The Order for Morning and Evening Prayer.
“The Morning and Evening Prayer shall be used in the accustomed place of the Church, Chapel, or Chancel.”
—Prayer Book.
Bright-wing'd Adorers! who enwreath God's throne
In worship, awe, and wonder,
Waft from your choral heaven some kindling tone
To Saints assembled under
That Mercy-seat of Light above
Which ye behold in perfect love;
That from your liturgy our own may take
Echoes which keep regen'rate hearts awake.
Sinless ye are, but sinful clay are we,
Lisping our feeble praise;
Time is our home, but yours,—eternity
Amid th' empyreal blaze
Where Father, Son, and Spirit dwell
In glories unrevealable!
Yet, from the
Church angelic nature can
Learn mystic lore, by seeing God in Man.
Still, in these outer-courts of Flesh and Time
Wall'd round by space, and earth,
Souls know but little of that chant sublime
Which suits their second birth;
While ye, whose cloudless vision eyes
HIM who became their Sacrifice,
Not through our media, distant, faint, or dim,
Laud the One Lord of Saints, and Seraphim.
But now, preluded by that gracious word
From lips of Mercy spoken,
Our heart-toned litanies on high are heard
Most welcome, when most broken
By sobs and sighs, that intervene,
Confessing what the past hath been:—
And this, because a
priested God-Man there
Divinely consecrates the Church's prayer.
Approach we, therefore; but, with rev'rence due,
O'erawed by instincts deep;
And, on the brink of vocal worship, view
Visions which make us weep,—
Arising from remember'd years,
From harrow'd guilt, and haunting fears,
While pale contritions shudder from within
O'er the dread shadow of departed sin!
Maternal Guide! fond Mother of us all,
Blest be thy wisdom now;
Who, ere on Christ our adorations call,
The speechless heart would bow,
And by reflecting silence teach
Lessons mere language cannot reach;
While musing Sorrow introverts the eye,
And God, in gentleness,
seems passing by.
