Then, as each fond unconscious child On the 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, That Thou might'st live for them a sadder death to see. And next to these, thy gracious word Was as a pledge of benediction, stor'd For Christian mothers, while they moan Their treasur'd hopes, just born, baptiz'd, and gone. Oh joy for Rachel's broken heart! She and her babes shall meet no more to part; So dear to Christ her pious haste To trust them in his arms, for ever safe embrac'd. She dares not grudge to leave them there, Where to behold them was her heart's first prayer, She dares not grieve-but she must weep, As her pale placid martyr sinks to sleep, Teaching so well and silently How, at the shepherd's call, the lamb should die : D How happier far than life the end Of souls that infant-like beneath their burthen bend. FIRST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down. Isaiah xxxviii. 8. Compare Josh. x. 13. "TIS true, of old th' unchanging sun The pale moon hurrying to the west Th' avenging storm of war, that laid But can it be, one suppliant tear A sick man's lowly breathed sigh, • And Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall, and prayed unto the Lord. And hides his weary eyes to pray, Should change your mystic dance, ye wanderers of the sky? We too, O Lord, would fain command, As then, thy wonder-working hand, And backward force the waves of Time, That now so swift and silent bear Our restless bark from year to year; Help us to pause and mourn to Thee our tale of crime. Bright hopes, that erst the bosom warm'd, And prayers blown wide by gales of care ;- Like stormy lights on mountain streams, Wavering and broken all, athwart the conscience glare. How shall we 'scape th' o'erwhelming Past? Can spirits broken, joys o'ercast, And eyes that never more may smile : Can these th' avenging bolt delay, Or win us back one little day : The bitterness of death to soften and beguile? Father and Lover of our souls! Though darkly round thine anger rolls, Thy sunshine smiles beneath the gloom, Thy showers would pierce the harden'd ground, And win it to give out its brightness and perfume. 'Thou smil'st on us in wrath, and we, All glowing with the light accepted Love imparts. Time's waters will not ebb, nor stay, Power cannot change them, but Love may; What cannot be, Love counts it done. Deep in the heart, her searching view Can read where Faith is fix'd and true, Through shades of setting life can see Heaven's work begun. O Thou, who keep'st the Key of Love, Open thy fount, eternal Dove, And overflow this heart of mine, Till in one blaze of charity Care and remorse are lost, like motes in light divine; Till, as each moment wafts us higher, By every gush of pure desire, And high-breath'd hope of joys above, By every sacred sigh we heave, Whole years of folly we outlive, In His unerring sight, who measures Life by Love. THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. Colossians ii. 11. |