And since we see, and not afar,

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.

Where is the lore the Baptist taught,
The soul unswerving and the fearless tongue?
The much-enduring wisdom, sought
By lonely prayer the haunted rocks among?

His light should wane,

So the whole world to Jesus throng?

Thou Spirit who the Church didst lend

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 watchfires light,

To guide aright

Our weary souls, by earth beguil❜d.

d St. John iii. 30. He must increase, but I must decrease.

e Revelations xii. 14.

So glorious let thy Pastors shine,

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.

ST. PETER'S DAY.

When Herod would have brought him out, the same night Peter was sleeping. Acts xii. 6.

THOU thrice denied, yet thrice belov❜d,

Watch by thine own forgiven friend ;

In sharpest perils faithful prov'd,

Let his soul love thee to the end.

f Malachi iv. 6. He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers.

St. Luke i. 17. To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

g St. John xxi. 15, 16, 17.

The prayer is heard-else why so deep
His slumber on the eve of death?
And wherefore smiles he in his sleep
As one who drew celestial breath?

He loves and is belov'd again

Can his soul choose,but be at rest? Sorrow hath fled away, and Pain Dares not invade the guarded nest.

He dearly loves, and not alone:

For his wing'd thoughts are soaring high Where never yet frail heart was known To breathe in vain affection's sigh.

He loves and weeps—but more than tears Have seal'd thy welcome and his love— One look lives in him, and endears

Crosses and wrongs where'er he rove :

That gracious chiding look", Thy call
To win him to himself and Thee,

Sweetening the sorrow of his fall

Which else were ru'd too bitterly.

h St. Luke xxii. 61.

X

Even through the veil of sleep it shines,
The memory of that kindly glance ;-
The Angel watching by divines

And spares awhile his blissful trance.

Or haply to his native lake

His vision wafts him back, to talk With JESUS, ere his flight he take, As in that solemn evening walk,

When to the bosom of his friend,

The Shepherd, He whose name is Good, Did His dear lambs and sheep commend, Both bought and nourish'd with His blood :

Then laid on him th' inverted tree,

Which firm embrac'd with heart and arm,

Might cast o'er hope and memory,
O'er life and death, its awful charm.

With brightening heart he bears it on,
His passport thro' th' eternal gates,
To his sweet home-so nearly won,
He seems, as by the door he waits,

The unexpressive notes to hear

Of angel song and angel motion, Rising and falling on the ear

Like waves in Joy's unbounded ocean.

His dream is chang'd-the Tyrant's voice Calls to that last of glorious deedsBut as he rises to rejoice,

Not Herod but an Angel leads.

He dreams he sees a lamp flash bright,
Glancing around his prison room—

But 'tis a gleam of heavenly light
That fills up all the ample gloom.

The flame, that in a few short years
Deep through the chambers of the dead
Shall pierce, and dry the fount of tears,
Is waving o'er his dungeon-bed.

Touch'd he upstarts-his chains unbindThrough darksome vault, up massy stair,

His dizzy, doubting footsteps wind

To freedom and cool moonlight air.