King of kings.
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.
Than Angels can adore
With face unveil'd, is He they go to seek:
Blessèd be God, Whose grace
Shews Him in every place
To homeliest hearts of pilgrims pure and meek.
Fourth Sunday in Advent.
How little can the heart embrace!
Soft shades and gleaming lights are there—
I know it well, but cannot trace.
One page of Nature's beauteous book;
It lies before me, fair outspread—
I only cast a wishful look.
The scene, the glance, I dearest love—
Unchanged themselves, in me they die,
Or faint, or false, their shadows prove.
I linger by soft Music's cell,
And in my heart of hearts would hear
What to her own she deigns to tell.
I only know 'tis fair and sweet—
'Tis wandering on enchanted ground
With dizzy brow and tottering feet.
When these dull ears shall scan aright
Strains, that outring Earth's drowsy chime,
As Heaven outshines the taper's light.
At glancing motes in sunshine wink,
Shall see the King's full glory break,
Nor from the blissful vision shrink:
For ever on that ocean bright
Empower'd to gaze: and undestroy'd,
Deeper and deeper plunge in light.
Reach to an arrow's flight, that day
They shall behold, and not in trance,
The region “very far away.”
Refuse to speak, or speak amiss,
We shall not need her where we dwell
Ever in sight of all our bliss.
Some tender lights unnotic'd fleet,
Or on lov'd features dawn and die,
Unread, to us, their lesson sweet;
Which Heaven, in mercy, spares us too,
And we see far in holy ground,
If duly purg'd our mental view.
For all our gazing; but the soul,
That upward looks, may still descry
Nearer, each day, the brightening goal.
Wouldst thread the maze of Harmony,
Content thee with one simple strain,
The lowlier, sure, the worthier thee;
The concord sweet of Love divine:
Then, with that inward Music fraught,
For ever rise, and sing, and shine.
Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off. Isaiah xxxiii. 17.
Christmas Day.
Spreads o'er th' expanse of Heaven?
In waves of light it thrills along,
Th' angelic signal given—
“Glory to God!” from yonder central fire
Flows out the echoing lay beyond the starry quire;
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 —salvation and release.”
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 come:”—
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.
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 smil'd,
Guests rudely went and came, where slept the royal Child.
No other thought should be,
Once duly welcom'd 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.
Of a pure virgin mind,
In quiet ever, and in shade,
Shepherd and sage may find;
They, who have bow'd untaught to Nature's sway,
And they, who follow Truth along her star-pav'd way.
Approach Thee, Babe divine,
For they in lowly thoughts are nurs'd,
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.
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.
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.
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.
I have ventured to adopt the reading of the Vulgate, as being generally known through Pergolesi's beautiful composition, “Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis.”
St. Stephen's Day.
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 ,
And all earth owns, of good and great,
Is gather'd in that choir.
One calmly yields His willing breath,
Nor slow, nor hurrying, but in faith
Content to die or live:
Play smiling with the flame and sword,
And, ere they speak, to His sure word
Unconscious witness give.
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, flash'd high,
Seeing what death conceals.
Was present to his raptur'd sight,
E'en as reflected streams of light
Their solar source betray—
The glory which our God surrounds,
The Son of Man, th' atoning wounds—
He sees them all; and earth's dull bounds
Are melting fast away.
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.
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.
Wheatly 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.”
And all that sat 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.
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.
Leave it in his Saviour's breast,
Whether, early call'd to bliss,
He in youth shall find his rest,
Or armèd in his station wait
Till his Lord be at the gate:
(Lonely, not forlorn) he stay,
Or with Love's supporting force
Cheat the toil and cheer the way:
Leave it all in His high hand,
Who doth hearts as streams command .
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.
Wealthy, or despis'd 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?
At the touch of natural grief,
When our earthly lov'd ones sink,
Lend us, Lord, Thy sure relief;
Patient hearts, their pain to see,
And Thy grace, to follow Thee.
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.
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?
The glorious dint a martyr's shield should bear?
How chance no cheek among them wears
The deep-worn trace of penitential tears,
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?
“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.
“Now underneath the Cross their bed they make,
“Not to be scar'd from that sure rest
“By frighten'd mother's shriek, or warrior's waving crest.”
Borne by the suffering Church her Lord to greet;
Bless'd Jesus ever lov'd 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.
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.
Was as a pledge of benediction, stor'd
For Christian mothers, while they moan
Their treasur'd hopes, just born, baptiz'd, and gone.
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 embrac'd.
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:
How happier far than life the end
Of souls that infant-like beneath their burthen bend.
First Sunday after Christmas.
His daily course refus'd to run,
The pale moon hurrying to the west
Paus'd at a mortal's call, to aid
Th' avenging storm of war, that laid
Seven guilty realms at once on earth's defilèd breast.
Should stay the ever-moving sphere?
A sick man's lowly-breathèd sigh,
When from the world he turns away ,
And hides his weary eyes to pray,
Should change your mystic dance, ye wanderers of the sky?
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.
And vows, too pure to be perform'd,
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.
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?
Though darkly round Thine anger rolls,
Thy sunshine smiles beneath the gloom,
Thou seek'st to warn us, not confound,
Thy showers would pierce the harden'd ground,
And win it to give out its brightness and perfume.
E'en in remorse, would smile on Thee;
The tears that bathe our offer'd hearts,
We would not have them stain'd and dim,
But dropp'd from wings of seraphim,
All glowing with the light accepted Love imparts.
Power cannot change them, but Love may;
What cannot be, Love counts it done.
Can read where Faith is fix'd and true,
Through shades of setting life can see Heaven's work begun.
Open Thy fount, eternal Dove,
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;
By every gush of pure desire,
And high-breath'd hope of joys above,
By every secret sigh we heave,
Whole years of folly we outlive,
In His unerring sight, who measures Life by Love.
The Circumcision of Christ.
And Thou beginn'st with woe,
To let the world of sinners see
That blood for sin must flow.
Thy tears upon the breast,
Are not enough—the legal sword
Must do its stern behest.
Pour'd on a victim's head
Are those few precious drops of Thine,
Now first to offering led.
Of Christ's unswerving faith
Given to His Sire, our souls to heal,
Although it cost His death.
To each true Jewish heart,
In Gospel graces manifold
Communion blest impart.
As of an ocean vast,
Mounting in tides against the stream
Of ages gone and past.
As we and they are Thine;
Kings, Prophets, Patriarchs—all have part
Along the sacred line.
God's mark is set on Thee,
That in Thee every faithful view
Both covenants might see.
And strong as is Thy grace!
Saints, parted by a thousand year,
May thus in heart embrace.
Who fallen on faithless days,
Sighs for the heart-consoling view
Of those, Heaven deign'd to praise!
With faithful Abraham here,
Whom soon in Eden thou shalt greet
A nursing Father dear.
And would thy dull heart fain
Borrow of Israel's minstrelsy
One high enraptur'd strain?
Here set thy feeble chant,
Here, if at all beneath the moon,
Is holy David's haunt.
Cradled in care and woe?
And seems it hard, thy vernal years
Few vernal joys can show?
Sad on thy lonely heart,
From all the hopes and charms of earth
Untimely call'd to part?
The Giver of all good
E'en from the womb takes no release
From suffering, tears, and blood.
First sow in holy fear:
So life a winter's morn may prove
To a bright endless year.
Second Sunday after Christmas.
To Thee in silence cry?
And as th' 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?
Has reach'd Thee from the wild,
Since the lorn mother, wandering there,
Cast down her fainting child ,
Then stole apart to weep and die,
Nor knew an angel form was nigh,
To shew soft waters gushing by
And dewy shadows mild.
And Thine unwearied arm
Is ready yet with Moses' rod,
The hidden rill to charm
Of sands, that lie in lifeless sleep,
Save when the scorching whirlwinds heap
Their waves in rude alarm.
Thine too the drearier hour
When o'er the horizon's silent line
Fond hopeless fancies cower,
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.
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.
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.
The weary hour of noon ,
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 ,
To Thee we turn, our Last and First,
Our Sun and soothing Moon.
We ask not full repose,
Only be Thou at hand, to bless
Our trial hour of woes.
Is not the pilgrim's toil o'erpaid
By the clear rill and palmy shade?
And see we not, up earth's dark glade,
The gate of Heaven unclose?
The Epiphany.
Seen in life's early morning sky,
Ere yet a cloud has dimm'd the brow,
While yet we gaze with childish eye!
Most dearly lov'd, and loving best,
First bid us from their arms ascend,
Pointing to Thee in Thy sure rest.
Buries, to us, Thy brightness keen,
And we are left to find our way
By faith and hope in Thee unseen.
On every side are round us set,
Soon overleap'd, but not obscure?
'Tis ours to mark them or forget.
Our childhood's star again arise,
Crowning our lonely pilgrimage
With all that cheers a wanderer's eyes?
Till all our hopes and thoughts are led
To where it stays its lucid flight
Over our Saviour's lowly bed.
On Chastity's meek lap enshrin'd,
With breathless Reverence waiting by,
When we our sovereign Master find,
Of mingled joy and awe return,
When stars above or flowers below
First made our infant spirits burn?
E'en on Thy throne of purity!
From these our proud yet grovelling hearts
Hide not Thy mild forgiving eye.
Our mother dear, this favour'd day?
With gold and myrrh she sought Thy face,
Nor didst Thou turn Thy face away.
Had watch'd Thee gleaming faint and far—
But wandering in self-chosen ways
She lost Thee quite, Thou lovely star.
To Thee her first enquiring glance:
The deeper shame within her burn'd,
When waken'd from her wilful trance.
Their richest, sweetest, purest store,
(Yet own'd too worthless and too late,)
They lavish on Thy cottage-floor.
On us their fallen progeny,
Who sacrifice the blind and lame —
Who will not wake or fast with Thee?
First Sunday after Epiphany.
Welcome to the thoughtful heart!
May I call ye sense or learning,
Instinct pure, or Heaven-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.
To the inward ear devout,
Touch'd by light, with heavenly warning
Your transporting chords ring out.
Every leaf in every nook,
Every wave in every brook,
Chanting with a solemn voice,
Minds us of our better choice.
Winding shore or deepening glen,
Where the landscape in its glory
Teaches truth to wandering men:
And some flowers to bloom and die,—
Homely scenes and simple views
Lowly thoughts may best infuse.
Where the waters gently pass,
Every way her free arms flinging
O'er 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.
Patiently she droops awhile,
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.
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 cultur'd grove.
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.
We frolic to and fro
As free and blithe, as if on earth
Were no such thing as woe.
We trust the flattering voice,
Which whispers, “Take thy fill ere death,
“Indulge thee and rejoice;”
Some lost delight we mourn,
The flowers all die along our way,
Till we, too, die forlorn.
In her first charming bowl
Infusing all that fires the breast,
And cheats th' unstable soul.
The fever'd pulse beats higher,
Till the sear'd taste from foulest wells
Is fain to slake its fire.
Spread at the Saviour's word
For souls that hear His call, and prove
Meet for His bridal board.
If pure, would sparkle less?
Why should the cup the sooner cloy,
Which God hath deign'd to bless?
Along each bounding vein,
Still whispering glorious things unseen?—
Faith makes the vision plain.
Her daring dreams will cherish,
Speeding her gaze o'er time and death
To realms where nought can perish.
Of hearts that know no guile,
That all around see all things bright
With their own magic smile?
Of confidence and rest,
Lull'd in a father's arms to sleep,
Clasp'd to a mother's breast?
That blessing may prolong?
Who, through the world's sad day of strife,
Still chant his morning song?
God's foundlings then are we:
Mother on child no pity take ,
But we shall still have Thee.
A fond fraternal heart,
But Christ hath given His promise plain
To do a Brother's part.
The heavenward flame annoy:
The Saviour cannot pass away,
And with Him lives our joy.
Sets round the autumnal sun—
But there sight fails: no heart may know
The bliss when life is done.
O give us grace, to cast
Our lot with Thine, to trust Thy word,
And keep our best till last.
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.
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.
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.
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.
More cheery than 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;
Like diamond blazing in the mine;
For ever, where such grace is given,
It fears in open day to shine ,
Lest the deep stain it owns within
Break out, and Faith be sham'd by the believer's sin.
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.
You in the Sovereign Presence plead—
“This is the Lover of Thy laws ,
“The friend of Thine in fear and need”—
For to the poor Thy mercy lends
That solemn style, “Thy nation and Thy friends.”
The graceful lines of art may trace,
While his free spirit, soaring high,
Discerns the glorious from the base;
Till out of dust his magic raise
A home for prayer and love, and full harmonious praise,
In maze on maze the trancèd 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.
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.
Her spikenard drops unblam'd may pour,
May mount His cross, and wrap Him dead
In spices from the golden shore :
Risen, may embalm His sacred name
With all a Painter's art, and all a Minstrel's flame.
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.
Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof. St. Luke vii. 6.
“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; for he said he was afraid he 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.
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany.
Who, waken'd by the rushing midnight shower,
Watch for the fitful breeze
To howl and chafe amid the bending trees,
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.
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'ermastering charm.
That heave the struggling heart with wilder din,
And there is power and love
The maniac's rushing frenzy to reprove;
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?
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.
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.
Thy howling waste, thy charnel-house and chain,
And with the demons be,
Rather than clasp thine own Deliverer's knee?
Sure 'tis no Heaven-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.
As erst, beholding, loves His wayward child;
When souls of highest birth
Waste their impassion'd 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.
“Eye of the only Wise!
“Now for Thy glory's sake,
“Saviour and God, arise,
“And may Thine ear, that sealèd seems,
“In pity mark our mournful themes!”
Thy Church is fain to cry,
As if Thy love and power
Were vanish'd from her sky;
Yet God is there, and at His side
He triumphs, Who for sinners died.
The Heaven-betrothèd breast:
The traitor Sense recalls
The soaring soul from rest.
That bitter sigh was all for earth,
For glories gone, and vanish'd mirth.
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.
Thou whose soft showers distil
On ocean waste or rock,
Free as on Hermon hill,
Do Thou our craven spirits cheer,
And shame away the selfish tear.
Beside the barren sea,
Where Philip's steps were led,
Led by a voice from Thee—
He rose and went, nor ask'd Thee why,
Nor stay'd to heave one faithless sigh:
The high-born traveller came,
Reading a mournful lay
Of “One who bore our shame ,
“Silent Himself, His name untold,
“And yet His glories were of old.”
His wondering brow he rais'd,
And met an eye serene
That on him watchful gaz'd.
No Hermit e'er so welcome cross'd
A child's lone path in woodland lost.
The scrolls of sacred lore
No darksome mazes prove;
The desert tires no more:
Then on their way rejoicing go.
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,
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.
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.
So mayst 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.
Would wish the weary night were gone,
Though dawning morn should only show
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 .”
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 belovèd ark.
Loves victory more, when dim in view
He sees her glories gild afar
The dusky edge of stubborn war,
The harvest of her laurels yield;
Let not my bark in calm abide,
But win her fearless way against the chafing tide.
From her dim vision would not part,
When first to her fond gaze is giv'n
That purest spot in Fancy's heaven,
For all the gorgeous sky beside,
Though pledg'd her own and sure t' abide:
Dearer than every past noon-day
That twilight gleam to her, though faint and far away.
Priz'd above all the vernal bower,
Shelter'd beneath the coolest shade,
Embosom'd 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.
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.
Though not as yet this wayward breast
Beat quite in answer to Thy voice,
Yet surely I have made my choice;
I know not yet the promis'd bliss,
Know not if I shall win or miss;
So doubting, rather let me die,
Than close with aught beside, to last eternally.
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.
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' unapproachèd Lord, once made for them so low.
And self-accus'd of sin and sloth
They live and die; their names decay,
Their fragrance passes quite away;
No vernal steam around they cast,—
But they shall flourish from the tomb,
The breath of God shall wake them into od'rous bloom.
The fount of sweetness, they shall rest,
Their spirits every hour imbu'd
More deeply with His precious blood.
But peace—still voice and closèd eye
Suit best with hearts beyond the sky,
Hearts training in their low abode,
Daily to lose themselves in hope to find their God.
Septuagesima Sunday.
Which heavenly truth imparts,
And all the lore its scholars need,
Pure eyes and Christian hearts.
Within us and around,
Are pages in that book, to show
How God Himself is found.
Is like the Maker's love,
Wherewith encompass'd, great and smalt
In peace and order move.
A wondrous race they run,
But all their radiance, all their glow,
Each borrows of its Sun.
That crowns His holy hill;
The saints, like stars, around His seat,
Perform their courses still .
What are the saints on earth?
Like trees they stand whom God has given ,
Our Eden's happy birth.
Hope their unfading flower,
Fair deeds of charity their fruit,
The glory of their bower.
It steals in silence down;
But where it lights, the favour'd place
By richest fruits is known.
With its ten thousand tongues
The everlasting sea proclaims,
Echoing angelic songs.
Thy boundless power display:
But in the gentler breeze we find
Thy Spirit's viewless way .
Forbids us to descry
The mystic heaven and earth within,
Plain as the sea and sky.
And love this sight so fair,
Give me a heart to find out Thee,
And read Thee everywhere.
Sexagesima Sunday.
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.
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.
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.”
Where'er I gaze on either hand
The sentence is gone forth, the ground is curs'd:
Yet mingled with the penal shower
Some drops of balm in every bower
Steal down like April dews, that softest fall and first.
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.
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;
'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.
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.
God hath impress'd His mark of blame,
And e'en 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.
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?
The happy garden still was left,
The fiery sword that guarded shew'd it too,
Turning all ways, the world to teach,
That though as yet beyond our reach,
Still in its place the tree of life and glory grew.
Quinquagesima Sunday.
In all the sunbright sky,
Brightening in ever-changeful bloom
As breezes change on high;—
“Long sought, and lately won,”
Bless'd increase of reviving Earth,
When first it felt the Sun;—
High set at Heaven's command,
Though into drear and dusky haze
Thou melt on either hand;—
We hail ye, one and all,
As when our fathers walk'd abroad,
Freed from their twelvemonth's thrall.
On the green earth they spring!
Not blither, after showers, the Lark
Mounts up with glistening wing.
Two oceans safely past;
So happy souls, when life is o'er,
Plunge in th' empyreal vast.
In all the blissful field,
And keeps it through a thousand days?
Love face to face reveal'd:
Our Lord in Eden bends
On souls that sin and earth forsook
In time to die His friends.
Dawns on the Patriarch's eye,
In all th' emerging hills so green,
In all the brightening sky?
Soothing the wearied sight,
That cannot bear the solar beam,
With soft undazzling light?
With such adoring gaze,
Wondering frail man Thy light should see
Without Thy scorching blaze;
We who have seen Thy Son,
Have tried Thy Spirit's winning arts,
And yet we are not won?
Too bright for us to scan,
But we may face the rays that stream'd
From the mild Son of Man.
In sweet harmonious strife,
We see celestial love diffuse
Its light o'er Jesus' life.
This truth in heaven above;
As every lovely hue is Light,
So every grace is Love.
Ash-Wednesday.
“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?
“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
“What chains of darkness thee enslave,
“And mocking say, Lo, this is he
“Who own'd a God that could not save?”
Tempts him to hide his grief and die,
Too feeble for Confession's smart,
Too proud to bear a pitying eye;
On bosoms waiting to receive
Our sighs, and gently whisper all!
They love us—will not God forgive?
Till Heaven and we are quite alone,
Then let the grief, the shame, the sin,
Before the mercy-seat be thrown.
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.
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.
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, unshelter'd and unfed ,
Far in the wild His steps were driven.
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.
“While the devoted city's cry
“Louder and louder swells? and canst thou spare,
“Thy full-charg'd vial standing by?”
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 give the sign, his fury stays.
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 unharm'd remain.
“And why, through every woodland arch,
“Swells yon bright vale, as Eden rich and rare,
“Where Jordan winds his stately march;
“If God have planted but to burn?—
“Surely not yet th' avenging shower will fall,
“Though to my home for one last look I turn.”
They had provok'd 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
They check the wandering eye, severely kind,
Nor let the sinner lose his soul at ease.
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.
The Church, our Zoar, shall abide,
Till she abuse, so sore, her lengthen'd span,
E'en 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 lics—there seek thy goal,
There breathe at large, o'erpast thy dangerous race.
When hearts are of each other sure;
Sweet all the joys that crowd the household nook,
The haunt of all affections pure;
Yet in the world e'en 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.
“Where the loud bitter cry is rais'd in vain?
“Where tears of penance come too late for grace,
“As on th' uprooted flower the genial rain?”
Stores in the dungeon of His boundless realm
Each bolt, that o'er the sinner vainly rolls,
With gather'd wrath the reprobate to whelm.
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?
Turn with a wish to down? will late remorse
Recal the shaft the murderer's hand has sped,
Or from the guiltless bosom turn its course?
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:
That angel wings may waft them to the shore,
Nor need th' unready virgin strike her breast,
Nor wait desponding round the bridegroom's door.
Of old they lean'd on Thy eternal word,
But with the sinner's fear their hope departs,
Fast link'd as Thy great Name to Thee, O Lord:
That we should endless be, for joy or woe:—
And if the treasures of Thy wrath could waste,
Thy lovers must their promis'd Heaven forego.
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 appear'd.
The birthright sold, the blessing Iost and won,
Tell, Heaven has wrath that can relent no more,
The Grave, dark deeds that cannot be undone.
For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown;
Thus, Esau-like, our Father's blessing miss,
Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown.
Shall on some brother's brow immortal bloom,
No partial hand the blessing may misguide;
No flattering fancy change our Monarch's doom:
The everlasting birthright should receive,
The softest dews drop on her from above ,
The richest green her mountain garland weave:
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.
The author earnestly hopes, that nothing in these stanzas will be understood 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.
Third Sunday in Lent.
Dash'd from his throne of pride;
While, answering Thy victorious call,
The Saints his spoils divide;
This world of Thine, by him usurp'd too long,
Now opening all her stores to heal Thy servants' wrong.
Dead in the darkness lay,
When Thy redeem'd at midnight rose
And cast their bonds away,
The orphan'd realm threw wide her gates, and told
Into freed Israel's lap her jewels and her gold.
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;—
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;
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
Wreath'd o'er the cottage walls in garlands of delight.
To Thine all-conquering ark;—
Fly from the “old poetic” fields ,
Ye Paynim shadows dark!
Immortal Greece, dear land of glorious lays,
Lo! here the “unknown God” of thy unconscious praise!
“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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
On features wan and fair,—
The gazing eye no change can trace,
But look away a little space,
Then turn, and lo! 'tis there.
Blush'd on the rosy spray—
A brighter star, a richer bloom
Than e'er did western heaven illume
At close of summer day.
Love, gentle, holy, pure;
But tenderer than a dove's soft eye,
The searching sun, the open sky,
She never could endure.
Here in the coarse rude earth:
How then should rash intruding glance
Break in upon her sacred trance
Who boasts a heavenly birth?
Ever the truest heart,
Where deepest strikes her kindly root
For hope or joy, for flower or fruit,
Least knows its happy part.
Behind the blissful screen—
As when, triumphant o'er His woes,
The Son of God by moonlight rose,
By all but Heaven unseen:
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.
The earnest of our bliss,
Of many a chosen witness telling,
On many a happy vision dwelling,
Sings not a note of this.
Old Israel's long-lost son,
What time, with sweet forgiving cheer,
He call'd his conscious brethren near,
Would weep with them alone.
But in his Maker's sight—
Then why should gentle hearts and true
Bare to the rude world's withering view
Their treasure of delight!
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.
Thro' many a waste heart-sickening page
Hath trac'd the works of Man:
But a celestial call to-day
Stays her, like Moses, on her way,
The works of God to scan.
Where, like a solitary child,
He thoughtless roam'd and free,
One towering thorn was wrapt in flame—
Bright without blaze it went and came:
Who would not turn and see?
The scatter'd 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.
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.
Lost branches of the once-lov'd vine,
Now wither'd, spent, and sere,
See Israel's sons, like glowing brands,
Toss'd wildly o'er a thousand lands
For twice a thousand year.
But lifts them like a beacon light
Th' apostate Church to scare;
Or like pale ghosts that darkling roam,
Hovering around their ancient home,
But find no refuge there.
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:)
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?
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.
Mingling with tones of fear and ire,
Soft Mercy's undersong—
'Tis Abraham's God who speaks so loud,
His people's cries have pierc'd the cloud,
He sees, He sees their wrong ;
Though never more on Sion's fane
His visible ensign wave;
'Tis Sion, wheresoe'er they dwell,
Who, with His own true Israel,
Shall own Him strong to save.
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.
Turn ye this page of mystery,
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.
With the pulse of Poesy,
Heirs of more than royal race,
Fram'd 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—
Know ye, who hath set your parts?
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.
Deem not that the song would cease—
Angels round His glory-throne,
Stars, His guiding hand that own,
Stones in earth's dark womb that rest,
High and low in choir shall meet,
Ere His Name shall be unblest.
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.
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 show,
In vile things noble breath infusing;
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.
“And Brother too, kind Husband of my heart”—
So speaks Andromache 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.
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
E'en to the doting mother: but Thine own
Thou never canst forget, nor leave alone.
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:
O'er thee He watches in His boundless reign.
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.
E'en 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
In calmness for His far-seen hour He stays.
Far in the rocky walls of Sion sleep,
Green terraces and archèd 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:
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.
That felt Thee kneeling—touch'd 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,
Offer'd where Christ in agony was laid.
That from His aching brow by moonlight fell,
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.
Else wherefore, when the bitter waves o'erflow,
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.
In Passion-week, from Tuesday evening to Thursday evening: during which time Scripture seems to be nearly silent concerning our Saviour's proceedings.
Tuesday before Easter.
“The dews oblivious: for the Cross is sharp,
“The Cross is sharp, and He
“Is tenderer than a lamb.
“This bed of anguish? and His pale weak form
“Is worn with many a watch
“Of sorrow and unrest.
“And the sad burthen press'd Him so to earth,
“The very torturers paus'd
“To help Him on His way.
“With medicin'd sleep.”—O awful in Thy woe!
The parching thirst of death
Is on Thee, and Thou triest
Not sullen, nor in scorn, like haughty man
With suicidal hand
Putting his solace by:
Saw from Thy Father's bosom to th' abyss,
Measuring in calm presage
The infinite descent;
Made heir, and emptied of Thy glory' awhile,
With unaverted eye
Thou meetest all the storm.
And rather wouldst Thou wrestle with strong pain,
Than overcloud Thy soul,
So clear in agony,
O most entire and perfect sacrifice,
Renew'd in every pulse
That on the tedious Cross
The life-strings of that tender heart gave way;
E'en sinners, taught by Thee,
Look Sorrow in the face,
By false kind solaces, and spells of earth:—
And yet not all unsooth'd;
For when was Joy so dear,
Or, “Be with Me in Paradise to-day?”
And, though the strife be sore,
Yet in His parting breath
Forsaken, feels her present God again,
And in her Father's arms
Contented dies away.
Wednesday before Easter.
I will lie still—
I will not stir, lest I forsake Thine arm,
And break the charm,
Which lulls me, clinging to my Father's breast,
In perfect rest.
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.
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,
Their blessing, who by faith can wean
Their hearts from sense, and learn to love
God only, and the joys above.
And upward gaze with eagle eyne,
That by each golden crown on high ,
Rich with celestial jewelry,
Which for our Lord's redeem'd is set,
There hangs a radiant coronet,
All gemm'd with pure and living light,
Too dazzling for a sinner's sight,
Prepar'd for virgin souls, and them
Who seek the martyr's diadem.
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,
Shall prove in Heaven a martyr's palm.
Above this earth—so rich a spell
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
....“that little coronet or special reward which God hath prepared (extraordinary and besides the great Crown of all faithful souls) for those ‘who have not defiled themselves with women, but follow the (virgin) Lamb for ever,’” Bp. Taylor, Holy Living, ch. xi. sect. 3.
Thursday before Easter.
“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 toward his darling west,
Mourning the ruin'd home he still must love the best.
To wing to Heaven but one strong prayer
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, thronèd high,
And compass'd with the world's too tempting blazonry.
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.
Should cluster round thine healthiest shoot!
God's herald prove a heartless thrall,
Who, if he dar'd, would fain be mute!
E'en 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.
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.
The loving and belovèd Seer,
What time he saw, through shadows dim,
The boundary of th' eternal year;
Nam'd to be heir of glory then .
Else had it bruis'd too sore his tender heart
To see God's ransom'd world in wrath and flame depart.
Thy course in Earth's bewildering ways,
For every glimpse thine eye can catch
Of what shall be in those dread days:
So when th' Archangel's word is spoken,
And Death's deep trance for ever broken,
In mercy thou mayst feel the heavenly hand,
And in thy lot unharm'd before thy Saviour stand .
Good Friday.
Isaiah liii. 3.
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?
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?
The bitter herbs of earth are set,
Till temper'd by the Saviour's prayer,
And with the Saviour's life-blood wet,
They turn to sweetness, and drop holy balm,
Soft as imprison'd martyr's death-bed calm.
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.
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 face from rude reproachful gaze,
His ears are open to abide
The wildest storm the tongue can raise,
He who with one rough word , some early day,
Their idol world and them shall sweep for aye away.
The festering sore by Fancy made,
Down in some lonely hermitage
Like wounded pilgrims safely laid,
Where gentlest breezes whisper souls distress'd,
That Love yet lives, and Patience shall find rest.
That evil spirit ever fram'd,
That sinners know what Jesus wrought,
Yet feel their haughty hearts untam'd—
That souls in refuge, holding by the Cross,
Should wince and fret at this world's little loss.
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 parchèd earth on April skies.
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.
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.
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.
Seen at Thy side in woe ,
Waits on Thy triumph—e'en as all the blest
With him and Thee shall rest.
Watching Thy patient smile,
Till we have learn'd to say, “'Tis justly done,
“Only in glory, Lord, Thy sinful servant own.”
To rest one little hour,
Till Thine elect are number'd, and the grave
Call Thee to come and save:
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.
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.
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.
With ghosts of blessings gone,
Think thou art taken from the cross, and laid
In Jesus' burial shade;
Take Moses' 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.
In hope of promis'd spring.
As in the pit his father's darling lay
Beside the desert way,
And knew not how, but knew his God would save
E'en from that living grave,
So, buried with our Lord, we'll close our eyes
To the decaying world, till Angels bid us rise.
They took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. Genesis xxxvii. 24.
Easter Day.
No “minstrel rapture” find for thee?
Thou art the Sun of other days,
They shine by giving back thy rays:
Thou shedd'st thy light on all the year;
Sundays by thee more glorious break,
An Easter Day in every week:
The fulness of thy blessing gain,
Till all, both resting and employ,
Be one Lord's day of holy joy.
And earlier light thine altar-fires:
The World some hours is on her way,
Nor thinks on thee, thou blessèd day:
The vernal light of Easter morn
To her dark gaze no brighter seems
Than Reason's or the Law's pale beams.
“Where is His hire? we know His tasks;
“Sons of a King ye boast to be;
“Let us your crowns and treasures see.”
(An angel brought them from the sky,)
“Our crown, our treasure, is not here,
“'Tis stor'd above the highest sphere:
“To seek on earth a Christian's bliss;
“We watch not now the lifeless stone;
“Our only Lord is ris'n and gone.”
For thoughts of Him who late lay here;
And the base world, now Christ hath died,
Ennobled is and glorified.
The relics of lost innocence,
A vault of ruin and decay;—
Th' imprisoning stone is roll'd away:
To come and go with heavenly news,
And in the ears of mourners say,
“Come, see the place where Jesus lay:”
Christ everywhere embalm'd and shrin'd;
Aye gathering up memorials sweet,
Where'er she sets her duteous feet.
When rous'd from weeping o'er His shroud,
By His own calm, soul-soothing tone,
Breathing her name, as still His own!
As their glad errand they pursued!
Happy, who so Christ's word convey,
That He may meet them on their way!
In lonely hours, Christ risen appears:
In social hours, who Christ would see,
Must turn all tasks to Charity.
Monday in Easter Week.
Just trickling from its mossy bed,
Streaking the heath-clad hill
With a bright emerald thread.
What rocks she shall o'erleap or rend,
How far in Ocean's swell
Her freshening billows send?
The bulwark of some mighty realm,
Bear navies to and fro
With monarchs at their helm.
Some sister nymph, beside her urn
Reclining night and day,
'Mid reeds and mountain fern,
When many a moor and glen are past,
Then in the wide sea end
Their spotless lives at last?
It springs in silence where it will,
Springs out of sight, and flows
At first a lonely rill:
From thousand sympathetic hearts,
Together swelling high
Their chant of many parts.
The good Cornelius knelt alone,
Nor dream'd his prayers and tears
Would help a world undone.
The lov'd Apostle to his Lord
In silent thought aloof
For heavenly vision soar'd.
His wistful brow was upward rais'd,
Where, like an angel's train,
The burnish'd water blaz'd.
The soldier in his chosen bower,
Where all his eye survey'd
Seem'd sacred in that hour.
Yet brethren true in dearest love
Were they—and now they share
Fraternal joys above.
They see the Gentile spirits press,
Brightening their high estate
With dearer happiness.
Shone ever with such deathless gleam,
Or when did perils brav'd
So sweet to veterans seem?
Tuesday in Easter Week.
Pride of the dewy glade,
In vernal green and virgin white,
Thy vestal robes, array'd:
Sinks graceful on its nest,
When chilly shades from gathering storm
Affright thy tender breast;
Beneath the willow spray,
Where, like the ringlets of a child,
Thou weav'st thy circle gay;
Thy shy averted smiles
To Fancy bode a joyous year,
One of Life's fairy isles.
And cheer th' ungenial day,
And tell us, all will glisten soon
As green and bright as they.
Their witness can refuse?
Yet mortals doubt, when angels bring
From Heaven their Easter news:
Of Christ's forsaken bed,
And voices, that forbid to seek
The living 'mid the dead,
“Thy Lord is ris'n indeed,
“Let Pleasure go, put Care apart,
“And to His presence speed;”
They early sought the tomb,
Their hearts, that now so freshly glow,
Lost in desponding gloom.
Wear not so bright a glance:
They, who have won their earthly mind
Less reverently advance.
And joy so duly meet,
These sure have seen the angels near,
And kiss'd the Saviour's feet.
Their faltering tale disdain,
As on their lowly couch they lie,
Prisoners of want and pain.
From Thee would start aloof,
Where Patience her sweet skill imparts
Beneath some cottage roof:
High as her anthems soar,
And of our scholars let us learn
Our own forgotten lore.
First Sunday after Easter.
If yet, invok'd 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!
Help me to lay my trembling hold,
Though stain'd with Christian gore;—
The blood of souls by Thee redeem'd,
But, while I rov'd or idly dream'd,
Lost to be found no more.
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.
A Hermit in a silent cell,
While, gaily sweeping by,
And marshall'd all his gallant train
In the world's wondering eye.
Thy whisper'd warnings, kind and soft,
My better soul confess'd.
“My servant, let the world alone—
“Safe on the steps of Jesus' throne
“Be tranquil and be blest.
“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?”
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?
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.
Bright flowers of Eden bloom and twine,
Our hearths are altars all;
The prayers of hungry souls and poor,
Like armèd angels at the door,
Our unseen foes appal.
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.
Fall not, like wither'd 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 churchway path.
Which he at distance eyed
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.
On lake and meadow lay,
And willow-shaded streams, that silent sweep
Around the banner'd lines,
Where by their several signs
The desert-wearied tribes in sight of Canaan sleep.
Upon his soul like flame,
Not of those magic fires at random caught:
Flash'd o'er him, high and bright,
Flash'd once, and died away, and left his darken'd thought.
Who feels his God so near,
That when he fain would curse, his powerless tongue
In blessing only moves?—
Alas! the world he loves
Too close around his heart her tangling veil hath flung.
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.
Why Autumn should be sad;
But vernal airs should sorrow heal,
Spring should be gay and glad:
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.
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.
In her self-torturing hour,
The travail pangs must have their way,
The aching brow must lower.
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.
A mother's prime of bliss,
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.
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.
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 cherish'd flower,
And wish it worthier on a Parent's heart to rest.
Fourth Sunday after Easter.
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!
“You lingering yet awhile below;”—
'Tis Thine own 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 track'd Thee up th' abyss of light.
But to their home in gladness turn,
Their home and God's, that favour'd 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:
They doubt not of their Master's rest,
Nor of the gracious will of Heaven—
Who gave His Son, sure all has given—
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 day of comfort dawns at last,
The everlasting gates again
Roll back, and lo! a royal train—
From the far depth of light once more
The floods of glory earthward pour:
They part like shower-drops in mid air,
But ne'er so soft fell noon-tide shower,
Nor ev'ning rainbow gleam'd so fair
To weary swains in parchèd bower.
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;
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.
They nurse the soul to heavenly love:
The struggling spark of good within,
Just smother'd 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.
Mount, but be sober on the wing;
Mount up, for Heaven is won by prayer,
Be sober, for thou art not there;
Till Death the weary spirit free,
Thy God hath said, 'Tis good for thee
To walk by faith and not by sight:
Take it on trust a little while;
Soon shalt thou read the mystery right
In the full sunshine of His smile.
Ask thine own heart, that willing slave
To all that works thee woe or harm:
Shouldst thou not need some mighty charm
To win thee to thy Saviour's side,
Though He had deign'd with thee to bide?
The Spirit must stir the darkling deep,
The Dove must settle on the Cross,
Else we should all sin on or sleep
With Christ in sight, turning our gain to loss.
Fifth Sunday after Easter.
ROGATION SUNDAY.
The Conqueror now
His bonds hath riven,
And Angels wonder why He stays below:
Yet hath not man his lesson learn'd,
How endless love should be return'd.
When a soft shower
Will trickle soon,
A gracious rain, freshening the weary bower—
O sweetly then far off is heard
The clear note of some lonely bird.
In doubt and fear
Through darkening skies,
And pierce, O Lord, Thy justly-sealèd ear,
Where on the house-top , all night long,
She trills her widow'd faltering song.
And evermore,
As faith grows rare,
Unlock her heart, and offer all its store
In holier love and humbler vows,
As suits a lost returning spouse.
Upon the mount
She now must lie,
Till Thy dear love to blot the sad account
Of her rebellious race be won,
Pitying the mother in the son.
By holiest things
Profan'd and curst),
Chiefly for Aaron's seed she spreads her wings,
If but one leaf she may from Thee
Win of the reconciling tree.
Or who may guide
O'er desert plains
Thy lov'd yet sinful people wandering wide,
If Aaron's hand unshrinking mould
An idol form of earthly gold?
Her boding sigh,
As, while men sleep,
Sad-hearted mothers heave, that wakeful lie,
Roaming in youth's uncertain wild.
Is fain to dwell—
What lurid light
Shall the last darkness of the world dispel,
The Mediator in His wrath
Descending down the lightning's path.
In act to break
Thine outrag'd laws,
O spare Thy rebels for Thine own dear sake;
Withdraw Thine hand, nor dash to earth
The covenant of our second birth.
Yet for love's sake
Let it not fall;
But at Thy touch let veilèd hearts awake,
That nearest to Thine altar lie,
Yet least of holy things descry.
The sweet strong prayer
Must rise, to free
First Levi, then all Israel, from the snare.
Thou art our Moses out of sight—
Speak for us, or we perish quite.
I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first. Deuteronomy ix. 25.
Ascension Day.
Chants her glad matins in the leafy arch,
Draw'st thy bright veil across the heavenly way,
Meet pavement for an angel's glorious march:
That it should soar and glide with thee so fast,
The while my grovelling thoughts half buried lie,
Or lawless roam around this earthly waste.
I will arise, and in the strength of love
Pursue the bright track ere it fade away,
My Saviour's pathway to His home above.
Melts into nothing from th' uncumber'd sight,
Heaven will o'ercome th' attraction of my birth,
And I shall sink in yonder sea of light:
Once bleeding, now triumphant for my sake,
I mark Him, how by seraph hosts ador'd,
He to earth's lowest cares is still awake.
All space, beyond the soar of angel wings,
Wait on His word: and yet He stays His car
For every sigh a contrite suppliant brings.
For all the anthems of the boundless sky—
And shall our dreams of music bar our ear
To His soul-piercing voice for ever nigh?
Our thoughts have trac'd Thee to Thy glory-throne,
So help us evermore with Thee to bow
Where human sorrow breathes her lowly moan.
Though on unfolding Heaven our gaze we bend,
Where lost behind the bright angelic throng
We see Christ's entering triumph slow ascend.
Faster than now it fades, that gleam revive,
When issuing from his cloud of fiery gold
Our wasted frames feel the true sun, and live.
For ever fix'd in no unfruitful gaze,
But such as lifts the new-ereated heart,
Age after age, in worthier love and praise.
Sunday after Ascension.
Makes for the down a kindly nest,
Where wafted by the warm south-west
It floats at pleasure,
Yields, thankful, of her very best,
To nurse her treasure:
She renders for each scatter'd seed,
And to her Lord with duteous heed
Gives large increase:
Thus year by year she works unfeed,
And will not cease.
Where Thou hast set celestial flowers,
And water'd with more balmy showers
Than e'er distill'd
In Eden, on th' ambrosial bowers—
Yet nought we yield.
Largely Thy gifts should be restor'd;
Is, “Freely give .”
He only, who forgets to hoard,
Has learn'd to live.
Thine equal rays are resting found,
Yet varying so on various ground
They pierce and strike,
That not two roseate cups are crown'd
With dew alike:
Steals on soft-handed Charity,
Tempering her gifts, that seem so free,
By time and place,
Till not a woe the bleak world see,
But finds her grace:
Feet, and to sinners wholesome blame,
To starving bodies food and flame,
By turns she brings;
To humbled souls, that sink for shame,
Lends heaven-ward wings:
And shews Love's treasure yet unspent;
As when th' unclouded heavens were rent
Opening His road,
Nor yet His Holy Spirit sent
To our abode.
Were wondering (so th' Almighty bade)
Whom Love enthron'd would send, in aid
Of souls that mourn,
Left orphans in Earth's dreary shade
As soon as born.
May rise on high, and holy songs,
Such incense as of right belongs
To the true shrine,
Where stands the Healer of all wrongs
In light divine;
He offers hearts from every land,
Tied to His own by gentlest band
Of silent Love:
About Him wingèd blessings stand
In act to move.
From Heaven to Earth, attendants meet
On the life-giving Paraclete
Speeding His flight,
With all that sacred is and sweet,
On saints to light.
Shall feel the shower of Mercy fall,
And starting at th' Almighty's call,
Give what He gave,
Till their high deeds the world appal,
And sinners save.
Whitsunday.
In power and wrath He came;
Before His feet the clouds were riven,
Half darkness and half flame:
The prostrate people lay;
A day of wrath, and not of grace;
A dim and dreadful day.
He came in power and love,
Softer than gale at morning prime,
Hover'd His holy Dove.
In sudden torrents dread,
Now gently light, a glorious crown,
On every sainted head.
Wing'd with the sinner's doom,
But these, like tongues, o'er all the earth
Proclaiming life to come:
The voice exceeding loud,
The trump, that angels quake to hear,
Thrill'd from the deep, dark cloud;
Came down His flock to find,
A voice from Heaven was heard abroad,
A rushing, mighty wind.
At that high warning start;
Conscience gives back th' appalling tone;
'Tis echoed in the heart.
The sinful world around;
Only in stubborn hearts and wills
No place for it is found.
A giddy whirl of sin
Fills ear and brain, and will not let
Heaven's harmonies come in.
Open our ears to hear;
Let us not miss th' accepted hour;
Save, Lord, by Love or Fear.
Monday in Whitsun-week.
Light be the hand of Ruin laid
Upon the home I love:
With lulling spell let soft Decay
Steal on, and spare the giant sway,
The crash of tower and grove.
In their own quiet glade should sleep
The relics dear to thought,
And wild-flower wreaths from side to side
Their waving tracery hang, to hide
What ruthless Time has wrought.
That o'er the wistful fancy fleet
In Asia's sea-like plain,
Where slowly, round his isles of sand,
Euphrates through the lonely land
Winds toward the pearly main.
There her forlorn and weary nest
The wild dog howls at fall of night,
The serpent's rustling coils affright
The traveller on his round.
Half seen against the evening sky,
Seems like a ghost to glide,
And watch, from Babel's crumbling heap,
Where in her shadow, fast asleep,
Lies fall'n imperial Pride?
Is basking in his noontide lair,
Or prowls in twilight gloom.
The golden city's king he seems,
Such as in old prophetic dreams
Sprang from rough ocean's womb.
That shelter'd erst a thousand kings,
Hiding the glorious sky
From half the nations, till they own
No holier name, no mightier throne?
That vision is gone by.
The breath of heaven has blown away
What toiling earth had pil'd,
Scattering wise heart and crafty hand,
As breezes strew on ocean's sand
The fabrics of a child.
Thy rebels, Lord, their warfare wage,
And hoarse and jarring all
Mount up their heaven-assailing cries
To Thy bright watchmen in the skies
From Babel's shatter'd wall.
The nations on that haughty height
Have met to scale the Heaven:
Thrice only might a seraph's look
A moment's shade of sadness brook—
Such power to guilt was given.
Are perish'd as they ne'er had been,
Oblivion is their home:
Ambition's boldest dream and last
Must melt before the clarion blast
That sounds the dirge of Rome.
Withdraw the proud high-reaching arm,
That ne'er on brow of mortal birth
Shall blend again the crowns of earth,
Nor in according cry
One tyrant Lord, one idol throne:
But to His triumph soon
He shall descend, who rules above,
And the pure language of His love
All tongues of men shall tune.
When Babel's very ruins burn,
Her high desires may breathe;—
O'ercome thyself, and thou mayst share
With Christ His Father's throne , and wear
The world's imperial wreath.
See Sir R. K. Porter's Travels, ii. 387. “In my second visit to Birs Nimrood, my party suddenly halted, having descried several dark objects moving along the summit of its hill, which they construed into dismounted Arabs on the look out: I took out my glass to examine, and soon distinguished that the causes of our alarm were two or three majestic lions, taking the air upon the heights of the pyramid.”
Then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent. Zephaniah iii. 9.
Tuesday in Whitsun-week.
“I read, I teach, I warn, I pray,
“And yet these wilful wandering sheep
“Within Thy fold I cannot keep.
“Alas! the weary course I run!
“Like sailors shipwreck'd in their dreams,
“All powerless and benighted seems.”
Scar'd with this smooth unbloody strife?
Think where thy coward hopes had flown
Had Heaven held out the martyr's crown.
To whom a weary hour is loss?
Or how the thorns and scourging brook,
Who shrinkest from a scornful look?
Hear thine own King, the King of Saints;
Though thou wert toiling in the grave,
'Tis He can cheer Thee, He can save.
Where Angels view the Father's light,
And yet in Him the simplest swain
May read his homely lesson plain.
And claim His high celestial birth,
Alone with His true Father found
Within the temple's solemn round:—
For many a year at Mary's side,
Nor heed, though restless spirits ask,
“What? hath the Christ forgot His task?”—
To bow before an heir of sin,
With folded arms on humble breast,
By His own servant wash'd and blest:—
Hovering His gracious brow above,
To shun the voice and eye of praise,
And in the wild His trophies raise:—
Back to His task of woe and tears,
Unmurmuring through the world to roam
With not a wish or thought at home:—
Till ripen'd for the cross and grave,
He to His Father gently yield
The breath that our redemption seal'd:—
Yet not at once to seek the skies,
But glide awhile from saint to saint,
Lest on our lonely way we faint;
How bright, in Heaven, the marks will glow
Of the true cross, imprinted deep
Both on the Shepherd and the sheep:—
Thy chosen people still to bear,
And from behind Thy glorious veil,
Shed light that cannot change or fail:—
Till we be sav'd, and Thou ador'd;—
Thy course and ours—but who are they
Who follow on the narrow way?
The Church's solemn chant we hear,
As from Thy cradle to Thy throne
She swells her high heart-cheering tone.
Whom in her list she now enrolls,
And gird ye for your high emprize
By these her thrilling minstrelsies.
Ye lift, for Him, the red-cross shield,
Be this your song, your joy and pride—
“Our Champion went before and died.”
Trinity Sunday.
Now on Thy mercy's ocean wide
Far out of sight we seem to glide.
To search the deepening mystery,
The wonders of Thy sea and sky.
To praise Thee with a worthier song,
And yet our silence does Thee wrong.—
The sacred weeks, with unfelt pace,
Have borne us on from grace to grace.
When wintry suns are gleaming bright,
Lose in arch'd glades their tangled sight;—
Through her grey veil the leafless grove
Shews where the distant shadows rove;—
As nearer to Thy shrine she draws:—
And now before the choir we pause.
Around the awful arches sweep
Such airs as soothe a hermit's sleep.
Cornice and gallery seem to send
Tones that with seraph hymns might blend.
In harmony's mysterious line;
Three solemn aisles approach the shrine:
In thoughts that awe but not appal,
Teach the adoring heart to fall.
Is gently lur'd to one safe nest—
Without, 'tis moaning and unrest.
Is hurrying by, nor ever stays
To catch a note of Thy dear praise.
That o'er her with no vain appeal
One gust of heavenly song might steal?
Unheeded breathe to summer showers,
Unheard the music of Thy bowers.
The selfish spirit may o'ercome
That will not hear of love or home?
How can it rise in filial prayer?
How an all-seeing Guardian bear?
A Brother on th' eternal throne,
Their Father's joy, their hope alone?
The sullen brow of gloom beguile,
That frowns on sweet Affection's smile?
(Since Thou art ours, and we are Thine,)
By all Thy love did once resign,
We pray Thee, keep us at Thy side,
Creator, Saviour, strengthening Guide!
First Sunday after Trinity.
The promise of our God, our fancy's theme?
Here over shatter'd walls dank weeds are growing,
And blood and fire have run in mingled stream;
Like oaks and cedars all around
The giant corses strew the ground,
And haughty Jericho's cloud-piercing wall
Lies where it sank at Joshua's trumpet call.
For moonlight rovings in the fragrant glades,
Soft slumbers in the open eye of Heaven,
And all the listless joy of summer shades.
We in the midst of ruins live,
Which every hour dread warning give,
Nor may our household vine or fig-tree hide
The broken arches of old Canaan's pride.
The deep calm sky, the sunshine of the soul,
Now Heaven and earth are to our bliss consenting,
And all the Godhead joins to make us whole?
The triple crown of mercy now
Is ready for the suppliant's brow,
By the Almighty Three for ever plann'd,
And from behind the cloud held out by Jesus' hand.
“Is open—win your way, and take your rest.”
So sounds our war-note; but our path of glory
By many a cloud is darken'd and unblest:
And daily as we downward glide,
Life's ebbing stream on either side
Shews at each turn some mould'ring hope or joy,
The Man seems following still the funeral of the Boy.
That we may see that glorious world of Thine!
It shines for us in vain, while drooping sadness
Enfolds us here like mist: come Power benign,
Touch our chill'd hearts with vernal smile,
Our wintry course do Thou beguile,
Nor by the wayside ruins let us mourn,
Who have th' eternal towers for our appointed bourne.
Second Sunday after Trinity.
When Autumn's softest gleams are ending,
Where all bright hues together run
In sweet confusion blending:—
Why, as we watch their floating wreath,
Seem they the breath of life to breathe?
To Fancy's eye their motions prove
They mantle round the Sun for love.
The many-twinkling smile of ocean,
Or with pleas'd ear bewilder'd watch
His chime of restless motion;
Still as the surging waves retire
They seem to gasp with strong desire,
Such signs of love old Ocean gives,
We cannot choose but think he lives.
Nor human wisdom nor divine
Helps thee by aught beside to learn;
Love is life's only sign.
The spring of the regenerate heart,
The pulse, the glow of every part,
Is the true love of Christ our Lord,
As man embrac'd, as God ador'd.
The full bright burst of summer morn,
Loves too each little dewy spark
By leaf or flow'ret worn:
Cheap forms, and common hues, 'tis true,
Through the bright shower-drop meet his view;
The colouring may be of this earth;
The lustre comes of heavenly birth.
No soul of man can worthless find;
All will be precious in his sight,
Since Christ on all hath shin'd:
But chiefly Christian souls; for they,
Though worn and soil'd with sinful clay,
Are yet, to eyes that see them true,
All glistening with baptismal dew.
In purest light of innocence,
Hope against hope, in love's dear task,
Spite of all dark offence.
Yet, when all other love is lost,
Love the poor sinner, marvel not;
Christ's mark outwears the rankest blot.
Brothers are brothers evermore;
Nor wrong, nor wrath of deadliest mood,
That magic may o'erpower;
Oft, ere the common source be known,
The kindred drops will claim their own,
And throbbing pulses silently
Move heart towards heart by sympathy.
Their mutual share in Jesus' blood
An everlasting bond imparts
Of holiest brotherhood:
Oh! might we all our lineage prove,
Give and forgive, do good and love,
By soft endearments in kind strife
Lightening the load of daily life!
Are we in shelter or repose,
The holy house is still beset
With leaguer of stern foes;
Wild thoughts within, bad men without,
All evil spirits round about,
Are banded in unblest device,
To spoil Love's earthly paradise.
Each to his brethren, all to God;
Let the world take us as she may,
We must not change our road;
Not wondering, though in grief, to find
The martyr's foe still keep her mind;
But fix'd to hold Love's banner fast,
And by submission win at last.
Third Sunday after Trinity.
To make stern Memory tell her tale unsought,
And raise accusing shades of hours gone by,
To come between us and all kindly thought!
Flies from the heart and home she dearest loves
To where lone mountains tower, or billows roll,
Or to your endless depth, ye solemn groves.
Is conscious of a gaze it cannot bear,
The leaves that rustle near us seem to tell
Our heart's sad secret to the silent air.
The heavens are watching with their thousand eyes,
We cannot pass our guardian angel's bound,
Resign'd or sullen, he will hear our sighs.
Is near, and mourns to see our thankless glance
Dwell coldly, where the fresh green earth is strew'd
With the first flowers that lead the vernal dance.
Unseen by man—but what if purer sprights
By moonlight o'er their dewy bosoms lean
T' adore the Father of all gentle lights?
That sight of thee should overcloud their joy,
A new-born soul, just waiting on the brink
Of endless life, yet wrapt in earth's annoy!
In bitter thoughts of low-born care begun,
Let it flow on, but flow refin'd and clear,
The turbid waters brightening as they run.
In penitential drops have ebb'd away,
Then fearless turn where Heaven hath set thy part,
Nor shudder at the Eye that saw thee stray.
Their dearest welcome shall prepare, and prove
Such joy o'er thee, as raptur'd seraphs know,
Who learn their lesson at the Throne of Love.
Fourth Sunday after Trinity.
An idle vaunt of song,
Such as beneath the moon's soft gleam
On vacant fancies throng;
In all fair things around,
Strong yearnings for a blest new birth
With sinless glories crown'd;
From care and want and toil,
When dewy eve her curtain draws
Over the day's turmoil,
In the deep weltering flood,
In whispering leaves, these solemn words—
“God made us all for good.”
Creation's wondrous choir,
Open'd in mystic unison
To last till time expire.
With one consenting voice,
All hymn Thy glory, Lord, aright,
All worship and rejoice.
O'erpowering with “harsh din”
The music of Thy works and word,
Ill match'd with grief and sin.
And through the live-long day
Deafens the ear that fain would wake
To nature's simple lay.
Along the eastern sky,
And one by one to earth reveals
Those purer fires on high,
Dies on the awful ear,
Then Nature's voice no more is drown'd,
She speaks, and we must hear.
That warning still and deep,
At which high spirits of old would start
E'en from their Pagan sleep,
Few, faint, and baffling sight,
Streaks of a brighter heaven behind,
A cloudless depth of light.
Through many a dreary age,
Upbore whate'er of good and wise
Yet liv'd in bard or sage:
Shook the great mother's womb;
But Reason's spells might not disclose
The gracious birth to come;
God's secret love and power;
The travail pangs of Earth must last
Till her appointed hour;
Redeeming glory stream,
Beyond the summer hues of even,
Beyond the mid-day beam.
The meanest things below,
As with a seraph's robe of fire
Invested, burn and glow:
The word from Heaven is spoken;
“Rise, shine, and sing, thou captive thrall:
“Are not thy fetters broken?
“Pronouncing thee all good—
“Hath He not all thy wrongs redrest,
“And all thy bliss renew'd?
“Now that th' eternal Son
“His blessèd home in Heaven hath left
“To make thee all His own?”
In Christ's new heaven and earth;
Because our rebel works and will
Stain our immortal birth:
The Saviour hides His face,
And worldlings blot the temple's gold
With uses vile and base.
Hence, till thy God return,
In Wisdom's ear thy blithest strains,
Oh Nature, seem to mourn.
Fifth Sunday after Trinity.
“But at Thy gracious word
“I will let down the net again:—
“Do Thou Thy will, O Lord!”
With bootless darkling toil,
Yet on his Master's bidding bent
For love and not for spoil.
In sad and weary thought,
They muse, whom God hath set to seek
The souls His Christ hath bought.
Our pleasant task we ply,
Where all along our glistening wake
The softest moonbeams lie;
Our midnight chant attend,
Or whispering palm-leaves from the shore
With midnight silence blend.
Too soon some ruder sound
Calls us from where ye soar so fast
Back to our earthly round.
No anchor but the Cross
Might hold: and oft the thankless deep
Turns all our toil to loss.
We watch our nets alone
In drenching spray, and driving shower,
And hear the night-bird's moan:
Sad dawn of cheerless day!
Who then from pining and despair
The sickening heart can stay?
Our Master is at hand,
To cheer our solitary song,
And guide us to the strand,
Our bark at sea must ride:
Cast after cast, by force or guile
All waters must be tried:
As when He deign'd to teach
(The lode-star of our Christian course)
Upon this sacred beach.
Triumph by our weak arm,
Let not our sinful fancy trace
Aught human in the charm:
Lest on the eternal shore
The angels, while our draught they own ,
Reject us evermore:
Toil, prayer, and watching fail,
In disappointment Thou canst bless,
So love at heart prevail.
Sixth Sunday after Trinity.
With sinners wake at morn,
When from our restless couch we start,
With fever'd lips and wither'd heart,
Where is the spell to charm those mists away,
And make new morning in that darksome day?
One draught of spring's delicious air,
One stedfast thought, that God is there.
Thou Lord of time and thought,
Lifting and lowering souls at will,
Crowding a world of good or ill
Into a moment's vision; e'en as light
Mounts o'er a cloudy ridge, and all is bright,
From west to east one thrilling ray
Turning a wintry world to May.
Lo! here an open page,
Written in balm, sad heart, for thee.
Never so fast, in silent April shower,
Flush'd into green the dry and leafless bower ,
As Israel's crownèd mourner felt
The dull hard stone within him melt.
And hasten'd with relief;—
“The Lord forgives; thou shalt not die:”—
'Twas gently spoke, yet heard on high,
And all the band of angels, us'd to sing
In heaven, accordant to his raptur'd string,
Who many a month had turn'd away
With veilèd eyes, nor own'd his lay,
To the glad mournful sound,
And welcome, with bright open face,
The broken heart to love's embrace.
The rock is smitten, and to future years
Springs ever fresh the tide of holy tears
And holy music, whispering peace
Till time and sin together cease.
With that free Spirit blest ,
The princely heart of innocence,
If ever, floating from faint earthly lyre,
Was wafted to your soul one high desire,
By all the trembling hope ye feel,
Think on the minstrel as ye kneel:
When tears shall have no power,
Should his own lay th' accuser prove,
Cold while he kindled others' love:
And let your prayer for charity arise,
That his own heart may hear his melodies,
And a true voice to him may cry,
“Thy God forgives—thou shalt not die.”
Psalm li. 12. “Uphold me with Thy free Spirit.” The original word seems to mean “ingenuous, princely, noble.” Read Bishop Horne's Paraphrase on the verse.
Seventh Sunday after Trinity.
Heaven has in store a precious dole
Here on Bethsaida's cold and darksome height,
Where over rocks and sands arise
Proud Sirion in the northern skies,
And Tabor's lonely peak, 'twixt thee and noon-day light.
Spreads many a mile of liquid plain,
(Though all seem gather'd in one eager bound,)
Then narrowing cleaves yon palmy lea,
Towards that deep sulphureous sea,
Where five proud cities lie, by one dire sentence drown'd.
Thou need'st not in thy gloom depart,
Nor fainting turn to seek thy distant home:
Sweetly thy sickening throbs are ey'd
By the kind Saviour at thy side;
For healing and for balm e'en now thine hour is come.
No cates ambrosial are supplied,
But one poor fisher's rude and scanty store
Is all He asks (and more than needs)
Who men and angels daily feeds,
And stills the wailing sea-bird on the hungry shore.
And over all that upland lone
The breeze of eve sweeps wildly as of old—
But far unlike the former dreams,
The heart's sweet moonlight softly gleams
Upon life's varied view, so joyless erst and cold.
When heaven by fits is dark and bright,
Pause listening on the silent heath, and hear
Nor trampling hoof nor tinkling bell,
Then bolder scale the rugged fell,
Conscious the more of One, ne'er seen, yet ever near:
On the lorn ear, die quite away,
The lonely world seems lifted nearer heaven;
Seen daily, yet unmark'd before,
Earth's common paths are strewn all o'er
With flowers of pensive hope, the wreath of man forgiven.
No more on listless ears expire,
The primrose in her vernal nest,
Nor unlamented sink to rest
Sweet roses one by one, nor autumn leaves decay.
There's not a cottage hearth below,
But feeds with solace kind the willing soul—
Men love us, or they need our love;
Freely they own, or heedless prove
The curse of lawless hearts, the joy of self-control.
Nor by the wayside lingering weep,
Nor fear to seek Him farther in the wild,
Whose love can turn earth's worst and least
Into a conqueror's royal feast:
Thou wilt not be untrue, thou shalt not be beguil'd.
Eighth Sunday after Trinity.
With thee the words of wrath divine,
The scourge of Heaven to shake
O'er yon apostate shrine.
Came hovering to our sainted sires,
Now, in the twilight, glare
The heathen's wizard fires.
Scatter the ashes, be the arm,
That idols would befriend,
Shrunk at thy withering charm.
But trace not o'er the former way,
Lest idol pleasures court
Thy heedless soul astray.
Where on the lonely woodland road
Beneath the moonlight sky
The festal warblings flow'd;
Wove the gay dance round oak or palm,
Or breath'd their vows at even
In hymns as soft as balm.
Enthralls: the smooth stones of the flood ,
By mountain grot or fell,
Pollute with infant's blood;
The cavern whence the timbrel's call
Affrights the wandering flock:—
Thou long'st to search them all.
O forward step and lingering will!
O lov'd and warn'd in vain!
And wilt thou perish still?
To the forbidden feast return?
Yield to the false delight
Thy better soul could spurn?
In sorrow kneeling, and in fear,
We read the Pastor's doom
Who speaks and will not hear.
The surest guide a wanderer prove;
Death only binds us fast
To the bright shore of love.
Ninth Sunday after Trinity.
While sadly round them Israel's children look,
And their eyes fail for waiting on their Lord:
While underneath each awful arch of green,
On every mountain-top, God's chosen scene
Of pure heart-worship, Baal is ador'd:
To holy ground, in quiet to aspire
Towards promis'd regions of serener grace;
On Horeb, with Elijah, let us lie,
Where all around on mountain, sand, and sky,
God's chariot-wheels have left distinctest trace:
We to the sinner's God of sin complain,
Untimely seeking here the peace of Heaven—
“It is enough, O Lord! now let me die
“E'en as my fathers did: for what am I
“That I should stand, where they have vainly “striven?”—
“What doest thou here, frail wanderer from thy task?
“Where hast thou left those few sheep in the “wild ?”
Then should we plead our heart's consuming pain,
At sight of ruin'd altars, prophets slain,
And God's own ark with blood of souls defil'd;
The outskirts of His march of mystery,
His endless warfare with man's wilful heart;
First, His great Power He to the sinner shows,
Lo! at His angry blast the rocks unclose,
And to their base the trembling mountains part:
He will be known—but darker tempests lower;
Still, sullen heavings vex the labouring ground:
Perhaps His presence thro' all depth and height,
Best of all gems, that deck His crown of light,
The haughty eye may dazzle and confound.
From Sinai's caves are bursting, as of old,
The flames of His consuming jealous ire.
Woe to the sinner, should stern Justice prove
His chosen attribute; but He in love
Hastes to proclaim, “God is not in the fire.”
Steals on the ear, to say, Jehovah's choice
By soft, meek, tender ways He loves to draw
The sinner, startled by His ways of awe:
Here is our Lord, and not where thunders roll.
Nor deem thyself upon a desert shore,
Because the rocks the nearer prospect close.
Yet in fallen Israel are there hearts and eyes
That day by day in prayer like thine arise:
Thou know'st them not, but their Creator knows.
Thy bread upon the waters, sure at last
In joy to find it after many days.
The work be thine, the fruit thy children's part:
Choose to believe, not see: sight tempts the heart
From sober walking in true Gospel ways.
Tenth Sunday after Trinity.
At sight of Sion's bowers?
Shews it not fair from yonder steep,
Her gorgeous crown of towers?
Mark well His holy pains:
'Tis not in pride or scorn,
That Israel's King with sorrow stains
His own triumphal morn.
Is wandering sadly on,
In thought how soon at death's dark goal
Their course will all be run,
Who now are shouting round
Hosanna to their chief;
No thought like this in Him is found,
This were a Conqueror's grief .
Already in His heart,
The pain, the shame, the scorn, the loss?
Feel e'en His God depart?
The grief that then shall be—
The grief that Angels cannot tell—
Our God in agony.
Such might be martyr's tears,
When his last lingering look he turns
On human hopes and fears;
But hero ne'er or saint
The secret load might know,
With which His spirit waxeth faint;
His is a Saviour's woe.
“At least in this thy day,
“The message of thy peace! but now
“'Tis pass'd for aye away:
“Now foes shall trench thee round,
“And lay thee even with earth,
“And dash thy children to the ground,
“Thy glory and thy mirth.”
Over His people's sin,
Because we will not let Him keep
The souls He died to win?
Ye hearts that love the Lord,
If at this sight ye burn,
See that in thought, in deed, in word,
Ye hate what made Him mourn.
Eleventh Sunday after Trinity.
Add house to house, and field to field,
When round our walls the battle lowers,
When mines are hid beneath our towers,
And watchful foes are stealing round
To search and spoil the holy ground?
Of love and home by mazy streams,
For Fancy with her shadowy toys,
Aërial hopes and pensive joys,
While souls are wandering far and wide,
And curses swarm on every side?
To act the martyr's sternest part,
To watch, with firm unshrinking eye,
Thy darling visions as they die,
Till all bright hopes, and hues of day,
Have faded into twilight gray.
And if the world seem dull and dry,
If long and sad thy lonely hours,
And winds have rent thy sheltering bowers,
Bethink thee what thou art and where,
A sinner in a life of care.
(Thou know'st it) on this earthly ball;
Full many a soul, the price of blood,
Mark'd by th' Almighty's hand for good,
To utter death that hour shall sweep—
And will the Saints in Heaven dare weep?
The trees He set, for lack of fruit,
And drown in rude tempestuous blaze
The towers His hand had deign'd to raise;
In silence, ere that storm begin,
Count o'er His mercies and thy sin.
From visions vain content to part,
Strong for Love's sake its woe to hide
May cheerful wait the Cross beside,
Too happy if, that dreadful day,
Thy life be given thee for a prey .
Safe in the bosom of thy God,
How wilt thou then look back, and smile
On thoughts that bitterest seem'd erewhile,
And bless the pangs that made thee see
This was no world of rest for thee!
The Lord saith thus; Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land. And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest, Jeremiah xlv. 4, 5.
Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.
Was fain to look to Heaven and sigh:
And shall the heirs of sinful blood
Seek joy unmix'd in charity?
God will not let Love's work impart
Full solace, lest it steal the heart;
Be thou content in tears to sow,
Blessing, like Jesus, in thy woe:
What saw my gracious Saviour there,
With fear and anguish to divide
The joy of Heaven-accepted prayer?
So o'er the bed where Lazarus slept
He to His Father groan'd and wept:
What saw He mournful in that grave,
Knowing Himself so strong to save?
Over His sinking spirit sweep;—
“What boots it gathering one lost leaf
“Out of yon sere and wither'd heap,
“All that earth owns or sin destroys,
“Under the spurning hoof are cast,
“Or tossing in th' autumnal blast?”
The fetter'd tongue its chain may break;
But the deaf heart, the dumb by choice,
The laggard soul, that will not wake,
The guilt that scorns to be forgiven;—
These baffle e'en the spells of Heaven;
In thought of these, His brows benign
Not e'en in healing cloudless shine.
To gaze all down that drear abyss,
Because none ever saw so clear
The shore beyond of endless bliss:
The giddy waves so restless hurl'd,
The vex'd pulse of this feverish world,
He views and counts with steady sight,
Us'd to behold the Infinite.
He hath a fount of strength within,
Sure His meek heart would break and die,
O'erburthen'd by His brethren's sin;
Weak eyes on darkness dare not gaze,
It dazzles like the noon-day blaze;
But He who sees God's face may brook
On the true face of Sin to look.
When in their last, their hopeless day,
Sin, as it is, shall meet their view,
God turn His face for aye away?
Lord, by Thy sad and earnest eye,
When Thou didst look to Heaven and sigh;
Thy voice, that with a word could chase
The dumb, deaf spirit from his place;
Our tongues to speak Thy praises plain,
Quell Thou each thankless godless thought
That would make fast our bonds again.
From worldly strife, from mirth unblest,
Drowning Thy music in the breast,
From foul reproach, from thrilling fears,
Preserve, good Lord, Thy servants' ears.
And haunt our hearts when we would pray,
From Pride's false chime, and jarring wrong,
Seal Thou my lips, and guard the way:
For Thou hast sworn, that every ear,
Willing or loth, Thy trump shall hear,
And every tongue unchainèd be,
To own no hope, no God, but Thee.
Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Full forty nights and forty days
The Prophet watch'd for one dear glance
Of Thee and of Thy ways:
Wrapt in a still, dark, solid cloud,
The curtain of the Holy One
Drawn round him like a shroud:
Might duly take and strongly keep
The print of Heaven, to be express'd
Ere long on Sion's steep .
Of things divine the shadows bright,
The pageant of God's perfect law;
Yet felt not full delight.
From veil to veil the vision led,
And ended, where unearthly rays
From o'er the ark were shed.
Of human or angelic frame,
Could half appease his craving thought;
The void was still the same.
“'Tis Thee,” he cries, “not Thine, I seek .”—
Nay, start not at so bold a word
From man, frail worm and weak:
Yet buoys him up, and high above
The holiest creature, dares aspire
To the Creator's love.
Caught by earth's shadows as they fleet;
But for the soul no help is found,
Save Him who made it, meet.
Who blindly self or sense adore;
Else wherefore leaving your own bliss
Still restless ask ye more?
When highest rapt and favour'd most,
Still seeking precious things untold,
Not in fruition lost.
The proudest hope of kings dare claim:
Sion was theirs; and at their call
Fire from Jehovah came.
In their own land, earth's pride and grace;
And seers would mourn on Sion's hill
Their Lord's averted face.
E'en of their own prophetic thought,
When of Christ crucified and crown'd
His Spirit in them taught:
Which sought behind the veil to see,
For not without us fully bless'd
Or perfect might they be.
No sinner's eye might then receive;
Only the meekest man found grace
To see His skirts and live.
The glory of His countenance,
Not in a whirlwind hurrying by
The too presumptuous glance,
From our dear Saviour's face benign
Bent on us with transforming power,
Till we, too, faintly shine.
Safely before our God we stand,
As on the rock the Prophet stood,
Beneath His shadowing hand.—
And yet this tree of life hath prov'd
To many a soul a poison tree,
Beheld, and not belov'd.
(Oh! thought to comfort and appal)
It needs must bring, if us'd amiss,
An angel's hopeless fall.
See that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. Hebrews viii. 5.
Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Who would have thought our nature's stain
Was dyed so foul, so deep in grain?
E'en He who reads the heart,—
Knows what He gave and what we lost,
Sin's forfeit, and redemption's cost,—
By a short pang of wonder cross'd
Seems at the sight to start:
Our wavering spirits would reprove,
That heaven-ward seem so free to move
When earth can yield no more:
Then from afar on God we cry;
But should the mist of woe roll by,
Not showers across an April sky
Drift, when the storm is o'er,
Fleet from the heart, a worthless dew.
What sadder scene can angels view
Than self-deceiving tears,
Of earlier life, though pride or rage
The record of to-day engage,
A woe for future years?
Watch'd, noting down each prayer he made,
Were your unerring roll display'd,
His pride of health to' abase;
Or, when soft showers in season fall
Answering a famish'd nation's call,
Should unseen fingers on the wall
Our vows forgotten trace;
Yet shines the light as thrilling clear
From Heaven upon that scroll severe,
“Ten cleans'd and one remain!”
Nor surer would the blessing prove
Of humbled hearts, that own Thy love,
Should choral welcome from above
Visit our senses plain;
With healing first, with comfort now,
Turn'd upon him, who hastes to bow
Before Thee, heart and knee;
“Oh! thou, who only wouldst be blest,
“On thee alone My blessing rest!
“Rise, go thy way in peace, possess'd
“For evermore of Me.”
Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Bath'd in soft airs, and fed with dew,
What more than magic in you lies,
To fill the heart's fond view?
In childhood's sports, companions gay,
In sorrow, on Life's downward way,
How soothing! in our last decay
Memorials prompt and true.
As pure, as fragrant, and as fair,
As when ye crown'd the sunshine hours
Of happy wanderers there.
Fall'n all beside—the world of life,
How is it stain'd with fear and strife!
In Reason's world what storms are rife,
What passions range and glare!
Your first and perfect form ye show,
The same that won Eve's matron smile
In the world's opening glow.
Too high above our human thought;
Ye may be found if ye are sought,
And as we gaze, we know.
Our paths of sin, our homes of sorrow,
And guilty man, where'er he roams,
Your innocent mirth may borrow.
The birds of air before us fleet,
They cannot brook our shame to meet—
But we may taste your solace sweet
And come again to-morrow.
Nor may we scorn, too proudly wise,
Your silent lessons, undescried
By all but lowly eyes:
For ye could draw th' admiring gaze
Of Him who worlds and hearts surveys:
Your order wild, your fragrant maze,
He taught us how to prize.
As when He paus'd and own'd you good;
His blessing on earth's primal bower,
Ye felt it all renew'd.
What care ye now, if winter's storm
Sweep ruthless o'er each silken form?
Christ's blessing at your heart is warm,
Ye fear no vexing mood.
That daily court you and caress,
How few the happy secret find
Of your calm loveliness!
“Live for to-day! to-morrow's light
“To-morrow's cares shall bring to sight,
“Go sleep like closing flowers at night,
“And Heaven thy morn will bless.”
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Wish me a wise and thankful heart,
With God, in all my griefs, to stay,
Nor from His lov'd correction start.
His portion in our souls to prove,
What is it to the gift He gave,
The only Son of His dear love?
Will still be hovering o'er the tomb,
Where buried lie our vain delights,
Nor sweetly take a sinner's doom.
Our thoughts are tossing to and fro:
We change our posture o'er and o'er,
But cannot rest, nor cheat our woe.
Let Him strike home and bless the rod,
Never so safe as when our will
Yields undiscern'd by all but God?
That haunt and vex thee, heart and brain,
Look to the Cross, and thou shalt see
How thou mayst turn them all to gain.
Or ease? the Cross is bitter grief:
More pangs than tongue or heart can frame
Were suffer'd there without relief.
But cannot quit the cost—no throne
Is ours, to leave for Thy dear sake—
We cannot do as Thou hast done.
Yet guide us in Thy track of love:
Let us gaze on where light should be,
Though not a beam the clouds remove.
Look homeward through the evening sky,
Without a streak of heaven's soft blue
To aid Affection's dreaming eye.
And we will look and long for Thee,
And thank Thee for each trying hour,
Wishing, not struggling, to be free.
Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity.
Which day and night before thine altars rise;
Not statelier, towering o'er her marble stairs,
Flash'd Sion's gilded dome to summer skies,
Not holier, while around him angels bow'd,
From Aaron's censer steam'd the spicy cloud,
Wilt thou forgive thy son one boding sigh?
Forgive, if round thy towers he walk in fear,
And tell thy jewels o'er with jealous eye?
Mindful of that sad vision, which in thought
From Chebar's plains the captive prophet brought
And like a Queen new seated on her throne,
God's crownèd mountain, as in happier time,
Seem'd to rejoice in sunshine all her own:
So bright, while all in shade around her lay,
Her northern pinnacles had caught th' emerging ray.
Cross'd with as free a span the vault of heaven,
As when twelve tribes knelt silently aloof
Ere God His answer to their king had given ,
Ere yet upon the new-built altar fell
The glory of the Lord, the Lord of Israel.
What idol shapes are on the wall pourtray'd :
And watch their shameless and unholy glee,
Who worship there in Aaron's robes array'd:
Here Judah's maids the dirge to Thammuz pour ,
And mark her chiefs yon orient sun adore .
Thou must behold: thy loathing were but lost
On dead men's crimes, and Jews' idolatries—
Come, learn to tell aright thine own sins' cost,—
And sure their sin as far from equals thine,
As earthly hopes abus'd are less than hopes divine.
Have enter'd thee, as in some temple gate,
Where, looking round, each glance might thee afford
Some glorious earnest of thine high estate,
And thou, false heart and frail, hast turn'd from all
To worship pleasure's shadow on the wall?
Thou turn thy back upon that fountain clear,
To bow before the “little drop of light,”
Which dim-eyed men call praise and glory here;
Him at whose only word both sun and stars were born?
Thou hide thine eyes to make thy peevish moan
Over some broken reed of earth beneath,
Some darling of blind fancy dead and gone,
As wisely mightst thou in Jehovah's fane
Offer thy love and tears to Thammuz slain.
Of Him whose name is Jealous, lest in wrath
He hear and answer thine unblest desire:
Far better we should cross His lightning's path
Than be according to our idols heard,
And God should take us at our own vain word.
Thy Church and Shrine; whene'er our rebel will
Would in that chosen home of Thine instal
Belial or Mammon, grant us not the ill
We blindly ask; in very love refuse
Whate'er Thou know'st our weakness would abuse.
To pray for nought, to seek to none, but Thee,
Nor by “our daily bread” mean common food,
Nor say, “From this world's evil set us free;”
Teach us to love, with Christ, our sole true bliss,
Else, though in Christ's own words, we surely pray amiss.
Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity.
What view'st thou all around?
A desert, where iniquity
And knowledge both abound.
The Church is wandering still ,
Because we would not onward press
When close to Sion's hill.
And far along the wild,
With labour lost and sorrow earn'd,
Our steps have been beguil'd.
The shadowing pillar stays,
The living waters brightly smile,
Th' eternal turrets blaze.
To be our daily food,
And fresh, as when it first was shed,
Springs forth the Saviour's blood.
Believing myriads throng,
Till, far as sin and sorrow reach,
Thy grace is spread along;
Their votive incense bring,
And every voice and every heart
Own Thee their God and King.
Too like the recreant band
That with Thy patient Spirit strove
Upon the Red-sea strand.
Thou who hast sworn to stay
Pleading with sinners face to face
Through all their devious way;
Or how in silence lie?
Look on us, and we are abhorr'd,
Turn from us, and we die.
Still let them gild our wall,
Nor be our foes and Thine allow'd
To see us faint and fall.
Rebellious murmurs rise;
Sin cannot bear to see Thee shine
So awful to her eyes.
And with the heathen be,
To worship every monstrous shape
In fancied darkness free.
Refuse we or obey,
Our ears have heard th' Almighty's call,
We cannot be as they.
To whom God's Son is given,
Whose eyes have seen beyond the tomb,
Who have the key of Heaven.
Yet shrinking from true bliss,
Our rest must be “no rest below,”
And let our prayer be this:
“Till every idol throne
“Crumble to dust, and Thou, O God,
“Reign in our hearts alone.
“For Thou hast every spell,
“And 'mid the heathen where they roam,
“Thou knowest, Lord, too well.
“Thou know'st us fond and frail;—
“Win us to be belov'd and spar'd
“When all the world shall fail.
“Are well-nigh wasted here,
“And we can trace Thy wondrous ways
“In distance calm and clear,
“We read our story true,
“We may not, all too late, begin
“To wish our hopes were new:
“Unlike in this alone,
“That, by Thy grace, our hearts shall stay
“For evermore Thine own.”
That which cometh into your minds shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone. Ezekiel xx. 32.
Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Wraps the unshrinking Martyr's head;
When fade all earthly flowers and bays,
When summer friends are gone and fled,
Is he alone in that dark hour
Who owns the Lord of love and power?
A wand no human arm may wield,
Fraught with a spell no angels know,
His steps to guide, his soul to shield?
Thou, Saviour, art his Charmèd Bower,
His Magic Ring, his Rock, his Tower.
Thy favourites walking in Thy light,
Just as, in fancied triumph bold,
They deem'd them lost in deadly night,
Amaz'd they cry, “What spell is this,
“Which turns their sufferings all to bliss?
“Upright, whom in the gulf we cast?
“What wondrous helper have they found
“To screen them from the scorching blast?
“Three were they—who hath made them four?
“And sure a form divine He wore,
The Tyrant, when in one fierce flame
The Martyrs liv'd, the murderers died:
Yet knew he not what angel came
To make the rushing fire-flood seem
Like summer breeze by woodland stream .
The Matron, who alone hath stood,
When not a prop seem'd left below,
The first lorn hour of wido whood,
Yet cheer'd and cheering all, the while,
With sad but unaffected smile;—
By the sad couch whence hope hath flown,
Watching the eye where reason sleeps,
Yet in his heart can mercy own,
Still sweetly yielding to the rod,
Still loving man, still thanking God;—
With thankless toil, and vile esteem'd,
Of souls that will not be redeem'd,
Yet stedfast set to do his part,
And fearing most his own vain heart;—
Cleansing thy sight by prayer and faith,
And thou shalt know what secret spell
Preserves them in their living death:
Through seven-fold flames thine eye shall see
The Saviour walking with His faithful Three.
Twentieth Sunday after Trinity.
The region of Thy choice,
Where, undisturb'd by sin and earth, the soul
Owns Thy entire control?—
'Tis on the mountain's summit dark and high,
When storms are hurrying by:
'Tis 'mid the strong foundations of the earth,
Where torrents have their birth.
Mar the full burst of prayer;
Lone Nature feels that she may freely breathe,
And round us and beneath
Are heard her sacred tones: the fitful sweep
Of winds across the steep,
Through wither'd bents—romantic note and clear,
Meet for a hermit's ear,—
And, scarcely heard so high,
The dashing waters when the air is still
From many a torrent rill
Track'd by the blue mist well:
Such sounds as make deep silence in the heart
For Thought to do her part.
Pleading with care and sin:
“Child of My love! how have I wearied thee?
“Why wilt thou err from Me?
“Have I not brought thee from the house of slaves,
“Parted the drowning waves,
“And set My saints before thee in the way,
“Lest thou shouldst faint or stray?
“Art thou th' excepted one?
“An heir of glory without grief or pain?
“O vision false and vain!
“There lies thy cross; beneath it meekly bow;
“It fits thy stature now:
“Who scornful pass it with averted eye,
“'Twill crush them by-and-by.
“Of thine eternal treasure;
“The Father of Thy Lord can grudge thee nought,
“The world for thee was bought,
“And as this landscape broad—earth, sea, and sky,—
“All centres in thine eye,
“So all God does, if rightly understood,
“Shall work thy final good.”
Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity.
Yet still the face of heaven is gray,
Nor yet th' autumnal breeze has stirr'd the grove,
Faded yet full, a paler green
Skirts soberly the tranquil scene,
The red-breast warbles round this leafy cove.
Saluting sorrow as you may,
As one still bent to find or make the best,
In thee, and in this quiet mead,
The lesson of sweet peace I read,
Rather in all to be resign'd than blest.
With the soft solitary knell,
As homeward from some grave belov'd we turn,
Or by some holy death-bed dear,
Most welcome to the chasten'd ear
Of her whom Heaven is teaching how to mourn.
That duly bears with you its part,
Singing so thankful to the dreary blast,
Though gone and spent its joyous prime,
And on the world's autumnal time,
'Mid wither'd hues and sere, its lot be cast:
Watching, in trance nor dark nor clear ,
Th' appalling future as it nearer draws:
His spirit calm'd the storm to meet,
Feeling the rock beneath his feet,
And tracing through the cloud th' eternal Cause.
Waiting to see what God will do,
As o'er the Church the gathering twilight falls:
No more he strains his wistful eye,
If chance the golden hours be nigh,
By youthful Hope seen beaming round her walls.
His thoughts to Heaven the steadier rise:
There seek his answer when the world reproves:
Contented in his darkling round,
If only he be faithful found,
When from the east th' eternal morning moves.
Note: The expression, “calm decay,” is borrowed from a friend; by whose kind permission the following stanzas are here inserted.
TO THE RED-BREAST.
Pour forth thy notes, sweet singer,
Wooing the stillness of the autumn day:
Bid it a moment linger,
Nor fly
Too soon from winter's scowling eye.
And hers, who gay ascends,
Filling the heavens far and wide,
Are sweet. But none so blends
As thine,
With calm decay, and peace divine.
Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity.
As where the mountain boy,
Reckless of regions far away,
A prisoner lives in joy?
The cries of camp or town,
Never untun'd his lonely mirth,
Nor drew his visions down.
That meet his morning view,
The thwarting cliffs that bound his sight,
They bound his fancy too.
For aye may onward go,
Or in the azure deep on high,
Or darksome mere below.
Too soon the happy child
His nook of homely thought will change
For life's seducing wild:
This earth a boundless space,
With sun-bright pleasures to and fro
Sporting in joyous race:
Heaven less and less will fill,
Less keenly, through his grosser ear,
The tones of mercy thrill.
The Saviour's voice unheard,
While from His pard'ning Cross He calls,
“O spare as I have spar'd?”
The hope to suppliants given;
We mete out love, as if our eye
Saw to the end of heaven.
How often to forgive,
How dearly to embrace thy foe,
Look where thou hop'st to live;
And fancied all beyond,
Whatever owns, in depth or height,
Creation's wondrous bond;
Sweet mercy's praise to see:
Their Lord resign'd them all, to earn
The bliss of pardoning thee.
Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity.
The line of yellow light dies fast away
That crown'd the eastern copse: and chill and dun
Falls on the moor the brief November day.
And Echo bids good-night from every glade;
Yet wait awhile, and see the calm leaves float
Each to his rest beneath their parent shade.
And yet no second spring have they in store,
But where they fall, forgotten to abide
Is all their portion, and they ask no more.
A thousand wild-flowers round them shall unfold,
The green buds glisten in the dews of Spring,
And all be vernal rapture as of old.
In all the world of busy life around
No thought of them; in all the bounteous sky
No drop, for them, of kindly influence found.
Yet he complains, while these unmurmuring part
With their sweet lives, as pure from sin and stain,
As his when Eden held his virgin heart.
Might sound in Heaven, were all his second life
Only the first renew'd—the heathen's choice,
A round of listless joy and weary strife.
Though brighten'd oft by dear Affection's kiss;—
Who for the spangles wears the funeral pall?
But catch a gleam beyond it, and 'tis bliss.
Whether slow creeping on cold earth, or borne
On lofty steed, or loftier prow, we dart
O'er wave or field: yet breezes laugh to scorn
And fish, like living shafts that pierce the main,
And stars that shoot through freezing air at even—
Who but would follow, might he break his chain?
Shall find his wings, and soar as fast and free
As his transfigur'd Lord with lightning form
And snowy vest—such grace He won for thee,
And led through boundless air thy conquering road,
Leaving a glorious track, where saints, new-born,
Might fearless follow to their blest abode.
The world's rude furnace must thy blood refine,
And many a gale of keenest woe be pass'd,
Till every pulse beat true to airs divine,
The mounting soul, the call by Jesus given.
He who the stormy heart can so control,
The laggard body soon will waft to Heaven.
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity.
Since all alone, so Heaven has will'd, we die ,
Nor e'en the tenderest heart, and next our own,
Knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh?
Our hermit spirits dwell, and range apart,
Our eyes see all around in gloom or glow—
Hues of their own, fresh borrow'd from the heart.
Alone our secret throbbings: so our prayer
May readier spring to Heaven, nor spend its zeal
On cloud-born idols of this lower air.
Beat with another, answering love for love,
Weak mortals, all entranc'd, on earth would lie,
Nor listen for those purer strains above.
Lent to some partial eye, disclosing all
The rude bad thoughts, that in our bosom's night
Wander at large, nor heed Love's gentle thrall?
As if, fond leaning where her infant slept,
A mother's arm a serpent should embrace:
So might we friendless live, and die unwept.
Thou who canst love us, tho' Thou read us true;
As on the bosom of th' aërial lawn
Melts in dim haze each coarse ungentle hue.
Sweet visions of long-sever'd hearts to frame:
Though absence may impair, or cares annoy,
Some constant mind may draw us still the same.
Pine with regret, or sicken with despair,
The while she bathes us in her own chaste glow,
And with our memory wings her own fond prayer.
Tried to old age! creative power to win,
And raise new worlds, where happy fancies rove,
Forgetting quite this grosser world of sin.
Their memory cheering: but the earth-stain'd spright,
Whose wakeful musings are of guilt and fear,
Must hover nearer earth, and less in light.
Yet not farewell her hope, since Thou hast deign'd,
Creator of all hearts! to own and share
The woe of what Thou mad'st, and we have stain'd.
No stranger Thou to all our wanderings wild:
Nor could we bear to think, how every line
Of us, Thy darken'd likeness and defil'd,
But that Thou call'st us Brethren: sweet repose
Is in that word—the Lord who dwells on high
Knows all, yet loves us better than He knows.
Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity.
O'er emerald meadows gay,
With many a clear gem strowing
The early shepherd's way.
Ye gentle elves, by Fancy seen
Stealing away with night
To slumber in your leafy screen,
Tread more than airy light.
The sun through heaven has shed,
Though fast yon shower be fleeting,
His beams have faster sped.
For lo! above the western haze
High towers the rainbow arch
In solid span of purest rays:
How stately is its march!
The swain's experienc'd eye
From thee takes timely warning,
Nor trusts the gorgeous sky,
Bring noons of storm and shower,
And travellers linger on the way
Beside the sheltering bower.
Should watchful shepherd view
His little lambs assembling,
With glance both kind and true;
'Tis not the eye of keenest blaze,
Nor the quick-swelling breast,
That soonest thrills at touch of praise—
These do not please him best.
And timid glances shy,
That seem for aid parental
To sue all wistfully,
Still pressing, longing to be right,
Yet fearing to be wrong,—
In these the pastor dares delight,
A lamb-like, Christ-like throng.
Shall shine serenely bright,
As in th' autumnal heaven
Mild rainbow tints at night,
When the last shower is stealing down,
And ere they sink to rest,
The sun-beams weave a parting crown
For some sweet woodland nest.
Is glorious on that eve,
Dear as the holy sorrow
When good men cease to live.
When brightening ere it die away
Mounts up their altar flame,
Still tending with intenser ray
To Heaven whence first it came.
'Tis caught unquench'd on high,
Those saintlike brows so hoary
Shall wear it in the sky.
No smile is like the smile of death,
When all good musings past
Rise wafted with the parting breath,
The sweetest thought the last.
Sunday next before Advent.
Snatch'd late from the decaying year?
Or can the Saviour's blood endear
The dregs of a polluted life?
When down th' o'erwhelming current toss'd,
Just ere he sink for ever lost,
The sailor's untried arms are cross'd
In agonizing prayer, will Ocean cease her strife?
Heart-rending sighs, O spare to heave
A bosom freshly taught to grieve
For lavish'd hours and love mis-spent!
Now through her round of holy thought
The Church our annual steps has brought,
But we no holy fire have caught—
Back on the gaudy world our wilful eyes were bent.
To hymn the birth-night of the Lord,
Which duteous Memory should have stor'd
For thankful echoing all the year—
Too soon those airs have pass'd away;
Nor long within the heart would stay
The silence of Christ's dying day,
Profan'd by worldly mirth, or scar'd by worldly fear.
On Easter wings might lift us high;
A little while we sought the sky:
And when the Spirit's beacon fires
On every hill began to blaze,
Lightening the world with glad amaze,
Who but must kindle while they gaze?
But faster than she soars, our earth-bound Fancy tires.
By which our Mother's voice invites
Our God to bless our home delights,
And sweeten every secret tear:
The funeral dirge, the marriage vow,
The hallow'd font where parents bow,
And now elate and trembling now
To the Redeemer's feet their new-found treasures bear:—
Stretch'd out to bless—a Christian charm
To dull the shafts of worldly harm:
Nor, sweetest, holiest, best of all,
For the dear feast of Jesus dying,
Upon that altar ever lying,
Where souls with sacred hunger sighing
Are call'd to sit and eat, while angels prostrate fall:—
Have our frail spirits found their ease.
The gale that stirs th' autumnal trees
Seems tun'd as truly to our hearts
'Twas moaning bleak, so high and low,
You would have thought Remorse and Woe
Had taught the innocent air their sadly thrilling parts.
We dare not hope like Him to shine?
But see, around His dazzling shrine
Earth's gems the fire of Heaven have caught;
Martyrs and saints—each glorious day
Dawning in order on our way—
Remind us, how our darksome clay
May keep th' ethereal warmth our new Creator brought.
And now once more th' appalling tale,
How love divine may woo and fail,
Of our lost year in Heaven is told—
What if as far our life were past,
Our weeks all number'd to the last,
With time and hope behind us cast,
And all our work to do with palsied hands and cold?
For thinner than the subtlest lawn
'Twixt thee and death the veil is drawn.
But Love too late can never glow:
The scatter'd fragments Love can glean,
Refine the dregs, and yield us clean
To regions where one thought serene
Breathes sweeter than wholy years of sacrifice below.
St. Andrew's Day.
What gift may most endearing prove
To keep fond memory in her place,
And certify a brother's love!
And blissful dreams in secret shar'd,
Serene or solemn, gay or bold,
Shall last in fancy unimpair'd.
Such dear remembrances will hover,
And haunt us with no vexing mood
When all the cares of earth are over.
We shall live on, though Fancy die,
And seek a surer pledge—a seal
Of love to last eternally.
Thus deeply in a brother's heart?
Look on this saint, and learn to frame
Thy love-charm with true Christian art.
Beneath the shadow of His roof,
Till thou have scann'd His features well,
And known Him for the Christ by proof;
Who spend with Him their happy days,
Clean hands, and a self-ruling mind
Ever in tune for love and praise.
Go, and thine erring brother gain,
Entice him home to be forgiven,
Till he, too, see his Saviour plain.
Urge him with thine advancing tread,
Till, like twin stars, with even pace,
Each lucid course be duly sped.
To soothe his soul when thou art gone,
But wreaths of hope for aye to live,
And thoughts of good together done.
Though changed and glorified each face,
Not unremember'd ye may meet
For endless ages to embrace.
St. Thomas' Day.
But round us, far and near,
We see His trophies, and His name
In choral echoes hear.
In a fair ground our lot is cast,
As in the solemn week that past,
While some might doubt, but all ador'd ,
Ere the whole widow'd Church had seen her risen Lord.
The golden chain unwinds,
Drawing to Heaven with gentlest band
Wise hearts and loving minds.
Love sought Him first—at dawn of morn
From her sad couch she sprang forlorn,
She sought to weep with Thee alone,
And saw Thine open grave, and knew that Thou wert gone.
To search the Saviour's tomb;
As fearing to presume,
Till Reason enter in, and trace
Christ's relics round the holy place—
“Here lay His limbs, and here His sacred head,
“And who was by, to make His new-forsaken bed?”
They muse on all at home,
No thought can tender Love beguile
From Jesus' grave to roam.
Weeping she stays till He appear—
Her witness first the Church must hear—
All joy to souls that can rejoice
With her at earliest call of His dear gracious voice.
In secret how He died,
Though with seal'd eyes awhile they walk,
Nor see Him at their side;
Most like the faithful pair are they,
Who once to Emmaus took their way,
Half darkling, till their Master shed
His glory on their souls, made known in breaking bread.
On those He came to save
The Lord of new-created light
Dawn'd gradual from the grave;
Till pass'd th' enquiring day-light hour,
And with clos'd door in silent bower
The Church in anxious musing sate
As one who for redemption still had long to wait.
Smooth without step or sound,
“Peace to your souls,” He said—no more—
They own Him, kneeling round.
Eye, ear, and hand, and loving heart,
Body and soul in every part,
Successive made His witnesses that hour,
Cease not in all the world to shew His saving power.
Who fears to take their word,
Scarce daring, through the twilight pale,
To think he sees the Lord?
With eyes too tremblingly awake
To bear with dimness for His sake?
Read and confess the Hand Divine
That drew thy likeness here so true in every line.
Love thou thy Saviour still,
Him for thy Lord and God adore,
And ever do His will.
Though vexing thoughts may seem to last,
Let not thy soul be quite o'ercast;—
Soon will He shew thee all His wounds, and say,
“Long have I known thy name —know thou My “face alway.”
In Exodus xxxiii. 17, God says to Moses, “I know thee by name;” meaning, “I bear especial favour towards thee.” Thus our Saviour speaks to St. Thomas by name in the place here referred to.
The Conversion of St. Paul.
Broods o'er the hazy, twinkling air;
Along the level sand
The palm-tree's shade unwavering lies,
Just as thy towers, Damascus, rise
To greet yon wearied band.
Seems bent some mighty deed to do,
So steadily he speeds,
With lips firm clos'd and fixèd eye,
Like warrior when the fight is nigh,
Nor talk nor landscape heeds.
As though all Heaven's refulgent hoard
In one rich glory shone?
One moment—and to earth he falls:
What voice his inmost heart appals?—
Voice heard by him alone.
Seem lost in lightning and in storm,
Sees deep within that dazzling field
His persecuted Lord reveal'd
With keen yet pitying glance:
Were prisoner yet in this dark earth,
Nor had proclaim'd His royal birth,
Nor His great power begun.
He heard and saw, and sought to free
His strain'd eye from the sight:
But Heaven's high magic bound it there,
Still gazing, though untaught to bear,
Th' insufferable light.
So shall sin ask of heaven and earth
At the last awful day.
“When did we see Thee suffering nigh ,
“And pass'd Thee with unheeding eye?
“Great God of judgment, say!”
What glorious presence they despise,
While, in our noon of life,
To power or fame we rudely press.—
Christ is at hand, to scorn or bless,
Christ suffers in our strife.
And our dear Lord in bliss repos'd
High above mortal ken,
To every ear in every land
(Though meek ears only understand)
He speaks as He did then.
“'Tis hard, ye so in love should be
“With your own endless woe.
“Know, though at God's right hand I live,
“I feel each wound ye reckless give
“To the least saint below.
“Not willing ye should be bereft
“Of waiting on your Lord.
“The meanest offering ye can make—
“A drop of water—for love's sake ,
“In Heaven, be sure, is stor'd.”
When Thou hast stay'd our wild career,
Thou only hope of souls,
Ne'er let us cast one look behind,
But in the thought of Jesus find
What every thought controls.
Thy lightning glance did then impart
Zeal's never-dying fire,
Our hearts, and let them day by day
Intenser blaze and higher.
(Like pulses that round harp-strings float
When the full strain is o'er)
Left lingering on his inward ear
Music, that taught, as death drew near,
Love's lesson more and more:
Still may the echo of that sound
Be in our memory stor'd:
“Christians! behold your happy state:
“Christ is in these, who round you wait;
“Make much of your dear Lord!”
The Purification.
For they shall see our God,
The secret of the Lord is theirs,
Their soul is Christ's abode.
To guess an angel's lay,
Such are the notes that echo through
The courts of Heaven to-day.
On Sion's Prince that wait,
In high procession passing on
Towards His temple-gate.
Ye rulers of the earth—
This, this is He; your Priest by grace,
Your God and King by birth.
Attends with sword and spear,
And all-defying, dauntless look,
Their monarch's way to clear;
Than all that are with you—
The armies of the highest Heaven,
All righteous, good, and true.
Dipp'd in the sea of light,
That hides the unapproachèd shrine
From men's and angels' sight.
O Mother undefil'd—
That throne, if aught beneath the skies,
Beseems the sinless child.
“The wondrous Babe might prove,”
Her guileless husband walks beside,
Bearing the hallow'd dove;
Who, on this happy day,
His dove-like soul—best sacrifice—
Did on God's altar lay.
Bow'd, but erect in heart,
Whose prayers are struggling with his tears?
“Lord, let me now depart.
“Thy saving health, O Lord;
“'Tis time that I depart in peace,
“According to Thy word.”
Comes forth to bless her God:
Full fourscore years, meek widow, she
Her heaven-ward way hath trod.
So long had given farewell,
Now sees, unlook'd for, Heaven on earth,
Christ in His Israel.
The temple-gates are set,
And still the saints rejoicing there
The holy Child have met.
And who may meet Him, learn:
Him child-like sires, meek maidens find,
Where pride can nought discern.
He doth Himself impart,
And for His cradle and His throne
Chooseth the pure in heart.
St. Matthias' Day.
He, who on Christ stands waiting day and night,
Who trac'd His holy steps, nor ever ceas'd,
From Jordan banks to Bethphage height:
From his Lord's cradle, patience from His Cross;
Whom poor men's eyes and hearts consent to bless;
To whom, for Christ, the world is loss;
Hath seen Him and in glory; and in both
Own'd Him divine, and yielded, nothing loth,
Body and soul, to live and die,
In humble following of his Saviour dear:
This is the man to wield th' unearthly sword,
Warring unharm'd with sin and fear.
What mortal—for this more than angels' task,
Winning or losing souls, Thy life-blood's price?
The gift were too divine to ask,
By Thy dear promise to Thy Church and Bride,
That Thou, on earth, wouldst aye with her endure,
Till earth to heaven be purified.
Whose arm supports her, on Whose faithful breast
Her persecuted head she meekly bows,
Sure pledge of her eternal rest.
Stayest her fainting steps along the wild;
Thy mark is on the bowers of lust and pride,
That she may pass them undefil'd.
Dare touch Thy spouse, Thy very self below?
Or who dare count him summon'd worthily,
Except Thine hand and seal he show?
But on the chosen seed, from age to age
By Thine anointed heralds duly crown'd,
As kings and priests Thy war to wage?
Yet full of trembling, Messengers of God:
Our warrant sure, but doubting of our worth,
By our own shame alike and glory awed.
Thou who didst seal by Thy descending Dove
Thy servant's choice, O help us in our parts,
Else helpless found, to learn and teach Thy love.
The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
With all our frail and fleshly ties,
Maker, yet Brother dear,
Forgive the too presumptuous thought,
If, calming wayward grief, I sought
To gaze on Thee too near.
'Twas Thine own comfortable word
That made the lesson known:
Of all the dearest bonds we prove,
Thou countest sons' and mothers' love
Most sacred, most Thine own.
Thou took'st on Thee to rescue man,
Thou hadst no earthly sire:
That wedded love we prize so dear,
As if our heaven and home were here,
It lit in Thee no fire.
Wouldst Thou Thine aching forehead rest,
On no kind brother lean:
But who, O perfect filial heart,
E'er did like Thee a true son's part,
Endearing, firm, serene?
Thou wept'st upon thy sinless Child,
Thy very heart was riven:
And yet, what mourning matron here
Would deem thy sorrows bought too dear
By all on this side Heaven?
That never shamed His Mother's kiss,
Nor cross'd her fondest prayer:
E'en from the tree He deign'd to bow
For her His agonizèd brow,
Her, His sole earthly care.
Lily of Eden's fragrant shade,
Who can express the love
That nurtur'd thee so pure and sweet,
Making thy heart a shelter meet
For Jesus' holy Dove?
To whom caressing and caress'd,
Clings the Eternal Child;
Favour'd beyond Archangels' dream,
When first on thee with tenderest gleam
Thy new-born Saviour smil'd:—
All but adoring love may claim,
Yet may we reach thy shrine;
For He, thy Son and Saviour, vows
To crown all lowly lofty brows
With love and joy like thine.
The bosom where His lips were press'd,
But rather bless'd are they
Who hear His word and keep it well,
The living homes where Christ shall dwell,
And never pass away.
St. Mark's Day.
Compare 2 Timothy iv. 11. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
On holiest happiest thoughts to lean,
On Friendship, Kindred, or on Love?
Since not Apostles' hands can clasp
Each other in so firm a grasp,
But they shall change and variance prove.
Shall dawn no welcome dear and glad:
Divided in their earthly race,
Together at the glorious goal,
Each leading many a rescu'd soul,
The faithful champions shall embrace.
Who the bright whirling wheels upbore
By Chebar in the fiery blast ,
So, on their tasks of love and praise
The saints of God their several ways
Right onward speed, yet join at last.
The Saviour gives a gracious boon,
When reconcilèd Christians meet,
And face to face, and heart to heart,
High thoughts of holy love impart
In silence meek, or converse sweet.
To taste that drop of peace divine,
When the great soldier of thy Lord
Call'd thee to take his last farewell,
Teaching the Church with joy to tell
The story of your love restor'd.
When all that pain'd or seem'd amiss
Shall melt with earth and sin away!
When saints beneath their Saviour's eye,
Fill'd with each other's company,
Shall spend in love th' eternal day!
St. Philip and St. James.
And dear th' autumnal eve;
But few delights can summer bring
A Poet's crown to weave.
And ever Fancy's wing
Speeds from beneath her cloudless sky
To autumn or to spring.
And sweet the old man's rest—
But middle age by no fond wile,
No soothing calm is blest.
She plies her weary task,
While vainly for some pleasant dream
Her wandering glances ask.—
So sad a sigh to heave,
As if thy Saviour had no part
In thoughts, that make thee grieve.
He had not borne for thee
Sad languors through the summer day,
Storms on the wintry sea.
Pass'd seldom o'er His spright,—
A well of serious thought and pure,
Too deep for earthly light.
For He by trial knew
How cold and bare what mortals dream,
To worlds where all is true.
Which makes thee like thy Lord,
And learn to quit with eye serene
Thy youth's ideal hoard.
Unmurmuring let them go,
Nor grieve the bliss should quickly fly
Which Christ disdain'd to know.
The pure, calm hope be thine,
Which brightens, like the eastern moon,
As day's wild lights decline.
By sufferings plung'd too low,
Meet in the Church's middle sky,
Half way 'twixt joy and woe,
That sorrow best relieves:
Thankful for all God takes away,
Humbled by all He gives.
St. Barnabas.
Acts iv. 36.
Knows its own anguish and unrest:
The truest wisdom there, and noblest art
Is his, who skills of comfort best:
Whom by the softest step and gentlest tone
Enfeebled spirits own,
And love to raise the languid eye,
When, like an angel's wing, they feel him fleeting by:—
Fain would he shun both ear and sight,
'Twixt Prayer and watchful Love his heart dividing,
A nursing-father day and night.
Such were the tender arms, where cradled lay,
In her sweet natal day,
The Church of Jesus; such the love
He to His chosen taught for His dear widow'd Dove.
They spread th' endearing warmth around:
Mourners, speed here your broken hearts to bring,
Here healing dews and balms abound:
By trial taught your pain:
Here loving hearts, that daily know
The heavenly consolations they on you bestow.
Of holy offerings timely paid ,
Of fire from Heaven to bless their votive alms
And passions on God's altar laid.
The world to them is clos'd, and now they shine
With rays of love divine,
Through darkest nooks of this dull earth
Pouring, in showery times, their glow of “quiet mirth.”
This is their first, their dearest joy:
Their next, from heart to heart to clear the way
For mutual love without alloy:
Never so blest, as when in Jesus' roll
They write some hero-soul,
More pleas'd upon his brightening road
To wait, than if their own with all his radiance glow'd.
Their messages of love to bear ,
The genial amarant wreath to wear,
And in th' eternal leisure of calm love
Ye banquet there above,
Yet in your sympathetic heart
We and our earthly griefs may ask and hope a part.
That strew your pillow of repose,
Sure, 'tis one joy to muse, how ye unknown
By sweet remembrance soothe our woes,
And how the spark ye lit, of heavenly cheer,
Lives in our embers here,
Where'er the Cross is borne with smiles,
Or lighten'd secretly by Love's endearing wiles:
The watch-fire of his midnight prayer,
Or issuing thence, the eyes of mourners steeps
In heavenly balm, fresh gather'd there;
Thus saints, that seem to die in earth's rude strife,
Only win double life:
They have but left our weary ways
To live in memory here, in Heaven by love and praise.
St. John Baptist's Day.
The fallen Church hath felt Elijah's eye
Dart from the wild its piercing ray:
Not keener burns, in the chill morning sky,
The herald star,
Whose torch afar
Shadows and boding night-birds fly.
That favour'd seer—but where shall he be found?
By Cherith's side we seek in vain,
In vain on Carmel's green and lonely mound:
Angels no more
From Sinai soar,
On his celestial errands bound,
By harmless fire, among the ethereal thrones,
His spirit with a dear embrace
Thee the lov'd harbinger of Jesus owns,
Well-pleas'd to view
Her likeness true,
And trace, in thine, her own deep tones.
To commune how a faithful martyr dies,
And in the blest could envy be,
He would behold thy wounds with envious eyes,
Star of our morn,
Who yet unborn ,
Didst guide our hope, where Christ should rise.
For sinners, such as Eden cannot know,
Ye pour for us your mingled prayer,
No anxious fear to damp Affection's glow,
Love draws a cloud
From you to shroud
Rebellion's mystery here below.
The twilight of the great and dreadful day,
Why linger, till Elijah's car
Stoop from the clouds? Why sleep ye? rise and pray,
Ye heralds seal'd
In camp or field
Your Saviour's banner to display.
The soul unswerving and the fearless tongue?
The much-enduring wisdom, sought
By lonely prayer the haunted rocks among?
Who counts it gain
His light should wane,
So the whole world to Jesus throng?
Her eagle wings, to shelter in the wild ,
We pray Thee, ere the Judge descend,
With flames like these, all bright and undefil'd,
Her watch-fires light,
To guide aright
Our weary souls, by earth beguil'd.
That by their speaking lives the world may learn
First filial duty, then divine ,
That sons to parents, all to Thee may turn;
And ready prove
In fires of love,
At sight of Thee, for aye to burn.
Malachi iv. 6.
St. Luke i. 17.
St. Peter's Day.
Watch by Thine own forgiven friend;
In sharpest perils faithful prov'd,
Let his soul love Thee to the end.
His slumber on the eve of death?
And wherefore smiles he in his sleep
As one who drew celestial breath?
Can his soul choose but be at rest?
Sorrow hath fled away, and Pain
Dares not invade the guarded nest.
For his wing'd thoughts are soaring high
Where never yet frail heart was known
To breathe in vain Affection's sigh.
Have seal'd Thy welcome and his love—
One look lives in him, and endears
Crosses and wrongs where'er he rove:
To win him to himself and Thee,
Sweetening the sorrow of his fall
Which else were rued too bitterly.
The memory of that kindly glance;—
The Angel watching by, divines
And spares awhile his blissful trance.
His vision wafts him back, to talk
With Jesus, ere His flight He take,
As in that solemn evening walk,
The Shepherd, He whose name is Good,
Did His dear lambs and sheep commend,
Both bought and nourish'd with His blood:
Which firm embrac'd with heart and arm,
Might cast o'er hope and memory,
O'er life and death, its awful charm.
His passport through the eternal gates,
To his sweet home—so nearly won,
He seems, as by the door he waits,
Of angel song and angel motion,
Rising and falling on the ear
Like waves in Joy's unbounded ocean.—
Calls to that last of glorious deeds—
But as he rises to rejoice,
Not Herod but an Angel leads.
Glancing around his prison room—
But 'tis a gleam of heavenly light
That fills up all the ample gloom.
Deep through the chambers of the dead
Shall pierce, and dry the fount of tears,
Is waving o'er his dungeon-bed.
Through darksome vault, up massy stair,
His dizzy, doubting footsteps wind
To freedom and cool moonlight air.
Though for a while his hand forego,
Just as it touch'd, the martyr's palm,
He turns him to his task below;
To wield a while in grey-hair'd might,
Then from his cross to spring forgiven,
And follow Jesus out of sight.
St. James's Day.
At God's right hand a bidden guest,
Drink of the cup that cannot cloy,
Eat of the bread that cannot waste.
O great Apostle! rightly now
Thou readest all thy Saviour meant,
What time His grave yet gentle brow
In sweet reproof on thee was bent.
“Alas! ye know not what ye ask,
“The first in shame and agony,
“The lowest in the meanest task—
“This can ye be? and can ye drink
“The Cup that I in tears must steep,
“Nor from the 'whelming waters shrink
“That o'er Me roll so dark and deep?”
“In glory and in agony,
“To do and suffer all Thy word;
“Only be Thou for ever nigh.”—
“Then be it so—My cup receive,
“And of My woes baptismal taste:
“But for the crown, that angels weave
“For those next Me in glory plac'd,
“But in My Father's book are writ
“What names on earth shall lowliest prove,
“That they in Heaven may highest sit.”
Take up the lesson, O my heart:
Thou Lord of meekness, write it there,
Thine own meek self to me impart,
Thy lofty hope, Thy lowly prayer:
I seem to soar in vision bright,
With thoughts of coming agony ,
Stay Thou the too presumptuous flight:
Gently along the vale of tears
Lead me from Tabor's sunbright steep,
Let me not grudge a few short years
With Thee tow'rd Heaven to walk and weep:
If now and then allow'd, with Thee
Watching some placid holy death,
Thy secret work of love to see;
But, oh! most happy, should Thy call,
Thy welcome call, at last be given—
“Come where thou long hast stor'd thy all,
“Come see thy place prepar'd in Heaven.”
St. Matthew xvii. 12. “Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them.” This was just after the Transfiguration.
St. Bartholomew.
And thou shalt need an eagle's gaze,
So perfectly the polish'd stone
Gives back the glory of his rays:
The soft green of the vernal earth,
And each small flower of bashful hue,
That closest hides its lowly birth.
Where out from each illumin'd page
We see one glorious Image look
All eyes to dazzle and engage,
We see Him as He is, we know,
Since in the same bright glass we read
The very life of things below.—
Ever upon us! thy keen gaze
Can all the depths of sin discern,
Unravel every bosom's maze:
Thrill through his heart's remotest cells,
About his path, about his bed,
Can doubt what spirit in thee dwells?
All wondering cries the humbled heart,
To hear thee that deep mystery,
The knowledge of itself, impart.
By its own light the truth is seen,
And soon the Israelite indeed
Bows down t' adore the Nazarene.
At once, not shame-fac'd or afraid,
Owning Him God, who so could scan
His musings in the lonely shade;
Which by his household fountain grew,
Where at noon-day his prayer he made
To know God better than he knew.
How richly crown'd! how well improv'd!
In musing o'er the Law he taught,
In waiting for the Lord he lov'd.
What God's approving word hath seal'd;
Enough, if right our feeble lays
Take up the promise He reveal'd;
“Waits not for wonder or for sign,
“Believes, because it loves, aright—
“Shall see things greater, things divine.
“And brightest angels to and fro
“On messages of love shall glide
“'Twixt God above and Christ below.”
To him all crooked paths are straight,
Him on his way to endless rest
Fresh, ever-growing strengths await .
Compass him daily like a cloud;
Martyrs and seers, the sav'd and lost,
Mercies and judgments cry aloud.
That first into his bosom found
A way, and fix'd his wavering choice,
Nearest and dearest ever sound.
“The position before us is, that we ourselves, and such as we, are the very persons whom Scripture speaks of, and to whom, as men, in every variety of persuasive form, it makes its condescending though celestial appeal. The point worthy of observation is, to note how a book of the description and the compass which we have represented Scripture to be, possesses this versatility of power; this eye like that of a portrait, uniformly fixed upon us, turn where we will.” Miller's Bampton Lectures. p. 128.
St. Matthew.
The nearest Heaven on earth,
Who talk with God in shadowy glades,
Free from rude care and mirth;
To whom some viewless teacher brings
The secret lore of rural things,
The moral of each fleeting cloud and gale,
The whispers from above, that haunt the twilight vale:
On the wreath'd smoke afar,
That o'er some town, like mist uprais'd,
Hung hiding sun and star,
Then as ye turn'd your weary eye
To the green earth and open sky,
Were ye not fain to doubt how Faith could dwell
Amid that dreary glare, in this world's citadel?
For lack of leafy screen,
And Christian Hope can cheer the eye
That ne'er saw vernal green;
E'en in this crowded loneliness,
Where ever-moving myriads seem to say,
Go—thou art nought to us, nor we to thee-away!
Of human care and crime,
With whom the melodies abide
Of th' everlasting chime;
Who carry music in their heart
Through dusky lane and wrangling mart,
Plying their daily task with busier feet,
Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.
As thronging cares afford,
In thought to wander, fancy-blest,
To where their gracious Lord,
In vain, to win proud Pharisees,
Spake, and was heard by fell disease —
But not in vain, beside yon breezy lake,
Bade the meek Publican his gainful seat forsake:
His treasure and his heart
Transferr'd, where he shall safe behold
Earth and her idols part;
While he beside his endless store
Shall sit, and floods unceasing pour
Of Christ's true riches o'er all time and space,
First angel of His Church, first steward of His Grace.
Where He vouchsaf'd to eat,
How the Most Holy did not shrink
From touch of sinner's meat;
What worldly hearts and hearts impure
Went with Him through the rich man's door,
That we might learn of Him lost souls to love,
And view His least and worst with hope to meet above.
On Mammon's gloomiest cells,
As on some city's cheerless night
The tide of sun-rise swells,
Till tower, and dome, and bridge-way proud
Are mantled with a golden cloud,
And to wise hearts this certain hope is given;
“No mist that man may raise, shall hide the eye “of Heaven.”
Such gleams of Paradise,
Should not their peace be peace divine,
Who day by day arise
To look on clearer heavens, and scan
The work of God untouch'd by man?
Shame on us, who about us Babel bear,
And live in Paradise, as if God was not there?
It seems from St. Matthew ix. 8, 9, that the calling of Levi took place immediately after the healing of the paralytic in the presence of the Pharisees.
St. Michael and all Angels.
In glorious order roll,
With harps for ever strung, ready to bless
God for each rescued soul,
Ye eagle spirits, that build in light divine,
Oh! think of us to-day,
Faint warblers of this earth, that would combine
Our trembling notes with your accepted lay.
Flush'd with victorious might,
Ye might have sped to keep high festival,
And revel in the light:
But meeting us, weak worldlings, on our way,
Tir'd ere the fight begun,
Ye turn'd to help us in th' unequal fray,
Remembering Whose we were, how dearly won:
When ye, who used to soar
Diverse along all space in fiery flight,
Came thronging to adore
Your God new-born, and made a sinner's child;
As if the stars should leave
And round the sun a radiant circle weave.
Our Champion and your King,
In that first strife, whence Satan in despair
Sank down on scathèd wing:
Alone He fasted, and alone He fought;
But when His toils were o'er,
Ye to the sacred Hermit duteous brought
Banquet and hymn, your Eden's festal store.
He plung'd to save His sheep,
Were leaning from your golden thrones to know
The secrets of that deep:
But clouds were on His sorrow: one alone
His agonizing call
Summon'd from Heaven, to still that bitterest groan,
And comfort Him, the Comforter of all.
(If right of thee we deem,)
How didst thou glide on brightening wing elate
To meet th' unclouded beam
Of Jesus from the couch of darkness rising!
How swell'd thine anthem's sound,
With fear and mightier joy weak hearts surprising,
“Your God is risen, and may not here be found!”
Must yield Him from her sight;—
Brighter and brighter streams His glory-robe,
And He is lost in light.
Ye in innumerous choir
Pour'd, heralding Messiah's conquering march,
Linger'd around His skirts two forms of fire:
“The Christ shall come again
“E'en as He goes; with the same human heart,
“With the same godlike train.”—
Oh! jealous God! how could a sinner dare
Think on that dreadful day,
But that with all Thy wounds Thou wilt be there,
And all our angel friends to bring Thee on Thy way?
That they who nearest stand
Alway to God in Heaven, and see His face,
Go forth at His command,
To wait around our path in weal or woe,
As erst upon our King,
Set Thy baptismal seal upon our brow,
And waft us heaven-ward with enfolding wing:
Our seraph guardians wait,
While on her death-bed, ere to ruin hurl'd,
She owns Thee, all too late,
They to their charge may turn, and thankful see
Thy mark upon us still;
Then all together rise, and reign with Thee,
And all their holy joy o'er contrite hearts fulfil!
St. Luke.
In equal race fleet o'er the sky:
Two flowers, when wintry blasts assail,
Together pine, together die.
No sage's rod may track their ways,
No eye pursue their lawless starts
Along their wild self-chosen maze.
E'en sinners for the evil day
Were made—who rules the world He plann'd,
Turning our worst His own good way;
Why, at the same fond bosom fed,
Taught in the self-same lap to kneel
Till the same prayer were duly said,
Aliens in heart so oft should prove;
One lose, the other keep, Heaven's clue;
One dwell in wrath, and one in love.
The mystery of the wicked heart,—
Why vainly oft our arrows speed
When aim'd with most unerring art;
A random shaft in season sent
Shall light upon some lurking harm,
And work some wonder little meant.
Leaving their own experienc'd rest?
Need not around the world to range;
One narrow cell may teach us best.
In triumph wear his Christ-like chain;
No fear lest he should swerve or faint;
“His life is Christ, his death is gain .”
Alike his love and greetings share;
Luke the belov'd, the sick soul's guide,
And Demas, nam'd in faltering prayer.
The saint is in his bonds again;
Save that his hopes more boldly soar ,
He and his lot unchanged remain.
Alas! that e'en the martyr's cell,
Heaven's very gate, should scope allow
For the false world's seducing spell.
We on the sight should muse awhile,
Nor deem our shelter all secure
E'en in the Church's holiest aisle.
Who knows not the true pilgrim's part:
The martyr's cell no safety lends
To him, who wants the martyr's heart.
As Paul his Lord, in life and death,
Where'er an aching heart may call,
Ready to speed and take no breath;
To tell of the great Shepherd's love ;
To learn of mourners while they weep
The music that makes mirth above;
The Gospel all his pride and praise—
Approach: for thou canst feel the gleam
That round the martyr's death-bed plays:
A breath the Gospel trump to fill,
And taught by thee the Church prolongs
Her hymns of high thanksgiving still .
The world yet wins some Demas frail
E'en from thine arms, so kind and soft,
May thy tried comforts never fail!
Be it vouchsaf'd thee still to see
Thy true, fond nurslings closer cling,
Cling closer to their Lord and thee.
The Lord hath made all things for Himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. Proverbs xvi. 4.
In the Epistle to the Philippians, “I know that I shall abide and continue with you all: . . . I count not myself to have apprehended.” chap. i. 25; iii. 13.
In 2 Timothy, “I have finished my course,” &c. chap. iv. 7, 8.
The Gospel of St. Luke abounds most in such passages as the parable of the lost sheep, which display God's mercy to penitent sinners.
St. Simon and St. Jude.
And drooping like a wounded dove,
The Cross in sight, but Jesus gone,
The widow'd Church is fain to rove?
Make haste, and take her home, and bring
Thine household choir, in true accord
Their soothing hymns for her to sing.
The fragrance of that genial isle,
There she may weave her funeral wreath,
And to her own sad music smile.
Is there, and fills the holy place
With records sweet of duties done,
Of pardon'd foes, and cherish'd grace.
His herald saints the Saviour sent
To soften hearts like morning dew,
Where He to shine in mercy meant;
Best honour'd and His way prepar'd,
When watching by His altar-flame
He sees His servants duly pair'd.
Fervent old age and youth serene,
Their high and low in concord set
For sacred song, Joy's golden mean.
Is drawn by mutual piety
To simple souls and unrefin'd,
Who in life's shadiest covert lie.
That once was gay and felt the spring,
Cons slowly o'er its alter'd part,
In sorrow and remorse to sing,
Some spirit full of glee, yet taught
To bear the sight of dull decay,
And nurse it with all-pitying thought;
As evening blackbird's full-ton'd lay,
When the relenting sun has smil'd
Bright through a whole December day.
The lonely watcher of the fold,
When nights are dark, and foemen near,
When visions fade and hearts grow cold.
Comes floating on the mountain air,
And bids thee yet be bold and strong—
Fancy may die, but Faith is there.
Then saith He to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. St. John xix. 27.
All Saints' Day.
Now every leaf is brown and sere,
And idly droops, to thee resign'd,
The fading chaplet of the year?
Yet wears the pure aërial sky
Her summer veil, half drawn on high,
Of silvery haze, and dark and still
The shadows sleep on every slanting hill.
Each flower and tree, its duty done,
Reposing in decay serene,
Like weary men when age is won,
Such calm old age as conscience pure
And self-commanding hearts ensure,
Waiting their summons to the sky,
Content to live, but not afraid to die.
God's unseen armies hovering round,
We should behold by angels' grace
The four strong winds of Heaven fast bound,
On ocean cove and forest glade,
Till the last flower of autumn shed
Her funeral odours on her dying bed.
The lightnings of the judgment day
Pause yet awhile, in mercy stor'd,
Till willing hearts wear quite away
Their earthly stains; and spotless shine
On every brow in light divine
The Cross by angel hands impress'd,
The seal of glory won and pledge of promis'd rest.
Whom empires own with bended knee,
What lowly fate their own controls,
Together link'd by Heaven's decree;—
As bloodhounds hush their baying wild
To wanton with some fearless child,
So Famine waits, and War with greedy eyes,
Till some repenting heart be ready for the skies.
In front of yonder setting sun,
Stand by their own unshaken might?
No—where th' upholding grace is won,
We dare not ask, nor Heaven would tell
But sure from many a hidden dell,
From many a rural nook unthought of there,
Rises for that proud world the saints' prevailing prayer.
Short be your strife, your triumph full,
Till every heart have caught your flame,
And, lighten'd of the world's misrule,
Ye soar those elder saints to meet,
Gather'd long since at Jesus' feet,
No world of passions to destroy,
Your prayers and struggles o'er, your task all praise and joy.
Holy Communion.
How should pale sinners bear the sight,
If, as Thy power is surely here,
Thine open glory should appear?
To scale the mount and pierce the cloud,
And faith may feed her eager view
With wonders Sinai never knew.
The world's Creator bleeding lies,
That man, His foe, by whom He bled,
May take Him for his daily bread.
When sinners first so near are brought!
“It is my Maker—dare I stay?
“My Saviour—dare I turn away?”
'Twixt love of Christ and fear of sin,
Who can express the soothing charm,
To feel thy kind upholding arm,
Of a world lost, yet lov'd so well,
His only Son for her would give ?
A lower still, a sweeter strain;
A voice from Mercy's inmost shrine,
The very breath of Love divine.
“Come unto Me, thou trembling heart ;”
And we must hope, so sweet the tone,
The precious words are all our own.
Low at Thy feet renew her vows;
Thine own dear promise she would plead
For us her true though fallen seed.
Thy chosen witnesses of old,
Love's heralds sent to man forgiven,
One from the Cross, and one from Heaven .
To the lost spirit brings relief,
Lifting on high th' adorèd Name:—
“Sinners to save, Christ Jesus came .”
Into the wavering heart descends:—
“What? fall'n again? yet cheerful rise ,
“Thine Intercessor never dies.”
Each moment by Thine altar's light,
Sees them e'en now: they still abide
In mystery kneeling at our side;
From realms of triumph or of rest,
From Him who saw creation's morn,
Of all Thine Angels eldest born,
Take part in our thanksgiving lay,
Watching the tearful joy and calm,
While sinners taste Thine heavenly balm.
One gentle footstep gliding round,
Offering by turns on Jesus' part
The Cross to every hand and heart.
And when Thy veil is drawn at last,
Let us depart where shadows cease,
With words of blessing and of peace.
“So God loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son.” See the sentences in the Communion Service, after the Confession.
This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Holy Baptism.
In every Church a fountain springs
O'er which th' eternal Dove
Hovers on softest wings.
Is water, by gross mortals ey'd:
But seen by Faith, 'tis blood
Out of a dear Friend's side.
A few bright drops of holy dew,
Shall work a wonder there
Earth's charmers never knew.
And ready for the Lord's embrace,
That precious sacrifice,
The darling of His grace!
Upon the slumbering features glow
When the life-giving stream
Touches the tender brow!
And the young soldier duly sworn
With true and fearless mind
To serve the Virgin-born.
Back to your arms your treasure take,
With Jesus' mark impress'd
To nurse for Jesus' sake:
Ye knelt before some awful shrine—
His innocent gestures wear
A meaning half divine:
In strengthening form and freshening hue,
In the fix'd brow serene,
The deep yet eager view.—
To come and go with such sweet grace?
Whence thy reposing Faith,
Though in our frail embrace?
Not in the twilight stars on high,
Not in moist flowers at even
See we our God so nigh.
Thine own adopting Father love,
That like thine earliest dew
Thy dying sweets may prove.
Catechism.
To childish ears are vain,
That the young mind at random floats,
And cannot reach the strain.
And yet the heaven-taught mind
May learn the sacred air, and all
The harmony unwind.
Taught by degrees to pray,
By father dear and mother mild
Instructed day by day?
With children in His sight,
To meet them in His daily walk,
And to His arms invite?
The everlasting chant
Be wafted from the seraph choir
In glory jubilant?
Our rude essays of love,
Faint as the pipe of wakening lark,
Heard by some twilight grove:
These bright and order'd files,
Like spring-flowers in their best array,
All silence and all smiles.
Some glorious truth proclaims,
What sages would have died to learn,
Now taught by cottage dames.
What are all prayers beneath
But cries of babes, that cannot know
Half the deep thought they breathe?
But Angels, as we speak,
Higher above our meaning soar
Than we o'er children weak:
And yet He owns their praise:
Why should we think, He turns away
From infants' simple lays?
Confirmation.
Calm on the tents of Israel lay,
While drooping paus'd twelve banners proud,
Till He arise and lead the way.
Cheerly the waving pennons fly,
Lion or eagle—each bright fold
A lodestar to a warrior's eye.
By holy hands o'ershadow'd kneel,
So, fearless for their charmèd life,
Bear to the end, Thy Spirit's seal.
In middle heaven, all mist above,
Seen deepest in the frozen stream:—
Such is their high courageous love.
They brood upon life's peaceful hour,
As if the Dove that guides their flight
Shook from her plumes a downy shower.
Now leading on the wars of God,
Now to green isles of shade and dew
Turning the waste Thy people trod;
Between us and the fires of youth;
Breathe, Holy Ghost, Thy freshening gale,
Our fever'd brow in age to soothe.
The hallow'd hour do Thou renew,
When beckon'd up the awful choir
By pastoral hands, toward Thee we drew;
We hid our eyes and held our breath,
Felt Thee how strong, our hearts how frail,
And long'd to own Thee to the death.
That blessing dear, that dove-like hand,
A sheltering rock in Memory's waste,
O'ershadowing all the weary land.
Matrimony.
A deep mysterious fear
Half of the heart will still employ,
As if we drew too near
To Eden's portal, and those fires
That bicker round in wavy spires,
Forbidding, to our frail desires,
What cost us once so dear.
In rapture as in pain;
E'en wedded Love, till Thou be nigh,
Dares not believe her gain:
Then in the air she fearless springs,
The breath of Heaven beneath her wings,
And leaves her woodnote wild, and sings
A tun'd and measur'd strain.
And free as air it fall,
That with Thine altar full in view,
Thy votaries would enthrall
To a foul dream, of heathen night,
Lifting her torch in Love's despite,
And scaring with base wild-fire light
The sacred nuptial hall.
Our marriage offering grace;
With even matron pace
Approaching down the hallow'd aisle!
Where should ye seek Love's perfect smile,
But where your prayers were learn'd erewhile,
In her own native place?
Who waits to bless you here?
Living, He own'd no nuptial vow,
No bower to Fancy dear:
Love's very self—for Him no need
To nurse, on earth, the heavenly seed:
Yet comfort in His eye we read
For bridal joy and fear.
And fits the spousal ring,
Then leaves ye kneeling, hand in hand,
Out of His stores to bring
His Father's dearest blessing, shed
Of old on Isaac's nuptial bed,
Now on the board before ye spread
Of our all-bounteous King.
Of Heaven and earth beneath,
Of converse high, and sacred home,
Are yours, in life and death.
Only kneel on, nor turn away
From the pure shrine, where Christ to-day
Will store each flower, ye duteous lay,
For an eternal wreath.
Visitation and Communion of the Sick.
Too lightly springs by Sorrow's bed,
Your keen eye-glances are too bright,
Too restless for a sick man's sight.
Farewell; for one short life we part:
I rather woo the soothing art,
Which only souls in sufferings tried
Bear to their suffering brethren's side.
Mother of Martyrs, thou canst tell!
Thou, who didst watch thy dying Spouse
With piercèd hands and bleeding brows,
Whose tears from age to age are shed
O'er sainted sons untimely dead,
If e'er we charm a soul in pain,
Thine is the key-note of our strain.
Where Faith has kept her midnight watch,
Smiling on woe: with thee to kneel,
Where fix'd, as if one prayer could heal,
With joy, wild health can never know,
And each calm feature, ere we read,
Speaks, silently, thy glorious Creed.
Their hearts in every contrite word,
How have I rather long'd to kneel
And ask of them sweet pardon's seal!
How bless'd the heavenly music brought
By thee to aid my faltering thought!
“Peace” ere we kneel, and when we cease
To pray, the farewell word is, “Peace.”
“With something of celestial light”—
A simple altar by the bed
For high Communion meetly spread,
Chalice, and plate, and snowy vest.—
We ate and drank: then calmly blest,
All mourners, one with dying breath,
We sate and talk'd of Jesus' death.
Was veil'd in sadly soothing gloom,
And ready for her last abode
The pale form like a lily show'd,
By virgin fingers duly spread,
And priz'd for love of summer fled.
The light from those soft-smiling eyes
Had fleeted to its parent skies.
Ye gentle Spirits far away,
With whom we shar'd the cup of grace,
Then parted; ye to Christ's embrace,
We to the lonesome world again,
Yet mindful of th' unearthly strain
Practis'd with you at Eden's door,
To be sung on, where angels soar,
With blended voices evermore.
Burial of the Dead.
Beams with too faint a smile
To light up nature's face again,
And, though the year be on the wane,
With thoughts of spring the heart beguile?
And gently lay him down
Within some circling woodland wall,
Where bright leaves, reddening ere they fall,
Wave gaily o'er the waters brown.
With wreathèd mullions proud,
With burnish'd ivy for its screen,
And moss, that glows as fresh and green
As though beneath an April cloud.—
The childless mother sink?—
Which e'en beside that mournful bier
Whence parents' eyes would hopeless shrink,
How strange, to thee, that sound!
A widow o'er her only son,
Feeling more bitterly alone
For friends that press offieious round.
For Christ hath touch'd the bier—
The bearers wait with wondering eye,
The swelling bosom dares not sigh,
But all is still, 'twixt hope and fear.
We sometimes see alight
On Christian mourners, while they wait
In silence, by some church-yard gate,
Their summons to the holy rite.
The stillness of that hour,
Quelling th' embitter'd spirit's strife—
“The Resurrection and the Life
“Am I: believe, and die no more.”—
The dead sit up and speak,
Answering its call; we gladlier rest
Our darlings on earth's quiet breast,
And our hearts feel they must not break.
Within the Church's shade,
Nor wake, until new heaven, new earth,
Meet for their new immortal birth
For their abiding-place be made,
On our frail love once more.
'Tis sweet, as year by year we lose
Friends out of sight, in faith to muse
How grows in Paradise our store.
Through prayer unto the tomb,
Still, as ye watch life's falling leaf,
Gathering from every loss and grief
Hope of new spring and endless home.
With hearts new-brac'd and set
To run, untir'd, love's blessèd race,
As meet for those, who face to face
Over the grave their Lord have met.
Churching of Women.
One known from all the seraph band
By softer voice, by smile and wing
More exquisitely bland!
Here let him speed: to-day this hallow'd air
Is fragrant with a mother's first and fondest prayer.
No richer incense breathes on earth:
“A spouse with all a daughter's heart,”
Fresh from the perilous birth,
To the great Father lifts her pale glad eye,
Like a reviving flower when storms are hush'd on high.
Is here! what hope and joy and love
All in one tender bosom brought,
For the all-gracious Dove
To brood o'er silently, and form for Heaven
Each passionate wish and dream to dear affection given.
Would sicken, but she leans on Thee,
Sees Thee by faith on Mary's breast,
And breathes serene and free.
Slight tremblings only of her veil declare
Soft answers duly whisper'd to each soothing prayer.
To bear the joy—help, Virgin-born!
By Thine own mother's first caress,
That wak'd Thy natal morn!
Help, by the unexpressive smile, that made
A Heaven on earth around the couch where Thou wast laid.
“When the woman comes to this office, the rubric (as it was altered at the last review) directs that she be decently apparelled, i.e. as the custom and order was formerly, with a white covering or veil.” Wheatly on the Common Prayer, c. xiii. sect. i. 3.
Commination.
Thou voice of sacred song?
Why swell'st thou not, like breeze from mountain cave,
High o'er the echoing nave,
The white-rob'd priest, as otherwhile, to guide
Up to the Altar's northern side?—
A mourner's tale of shame and sad decay
Keeps back our glorious sacrifice to-day:
Her Christmas robes unbound,
She lingers in the porch for grief and fear,
Keeping her penance drear.—
O is it nought to you? that idly gay,
Or coldly proud, ye turn away?
But if her warning tears in vain be spent,
Lo, to her alter'd eye the Law's stern fires are lent.
Peals with a direr clang
Out of that silver trump, whose tones of old
Forgiveness only told.
And who can blame the mother's fond affright ,
Who sporting on some giddy height
To snatch the rover from the dangerous strand?
(So Grecian legends tell),
When to her bird, too early scap'd the nest,
She bares her tender breast,
Smiling he turns and spreads his little wing,
There to glide home, there safely cling.
So yearns our mother o'er each truant son,
So softly falls the lay in fear and wrath begun.
That brac'd her youth, is past:
The rod of discipline, the robe of shame—
She bears them in your name:
Only return and love. But ye perchance
Are deeper plung'd in sorrow's trance:
Your God forgives, but ye no comfort take
Till ye have scourg'd the sins that in your conscience ache.
Thy penance in calm fear:
With thine own lips to sentence all thy sin;
Then, by the judge within
Absolv'd, in thankful sacrifice to part
For ever with thy sullen heart,
Nor on remorseful thoughts to brood, and stain
The glory of the Cross, forgiven and cheer'd in vain.
Alluding to a beautiful anecdote in the Greek Anthology, tom i. 180 ed. Jacobs. See Pleasures of Memory, p. 133.
Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea.
Upon the desert main,
As where sweet flowers some pastoral garden cheer
With fragrance after rain:
The wild winds rustle in the piping shrouds,
As in the quivering trees:
Like summer fields, beneath the shadowy clouds
The yielding waters darken in the breeze.
Mother of our new birth;
The lonely ocean learns thy orisons,
And loves thy sacred mirth:
When storms are high, or when the fires of war
Come lightening round our course,
Thou breath'st a note like music from afar,
Tempering rude hearts with calm angelic force.
Thy fragrant tokens live,
Like flower-leaves in a precious volume stor'd,
To solace and relieve
Some heart too weary of the restless world;
Or like thy sabbath Cross,
That o'er the brightening billow streams unfurl'd,
Whatever gale the labouring vessel toss.
Or when a comrade dies,
In whose sweet presence Sorrow dares not lower,
Nor expectation rise
Too high for earth; what mother's heart could spare
To the cold cheerless deep
Her flower and hope? but thou art with him there,
Pledge of the untir'd arm and eye that cannot sleep:
Each in his coral cave,
Fondly as if the green turf wrapt his head
Fast by his father's grave.—
One moment, and the seeds of life shall spring
Out of the waste abyss,
And happy warriors triumph with their King
In worlds without a sea , unchanging orbs of bliss.
Gunpowder Treason.
The Cross was rais'd at morn:
The widow'd Church to weep stood by,
The world, to hate and scorn.
We know the lonely Spouse
By the dear mark her Saviour bore
Trac'd on her patient brows.
Upon th' accursèd hill:
By monarchs clad in gems and gold,
She goes a mourner still.
Before a meaner shrine,
And upon Saint or Angel spend
The love that should be thine.
Where miscreant hands and rude
Have stain'd her pure ethereal pall
With many a martyr's blood.
To hear their secret sighs,
Upon whose doubting way apart
Bewildering shadows rise?
But fear to wake, and find
What they had deem'd her genial wing
Was Error's soothing blind.
Come, trembler, come and pour
Into her bosom all thy care,
For she has balm in store.
With the clear light of Truth
Th' aërial gleam that Fancy lends
To solemn thoughts in youth.—
To dream the dead are near,
And people all the lonely room
With guardian spirits dear,
The lurid mist is o'er,
That shew'd the righteous suffering still
Upon th' eternal shore.
That on His altar-throne
Highest exalt thy glorious Lord,
Yet leave Him most thine own:
There present, in the heart
As in the hands, th' eternal Priest
Will His true self impart.—
Back to th' enchanted air,
Solace and warning thou mayst learn
From all that tempts thee there.
Fraternal spirits know,
When for an elder's shame the tears
Of wakeful anguish flow,
Who knows but gentle love
May win her at our patient call
The surer way to prove?
King Charles the Martyr.
The thunders of the deep prophetic sky,
Though in our sight no powers of darkness bow
Before th' Apostles' glorious company;
Far in the North our fallen days have seen
How in her woe the tenderest spirit towers
For Jesus' sake in agony serene.
And shades impervious to the proud world's glare,
Such witness yield: a monarch from his throne
Springs to his cross and finds his glory there.
As in the Sacred Land, the shadows fall:
With beating hearts we roam the haunted ground,
Lone battle-field, or crumbling prison hall.
Whose widow'd walk with thought of thee is cheer'd,
Our own, our royal Saint: thy memory rests
On many a prayer, the more for thee endear'd.
With her to worship and for her to die,
Nurs'd in her aisles to more than kingly thought,
Oft in her solemn hours we dream thee nigh.
And where we look for comfort or for calm,
Over the self-same lines to bend, and pour
Thy heart with hers in some victorious psalm.
When all forsook, her Angels still were nigh,
Chain'd and bereft, and on thy funeral way,
Straight to the Cross she turn'd thy dying eye .
For thee she offers her maternal tears,
Calls us, like thee, to His dear feet to cling,
And bury in His wounds our earthly fears.
Fit prelude of the joy, when spirits won
Like thee to patient Faith, shall rise forgiven,
And at their Saviour's knees thy bright example own.
“His Majesty then bade him (Mr. Herbert) withdraw; for he was about an hour in private with the Bishop (Juxon): and being called in, the Bishop went to prayer; and reading also the 27th chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, which relateth the Passion of our Blessed Saviour. The King, after the Service was done, asked the Bishop, if he had made choice of that chapter, being so applicable to his present condition? The Bishop replied, ‘May it please your Gracious Majesty, it is the proper lesson for the day, as appears by the Kalendar;’ which the King was much affected with, so aptly serving as a seasonable preparation for his death that day.” Herbert's Memoirs, p. 131.
The Restoration of the Royal Family.
Sleeps in the silent aisles no more
The breath of sacred song,
But by the rising Saviour's light
Awaken'd soars in airy flight,
Or deepening rolls along ;
The funeral evergreens entwine,
And a dark brilliance cast,
The brighter for their hues of gloom,
Tokens of Him, who through the tomb
Into high glory pass'd:
When proudly stream'd o'er Ocean plains
Our own returning Cross;
For with that triumph seem'd to float
Far on the breeze one dirge-like note
Of orphanhood and loss.
A greener wreath adorns thy brow,
And clearer rays surround;
O for one hour of prayer like thine,
To plead before th' all-ruling shrine
For Britain lost and found!
Taught us in trials to rejoice,
Most like a faithful dove,
That by some ruin'd homestead builds,
And pours to the forsaken fields
His wonted lay of love:
To lift and guide th' exulting heart?—
A hand that cannot spare
Lies heavy on his gentle breast:
We wish him health: he sighs for rest,
And Heaven accepts the prayer.
Ill spared; but would we store aright
Thy serious sweet farewell,
We need not grudge thee to the skies,
Sure after thee in time to rise,
With thee for ever dwell.
Year after year, my native Land
Upon the Altar lays the Crown,
And spreads her robes of old renown
Before the King of Kings,
Ever at hand, with airs divine
The wandering heart to seize;
Whispering, “How long hast thou to live,
“That thou shouldst Hope or Fancy give
“To flowers or crowns like these?”
The organ is silent in many churches during Passion-week: and in some it is the custom to put up evergreen boughs at Easter as well as at Christmas time.
The Accession.
To tell how Moses died unseen,
And waken Joshua's spear of flame
To victory on the mountains green,
Its trumpet tones are sounding still,
When Kings or Parents pass away,
They greet us with a cheering thrill
Of power and comfort in decay.
That makes such haste to melt and die,
Our wistful gaze is oft allow'd
A glimpse of the unchanging sky:
Let storm and darkness do their worst;
For the lost dream the heart may ache,
The heart may ache, but may not burst:
Heaven will not leave thee nor forsake.
One torch in a tempestuous night,
One changeless pine in fading woods:—
Such is the thought of Love and Might,
When Death is busy near the throne,
And Sorrow her keen sting would prove
On monarchs orphan'd and alone.
Who could endure a crown? but He,
Who singly bore the world's sad weight,
Is near, to whisper, “Lean on Me:
“Thy days of toil, thy nights of care,
“Sad lonely dreams in crowded hall,
“Darkness within, while pageants glare
“Around—the Cross supports them all.”
While monarchs seek thee for repose,
Far in the nameless mountain cove
Each pastoral heart thy bounty knows.
Ye, who in place of shepherds true
Come trembling to their awful trust,
Lo here the fountain to imbue
With strength and hope your feeble dust.
The power of that dear word is spent:
It chants to all in softest tone
The lowly lesson of Content:
Heaven's light is pour'd on high and low;
To high and low Heaven's Angel spake;
“Resign thee to thy weal or woe,
“I ne'er will leave thee nor forsake.”
Ordination.
After this, the congregation shall be desired, secretly in their prayers, to make their humble supplications to God for all these things: for the which prayers there shall be silence kept for a space.
After which shall be sung or said by the Bishop (the persons to be ordained Priests all kneeling), “Veni, Creator Spiritus”
Rubric in the Office for Ordering of Priests.When slowly through the hallow'd air,
The spreading cloud of incense soar'd,
Charg'd with the breath of Israel's prayer.
When the last wondrous seal unclos'd ,
And in the portals of the sky,
Thine armies awfully repos'd.
Is hovering—comes it not of Thee?
Is it not like a Mother's vow,
When with her darling on her knee,
Love's treasure hid in her fond breast,
To cull from that exhaustless store
The dearest blessing and the best?
With all its deep love-learnèd skill,
A prayer so sweetly to her mind,
As, in this sacred hour and still,
Ere yet the pure high-breathèd lay,
“Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,”
Rise floating on its dove-like way.
The strain, so soft the melting fall,
It seems not to th' entrancèd ear
Less than Thine own heart-cheering call,
That these our prayers are heard, and they
Who grasp, this hour, the sword of Heaven,
Shall feel Thee on their weary way.
Over the holy Fount they lean,
Their fading garland freshly weave
Or fan them with Thine airs serene.
We trust them in that musing hour,
Till they, with open heart and free,
Teach all Thy word in all its power.
And mists hang wide o'er moor and fell,
Spirit of Counsel and of Might,
Their pastoral warfare guide Thou well.
With that more fearful war within,
When Passion's storms are loud and high,
And brooding o'er remember'd sin,
Come ever true, come ever near,
And wake their slumbering love again,
Spirit of God's most holy Fear!
The Christian year | ||