Second Sunday in Lent.
“The lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
—Gospel for the Day.
'Tis not, because Thou art creation's King
And, all the energies of wisdom Thine,
Prostrate in prayer, would kneeling Worship bring
A holocaust of hearts to deck Thy shrine:
But we, by purchase and by portion, are
Sheep of Thy fold, elected and redeem'd,
And in life's wilderness, when faint and far,
Bright on our path Thy pardon-smiles have beam'd.
“Now” is man's time; salvation's priceless now!
Divine Consoler, may we guard it well;
And to Thyself our lives this moment vow,—
They next may hover round the brink of hell!
Dread we, O Lord! Thine awful love to grieve
As once of old degraded Israel did;
Nor tempt Thee, in dark wilds of death to leave
Souls which pursue what faith and Heaven forbid.
Hush we the heart! “Venite” let us hear
Creation, Providence, and Grace repeat;
Till Christ receive us, and the soul's career
Be ever circling round His mercy-seat.
The church's Canaan is no earth-made rest,
No land of palm, or vine-clad hill, and glade;
But that true Palestine, where all the blest
In beams of glory are by God array'd.
Heaven is the father-land of christian souls,
The home, where all the holy yearn to be—
By faith, while flesh their present doom controls,
In fact, when time becomes eternity.
