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ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER

TRINITY.

Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and men servants, and maid servants? 2 Kings v. 26.

Is this a time to plant and build,

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?

Is this a time for moonlight dreams
Of love and home by mazy streams,
For Fancy with her shadowy toys,
Aerial hopes and pensive joys,

While souls are wandering far and wide
And curses swarm on every side?

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No-rather steel thy melting heart

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.

Yes-let them pass without a sigh,
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.

The fire of Heaven is soon to fall,
(Thou know'st it) on this earthly ball;

Then many a soul, the price of blood,
Mark'd by th' Almighty's hand for good,
Shall feel the o'erflowing whirlwinds sweep-
And will the blessed Angels weep?

Then in his wrath shall GOD uproot

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.

Pray only that thine aching heart,
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".

Snatch'd sudden from th' avenging rod,
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.

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d Jeremiah xlv. 4, 5. 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.

TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER

TRINITY.

And looking up to Heaven, He sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. St. Mark vii. 34.

THE Son of God in doing good

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.

He look'd to heaven, and sadly sigh’d—
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?

O'erwhelming thoughts of pain and grief Over his sinking spirit sweep ;— "What boots it gathering one lost leaf "Out of yon sere and wither'd heap, "Where souls and bodies, hopes and joys, “All that earth owns or sin destroys, "Under the spurning hoof are cast, "Or tossing in th' autumnal blast ?"

The deaf may hear the Saviour's voice, 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 even in healing cloudless shine.

No eye but His might ever bear

To gaze all down that drear abyss,

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