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 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D, 
 
 BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 DMsioa 
 
 Section / (////// 
 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 OF DEVOTION 
 
 t 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR 
 
THE 
 
 CHRISTIAN 
 
 YEAR 
 
 BY» / i/ 
 
 JOHN KEBLE 
 
 WITH NOTES 
 AND INTRO- 
 DUCTION BY 
 
 WALTER LOCK 
 
 D.D. 
 
 WARDEN OF 
 KEBLE COLLEGE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 FREDERICK A. 
 STOKES COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction ..... ix 
 
 Appendix I. xxvii 
 
 Appendix II. ... . xxviii 
 
 Note ..... xxxiv 
 
 Advertisement .... 
 Morning .... 
 
 Evening .... 
 
 Advent Sunday .... 
 Second Sunday" in Advent. The Signs of the 
 
 Times .... 
 
 Third Sunday in Advent. The travellers 
 Fourth Sunday in Advent. Dimness . 
 Christmas Day .... 
 S. Stephen's Day 
 
 S. John's Day .... 
 The Holy Innocents 
 First Sunday after Christmas. The Sun Dial of 
 
 Ahaz .... 
 
 The Circumcision 
 Second Sunday after Christmas. The Pilgrim' 
 
 Song .... 
 
 The Epiphany .... 
 First Sunday after Epiphany. The Nightingale 
 Second Sunday after Epiphany. The Secret of 
 
 perpetual Youth 
 Third Sunday after Epiphany. The Good 
 
 Centurion .... 
 Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. The World is 
 
 for Excitement, the Gospel for Soothing 
 Fifth Sunday after Epiphany. Cure Sin and 
 
 you cure Sorrow 
 Sixth Sunday after Epiphany. The Benefits of 
 
 Uncertainty 
 Septuagesima Sunday . 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Sexagesima Sunday 
 Quinquagesima Sunday 
 Ash- Wednesday 
 First Sunday in Lent. 
 Second Sunday in Lent. 
 Third Sunday in Lent. 
 Fourth Sunday in Lent, 
 Fifth Sunday in Lent. 
 
 The City of Refuge 
 Esau's Forfeit 
 
 The Spoils of Satan 
 
 The Rosebud 
 The Burning Bush 
 
 Christ refusing the 
 
 Christ in the Garden 
 The Vision of the 
 
 S. Peter and 
 
 Palm Sunday. The Children in the Temple 
 Monday before Easter. Christ waiting for the 
 
 Cross . 
 
 Tuesday before Easter. 
 
 Wine and Myrrh . 
 Wednesday before Easter. 
 Thursday before Easter. 
 
 Latter Days 
 Good Friday 
 Easter Eve 
 Easter Day 
 Monday in Easter Week 
 
 Cornelius .... 
 Tuesday in Easter Week. The Snowdrop 
 First Sunday after Easter. The restless Pastor 
 
 reproved .... 
 Second Sunday after Easter. Balaam . 
 Third Sunday after Easter. Languor and 
 
 Travail 
 Fourth Sunday after Easter. The Dove on the 
 
 Cross 
 Fifth Sunday after Easter. The Priest's Inter 
 
 cessor .... 
 
 Ascension Day .... 
 Sunday after Ascension Day. Seed-time 
 Whitsunday 
 Monday in Whitsun-week. 
 
 fusion 
 Tuesday in Whitsun-week. 
 Trinity Sunday 
 First Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 Ruins of Canaan . 
 Second Sunday after Trinity 
 
 of Faith . 
 
 The City of Con 
 Holy Orders 
 
 Israel 
 
 among 
 
 the 
 
 Charity the Life 
 
 PAGE 
 
 64 
 
 67 
 69 
 
 7* 
 74 
 77 
 80 
 
 83 
 87 
 
 89 
 
 92 
 94 
 
 103 
 106 
 
 109 
 
 114 
 116 
 
 119 
 
 121 
 
 125 
 128 
 130 
 '33 
 
 135 
 138 
 141 
 
 144 
 
 146 
 
CONTENTS vii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Third Sunday after Trinity. Comfort for Sinners 
 
 in the presence of the Good . . 149 
 
 Fourth Sunday after Trinity. The Groans of 
 
 Nature . . . . .152 
 
 Fifth Sunday after Trinity. The Fishermen 
 
 ofBethsaida . . . .156 
 
 Sixth Sunday after Trinity. The Psalmist re- 
 penting . . . . 1 59 
 
 Seventh Sunday after Trinity. The Feast in 
 
 the Wilderness . . . .161 
 
 Eighth Sunday after Trinity. The Disobedient 
 
 Prophet . . . . .165 
 
 Ninth Sunday after Trinity. Elijah in 
 
 Horeb . . . . .167 
 
 Tenth Sunday after Trinity. Christ weeping 
 
 over Jerusalem . . . .170 
 
 Eleventh Sunday after Trinity Gehazi re- 
 proved . . . . .172 
 
 Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. The Deaf and 
 
 Dumb ..... 175 
 
 Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. Moses on 
 
 the Mount . . . .177 
 
 Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. The Ten 
 
 Lepers . . . .181 
 
 Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity. The Flowers 
 
 of the Field . . . .183 
 
 Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. Hope is better 
 
 than Eaue . . . . .185 
 
 Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity. Ezekiel's 
 
 Vision in the Temple . . .188 
 
 Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity. The Church 
 
 in the Wilderness . . . .191 
 
 Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity. Shadrach, 
 
 Meshach, and Abednego . . .195 
 
 Twentieth Sunday after Trinity. Mountain 
 
 Scenery . . . . .198 
 
 Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity. The Red- 
 breast in September . . . 200 
 
 Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity. The Rule 
 
 of Christian Forgiveness . . . 203 
 
 Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity. Forest 
 
 Leaves in Autumn . . . .205 
 
Vlll 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity. Imperfec 
 
 tion of Human Sympathy . 
 Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity. The Two 
 
 Rainbows .... 
 Sunday next before Advent. Self-Examination 
 
 before Advent 
 S. Andrew's Day 
 S. Thomas the Apostle 
 Conversion of S. Paul . 
 Purification of S. Mary the Virgin 
 S. Matthias' Day 
 
 Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary 
 S. Mark's Day .... 
 S. Philip and S. James's Day 
 S. Barnabas the Apostle 
 S. John Baptist's Day . 
 S. Peter's Day .... 
 S. James the Apostle 
 S. Bartholomew the Apostle 
 S. Matthew the Apostle 
 S. Michael and all Angels 
 S. Luke the Evangelist . 
 S. Simon and S. Jude, Apostles 
 All Saints' Day .... 
 Holy Communion 
 
 Holy Baptism .... 
 Catechism .... 
 
 Confirmation .... 
 Matrimony .... 
 Visitation and Communion of the Sick 
 Burial of the Dead 
 Churching of Women . 
 Commination .... 
 Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea 
 Gunpowder Treason 
 King Charles the Martyr 
 The Restoration of the Royal Family . 
 The Accession .... 
 Ordination .... 
 
 Index ..... 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THERE is scant need of a fresh Introduction 
 1 to " The Christian Year " : the author has 
 himself told us that his aim is to produce a sober 
 standard of feeling in religious matters, and that 
 his method is to do this by bringing into relief 
 the soothing tendency of the Prayer Book. 
 Sobriety and soothing power — these are its 
 chief notes. Dr Barry has expanded these 
 notes well in an essay in which he shows 
 how the quietness of its tone, and the constant 
 sense of the Presence of God in Nature, in 
 Humanity, and in the Church, fits it to be a 
 true " Companion of the Devout Life." * 
 From a point of view at once literary and 
 spiritual, Principal Shairp 2 has drawn out its 
 deep and tender religious feeling, centring in 
 a devout reverence for the Person of our Lord 
 and in a close personal love to Him as a living 
 friend ; its consecration of home and family life ; 
 the delicate reserve with which it hints at, rather 
 than blurts out, the deepest feelings ; and the 
 combination of the artist's touch which depicts 
 Nature with the spiritual vision that penetrates 
 
 1 " Companions of the Devout Life," Second Series, 
 1876. Lecture iv. 
 
 2 J. C. Shairp, " Studies in Poetry and Philosophy." 
 " John Keble." 
 
 ix 
 
x INTRODUCTION 
 
 her secrets. Finally, the present writer has 
 elsewhere tried to show 1 that the author's 
 dominant passion is the faith in innocence, the 
 belief that Nature and man can alike make 
 response to God for His gifts ; that the Church 
 can be true to its ideal ; this faith ever under- 
 lies his constant protest against the sin which 
 mars the ideal, and prevents the protest from 
 sinking into despair. 
 
 Yet it may be that a fresh treatment is 
 desirable : for the book is probably not quite 
 so popular as it has been. Why is this ? 
 There are some reasons which are accidental 
 and temporary: thus, Miss Yonge once said 
 that she thought that it was due — partly to the 
 fact that Sunday is so much less strictly observed 
 than it used to be, so that religious people do 
 not allow themselves the leisure necessary for 
 reading it — partly to the change of the Lec- 
 tionary which has in some cases destroyed the 
 correspondence between the Poem and the Sunday 
 services. But it is well to remember that many 
 of the poems were written independently of any 
 particular Sunday : " being in many parts rather 
 adapted with more or less propriety to the 
 successive portions of the Liturgy than suggested 
 by them. ,, 2 The book, then, can stand on its 
 own merits, independently of such associations, 
 and we shall try to see, later, the interest which 
 attaches to the study of the Poems in chronological 
 order, without reference to their framework. 
 
 But there are also reasons resting upon the 
 
 1 W. Lock, " John Keble : a Biography," chap. iii. 
 
 2 The Advertisement (p. xxxv). 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 book itself: in the first place it is felt to be 
 obscure. The charge is true, but to a much 
 more limited extent than is thought. The 
 majority of the poems, especially of the earlier 
 poems, are perfectly clear. Is the Jordan itself 
 as it bursts from the lime-stone rocks that over- 
 hang Banias more lucid than the poems for the 
 Purification, S. John's Day, Whitsunday, Palm 
 Sunday, or the Wednesday before Easter? 
 The obscurity, where it is to be found, is 
 sometimes due to a mystical treatment of Holy 
 Scripture, which is not so familiar to us as it 
 used to be : more often it is due to the quick- 
 darting thought of the writer, passing from one 
 subject to another by a train of feeling rather 
 than of logic. One who heard his conversation 
 in early life said that " to attempt to write 
 down what he said would be as difficult as for 
 a painter to draw his picture." There is some- 
 thing analogous to this in the poems, and an 
 attempt is made in the present edition to meet 
 the difficulty. A short analysis of the thought 
 is prefixed to each poem : and a few notes are 
 added explaining the rarer words and the more 
 difficult lines, showing the various influences 
 which have moulded the diction, and illustrating 
 the thought from other portions of Mr Keble's 
 own writings. 
 
 Again, it is sometimes felt that the book is 
 not quite adapted to the religious tone of the 
 present day, that it is somewhat tame, somewhat 
 ecclesiastically narrow, that it wants intensity, 
 breadth, stimulus. Such a charge is even less 
 true than the former ; the tone is indeed that of 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 self-discipline, of control, of resignation, of 
 content : 
 
 Its still small voice is often heard 
 Whispering a mingled sentiment 
 'Tvvixt resignation and content. 
 
 But it is the resignation of a very sensitive 
 soul, which has felt at once the brightness of 
 life and its sorrow, and which in both has 
 stayed itself upon the power of God. There is 
 calm, but it is the calm not of a stagnant pond 
 but of a mountain stream which has started as 
 a bright flashing waterfall amid the trees, has 
 forced its course over a rocky bed, and is just 
 emerging, broad, calm, and clear, into the 
 channel in the valley. 
 
 In reading the book once more with a view 
 to this edition, I have been much struck with 
 three points which justify a belief in its per- 
 manent value, and which may help those who 
 wish to gain devotional aid from its use. 
 
 ( I ) The most striking feature is its width of 
 sympathy, its sense of the consecration of all 
 life. In Dean Stanley's words, " It has a real 
 openness of mind for the whole large view o£ 
 the Church and the world." 1 The mere 
 diction of the poems will illustrate this : not 
 only have all the parts of the Bible (Old Testa- 
 ment, New Testament, and Apocrypha) as well 
 as the Fathers and the Prayer Book contributed 
 to mould it, but (as the notes to the present 
 edition will show) Homer, iEschylus, the 
 
 1 From a letter to Principal Shairp, quoted in 
 11 Principal Shairp and his Friends," by W. Knight, 
 p. 26. 
 
INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 Greek Anthology, as well as Pascal, Bishop 
 Butler, Spenser, George Herbert, Milton, 
 Waller, Gray, Cowper, Burns, Rogers, and, 
 above all, Scott and Wordsworth, have enriched 
 it with phrase or imagery. One poem espe- 
 cially of Wordsworth's, the Ode " On the 
 intimations of Immortality from Recollections of 
 Early Childhood, " seems to me to have left its 
 mark on at least five poems, on those for the 
 Holy Innocents' Day, the Epiphany, the Seventh 
 and Twenty-second Sundays after Trinity, and 
 S. Philip and S. James. 
 
 But the diction is a mere symbol of the large- 
 hearted sympathy which includes all creation 
 within its embrace, and sees the consecration of 
 God's Presence on every side. The whole of 
 the material world is "a book, to show how 
 God Himself is found"; it is the means by 
 which lawless and perplexed souls are " tuned to 
 hymns of perfect love." It has this power by 
 creation, but redemption has given it a fresh glow: 
 
 Thenceforth to eyes of high desire 
 
 The meanest things below, 
 As with a seraph's robe of fire 
 
 Invested, burn and glow. 
 
 Not only the mountain and the sea have their 
 voices, but cheap forms and common hues in the 
 snowdrop, the rosebud, the willow, the red- 
 breast, the nightingale, can speak of God, can 
 witness to His Love, and preach contentment's 
 power. 1 
 
 1 Compare especially Septuagesima Sunday, Easter 
 Day, Whitsunday, the First Sunday after Epiphany, 
 the Second and Fourth Sundays after Trinity. 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 So, within the world of humanity, every 
 human life has its value to the Christian : 
 
 Even so, who loves the Lord aright, 
 No soul of man can worthless find ; 
 
 All will be precious in his sight, 
 Since Christ on all hath shined. 1 
 
 And every part of life is sacred. Not only 
 is this true of the innocent brightness of the 
 infant's face, in which God's Presence is nigher 
 to us than even in the twilight stars or the moist 
 flowers at even, and of the calm old age of those 
 who are waiting their summons to the sky ; but 
 even the dull weary task of middle life, when 
 the brightness of youth is gone and the repose of 
 old age has not come, is consecrated by the 
 memory of Christ's ministry. 2 
 
 So again while he is essentially the poet of 
 home and of married life, telling how 
 
 Sweet is the smile of home ; the mutual look 
 
 When hearts are of each other sure ; 
 Sweet all the joys that crowd the household nook, 
 
 The haunt of all affections pure ; 
 
 how the love of mother and son has been 
 specially consecrated by Christ's example, and 
 what is the secret of true brotherhood and true 
 comradeship ; 3 yet perhaps the richest and most 
 
 1 Second Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 2 Holy Innocents' Day, Twenty-fifth Sunday after 
 Trinity, Holy Baptism, Catechism (child life): S. 
 Philip and S. James (middle age): All Saints' Day 
 (old age.) 
 
 8 Sexagesima Sunday, First Sunday in Lent, Wed- 
 nesday before Easter, Matrimony, (husband and wife) : 
 The Annunciation (mother and son): Trinity Sunday, 
 S. Andrew's Day, (brothers) : S. Simon and S. Jude 
 (friends). 
 
INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 melodious of all his poems, that for S. Matthew's 
 Day, is devoted to those hermits blest and holy 
 maids, 
 
 The nearest Heaven on earth, 
 
 Who talk with God in shadowy glades 
 
 Free from rude care and mirth. 
 
 While he sings mainly of the joy of country 
 life, yet that same poem shows that Christ's 
 presence can be found within city and com- 
 mercial life : 
 
 There are in this loud stunning tide 
 
 Of human care and crime, 
 With whom the melodies abide 
 
 Of the everlasting chime ; 
 Who carry music in their heart 
 Through dusky lane and wrangling mart, 
 Plying their daily task with busier feet, 
 Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat. 
 
 There is no touch of Puritan otherworldliness 
 here : " brightest art " as well as " sweetest 
 nature " offers its votive incense to God : 
 architecture and music are drawn into the 
 Church's service : to poetry it is given 
 
 God's own work to do on earth, 
 (If the word be not too bold), 
 
 Giving virtue a new birth, 
 
 And a life that ne'er grows old. 
 
 History is the record of " God teaching love 
 and fear"; and thus all classical poetry wit- 
 nesses to a truth beyond itself: for " thoughts 
 beyond their thought to those high Bards were 
 given." The history of Pagan religions and of 
 Judaism is brought into line with Christianity, 
 while the Christian centuries supply the portraits 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 of the student S. Jerome, the Christian kings S. 
 Louis and King Charles the First, the meek 
 biographer Isaac Walton, the saintly theologian 
 and confessor Henry Hammond. 1 It may be 
 doubted whether any devotional book, except 
 the Psalter itself, brings so wide and varied a 
 set of themes within the range of meditation 
 and praise. One motto of the book might well 
 be the words of S. Paul : " Every creature of 
 God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be 
 received with thanksgiving," or the author's own 
 words : 
 
 There is no light but Thine ; with Thee all beauty 
 glows. 
 
 (2) Such is the first characteristic, a very 
 bright characteristic ; but equally marked is the 
 intensity of sad feeling. Experience has taught 
 the poet that " dreary were this earth, if earth 
 were all." He has himself told us elsewhere 
 that he was by nature inclined to melancholy, 
 "to a certain humour . . . proud and fantastic, 
 which I find very often at hand forbidding me 
 to enjoy the good things and pursue the generous 
 studies which a kind Providence throws so richly 
 in my way." 2 The poems bear witness that it 
 
 1 Third Sunday after Epiphany (architecture and 
 music): Third Sunday in Lent and Palm Sunday 
 (poetry): Fifth Sunday in Lent (history): The Cir- 
 cumcision (Jewish History) : The Epiphany (Pagan 
 History) : First Sunday in Advent, King Charles, The 
 Restoration (Church History). 
 
 2 Letter to J. T. Coleridge, " Memoir," p. 66. 
 Dean Paget quotes him as one who in modern times 
 had conquered the tendency to "accidie." "The 
 Spirit of Discipline," p. 35. 
 
INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 had required a struggle on his part to break with 
 worldly ambitions and earthly hopes, 1 and that 
 the sorrow of unrequited love had sunk deep 
 into his heart. 2 He felt keenly, too, the loss of 
 loved friends by death ; but keenest of all is the 
 sorrow for sin, the pang of remorse. It is the 
 sense of sin in himself which makes him feel 
 unworthy to read " one page of Nature's beaute- 
 ous book" ; it is this which fills him with that 
 terrible sense of loneliness, which makes him 
 shrink from the society of the pure and inno- 
 cent ; 3 it is the presence of sin in the Church 
 which makes him melancholy and despondent 
 at moments for her future, and leads him to 
 assume that "the Church is in a state of 
 decay " ; it is the universal presence of sin 
 which gives a note of sadness to the blithest 
 strains of Nature ; and makes him lay stress on 
 the terrific justice of God's punishments. 4 
 
 (3) But there is yet a third equally-marked 
 characteristic, the faith in God's forgiving and 
 restoring love ; the faith that mercy rejoiceth 
 against justice, that innocence and brightness 
 can be recovered by penitence. Bishop Butler 
 has pointed out that there is an element of 
 mercy or compassion in the original constitution 
 of the world, and he has treated the Atonement 
 of Our Lord as being the climax of this 
 
 1 First Sunday after Easter, Sixteenth Sunday after 
 Trinity. 
 
 8 Monday and Wednesday before Easter. 
 
 8 Septuagesima Sunday, Ash-Wednesday, Third and 
 Twenty-fourth Sundays after Trinity. 
 
 4 First Sunday after Christmas, Second Sunday in 
 Lent. 
 
xviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 element. 1 It is impossible to say whether in 
 this, as in so many other respects, Keble is 
 consciously indebted to the author of " The 
 Analogy " ; but it is certain that the thought 
 finds nowhere a more frequent and a more 
 poetical expression than in " The Christian 
 Year.'* Let us listen to the choir that sings 
 of mercy. There is the nightingale reproving 
 man's sadness with joyous cheer ; the gentle 
 breezes whispering that love yet lives ; the 
 gentle rainbow soothing the wearied sight ; the 
 lilies of the field soothing in sorrow on life's 
 downward way ; there is solace in every star 
 and every cottage hearth : there is the sympathy 
 of kind friends, of bosoms waiting to receive 
 our sighs, who love us and lead us to hope in 
 God's forgiveness : there is happiness as we 
 watch some placid holy deathbed ; the Church 
 adds her soothing lay, the soothing charm of 
 her Eucharistic and Burial services ; the guardian 
 spirits of the dead cheer the lonely room ; the 
 saints by sweet remembrance soothe our woes : 
 our angel friends will be with us at the judg- 
 ment : and all these lead us on with hope and 
 faith into the Presence of the Lord Himself. 
 And though we may not have that perilous 
 sense of assurance, which would lead us to 
 relax our efforts, 2 yet we may rest on the sense 
 
 i " The Analogy," Part ii. chap. 5. 
 
 2 Compare the Sixth Sunday alter Epiphany and 
 the Fourth Sunday alter Easter. The same thought of 
 the danger of trusting to our feelings lor salvation is 
 strongly expressed in a sermon preached on Dec. 14, 
 1823. " Sermons Occasional and Parochial," xv., esp. 
 p. 185 
 
INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 of His individual pardoning love : His atoning 
 death gives us safety : our selfish sorrow is 
 purified into unselfish penitence ; there comes 
 the sweet repose of hearts repenting ; the 
 princely heart of innocence is given back to 
 the contrite : it becomes wrong to brood over 
 the past and cherish remorseful thoughts : it 
 is our privilege and our duty to outlive years 
 of folly by a life of grateful Love. 
 
 Of a truth it was not in vain that he had 
 wooed the soothing art. 
 
 We may reach somewhat the same result by 
 a different process. It is a most interesting 
 study to read the poems in chronological order ; 
 and, although it is true that the intention to fit 
 the poems into particular niches in the Christian 
 year interferes a little with their spontaneity, yet 
 this really only applies to the later poems, and 
 much of human interest is gained by this process 
 for the appreciation of the volume. 1 
 
 The earliest poem, that for the Purification, 
 dates from 1819. As early as 1820 it was the 
 writer's practice to keep the poems in a fair-copy 
 book as though for publication at some future 
 time ; 2 in 1825 friends induced him to prepare 
 them at once for publication ; the preface was 
 written on May 30, 1827, and the volume 
 appeared directly afterwards. In 1828 a third 
 
 1 In Appendix II. will be found a chronological list 
 of the Poems. This is in the main the same as that 
 already published in my " Biography of John Keble," 
 but in a few details I have been able to make it com- 
 pleter and more accurate. 
 
 2 Appendix I. contains an account of this and other 
 MSS. of "The Christian Year." 
 
xx INTRODUCTION 
 
 edition appeared containing as additional matter, 
 six poems on the Occasional services. The 
 composition of the whole volume then falls 
 within the years 1 819-1828. The circum- 
 stances of Mr Keble's life suggest a division 
 of these years into three periods, the first ex- 
 tending from 181 9- 1823, the second from 
 1823-1825, and the last from 1825-1828. 
 
 During the first period Keble was an active 
 tutor at Oriel College, Oxford. One trace of 
 this university life is to be found in the circum- 
 stances which caused the poem for S. John's 
 Day ; 1 the deaths of his friend Coleridge's 
 child, and of his friend Patteson's wife in 
 1820, seem to be alluded to in the poem for 
 the Wednesday before Easter, and a visit paid 
 to Malvern and Aberystwith in 1822 has 
 inspired his only poem on mountain scenery, 
 that for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity. 
 This period has produced the brightest and 
 most hopeful of the poems ; in style a few 
 are a little more prosaic than the later poems, 
 but the majority are clear, melodious, and 
 happy. They begin with the praise of purity 
 and lowliness ; they include the greater number 
 of the poems on Nature ; they tell of its sym- 
 bolism, its sadness, its pervading throb of Love ; 
 they speak of the Presence of Christ in Nature, 
 in History, in wedded life, in celibate life, in 
 city life, and in country life, of the happiness 
 that springs from sacrifice, and of the perma- 
 nence of Christian joy. 
 
 The second period, from May 1823 to 
 1 See the note there (p. 26). 
 
INTRODUCTION xxi 
 
 September 1825 covers the time when he was 
 living at Southrop in Gloucestershire, in pastoral 
 charge of that and of the two neighbouring 
 parishes ; the time when he took Froude and 
 Wilberforce and Isaac Williams as pupils in 
 his house. No doubt it was a time of much 
 happiness, for was it not then that the gardener 
 made his comment on the party: "There is 
 Master, the greatest boy of them all " ? but it 
 was marked withal by two great sorrows : it 
 began with his mother's death (May 11, 
 1823); it ended with the refusal of an offer 
 of marriage by a lady whom he had long 
 wished to make his wife. At the same time 
 he was growing more and more dissatisfied 
 with the low spiritual tone which prevailed 
 in the Church, and the Erastian spirit in 
 which the State was prepared to deal with 
 her. All these influences have left their mark 
 upon the Poems : that for the Annunciation 
 tells of the sacredness of a mother's love: 
 those for the Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity 
 and for Holy Innocents' Day show that 
 pastoral love for children which was destined 
 to produce the " Lyra Innocentium " : the 
 chief Nature Poem (First Sunday after Epi- 
 phany) preaches content : God's consecration 
 is on suffering, doubt, and punishment: the 
 lesson of sweet peace is rather in all to be 
 resigned than blest : the weary task of middle 
 life is dwelt upon, and the sad loneliness of 
 each heart: there is more sadness for the 
 Church itself; the signs of coming judgment 
 are pointed out : one of the latest poems of 
 b 
 
xxii INTRODUCTION 
 
 this period (Sunday next before Advent) tells 
 the secret of much of the utterances of the 
 time ; they come from 
 
 A bosom freshly taught to grieve 
 For lavished hours and love misspent. 
 
 The final period, from October 1825 to 
 March 1828 is of a more mixed character. 
 Commencing with the year when he was curate 
 at Hursley, the year which an intimate friend 
 has characterised as "the brightest and most 
 sunshiny " period of his life, 1 it was broken by 
 what was probably the greatest sorrow of his 
 early life, the sudden death of his favourite 
 sister in September 1826, and the rest of the 
 time was passed by him quietly at Fairford as 
 curate to his father. The time was not so 
 prolific as the last period, and the results were 
 varied. Two of the most perfect and happy 
 of all the poems sprang from it : that for the 
 Monday before Easter tells of Christ's personal 
 love for every individual soul ; that for the 
 Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity traces the 
 secret of the beauty of Nature to its simple 
 trust in God. But there is still the sense of 
 sad loneliness, of the reproaching conscience, 
 of the desire for forgiveness, and the attractive 
 power of the Cross becomes stronger to him 
 (Good Friday). The style is less clear, 
 some of the poems give the impression of 
 being written, as it were, to order, with a 
 view to completing the volume ; but, as he 
 himself tells us in the Advertisement, the necessity 
 1 J. T. Coleridge : " Memoir," p. 128. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxiii 
 
 of dealing with the Occasional Services in which 
 the Church touches personal and domestic life, 
 brought home to him, even more than before, 
 the soothing tendency of the Prayer Book, 
 which it was his chief purpose to exhibit. 
 
 Thus the chronological study of the poems 
 leads us to emphasise the same notes of con- 
 secration, suffering, and soothing, which we 
 have reached before, and seems to justify us 
 in placing them in that order. 
 
 Such notes show how fitted the book is to 
 deepen devotion, but there is one class of people 
 above all others, for whose help it is most 
 adapted. It is "an admirable handbook for 
 the parish priest, because written by one who 
 himself laboured through the greater part of 
 his ministerial career as a parish priest." l 
 
 This would be sufficiently obvious from the 
 points already drawn out : it is the parish priest 
 who more than any one else needs to realise the 
 consecration of all life, the value of each indi- 
 vidual soul, the seriousness of sin, the possibility 
 and methods of bringing home the message of 
 forgiveness, the high ideal of the Church. But 
 his peculiar needs are more specially dealt with ; 
 the ideal of God's chosen priest is sketched in 
 the poem for S. Matthias, that of " Comfort's 
 
 1 " The Poetry of Keble as a guide to the Clergy in 
 their Pastoral work:" by C. C. Mackarness (York, 
 1 891), p. 8. This interesting pamphlet draws its 
 illustrations from the " Lyra Innocentium " as well as 
 from " The Christian Year." The pastoral allusions 
 in "The Christian Year "are excellendy drawn out 
 in "The Country Clergyman's Ideal." by P. G. Medd. 
 
xxiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 true son," in those for S. Barnabas and for the 
 Visitation of the Sick. 
 
 The life of the Lord is sketched as a pattern 
 of the pastor's work : the story of the false 
 prophet bids him persevere to the end ; that of 
 Elijah teaches him to win sinners by soft, meek, 
 tender ways, and to be content to work on with- 
 out the sight of results. His eye must be lifted 
 above earth that he may live an angel's life on 
 earth : his daily work is to bear his Cross nor 
 count it loss ; he must sacrifice all hope of ease 
 or praise ; he must patiently travail in second 
 birth of souls that will not be redeemed : he 
 must preach the sternness of God's judgments, 
 for souls may be lost while his heart is in the 
 world, and God is " angered worst with holy 
 things profaned and cursed." 1 But he has 
 his special encouragements too : the Incarna- 
 tion comes with a special message of hope and 
 comfort to him ; the lowly couch of sickness 
 teaches him patience ; the sight of a placid, 
 holy death brings happiness to him ; Christ is 
 with him, and is able to bless, even in moments 
 of apparent failure and disappointment; the 
 spirit given in Ordination guides his pastoral 
 warfare and wakes him when tempted to 
 slumber ; it teaches and enlightens the clergy 
 Till they with open heart and free 
 Teach all Thy word in all its power. 8 
 
 1 Compare the Second Sunday in Advent, Second 
 Sunday in Lent, first Sunday after Easter, Tuesday in 
 Whitsun-week, Eighth, Ninth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, 
 Twenty-first Sundays after Trinity. 
 
 2 Compare Christmas Day, Tuesday in Easter week, 
 Fifth Sunday after Trinity, Catechism, Ordination. 
 
INTRODUCTION " xxv 
 
 This list of allusions to the priestly life might 
 easily be prolonged : but after all it is only by 
 experience, by personal reading and meditation, 
 that any book can gain a devotional value. It 
 is enough to indicate the path which will lead 
 to sights of beauty. The traveller must climb 
 it himself, in order to see the view. This at 
 least has become clear, that "The Christian 
 Year" is a book which will always appeal to 
 the educated and cultivated intellect; that it 
 will appeal with special force to all who have 
 the responsibility of teaching religious truth ; 
 but its appeal will not cease here. As long 
 as men's minds are touched by the peaceful 
 and consoling side of Nature ; as long as there 
 is reverence felt for the poor and simple ; as 
 long as there is suffering and disappointment and 
 death in the world, so long will "The Christian 
 Year " live in the strength of that soothing art 
 
 Which only souls in sufferings tried 
 Bear to their suffering brethren's side. 
 
 WALTER LOCK. 
 
 This edition is in the main a reprint of that 
 published by Messrs Methuen in 1895 ; but 
 several mistakes in that have been corrected and 
 additional illustrations of Mr Keble's language 
 have been added. For these I am mainly in- 
 debted to others, to the writer of an article in 
 the Church Quarterly Review (July 1 896), and 
 to private correspondents, especially to Mrs Inge, 
 of Worcester College, Oxford ; the Rev. E. 
 Marshall, of Sandford, S. Martin ; and the 
 
xxvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 Rev. Julian Moreton, who has supplied a slight 
 emendation in the poem for S. Matthias' Day. 
 The chief additions will be found in the Morning 
 Hymn and the poems for Christmas Day, the 
 Third Sunday after Epiphany, Palm Sunday, 
 Monday in Whitsun Week, Seventh Sunday 
 after Trinity, S. Matthias' Day, S. Peter's Day, 
 S. Simon and S. Jude's Day, S. Matthew's Day, 
 The Churching of Women. W. L. 
 
 1898. 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 MSS. OF "THE CHRISTIAN YEAR" 
 
 The poems of " The Christian Year " were circulated 
 among friends from the time of their composition ; 
 consequently many, no doubt, still exist in private 
 hands. But in addition to these stray copies, three 
 MSS. are preserved in the Library of Keble College, 
 Oxford, which have been consulted for this edition. 
 They show considerable variant readings, but as 
 a rule these are unimportant, or have been de- 
 liberately altered by the author. No attempt has 
 therefore been made -to offer a complete list of such 
 variants, but only a few have been noted, which seemed 
 to have some special features of interest. I have 
 entitled these MSS. K. i, K. 2, and R., and referred to 
 them as such, when they differ. If they agree, they 
 are classed together as " MSS." K. 1 is far the most 
 valuable : it consists of almost the whole of the poems, 
 written out by Keble himself, soon after composition, 
 in seven small notebooks. The first notebook, was 
 begun at Whalton in Northumberland, on July 30, 
 1820; the last is dated 1827. In this MS. there are 
 a few explanatory sidenotes, to one of which I am 
 indebted for the note on p. 109, infra. 
 
 K. 2 is of equal value, but of less compass. It is a 
 small volume, "MS. Verses chiefly on Sacred Subjects," 
 written out by Keble himself and given by him to Mrs 
 M. H. Pruen in 1822, and containing with other Poems, 
 the earliest thirty "hymns " of "The Christian Year." 
 They end with the Morning Hymn, Sept. 19, 1822. 
 
 R. is a large notebook written out by Mrs Samuel 
 Rickards of Ulcombe. She received the poems from 
 time to time as they were written from the Misses 
 
xxviii APPENDIX II 
 
 Tucker, friends of Keble's sisters, and copied them 
 into this book. Thi3 contains nearly the whole of the 
 volume, but, as might be expected, is less accurate than 
 Keble's own copies. 
 
 A fourth MS., the private property of F. G. 
 Champernowne, Esq., contains nearly the whole 
 volume, written out, before its publication, by the 
 Rev. Thomas Keble, the author's brother. It is of 
 much the same value as R. 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 THE POEMS OF "THE CHRISTIAN YEAR" 
 ARRANGED IN ORDER OF COMPOSITION 
 
 1 819. Oct. 10. The Purification. 
 „ Dec. 27. S. John's Day. 
 
 „ ? Whitsunday. 
 
 „ ? Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 „ ? Septuagesima Sunday. 
 
 „ ? Tenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 1820. Aug. 20. Fourth Sunday after Trinity. 
 ,, Nov. 25. The Evening Hymn. 
 
 „ ? S. Mark's Day. 
 
 „ ? S. Matthias' Day. 
 
 „ ? Palm Sunday. 
 
 1 821. Aug. 13 or 18. Wednesday before Easter. 
 „ Sept. S. Michael and all Angels. 
 
 „ Sept. 16. Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 „ ? Fourth Sunday after Easter. 
 
 „ ? The Dedication. 
 
 „ ? Fifth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 „ ? S. Bartholomew's Day. 
 
 „ ? Fourteenth Sundayafter Trinity. 
 
 „ ? Second Sunday after Epiphany. 
 
APPENDIX II 
 
 XXIX 
 
 1822. Jan. 27. S. Andrew's Day. 
 
 „ March 2. The Conversion of S. Paul. 
 
 „ April 6. S. Luke's Day. 
 
 „ April 18. Easter Day. 
 
 „ Aug. 7. Second Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 „ Aug. 13. Ninth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 „ Aug. 22 or 23. Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 „ Sept. 14. S. Matthew's Day. 
 
 „ Sept. 20. The Morning Hymn. 
 
 „ Sept. 27. Burial of the Dead (written for 
 
 the Sixteenth Sunday after 
 
 Trinity). 
 
 „ Oct. 11. Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 „ ? Third Sunday in Lent (an earlv 
 
 draft). 
 
 „ ? Fourth Sunday in Advent. 
 
 1823. June 5. Thursday before Easter. 
 
 ,, July 15. Twenty - fifth Sunday after 
 
 Trinity. 
 
 „ Sept. 25. Twenty - first Sunday after 
 
 Trinity. 
 
 ,, Sept. 8 or 28. Eleventh Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 ,, Oct. 6. Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 „ Oct. 7. S. James's Day. 
 
 „ Oct. 7. Twentieth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 „ Dec. 26. Advent Sunday. 
 
 1824. Jan. 5. The Holy Innocents. 
 „ Jan. 20. The Circumcision. 
 
 „ Jan. 20. The Epiphany. 
 
 „ Jan. 20 or 26. Second Sunday in Advent. 
 
 „ Jan. 26. Third Sunday in Advent. 
 
 „ Feb. 9. S. Thomas' Day. 
 
 „ Feb. 18. Sexagesima Sunday. 
 
 „ March 6. Quinquagesima Sunday. 
 
 „ March 9. First Sunday in Lent. 
 
 „ April 24. Fifth Sunday in Lent. 
 
 „ May 17. First Sunday after Epiphany. 
 
 „ May 18. Fourth Sunday in Lent. 
 
 „ June 3. Fifth Sunday after Easter. 
 
 „ June 25. Sunday after Ascension Day. 
 
XXX 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 1824. 
 
 ? 
 
 J> 
 
 ? 
 
 
 ? 
 
 S> 
 
 
 55 
 
 ? 
 
 55 
 
 ? 
 
 
 ? 
 
 
 9 
 
 IJ 
 
 
 1825. 
 
 ? 
 
 55 
 
 May 1 5 or 
 
 55 
 
 June 7. 
 
 55 
 
 June 18. 
 
 55 
 
 June 25. 
 
 J) 
 
 July 4. 
 
 » 
 
 July 14. 
 
 )' 
 
 Aug. 3. 
 
 55 
 
 Aug. 15. 
 
 55 
 
 Oct. 23. 
 
 55 
 
 Nov. 4. 
 
 55 
 
 Nov. 12. 
 
 55 
 
 Nov. 29. 
 
 55 
 
 Dec. 19. 
 
 „ OI 
 
 1826. 
 
 1826. 
 
 Jan. 15. 
 
 55 
 
 Jan. 22. 
 
 55 
 
 Jan. 27. 
 
 55 
 
 Feb. 3. 
 
 55 
 
 Feb. 7. 
 
 !) 
 
 Feb. 12. 
 
 11 
 
 March. 
 
 55 
 
 March. 
 
 55 
 
 March 10. 
 
 55 
 
 March 15. 
 
 55 
 
 April 3. 
 
 55 
 
 April 7. 
 
 » 
 
 April 1 1. 
 
 » 
 
 April 13. 
 
 Second Sunday in Lent. 
 
 Sixth Sunday after Epiphany. 
 
 Third Sunday after Epiphany. 
 
 S. Stephen's Day. 
 
 Christmas Day. 
 
 Easter Eve. 
 
 Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 Tuesday in Whitsun-week. 
 
 S. Peter's Day. 
 
 Twenty - fourth Sunday after 
 
 Trinity. 
 Ascension Day. 
 First Sunday after Easter. 
 
 [but August 1 81 8.— R.] 
 S. Barnabas' Day. 
 Sunday before Advent. 
 S. Philip and S. James's Day. 
 First Sunday after Christmas. 
 All Saints' Day. 
 Seventh Sunday after Trinity. 
 Twenty - third Sunday after 
 
 Trinity. 
 Second Sunday after Christmas. 
 Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. 
 Second Sunday after Easter. 
 
 Monday before Easter. [1825. 
 
 -R.] 
 Ash-Wednesday. 
 First Sunday after Trinity. 
 Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 Twenty - second Sunday after 
 
 Trinity. 
 Monday in Easter Week. 
 The Annunciation. 
 Trinity Sunday. 
 Tuesday in Easter Week. 
 Third Sunday after Easter. 
 S. Simon and S. Jude's Day. 
 Third Sunday after Trinity. 
 S. John Baptist's Day. 
 Holy Baptism. 
 
APPENDIX II 
 
 XXXI 
 
 1826 
 
 !5 
 
 April 15 
 May 9. 
 ? 
 
 » 
 
 ? 
 
 l82 7 
 » 
 
 n 
 
 Jan. 31. 
 Feb. 9. 
 Feb. 16. 
 Feb. 21. 
 
 ? 
 
 ? 
 
 » 
 
 j) 
 j» 
 n 
 
 » 
 
 ? 
 March 9. 
 March 13. 
 March 17. 
 Nov. 11. 
 
 ? 
 
 ? 
 
 >> 
 
 ? 
 ? 
 
 1828. 
 
 March 2 
 
 of tht 
 
 Sixth Sunday after Trinity. 
 Fifth Sunday after Epiphany. 
 Good Friday. (An early form of 
 
 this was written in 1825.) 
 Monday in Whitsun-week. 
 
 Holy Communion. 
 Third Sunday in Lent. 
 Catechism. 
 Confirmation. 
 Matrimony. 
 Visitation and Communion 
 
 Sick. 
 Eighth Sunday after Trinity. 
 Commination. 
 Churching of Women. 
 Tuesday before Easter. 
 Gunpowder Treason. 
 King Charles the Martyr 
 Forms of Prayer to be 
 
 used at Sea. 
 The Accession 
 The Restoration 
 
 Royal Family 
 Ordination. 
 
 Added in 
 }• the third 
 edition, 
 of the I 1828. 
 
 J 
 
 It has been suggested with great probability that 
 the exact title of the volume was borrowed from 
 Sermon iv. " The Christian Year," of u A Christian 
 Guide for Plain People," by the author's great friend, 
 the Reverend J. Miller (Oxford, 1820). The sermon 
 shows how the cycle of the Christian seasons tends to 
 build up a practical religion in simple people. [Notes 
 and queries V. xi., p. 224.] 
 
THE CHRISTIAN YEAR 
 
NOTE 
 
 In the preliminary note prefixed to each poem, the 
 title, wherever one is given, is Mr Keble's own. 
 The analysis of the poem is due to the present 
 editor. 
 
 In the notes at the foot of each page, those signed 
 J. K. are Mr Keble's own, and are reprinted from 
 earlier editions. The present editor is responsible for 
 the rest. 
 
 " MSS." signifies that a variant reading is found in 
 all the three manuscripts described in Appendix I. 
 
 K. i,K. 2, or R., signifies that the variation occurs 
 only in one or other of these manuscripts. 
 
 The reader is indebted to the help which I have 
 received from my friend, the Rev. F. A. Clarke, 
 Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who has 
 revised the proofs and helped me with valuable 
 suggestions. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 XT EXT to a sound rule of faith, there is 
 ^ nothing of so much consequence as a 
 sober standard of feeling in matters of practical 
 religion : and it is the peculiar happiness of the 
 Church of England to possess, in her authorised 
 formularies, an ample and secure provision for 
 both. But in times of much leisure and un- 
 bounded curiosity, when excitement of every 
 kind is sought after with a morbid eagerness, 
 this part of the merit of our Liturgy is likely 
 in some measure to be lost, on many even of its 
 sincere admirers : the very tempers which most 
 require such discipline, setting themselves, in 
 general, most decidedly against it. 
 
 The object of the present publication will be 
 attained, if any person find assistance from it in 
 bringing his own thoughts and feelings into more 
 entire unison with those recommended and 
 exemplified in the Prayer Book. The work 
 does not furnish a complete series of composi- 
 tions ; being, in many parts, rather adapted with 
 more or less propriety to the successive portions 
 of the Liturgy, than originally suggested by 
 them. Something has been added at the end 
 concerning the several Occasional Services : 
 which constitute, from their personal and 
 
 XXXV 
 
xxxvi ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 domestic nature, the most perfect instance of 
 that soothing tendency in the Prayer Book, 
 which it is the chief purpose of these pages to 
 exhibit. 
 
 May 30th, 1827. 
 
 
MORNING 
 
 His compassions fail not. They are new every 
 morning. Lamentations iii. 22, 23. 
 
 MORNING HYMN. Sept. 19 or Sept. 20, 1822. 
 
 The main thought of this meditation is the happi- 
 ness of sacrifice. Nature pays its daily tribute to 
 Heaven, and God provides for man a daily sacrifice 
 in the path of ordinary life ; if only he has the self- 
 denial to offer it to God, he is drawn daily nearer to 
 God. Cf. the Morning Hymn by John Austin, 1668. 
 (Palgrave's " Treasury of Sacred Song," clxiv.) 
 
 LJUES of the rich unfolding morn, 1 
 
 That, ere the glorious sun be born, 
 By some soft touch invisible 
 Around his path are taught to swell 2 ; — 
 
 Thou rustling breeze so fresh and gay, 
 That dancest forth at opening day, 
 And brushing by with joyous wing, 
 Wakenest each little leaf to sing ; — 
 
 Ye fragrant clouds of dewy steam, 
 By which deep grove and tangled stream 
 Pay, for soft rains in season given, 
 Their tribute to the genial heaven; — 
 
 K'Hues": "gleams."— MSS. 
 
 2 Swell. The first Edition reads " dwell," but all 
 MSS. "swell"; this should be compared with S. 
 Matthew's Day, st. 8, which was written within a 
 week of this poem. 
 
 A x 
 
2 MORNING 
 
 Why waste your treasures of delight 
 Upon our thankless, joyless sight ; 
 Who day by day to sin awake, 
 Seldom of Heaven and you partake ? 1 
 
 Oh ! timely happy, timely wise, 
 Hearts that with rising morn arise ! 
 Eyes that the beam celestial view, 
 Which evermore makes all things new ? 2 
 
 New every morning is the love 
 Our wakening and uprising prove ; 
 Through sleep and darkness safely brought, 
 Restored to life, and power, and thought. 
 
 New mercies, each returning day, 
 Hover around us while we pray ; 
 New perils past, new sins forgiven, 
 New thoughts of God, new hopes of Heaven. 
 
 If on our daily course our mind 
 Be set to hallow all we find, 
 New treasures still, of countless price, 
 God will provide for sacrifice. 3 
 
 Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be, 
 As more of Heaven in each we see : 4 
 
 1 Between stanzas 4 and 5 all the MSS. insert — 
 
 " Hence the poor sinner still has found 
 Life but one dull unvarying round, 
 And mourned ere half his course was run 
 That ' nought is new beneath the sun.' " 
 
 The stanza was printed in the proof sheet of ed. i., 
 
 but was struck out in the final revision. 
 
 2 Rev. xxi. 5. 
 
 3 Cf. Gen. xxii. 8. My son, God will provide him- 
 self a lamb for a burnt offering. 
 
 4 " In each " : " on earth."— R. 
 
MORNING 3 
 
 Some softening gleam of love and prayer 
 Shall dawn on every cross and care. 
 
 As for some dear familiar strain 
 Untired we ask, and ask again, 
 Ever, in its melodious store, 
 Finding a spell unheard before ; 
 
 Such is the bliss of souls serene, 
 
 When they have sworn, and steadfast mean, 
 
 Counting the cost, in all to espy 
 
 Their God, in all themselves deny. 
 
 O could we learn that sacrifice, 
 What lights would all around us rise ! 
 How would our hearts with wisdom talk 
 Along Life's dullest dreariest walk ! l 
 
 We need not bid, for cloistered cell, 
 Our neighbour and our work farewell, 
 Nor strive to wind ourselves too high 2 
 For sinful man beneath the sky : 8 
 
 The trivial round, the common task, 
 Would furnish all we ought to ask ; 
 Room to deny ourselves ; a road 4 
 To bring us, daily, nearer God. 
 
 1 Cf. S. Luke xxiv. 32. Did not our heart burn 
 within us, while he talked with us by the way ? 
 
 2 "Ourselves": " our souls. "— K. 
 
 3 It is interesting to compare this stanza with S. 
 Matthew's Day, st. 1, written within a week of this 
 poem. 
 
 * "Deny": "subdue."— MSS. 
 
EVENING 
 
 Seek we no more ; content with these, 
 Let present Rapture, Comfort, Ease, 
 As Heaven shall bid them, come and go : — 
 The secret this of Rest below. 
 
 Only, O Lord, in Thy dear love 
 Fit us for perfect Rest above ; 
 And help us, this and every day, 
 To live more nearly as we pray. 
 
 EVENING 
 
 
 Abide with us : for it is toward evening, and the day 
 is far spent. S. Luke xxiv. 29. 
 
 EVENING HYMN. Nov. 25, 1820. 
 
 A personal prayer that Christ the True Light may be 
 with the poet in his meditation, studies, and conversa- 
 tion by day and in his sleep by night (St. 1-8) passes 
 into intercession for the church, the state, the clergy, 
 sinners, the sick, the poor (9-14). 
 
 The poem was very probably composed in two parts. 
 Both in K. and R. a line is drawn between stanzas 8 
 and 9, and in R. " Sunday " is added at the beginning 
 of the second part. The words " See Bishop Andrewes' 
 Devotions " are added in K. and K. 2, probably with 
 reference to the subjects of intercession in his Precatio 
 Vespertina (pp. 41, 42, Ed. Oxon. : 1853). 
 
 ""PIS gone, that bright and orbed blaze, 
 Fast fading from our wistful gaze ; 
 Yon mantling cloud has hid from sight 
 The last faint pulse of quivering light. 
 
 In darkness and in weariness 
 The traveller on his way must press, 
 No gleam to watch on tree or tower, 
 Whiling away the lonesome hour. 
 
EVENING 5 
 
 Sun of my soul ! l Thou Saviour dear, 
 It is not night if Thou be near : 
 Oh ! may no earth-born cloud arise 
 To hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes. 
 
 When round Thy wondrous works below 
 My searching rapturous glance I throw, 
 Tracing out Wisdom, Power, and Love, 
 In earth or sky, in stream or grove ; — 
 
 Or by the light Thy words disclose 
 Watch Time's full river as it flows, 
 Scanning Thy gracious Providence, 
 Where not too deep for mortal sense : — 2 
 
 When with dear friends sweet talk I hold, 
 And all the flowers of life unfold ; 
 Let not my heart within me burn, 
 Except in all I Thee discern. 8 
 
 When the soft dews of kindly sleep 
 My wearied eyelids gently steep, 
 Be my last thought, how sweet to rest 
 For ever on my Saviour's breast. 
 
 Abide with me from morn till eve, 
 For without Thee I cannot live : 
 Abide with me when night is nigh, 
 For without Thee I dare not die. 
 
 1 Clement of Alexandria (" Protrept." c. vi.) calls 
 The Word of God " the sun of the soul," 6 8e X070S 6 
 vylrjs 6's iariv rj\ios ipvxys, which may possibly be the 
 origin of the phrase here. 
 
 » "Mortal": " feeble."— MS S. 
 
 3 Cf. S. Luke xxiv. 32 (p. 3 supra) 
 
6 EVENING 
 
 Thou Framer of the light and dark, 
 Steer through the tempest Thine own ark : 
 Amid the howling wintry sea 
 We are in port if we have Thee. 1 
 
 The Rulers of this Christian land, 
 'Twixt Thee and us ordained to stand, — 
 Guide Thou their course, O Lord, aright, 
 Let all do all as in Thy sight. 
 
 Oh ! by Thine own sad burthen, borne 
 So meekly up the hill of scorn, 
 Teach Thou Thy Priests their daily cross 
 To bear as Thine, nor count it loss ! 
 
 If some poor wandering child of Thine 
 Have spurned, to-day, the voice divine, 
 Now, Lord, the gracious work begin ; 
 Let him no more lie down in sin. 2 
 
 Watch by the sick : enrich the poor 
 With blessings from Thy boundless store : 
 Be every mourners sleep to-night 
 Like infants' slumbers, pure and light. 3 
 
 Come near and bless us when we wake, 
 Ere through the world our way we take ; 
 Till in the ocean of Thy Jove 
 We lose ourselves in Heaven above. 
 
 1 " Though winds be rough and waves be high, 
 
 It will not sink, if Thou art by." — MSS. 
 Cf. S. John vi. zi. Then they willingly received him 
 into the ship, and immediately the ship was at the land 
 whither they went. 
 
 2 " Let him not sleep to-night in sin." — MSS. 
 
 3 "There is something calm and hushing in the very 
 rhythm." — Miss Yonge. K. i and K. 2 read ' infants' 
 slumbers,' but in the first edition it was printed 'infant's.' 
 
ADVENT SUNDAY 7 
 
 ADVENT SUNDAY 
 
 Now it is high time to awake out of sleep : for now 
 is our salvation nearer than when we believed. — 
 Romans xiii. II. 
 
 ADVENT SUNDAY. Dec. 26.. 1823. 
 The royal entry of Christ into Jerusalem is compared 
 with His reign in Heaven and with His future return. 
 Then He was followed both by the crowd of selfish 
 hearts untrue and also by the few childlike souls who 
 reverenced Him : so from Heaven he has seen both the 
 blast of error in the early ages, the tide of crime in the 
 middle ages, the light without love of the later centuries, 
 and also the loving student, the true Christian King, 
 the devout lover of nature and historian of the Saints. 
 There will be the same dividing line when He appears, 
 and the poem is a call to true Christians to be ready to 
 meet Him. 
 
 A WA KE — again the Gospel-trump is blown — 
 From year to year it swells with louder 
 
 tone, 
 From year to year the signs of wrath 
 Are gathering round the Judge's path, 
 Strange words fulfilled, and mighty works 
 
 achieved, 
 And truth in all the world both hated and be- 
 lieved. 1 
 
 Awake ! why linger in the gorgeous town, 
 Sworn liegemen of the Cross and thorny crown ? 
 Up from your beds of sloth for shame, 
 Speed to the eastern mount like flame, 2 
 Nor wonder, should ye find your King in tears, 
 E'en with the loud Hosanna ringing in His ears. 3 
 
 1 " Truth ■ : faith.— K. R. 2 " Eastern " : holy.— K. R. 
 3 S. Luke xix. 41. Cf. the Tenth Sunday after 
 Trinity. 
 
8 ADVENT SUNDAY 
 
 Alas ! no need to rouse them : l long ago 
 They are gone forth to swell Messiah's show : 
 With glittering robes and garlands sweet 
 They strew the ground beneath His feet : 
 All but your hearts are there — O doomed to 
 
 prove 
 The arrows winged in Heaven for Faith that 
 will not love ! 2 
 
 Meanwhile He paces through the adoring crowd, 
 Calm as the march of some majestic cloud, 
 That o'er wild scenes of ocean-war 
 Holds its still course in heaven afar : 
 Even so, heart-searching Lord, as years roll on, 
 Thou keepest silent watch from Thy triumphal 
 throne : 
 
 Even so, the world is thronging round to gaze 
 On the dread vision of the latter days, 
 
 Constrained to own Thee, but in heart 
 Prepared to take Barabbas' part : 
 "Hosanna" now, to-morrow " Crucify," 
 The changeful burden still of their rude lawless 
 cry. 8 
 
 Yet in that throng of selfish hearts untrue 
 Thy sad eye rests upon Thy faithful few, 
 Children and childlike souls are there, 
 Blind Bartimeus' humble prayer, 
 
 1 " To rouse them " : "of wakening." — K. R. 
 
 2 " O set to prove 
 
 True confessors in faith, worst hypocrites in 
 love."— K. R. 
 
 3 " Is still the import of their saintly-sounding cry." 
 -K. R. 
 
ADVENT SUNDAY 9 
 
 And Lazarus wakened from his four days' sleep, 
 Enduring life again, that Passover to keep. 
 
 And fast beside the olive-bordered way 
 Stands the blest home where Jesus deigned to 
 stay, 
 The peaceful home, to Zeal sincere 1 
 And heavenly Contemplation dear, 
 Where Martha loved to wait with reverence 
 
 meet, 
 And wiser Mary lingered at Thy sacred feet. 
 
 Still through decaying ages as they glide, 
 Thou lov'st Thy chosen remnant to divide ; 2 
 Sprinkled along the waste of years 
 Full many a soft green isle appears : 
 Pause where we may upon the desert road, 
 Some shelter is in sight, some sacred safe abode. 
 
 When withering blasts of error swept the sky, 3 
 And Love's last flower seemed fain to droop 
 and die, 
 How sweet, how lone the ray benign 
 On sheltered nooks of Palestine ! 
 Then to his early home did Love repair, 
 And cheered his sickening heart with his own 
 native air. 4 
 
 » "Peaceful": " favoured."— K. R. 
 
 2 " So still through ages of unblest decay 
 
 Thou dost divide thy remnant, Lord, ahvay . " — K. R. 
 
 3 Arianism in the fourth century. 
 
 4 S. Jerome i. 123. The reference is to two letters 
 in which Paula, Eustochium, and S. Jerome invite 
 Marcella to leave Rome and to join them in the sacred 
 quiet of Bethlehem. 
 
io ADVENT SUNDAY 
 
 Years roll away : again the tide of crime 
 Has swept Thy footsteps from the favoured 
 clime. 
 Where shall the holy Cross find rest ? 
 On a crowned monarch's mailed breast : 1 
 Like some bright angel o'er the darkling scene, 
 Through court and camp he holds his heaven- 
 ward course serene. 
 
 A fouler vision yet ; an age of light, 
 Light without love, glares on the aching sight : 
 O who can tell how calm and sweet, 
 Meek Walton ! shews thy green retreat, 
 When wearied with the tale thy times disclose, 
 The eye first finds thee out in thy secure re- 
 pose ? 2 
 
 1 S. Louis in the thirteenth century. 
 
 2 Isaac Walton, 1593- 1683. Author of " The Com- 
 plete Angler," and of "The Lives of John Donne, 
 Richard Hooker, Henry Wotton, George Herbert." 
 Compare Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Sonnets, iii. 5, 
 " Walton's Book of Lives." 
 
 "There are no colours in the fairest sky 
 So fair as these. The feather, whence the pen 
 Was shaped that traced the lives of these good men, 
 Dropped from an Angel's wing. With moistened eye 
 We read of faith and purest charity 
 In Statesmen, Priest, and humble Citizen. 
 O could we copy their mild virtues, then 
 What joy to live, what blessedness to die I 
 Methinks their very names shine still and bright ; 
 Apart — like glow-worms on a summer night ; 
 Or lonely tapers where from far they fling 
 A guiding ray ; or seen — like stars on high 
 Satellites burning in a lucid ring — 
 Around meek Walton's heavenly memory." 
 
SECOND SUNDAY n 
 
 Thus bad and good their several warnings give 
 Of His approach, whom none may see and live : l 
 Faith's ear, with awful still delight, 
 Counts them like minute-bells at night, 
 Keeping the heart awake till dawn of morn, 
 While to her funeral pile this aged world is 
 borne. 
 
 But what are Heaven's alarms to hearts that 
 
 cower 
 In wilful slumber, deepening every hour, 
 That ckaw their curtains closer round, 
 The nearer swells the trumpet's sound ? 
 Lord, ere our trembling lamps sink down and die, 
 Touch us with chastening hand, and make us 
 feel Thee nigh. 
 
 SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT 
 
 And when these things begin to come to pass, then 
 look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption 
 draweth nigh. S. Luke xxi. 28. 
 
 THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. Jan. 20, 
 1824.— K. Jan. 26.— R. 
 Nature waits for the spring before her new life buds 
 afresh, but the church begins her year in winter, for the 
 Signs of Judgment are a message to her that her Saviour 
 and her Judge is at hand, and His presence should sober 
 mirth into resignation, and it especially calls the clergy 
 to ply more actively their task. 
 
 \JOT till the freezing blast is still, 
 
 Till freely leaps the sparkling rill, 
 And gales sweep soft from summer skies, 
 As o'er a sleeping infant's eyes 
 
 1 "Thus bad and good alternate warnings give 
 
 Of the dread day which none shall see and live." — K. R. 
 
i2 SECOND SUNDAY 
 
 A mother's kiss ; ere calls like these, 
 No sunny gleam awakes the trees, 
 Nor dare the tender flowerets show 
 Their bosoms to the uncertain glow. 
 
 Why then, in sad and wintry time, 
 Her heavens all dark with doubt and crime, 
 Why lifts the Church her drooping head, 
 As though her evil hour were fled ? 
 Is she less wise than leaves of spring, 
 Or birds that cower with folded wing ? 
 What sees she in this lowering sky 
 To tempt her meditative eye ? 
 
 She has a charm, a word of fire, 
 A pledge of love that cannot tire ; 
 By tempests, earthquakes, and by wars, 
 By rushing waves and falling stars, 
 By every sign her Lord foretold, 
 She sees the world is waxing old, 1 
 And through that last and direst storm 
 Descries by faith her Saviour's form. 
 
 Not surer does each tender gem, 
 Set in the fig-tree's polished stem, 
 Foreshew the summer season bland, 
 Than these dread signs Thy mighty hand : 2 
 But oh ! frail hearts, and spirits dark ! 
 The season's flight unwarn'd we mark, 
 But miss the Judge behind the door, 3 
 For all the light of sacred lore : 
 
 1 The world hath lost his youth, and the times 
 begin to wax old. 2 Esdras xiv. 10. 
 
 2 Cf. S. Luke xxi. 29. 
 8 See S. James v. 9. 
 
IN ADVENT 13 
 
 Yet is He there : beneath our eaves 
 Each sound His wakeful ear receives : 
 Hush, idle words, and thoughts of ill, 
 Your Lord is listening : peace, be still. 1 
 Christ watches by a Christian's hearth, 
 Be silent, " vain deluding mirth," 2 
 Till in thine altered voice be known 
 Somewhat of Resignation's tone. 
 
 But chiefly ye should lift your gaze 
 Above the world's uncertain haze, 
 And look with calm unwavering eye 
 On the bright fields beyond the sky, 
 Ye, who your Lord's commission bear, 
 His way of mercy to prepare : 
 Angels He calls ye : 3 be your strife 
 To lead on earth an Angel's life. 
 
 Think not of rest ; though dreams be sweet, 
 Start up, and ply your heavenward feet. 
 Is not God's oath upon your head, 
 Ne'er to sink back on slothful bed, 
 Never again your loins untie, 
 Nor let your torches waste and die, 
 Till, when the shadows thickest fall, 
 Ye hear your Master's midnight call ? 
 
 1 Ita fabulantur, ut qui sciant Dominum audire. 
 Tertull. " Apolog." p. 36. edit. Rigalt.— J. K. 
 
 2 "Vain deluding mirth." This is doubtless a 
 reminiscence of the first line of ■ II Penseroso " : 
 
 "Hence, vain deluding joys." 
 8 Angels. Cf. Rev. ii. l 
 
i 4 THIRD SUNDAY 
 
 THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT 
 
 What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A 
 reed shaken with the wind ? . . . Bat what went ye 
 out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and 
 more than a prophet. S. Matthew xi. 7, 9. 
 
 THE TRAVELLERS. Jan. 26, 1824. 
 
 Christ's Presence still broods over the scenes where 
 He lived, and both those who travel thither and those 
 who stay at home and try to picture the scenes to their 
 imagination can find Him if they are seeking not 
 pleasure or renown but the presence of God. 
 
 The poem would seem to have been suggested by 
 some friend's intended journey to the Holy Land, or 
 perhaps only by the author having read some book of 
 travels in the Holy Land 
 
 
 \A/HAT went ye out to see 
 O'er the rude sandy lea, 
 Where stately Jordan flows by many a palm, 
 
 Or where Gennesaret's wave 
 
 Delights the flowers to lave, 
 That o'er her western slope breathe airs of balm ? 
 
 All through the summer night, 
 
 Those blossoms red and bright * 
 Spread their soft breasts, unheeding, to the breeze, 
 
 Like hermits watching still 
 
 Around the sacred hill, 
 Where erst our Saviour watched upon His knees. 
 
 The Paschal moon above 
 Seems like a saint to rove, 
 
 1 Oleanders: with which the western bank of the 
 lake is said to be clothed down to the water's edge. — 
 J. K. The original note had " rhododendrons," which 
 was altered in consequence of the criticism in Stanley's 
 " Sinai and Palestine," p. 371. 
 
IN ADVENT 15 
 
 Left shining in the world with Christ alone ; 
 
 Below, the lake's still face 
 
 Sleeps sweetly in the embrace 
 Of mountains terraced high with mossy stone. 
 
 Here may we sit, and dream 
 
 Over the heavenly theme, 
 Till to our soul the former days return ; 
 
 Till on the grassy bed, 
 
 Where thousands once He fed, 
 The world's incarnate Maker we discern. 
 
 O cross no more the main, 
 
 Wandering so wild and vain, 
 To count the reeds that tremble in the wind, 
 
 On listless dalliance bound, 
 
 Like children gazing round, 
 Who on God's works no seal of Godhead find. 
 
 Bask not in courtly bower, 
 
 Or sun-bright hall of power, 
 Pass Babel quick, and seek the holy land — 
 
 From robes of Tyrian dye 
 
 Turn with undazzled eye 
 To Bethlehem's glade or Carmel's haunted 
 strand. 
 
 Or choose thee out a cell 
 
 In Kedron's stoned dell, 
 Beside the springs of Love, that never die ; 
 
 Among the olives kneel 
 
 The chill night-blast to feel, 
 And watch the moon that saw thy Master's 
 agony. 
 
1 6 THIRD SUNDAY 
 
 Then rise at dawn of day, 
 
 And wind thy thoughtful way, 
 Where rested once the Temple's stately shade, 
 
 With due feet tracing round x 
 
 The city's northern bound, 
 To the other holy garden, where the Lord was 
 laid. 
 
 Who thus alternate see 
 
 His death and victory, 
 Rising and falling as on angel wings, 
 
 They, while they seem to roam, 
 
 Draw daily nearer home, 
 Their heart untravelled still adores the King of 
 kings. 2 
 
 Or, if at home they stay, 
 
 Yet are they, day by day, 
 In spirit journeying through the glorious land, 
 
 Not for light Fancy's reed, 
 
 Nor Honour's purple meed, 
 Nor gifted Prophet's lore, nor Science' won- 
 drous wand. 
 
 But more than Prophet, more 
 Than Angels can adore 
 
 1 " With due feet ": cf. Milton, " II Penseroso," 1. 155. 
 
 2 "Their heart untravelled": i.e. though their feet 
 travel far from their English home, their heart never 
 leaves its true home, God, but is ever full of adoration. 
 For the phrase compare Goldsmith's "Traveller," 1. 8 : 
 
 "Where'er I roam, whatever realm to see, 
 My heart untravelled fondly turns to thee." 
 The MS. reading " And they have leave to travel from 
 the King of kings " expresses a different thought, that 
 their travels are blest by God, and it points the contrast 
 with the next stanza better. 
 
IN ADVENT 17 
 
 With face unveiled, is He they go to seek : 
 
 Blessed be God, Whose grace 
 
 Shews Him in every place 
 To homeliest hearts of pilgrims pure and meek. 
 
 FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT 
 
 The eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the 
 ears of them that hear shall hearken. Isaiah xxxii. 3. 
 
 DIMNESS. 1822 or 1823. 
 Here on earth it is hard to appreciate the beauty of 
 Nature or the harmony of music, and memory fails 
 to recall what we most wish to remember, but hereafter 
 our eyes will be purged to see the King in His beauty, 
 our ears will hear heaven's strains, and memory will be 
 no longer needed. Meanwhile the dulness of our 
 senses also spares us from the sight of much suffering, 
 and our spiritual vision is allowed to see enough of 
 eternal truth to train us for the future. 
 
 C^\F the bright things in earth and air 
 ^ How little can the heart embrace ! 1 
 Soft shades and gleaming lights are there — 
 I know it well, but cannot trace. 
 
 Mine eye unworthy seems to read 
 
 One page of Nature's beauteous book ; 
 
 It lies before me, fair outspread — 
 I only cast a wishful look. 2 
 
 I cannot paint to Memory's eye 
 
 The scene, the glance, I dearest love — 
 
 Unchanged themselves, in me they die, 
 Or faint, or false, their shadows prove. 
 
 1 " Oft as I gaze on landscape fair 
 
 In thought I feel me poor and base." — MSS. 
 
 2 « Wistful."— MSS. 
 

 18 FOURTH SUNDAY 
 
 In vain, with dull and tuneless ear, 
 
 I linger by soft Music's cell, 
 And in my heart of hearts would hear 
 
 What to her own she deigns to tell. 
 
 'Tis misty all, both sight and sound — 
 I only know 'tis fair and sweet — 
 
 'Tis wandering on enchanted ground 
 With dizzy brow and tottering feet. 
 
 But patience ! there may come a time 
 When these dull ears shall scan aright 
 
 Strains, that outring Earth's drowsy chime, 
 As Heaven outshines the taper's light. 
 
 These eyes, that dazzled now and weak, 
 At glancing motes in sunshine wink, 
 
 Shall see the King's full glory break, 
 Nor from the blissful vision shrink : 
 
 In fearless love and hope uncloyed 
 
 For ever on that ocean bright 1 
 Empowered to gaze ; and undestroyed, 
 
 Deeper and deeper plunge in light. 
 
 Though scarcely now their laggard glance 
 Reach to an arrow's flight, that day 
 
 They shall behold, and not in trance, 
 The region " very far away." 2 
 
 1 " In soberest raptures unalloyed 
 
 For ever on ' His countenance ' bright." — MSS. 
 
 2 Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty : they 
 shall behold the land that is very far off. Isaiah 
 xxxiii. 17. 
 
IN ADVENT 19 
 
 If Memory sometimes at our spell 
 Refuse to speak, or speak amiss, 
 
 We shall not need her where we dwell 
 Ever in sight of all our bliss. 
 
 Meanwhile, if over sea or sky 
 
 Some tender lights unnoticed fleet, 
 
 Or on loved features dawn and die, 
 Unread, to us, their lesson sweet ; 
 
 Yet are there saddening sights around, 
 Which Heaven, in mercy, spares us too, 
 
 And we see far in holy ground, 
 If duly purged our mental view. 
 
 The distant landscape draws not nigh 
 For all our gazing ; but the soul, 
 
 That upward looks, may still descry 
 Nearer, each day, the brightening goal. 
 
 And thou, too curious ear, that fain 
 Wouldst thread the maze of Harmony, 
 
 Content thee with one simple strain, 
 The lowlier, sure, the worthier thee ; 
 
 Till thou art duly trained, and taught 
 The concord sweet of Love divine : 
 
 Then, with that inward Music fraught, 
 For ever rise, and sing, and shine. 
 
2o CHRISTMAS DAY 
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY 
 
 And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude 
 of the heavenly host praising God. S. Luke ii. 13. 
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 1 8 24. 
 
 The angelic message of the Incarnation tells chiefly of 
 its lowly surroundings and is first welcomed by shepherds; 
 so it comes home still to the lowly and single heart, and 
 strengthens Christian Pastors for theirwork. The thought 
 is very similar to that of " The Shepherds," by Henry 
 Vaughan (Palgrave's " Treasury of Sacred Song,"cxxvi.). 
 The poem seems also influenced by Jeremy Taylor's 
 comment upon the appearance to the shepherds and to the 
 Magi (Life of Christ, i. § 4, vol. ii. pp. 89-97, Ed. Eden). 
 The appropriateness of the appearance to shepherds, the 
 analogy of the pastoral office (pp. 89, 90) the simile of a 
 stone thrown into a river (p. 92); the treatment of shep- 
 herd and sage as types of those who reach truth by natural 
 reason or by the secrets of philosophy (p. 96) are all 
 reproduced here. 
 
 YA7 HAT sudden blaze of song 
 
 Spreads o'er the expanse of Heaven ? 
 In waves of light it thrills along, 
 The angelic signal given — 
 " Glory to God ! " from yonder central fire 
 Flows out the echoing lay beyond the starry quire; 
 
 Like circles widening round 
 Upon a clear blue river, 
 Orb after orb, the wondrous sound 
 Is echoed on for ever : 
 " Glory to God on high, on earth be peace, 
 And love towards men of love l — salvation and 
 release." 
 1 I have ventured to adopt the reading of the Vulgate, 
 as being generally known through Pergolesi's beautiful 
 composition, "Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax 
 hominibus bona; voluntatis." — J. K. 
 
CHRISTMAS DAY 21 
 
 Yet stay, before thou dare 
 To join that festal throng ; 
 Listen and mark what gentle air 
 First stirred the tide of song ; 
 'Tis not, " the Saviour born in David's home, 
 To Whom for power and health obedient worlds 
 should come : " — 
 
 'Tis not, "the Christ the Lord : "— 
 With fixed adoring look 
 The choir of Angels caught the word, 
 Nor yet their silence broke : 
 But when they heard the sign, where Christ 
 should be, 
 In sudden light they shone and heavenly har- 
 mony. 
 
 Wrapped in His swaddling bands, 
 And in His manger laid, 
 The Hope and Glory of all lands 
 Is come to the world's aid : 
 No peaceful home upon His cradle smiled, 
 Guests rudely went and came, where slept the 
 royal Child. 1 
 
 1 The original MSS. vary in the last two lines and 
 add a whole stanza ; which may be quoted, as it helps 
 to point the contrast in stanza 6 : 
 
 " Wrapped in his swaddling bands 
 And in his manger laid, 
 The Hope and Glory of all lands 
 Is come to the world's aid : 
 Search out the lowliest mansion, meanest room, 
 There shall ye find your King, nor even there at home. 
 
22 CHRISTMAS DAY 
 
 But where Thou dwellest, Lord, 
 No other thought should be, 
 Once duly welcomed and adored, 
 How should I part with Thee ? 
 Bethlehem must lose Thee soon, but Thou 
 wilt grace 
 The single heart to be Thy sure abiding-place. 
 
 Thee, on the bosom laid 
 
 Of a pure virgin mind, 
 
 In quiet ever, and in shade, 
 
 Shepherd and sage may find ; 
 They, who have bowed untaught to Nature's 
 sway, 
 And they, who follow Truth along her star- 
 paved way. 1 
 
 The pastoral spirits first 
 
 Approach Thee, Babe divine, 
 For they in lowly thoughts are nursed, 
 Meet for Thy lowly shrine : 
 Sooner than they should miss where Thou 
 dost dwell, 
 Angels from heaven will stoop to guide them to 
 Thy cell. 
 
 " The heart imbued with earth 
 Is but a place of guests 
 "Where foul-winged thoughts of lowly birth 
 Successive make their nests. 
 Each in his twilight gloom with cheerless moan, 
 Fluttering a little while and then for ever gone." 
 
 1 i.e. All who are like the shepherds of Bethlehem or 
 the wise men from the East. 
 
S. STEPHEN'S DAY 23 
 
 Still, as the day comes round 
 For Thee to be revealed, 
 By wakeful shepherds Thou art found, 
 Abiding in the field. 
 All through the wintry heaven and chill night 
 air, 
 In music and in light Thou dawnest on their 
 prayer. 
 
 O faint not ye for fear — 
 
 What though your wandering sheep, 
 Reckless of what they see and hear, 
 Lie lost in wilful sleep ? 
 High Heaven in mercy to your sad annoy 
 Still greets you with glad tidings of immortal 
 
 joy- 
 Think on the eternal home, 
 The Saviour left for you ; 
 Think on the Lord most holy, come 
 To dw^ell with hearts untrue : 
 So shall ye tread untired His pastoral ways, 
 And in the darkness sing your carol of high 
 praise. 
 
 S. STEPHEN'S DAY 
 
 He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly 
 into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus 
 standing on the right hand of God. Acts vii. 55. 
 
 S. STEPHEN'S DAY. 1824, probably early in 
 the year. 
 
 Of the triple band of martyrs, who first recognised 
 the glory of the new-born King, S. Stephen is the 
 
24 S. STEPHENS DAY 
 
 one who is likest in tone and look to Him, and whose 
 death traces anew the lines of His. 
 
 A S rays around the source of light 
 
 Stream upward ere he glow in sight, 
 And watching by his future flight 
 
 Set the clear heavens on fire ; 
 So on the King of Martyrs wait 
 Three chosen bands, in royal state, 1 
 And all earth owns, of good and great, 
 Is gathered in that choir. 
 
 One presses on, and welcomes death : 
 One calmly yields his willing breath, 
 Nor slow, nor hurrying, but in faith 
 
 Content to die or live : 
 And some, the darlings of their Lord, 
 Play smiling with the flame and sword, 
 And, ere they speak, to His sure word 
 
 Unconscious witness give. 
 
 Foremost and nearest to His throne, 
 By perfect robes of triumph known, 
 And likest Him in look and tone, 
 The holy Stephen kneels, 
 
 1 Wheatly on the Common Prayer, c. v. § iv. 2. 
 " As there are three kinds of martyrdom, the first both 
 in will and deed, which is the highest ; the second in 
 will but not in deed ; the third in deed but not in will ; 
 so the Church commemorates these martyrs in the 
 same order: S. Stephen first, who suffered death both 
 in will and deed ; S. John the Evangelist next, who 
 suffered martyrdom in will but not in deed ; the holy 
 Innocents last, who suffered in deed but not in will." — 
 J. K. 
 
S. STEPHENS DAY 25 
 
 With stedfast gaze, as when the sky 
 Flew open to his fainting eye, 
 Which, like a fading lamp, flashed high, 
 Seeing what death conceals. 
 
 Well might you guess what vision bright 
 Was present to his raptured sight, 
 Even as reflected streams of light 
 
 Their solar source betray — 
 The glory which our God surrounds, 
 The Son of Man, the atoning wounds — 
 He sees them all ; and earth's dull bounds 
 
 Are melting fast away. 
 
 He sees them all — no other view 
 Could stamp the Saviour's likeness true, 
 Or with His love so deep embrue 
 
 Man's sullen heart and gross — 
 " Jesu, do Thou my soul receive : 
 Jesu, do Thou my foes forgive : " 
 He who would learn that prayer, must live 
 
 Under the holy Cross. 
 
 He, though he seem on earth to move, 
 Must glide in air like gentle dove, 
 From yon unclouded depths above 
 
 Must draw his purer breath ; 
 Till men behold his angel face 
 All radiant with celestial grace, 1 
 Martyr all o'er, and meet to trace 
 
 The lines of Jesus' death. 
 
 1 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly 
 on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an 
 angel. Acts vi. 15. 
 
26 S. JOHN'S DAY 
 
 S. JOHN'S DAY 
 
 Peter seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what 
 shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that 
 he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? Follow thou 
 me. S. John xxi. 21, 22. 
 
 S. JOHN'S DAY. December 27, 181 9. 
 
 The poem leaves S. John entirely, and is a simple 
 exhortation to trust the Lord for the future of those 
 dear to us, with a prayer for patience at the sight of 
 their suffering and death. 
 
 There is a well-authenticated tradition that the 
 poem was suggested to Mr Keble while examiner in 
 the schools, wondering what would be the future of 
 one of the examiners, a friend of his, who was of 
 delicate health, and who afterwards died young, the 
 Rev. J. Lowe. But there seems no doubt that the 
 date of the poem is 1819, and Mr Keble was not 
 examiner in that year. 
 
 " I ORD, and what shall this man do ? " 
 
 Ask'st thou, Christian, for thy friend ? 
 If his love for Christ be true, 
 
 Christ hath told thee of his end : 
 This is he whom God approves, 
 This is he whom Jesus loves. 
 
 Ask not of him more than this, 
 
 Leave it in his Saviour's breast, 
 
 Whether, early call'd to bliss, 
 
 He in youth shall find his rest, 
 
 Or armed in his station wait 
 
 Till his Lord be at the gate : 
 
 Whether in his lonely course 
 
 (Lonely, not forlorn) he stay, 
 
 Or with Love's supporting force 
 
 Cheat the toil and cheer the way : 
 
S. JOHNS DAY 27 
 
 Leave it all in His high hand, 
 
 Who doth hearts as streams command. 1 
 
 Gales from Heaven, if so He will, 
 Sweeter melodies can wake 
 
 On the lonely mountain rill 
 
 Than the meeting waters make. 
 
 Who hath the Father and the Son, 
 
 May be left, but not alone. 
 
 Sick or healthful, slave or free, 
 
 Wealthy, or despised and poor — 
 
 What is that to him or thee, 
 
 So his love to Christ endure ? 
 
 When the shore is won at last, 
 
 Who will count the billows past ? 
 
 Only, since our souls will shrink 
 At the touch of natural grief, 
 
 When our earthly loved ones sink, 
 Lend us, Lord, Thy sure relief; 
 
 Patient hearts, their pain to see, 
 
 And Thy grace, to follow Thee. 
 
 1 The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the 
 rivers of water : He turneth it whithersoever He will. 
 Proverbs xxi. u 
 
28 THE HOLY INNOCENTS 
 
 THE HOLY INNOCENTS 
 
 These were redeemed from among men, being the 
 first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb. — Revelation 
 xiv. 4. 
 
 THE HOLY INNOCENTS' DAY. Jan. 5, 1824. 
 
 The presence of the Holy Innocents praising Christ 
 in heaven is a pledge of His tender love for all children, 
 and also a pledge of His comfort to all mothers who 
 lose their children young. 
 
 CAY, ye celestial guards, who wait 
 ^ In Bethlehem, round the Saviour's palace 
 gate, 
 
 Say, who are these on golden wings, 
 That hover o'er the new-born King of kings, 
 
 Their palms and garlands telling plain 
 That they are of the glorious martyr train, 
 
 Next to yourselves ordained to praise 
 His Name, and brighten as on Him they gaze ? 
 
 But where their spoils and trophies? where 
 The glorious dint a martyr's shield should bear? 
 
 How chance no cheek among them wears 
 The deep-worn trace of penitential tears, 
 
 But all is bright and smiling love, 
 As if, fresh-borne from Eden's happy grove, 
 
 They had flown here, their King to see, 
 Nor ever had been heirs of dark mortality ? 
 
 Ask, and some angel will reply, 
 " These, like yourselves, were born to sin and 
 die, 
 
 But ere the poison root was grown, 
 God set His seal, and marked them for His own. 
 
THE HOLY INNOCENTS 29 
 
 Baptized in blood for Jesus' sake, 
 Now underneath the Cross their bed they make, 
 
 Not to be scared from that sure rest 
 By frightened mother's shriek, or warrior's 
 waving crest." * 
 
 Mindful of these, the firstfruits sweet 
 Borne by the suffering Church her Lord to greet, 
 
 Blessed Jesus ever loved to trace 
 The "innocent brightness" of an infant's face. 2 
 
 He raised them in His holy arms, 
 He blessed them from the world and all its 
 harms : 
 
 Heirs though they were of sin and shame, 
 He blessed them in His own and in His 
 Father's Name. 
 
 Then, as each fond unconscious child 
 On the everlasting Parent sweetly smiled, 
 
 (Like infants sporting on the shore, 3 
 That tremble not at Ocean's boundless roar), 
 
 Were they not present to Thy thought, 
 All souls, that in their cradles Thou hast 
 bought ? 
 
 But chiefly these, who died for Thee, 
 That Thou mightst live for them a sadder death 
 to see. 
 
 1 Cf. Homer, « Iliad," vi. 469. 
 
 " The babe clung crying to his nurse's breast 
 Scared at the dazzling helm and nodding crest." — Pope. 
 
 2 From Wordsworth's " Ode." 
 
 u The innocent brightness of a new-born day 
 Is lovely yet. ' 
 8 Possibly a reminiscence of the same " Ode": 
 11 And see the children sport upon the shore, 
 And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore." 
 
3 o FIRST SUNDAY 
 
 And next to these, Thy gracious word 
 Was as a pledge of benediction, stored 
 
 For Christian mothers, while they moan 
 Their treasured hopes, just born, baptized, 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 
 embraced. 
 
 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 : 
 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 ; cf. Joshua x. 13. 
 
 THE SUN-DIAL OF AHAZ. Aug. 15, 1825. 
 
 God stayed the sun for Joshua, and turned back the 
 degrees on the sun-dial for Hezekiah ; but can He turn 
 back the tide of past evil, the memories of sin and 
 neglect ? Yes, Love has even this power, and Peni- 
 tence inspired by Love can change the tide, can destroy 
 
AFTER CHRISTMAS 31 
 
 remorse, can outlive folly, and begin the work of 
 Heaven even at the end of life. (For the thought and 
 image, cf. " The Circumcision," St. 6.) 
 
 '^TIS true, of old the unchanging sun 
 * His daily course refused to run ; 
 
 The pale moon hurrying to the west 
 Paused at a mortal's call, to aid 
 The avenging storm of war, that laid 
 Seven guilty realms at once on earth's defiled 
 breast. 1 
 
 But can it be, one suppliant tear 
 Should stay the ever-moving sphere ? 
 A sick man's lowly-breathed sigh, 
 When from the world he turns away, 2 
 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, 
 
 1(i Twice in old time the unchanging Sun 
 
 His daily course refused to run ; 
 The pale moon hurrying to the west 
 
 Paused at a mortal's call, to aid 
 
 The avenging storm of war that laid 
 Seven guilty realms at once on earth's defiled breast. 
 
 " And can it be one lowly tear 
 Should stay the ever-moving sphere. 
 The sigh of one sick lonely heart, 
 When from the world we turn away, 
 And hide our weary eyes to pray, 
 Should force the stars of Heaven from their accustomed 
 part."— MSS. 
 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, 
 and prayed unto the Lord. Isaiah xxxviii. 2. 
 
32 FIRST SUNDAY AFTER XMAS 
 
 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 warmed, 
 And vows, too pure to be performed, 
 
 And prayers blown wide by gales of care ; — 
 These, and such faint half-waking dreams, 
 Like stormy lights on mountain streams, 
 Wavering and broken all, athwart the conscience 
 glare. 
 
 How shall we escape the o'erwhelming Past ? 
 Can spirits broken, joys o'ercast, 
 
 And eyes that never more may smile : — 
 Can these the 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, 
 Thou seek'st to warn us, not confound, 
 Thy showers would pierce the hardened 
 ground, 
 And win it to give out its brightness and perfume. 
 
 Thou smil'st on us in wrath, and we, 
 E'en in remorse, would smile on Thee : 
 
 The tears that bathe our offered hearts, 
 We would not have them stained and dim, 
 But dropped from wings of seraphim, 
 All glowing with the light accepted love imparts. 
 
CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST 33 
 
 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 fixed 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, 
 Enlarging as it fills with Thee, 
 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-breathed hope of joys above, 
 By every secret sigh we heave, 
 Whole years of folly we outlive, 
 In His unerring sight, who measures Life by 
 Love. 
 
 THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST 
 
 Tn whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision 
 made without hands. Colossians ii. n. 
 
 THE CIRCUMCISION. Jan. 20, 1824. 
 
 Christ's sufferings, which began at His circumcision, 
 form a bond which unites the Saints of all ages by their 
 atoning power. His Love changed the stream of past 
 evil and won forgiveness for the Jewish Church. So, 
 too, it knit Christians in sympathy with them, and 
 was the consecration of all suffering. 
 C 
 
34 CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST 
 
 For this sense of brotherhood with the Saints of the 
 O.T., cf. Tracts for the Times No. 89, esp. pp. 97-105. 
 The poem is a companion to the last. In that, Love 
 was described as doing for the individual what here it 
 does for Humanity: it mounts against the stream of 
 past evil. 
 
 '"THE year begins with Thee, 
 1 And Thou beginn'st with woe, 
 To let the world of sinners see 
 That blood for sin must flow. 
 
 Thine infant cries, O Lord, 
 Thy tears upon the breast, 
 Are not enough — the legal sword 
 Must do its stern behest. 
 
 Like sacrificial wine 
 Poured on a victim's head 
 Are those few precious drops of Thine, 
 Now first to offering led. 
 
 They are the pledge and seal 
 Of Christ's unswerving faith 
 Given to His Sire, our souls to heal, 
 Although it cost His death. 
 
 They to His Church of old, 
 To each true Jewish heart, 
 In Gospel graces manifold 
 Communion blest impart. 
 
 Now of Thy Love we deem 
 As of an ocean vast, 
 Mounting in tides against the stream 
 Of ages gone and past. 1 
 
 1 Cf. Rom. iii. 25. Hebr. ix. 15. 
 
CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST 3s 
 
 Both theirs and ours Thou art, 
 As we and they are Thine ; 
 Kings, Prophets, Patriarchs — all have part 
 Along the sacred line. 
 
 By blood and water too 
 God's mark is set on Thee, 
 That in Thee every faithful view 
 Both covenants might see. 
 
 O bond of union, dear 
 And strong as is Thy Grace ! 
 Saints, parted by a thousand year, 
 May thus in heart embrace. 
 
 Is there a mourner true, 
 Who, fallen on faithless days, 
 Sighs for the heart-consoling view 
 Of those Heaven deigned to praise ? 
 
 In spirit mayst thou meet 
 With faithful Abraham here, 
 Whom soon in Eden thou shalt greet 
 A nursing Father dear. 
 
 Wouldst thou a poet be ? 
 And would thy dull heart fain 
 Borrow of Israel's minstrelsy 
 One high enraptured strain ? 
 
 Come here thy soul to tune, 
 Here set thy feeble chant, 
 Here, if at all beneath the moon, 
 Is holy David's haunt. 
 
$6 SECOND SUNDAY 
 
 Art thou a child of tears, 
 Cradled in care and woe ? 
 And seems it hard, thy vernal years 
 Few vernal joys can shew ? 
 
 And fall the sounds of mirth 
 Sad on thy lonely heart, 
 From all the hopes and charms of earth 
 Untimely called to part ? 
 
 Look here, and hold thy peace : 
 The Giver of all good 
 Even from the womb takes no release 
 From suffering, tears, and blood. 
 
 If thou wouldst reap in love, 
 First sow in holy fear: 
 So life a winter's morn may prove 
 To a bright endless year. 
 
 SECOND SUNDAY AFTER 
 CHRISTMAS 
 
 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is 
 none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord 
 will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake 
 them. — Isaiah xli. 17. 
 
 THE PILGRIM'S SONG. Nov. 29, 1825. 
 Life is a weary pilgrimage for the sinner, but God 
 can give comfort to it as He did to Hagar and to the 
 Israelites at Horeb, and Jesus, who Himself knew 
 weariness, can bless our weary hours. 
 
 A ND wilt Thou hear the fevered heart 
 
 To Thee in silence cry ? 
 And as the inconstant wildfires dart 
 Out of the restless eye, 
 
AFTER CHRISTMAS 37 
 
 Wilt Thou forgive the wayward thought, 
 By kindly woes yet half untaught 
 A Saviour's right, so dearly bought, 
 That Hope should never die ? 
 
 Thou wilt : for many a languid prayer 
 Has reached Thee from the wild, 
 
 Since the lorn mother, wandering there, 
 Cast down her fainting child, 1 
 
 Then stole apart to weep and die, 
 
 Nor knew an angel form was nigh 
 
 To shew soft waters gushing by 
 And dewy shadows mild. 
 
 Thou wilt — for Thou art Israel's God, 
 
 And Thine unwearied arm 
 Is ready yet with Moses' rod 
 
 The hidden rill to charm 
 Out of the dry unfathomed deep 
 Of sands, that lie in lifeless sleep, 
 Save when the scorching whirlwinds heap 
 
 Their waves in rude alarm. 
 
 These moments of wild wrath are Thine — 
 
 Thine too the drearier hour 
 When o'er the horizon's silent line 
 
 Fond hopeless fancies cower, 
 And on the traveller's listless way 
 Rises and sets the unchanging day, 
 No cloud in heaven to slake its ray, 
 
 On earth no sheltering bower. 
 
 1 Hagar. See Genesis xxi. 15. 
 
3 8 SECOND SUNDAY 
 
 Thou wilt be there, and not forsake, 
 
 To turn the bitter pool 
 Into a bright and breezy lake, 
 
 The throbbing brow to cool : 
 Till left a while with Thee alone 
 The wilful heart be fain to own 
 That He, by whom our bright hours shone, 
 
 Our darkness best may rule. 
 
 The scent of water far away 
 
 Upon the breeze is flung : 
 The desert pelican to-day 
 
 Securely leaves her young, 
 Reproving thankless man, who fears 
 To journey on a few lone years, 
 Where on the sand Thy step appears, 
 
 Thy crown in sight is hung. 
 
 Thou, who didst sit on Jacob's well 
 
 The weary hour of noon, 1 
 The languid pulses Thou canst tell, 
 
 The nerveless spirit tune. 
 Thou from Whose cross in anguish burst 
 The cry that owned Thy dying thirst, 2 
 To Thee we turn, our Last and First, 
 
 Our Sun and soothing Moon. 
 
 From darkness, here, and dreariness 
 
 We ask not full repose, 
 Only be Thou at hand, to bless 
 
 Our trial hour of woes. 
 
 1 S. John iv. 6. 2 S. John xix. 28. 
 
AFTER CHRISTMAS 39 
 
 Is not the pilgrim's toil o'erpaid 
 By the clear rill and palmy shade ? 
 And see we not, up Earth's dark glade, 
 The gate of Heaven unclose ? 
 
 THE EPIPHANY 
 
 And, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went 
 before them, till it came and stood over where the 
 young child was. When they saw the star, they 
 rejoiced with exceeding great joy. S. Matthew ii. 
 9, 10. 
 
 THE EPIPHANY. Jan. 20, 1824. 
 
 The Gentile Magi — the representatives of heathen 
 religion which once knew God, which then turned 
 aside into self-chosen ways, but at last, ashamed of her 
 idolatries, came back to Christ, is a type of the soul 
 which in childhood is easily drawn by the teaching of 
 parents and of Nature to faith in God, but in the glare 
 of grown-up life has difficulty in finding His Presence, 
 yet at last in old age finds Him once more. Yet their 
 lavish offerings put our poor sacrifices to shame. 
 
 This poem should be compared with those for the 
 Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity, and for S. Philip 
 and S. James's day : they all seem influenced by the 
 thought of Wordsworth's Ode : " Intimations of Im. 
 mortality from recollections of early childhood." 
 
 CTAR of the East, how sweet art Thou, 
 
 Seen in life's early morning sky, 
 Ere yet a cloud has dimmed the brow, 
 While yet we gaze with childish eye ; 
 
 When father, mother, nursing friend, 
 Most dearly loved, and loving best, 
 
 First bid us from their arms ascend, 
 Pointing to Thee in Thy sure rest. 
 
4 o THE EPIPHANY 
 
 Too soon the glare of earthly day 
 Buries, to us, Thy brightness keen, 
 
 And we are left to find our way 
 By faith and hope in Thee unseen. 
 
 What matter ? if the waymarks sure 
 On every side are round us set, 
 
 Soon overleaped, but not obscure ? 
 'Tis ours to mark them or forget. 
 
 What matter ? if in calm old age 
 Our childhood's star again arise, 
 
 Crowning our lonely pilgrimage 
 
 With all that cheers a wanderer's eyes ? 
 
 Ne'er may we lose it from our sight, 
 Till all our hopes and thoughts are led 
 
 To where it stays its lucid flight 
 Over our Saviour's lowly bed. 
 
 There, swathed in humblest poverty, 
 On Chastity's meek lap enshrined, 
 
 With breathless Reverence waiting by, 
 When we our sovereign Master find, 
 
 Will not the long-forgotten glow 
 Of mingled joy and awe return, 
 
 When stars above or flowers below 
 First made our infant spirits bum ? 
 
 Look on us, Lord, and take our parts 
 Even on Thy throne of purity ! 
 
 From these our proud yet grovelling hearts 
 Hide not Thy mild forgiving eye. 
 
THE EPIPHANY 41 
 
 Did not the Gentile Church find grace, 
 Our mother dear, this favoured day? 
 
 With gold and myrrh she sought Thy face, 
 Nor didst Thou turn Thy face away. 
 
 She too, 1 in earlier, purer days, 
 
 Had watched Thee gleaming faint and far — 
 But wandering in self-chosen ways 
 
 She lost Thee quite, Thou lovely star. 
 
 Yet had her Father's finger turned 
 To Thee her first inquiring glance : 
 
 The deeper shame within her burned, 
 When wakened from her wilful trance. 
 
 Behold, her wisest throng Thy gate, 
 Their richest, sweetest, purest store 
 
 (Yet owned too worthless and too late) 
 They lavish on Thy cottage-floor. 
 
 They give their best — O tenfold shame 
 
 On us their fallen progeny, 
 Who sacrifice the blind and lame 2 — 
 
 Who will not wake or fast with thee ! 
 
 1 The Patriarchal Church.— J. K. 
 
 2 Malachi i. 8. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, 
 is it not evil ? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not 
 evil? 
 
42 FIRST SUNDAY 
 
 FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY 
 
 They shall spring up as among the grass, as willows 
 by the water courses. — Isaiah xliv. 4. 
 
 THE NIGHTINGALE. May 17, 1824. 
 
 The simplest scenes of Nature, the willow bower or 
 the nightingale, are sufficient to tell of God and to teach 
 contentment, trust, and praise. 
 
 " The scenery of these verses is taken from the walk 
 to Coin S. Aldwyn's about three miles from Fairford, 
 on the banks of the river Coin, which is shaded with 
 willow trees." — Miss Yonge. "Musings on the Chris- 
 tian Year." 
 
 Compare G. J. Cornish, " Come to the Woods, and 
 other Poems," p. 85, who seems to allude to Keble in 
 the sonnet which begins — 
 
 " Even as ye sung elsewhile by Cherwell's stream 
 When from the very mouth of that high sage 
 Whom God ordains to rouse a laggard age, 
 I learnt that Nature would not have us dream 
 Our sullen hours away ; such here your song, 
 Sweet Nightingales." 
 
 [ ESSONS sweet of spring returning, 
 Welcome to the thoughtful heart ! 
 May I call ye sense or learning, 
 
 Instinct pure, or Heaven-taught art ? 
 Be your title what it may, 
 Sweet the lengthening April day, 
 While with you the soul is free, 
 Ranging wild o'er hill and lea. 
 
 Soft as Memnon's harp at morning, 
 
 To the inward ear devout, 
 Touched by light, with heavenly warning 
 
 Your transporting chords ring out. 
 
AFTER EPIPHANY 43 
 
 Every leaf in every nook, 
 Every wave in every brook, 
 Chanting with a solemn voice, 
 Minds us of our better choice. 
 
 Needs no show of mountain hoary, 
 
 Winding shore or deepening glen, 
 Where the landscape in its glory 
 
 Teaches truth to wandering men : 
 Give true hearts but earth and sky, 
 And some flowers to bloom and die, — 
 Homely scenes and simple views 
 Lowly thoughts may best infuse. 
 
 See the soft green willow springing 
 Where the waters gently pass, 
 
 Every way her free arms flinging 
 O'er the moist and reedy grass. 
 
 Long ere winter blasts are fled, 
 
 See her tipped with vernal red, 
 
 And her kindly flower displayed 
 
 Ere her leaf can cast a shade. 
 
 Though the rudest hand assail her, 
 
 Patiently she droops awhile, 
 But when showers and breezes hail her, 
 
 Wears again her willing smile. 
 Thus I learn Contentment's power 
 From the slighted willow bower, 
 Ready to give thanks and live 
 On the least that Heaven may give. 
 
 If, the quiet brooklet leaving, 
 
 Up the stony vale I wind, 
 Haply half in fancy grieving 
 
 For the shades I leave behind, 
 
44 SECOND SUNDAY 
 
 By the dusty wayside drear, 
 Nightingales with joyous cheer 
 Sing, my sadness to reprove, 
 Gladlier than in cultured grove. 
 
 Where the thickest boughs are twining 
 
 Of the greenest darkest tree, 
 There they plunge, the light declining- 
 All may hear, but none may see. 
 Fearless of the passing hoof, 
 Hardly will they fleet aloof; 
 So they live in modest ways, 
 Trust entire, and ceaseless praise. 
 
 SECOND SUNDAY AFTER 
 EPIPHANY 
 
 Every man at the beginning doth set forth good 
 wine ; and when men have well drunk, then that which 
 is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. 
 S. John ii. 10. 
 
 THE SECRET OF PERPETUAL YOUTH. 
 1820 or 1821. 
 
 The bright joys of childhood fade quickly if we 
 follow the world's guidance, but Christ purifies them 
 all ; He keeps hope keen to the end and makes love 
 eternal. Hence the richest, tenderest glow of all is 
 found on old age, and even beyond the grave there is a 
 greater bliss of which we cannot know here. 
 
 '"THE heart of childhood is all mirth : 
 
 We frolic to and fro 
 As free and blithe, as if on earth 
 
 Were no such thing as woe. 
 
AFTER EPIPHANY 45 
 
 But if indeed with reckless faith 
 We trust the flattering voice, 
 
 Which whispers, " Take thy fill ere death, 
 Indulge thee and rejoice ; M 
 
 Too surely, every setting day, 
 
 Some lost delight we mourn, 
 The flowers all die along our way, 
 
 Till we, too, die forlorn. 
 
 Such is the world's gay garish feast, 1 
 
 In her first charming bowl 
 Infusing all that fires the breast, 
 
 And cheats the unstable soul. 
 
 And still, as loud the revel swells, 
 The fevered pulse beats higher, 
 
 Till the seared taste from foulest wells 
 Is fain to slake its fire. 
 
 Unlike the feast of heavenly Love 
 Spread at the Saviour's word 
 
 For souls that hear His call, and prove 
 Meet for His bridal board. 
 
 Why should we fear, youth's draught of joy, 
 
 If pure, would sparkle less ? 
 Why should the cup the sooner cloy, 
 
 Which God hath deigned to bless ? 
 
 1 "Garish," i.e. gaudy, showy. Cf. "Romeo and 
 Juliet : " Act iii. sc. 2 : 
 
 " And pay no worship to the garish sun." 
 " II Penseroso": 1. 141. 
 
 "Hide me from day's garish eye." 
 
46 SECOND SUNDAY 
 
 For is it Hope, that thrills so keen 
 
 Along each bounding vein, 
 Still whispering glorious things unseen ? — 
 
 Faith makes the vision plain. 
 
 The world would kill her soon : but Faith 
 Her daring dreams will cherish, 
 
 Speeding her gaze o'er time and death 
 To realms where nought can perish. 
 
 Or is it Love, the dear delight 
 
 Of hearts that know no guile, 
 
 That all around see all things bright 
 With their own magic smile ? 
 
 The silent joy, that sinks so deep, 
 
 Of confidence and rest, 
 Lulled in a Father's arms to sleep, 
 
 Clasped to a Mother's breast ? 
 
 Who, but a Christian, through all life 
 
 That blessing may prolong ? 
 Who, through the world's sad day of strife, 
 
 Still chant his morning song ? 
 
 Fathers may hate us or forsake, 
 
 God's foundlings then are we : 
 
 Mother on child no pity take, 1 
 
 But we shall still have Thee. 
 
 We may look home, and seek in vain 
 
 A fond fraternal heart, 
 But Christ hath given His promise plain 
 
 To do a Brother's part. 
 1 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she 
 should not have compassion on the son of her womb ? 
 yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. 
 Isaiah xlix. 15. Cf. Ps. xxvii. 10. 
 
AFTER EPIPHANY 47 
 
 Nor shall dull age, as worldlings say, 
 The heavenward flame annoy : 
 
 The Saviour cannot pass away, 
 And with Him lives our joy. 
 
 Ever the richest tenderest glow 
 
 Sets round the autumnal sun — 
 
 But there sight fails : no heart may know 
 The bliss when life is done. 
 
 Such is Thy banquet, dearest Lord ; 
 
 O give us grace to cast 
 Our lot with Thine, to trust Thy word, 
 
 And keep our best till last. 
 
 THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY 
 
 When Jesus heard it, He marvelled, and said to 
 them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not 
 found so great faith, no, not in Israel. S. Matthew 
 viii. 10. 
 
 THE GOOD CENTURION. 1824. 
 
 The story of the Gentile centurion with his humble 
 faith in Christ, with the prayers of the Jews on his 
 behalf in return for his love to them and for his active 
 kindness in building a synagogue, serves as a reminder 
 to the Pastor (i.) of the deep but humble shrinking 
 faith oft to be found where least expected, and which 
 is more cheering than even the sight of a rainbow in a 
 gloomy sky or the song of a lark on a dull plain : (ii.) 
 of the power of the prayers of the poor : (iii.) of the 
 gift of art in Christ's honour, and Christ's willingness 
 to accept all offerings inspired by love. 
 
 J MARKED a rainbow in the north, 
 What time the wild autumnal sun 
 From his dark veil at noon looked forth, 
 As glorying in his course half done, 
 
48 THIRD SUNDAY 
 
 Flinging soft radiance far and wide 
 Over the dusky heaven and bleak hillside. 
 
 It was a gleam to Memory dear, 
 And as I walk and muse apart, 
 
 When all seems faithless round and drear, 
 I would revive it in my heart, 
 
 And watch how light can find its way 
 To regions farthest from the fount of day. 
 
 Light flashes in the gloomiest sky, 
 And Music in the dullest plain, 
 
 For there the lark is soaring high 
 Over her flat and leafless reign, 
 
 And chanting in so blithe a tone, 
 It shames the weary heart to feel itself alone. 
 
 Brighter than rainbow in the north, 
 More cheery than the matin lark, 
 Is the soft gleam of Christian worth, 
 
 Which on some holy house we mark ; 
 Dear to the Pastor's aching heart 
 To think, where'er he looks, such gleam may 
 have a part ; 
 
 May dwell, unseen by all but Heaven, 
 Like diamond blazing in the mine ; 
 
 For ever, where such grace is given, 
 It fears in open day to shine ; 1 
 
 Lest the deep stain it owns within 
 Break out, and Faith be shamed by the believer's 
 
 1 Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter 
 under my roof. S. Luke vii. 6. 
 
 " From the first time that the impression of religion 
 
AFTER EPIPHANY 49 
 
 In silence and afar they wait, 
 
 To find a prayer their Lord may hear : 
 Voice of the poor and desolate, 
 
 You best may bring it to His ear. 
 Your grateful intercessions rise 
 With more than royal pomp, and pierce the 
 skies. 
 
 Happy the soul, whose precious cause 
 
 You in the sovereign Presence plead — 
 " This is the lover of Thy laws, 1 
 
 The friend of Thine in fear and need " — 
 For to the poor Thy mercy lends 
 That solemn style, " Thy nation and Thy 
 friends." 
 
 He too is blest, whose outward eye 
 
 The graceful lines of art may trace, 
 While his free spirit, soaring high, 
 
 Discerns the glorious from the base ; 
 Till out of dust his magic raise 2 
 A home for Prayer and Love and full har- 
 monious Praise, 
 
 settled deeply in his mind, he used great caution to con- 
 ceal it ; not only in obedience to the rule given by our 
 Saviour, of fasting, praying, and giving alms in secret, 
 but from a particular distrust he had of himself: for he 
 said he was afraid he should at some time or other do 
 some enormous thing, which, if he were looked on as a 
 very religious man, might cast a reproach on the pro- 
 fession of it, and give great advantages to impious men 
 to blaspheme the name of God." Burnet's " Life of 
 Hale " (Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog. vi. 73).— J. K. 
 
 1 He loveth our nation. S. Luke vii. 5. 
 
 2 He hath built us a synagogue. S. Luke vii. 5. 
 
 D 
 
5 o THIRD SUNDAY 
 
 Where far away and high above, 
 In maze on maze the tranced sight 
 
 Strays, mindful of that heavenly Love 
 Which knows no end in depth or height, 
 
 While the strong breath of Music seems 
 To waft us ever on, soaring in blissful dreams. 
 
 What though in poor and humble guise 
 
 Thou here didst sojourn, cottage-born ? 
 Yet from Thy glory in the skies 
 
 Our earthly gold Thou dost not scorn. 
 For Love delights to bring her best, 
 And where Love is, that offering evermore is 
 blest. 
 
 Love on the Saviour's dying head 
 
 Her spikenard drops unblamed may pour, 
 May mount His Cross and wrap Him dead 
 
 In spices from the golden shore ; 1 
 Risen, may embalm His Sacred Name 
 With all a Painter's art, and all a Minstrel's 
 flame. 
 
 Worthless and lost our offerings seem, 
 
 Drops in the ocean of His praise ; 
 But Mercy with her genial beam 
 
 Is ripening them to pearly blaze, 2 
 To sparkle in His crown above, 
 Who welcomes here a child's as there an angel's 
 love. 
 
 1 S. John xii. 7 ; xix. 30. 
 
 2 The language seems influenced by the Persian fable 
 quoted in The Spectator, No. 293. " A drop of water 
 fell out of a cloud into the sea, and finding itself lost in 
 such an immensity of fluid matter, broke out into the 
 following reflection : ' Alas ! What an inconsiderable 
 
AFTER EPIPHANY 51 
 
 FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER 
 EPIPHANY 
 
 When they saw Him, they besought Him that He 
 would depart out of their coasts. S. Matthew viii. 34. 
 
 THE WORLD IS FOR EXCITEMENT, THE 
 GOSPEL FOR SOOTHING. Dec. 19, 1825. 
 God's power and love are shown in His control of the 
 wild forces of Nature, but even more in His control of 
 the passions of the human heart. Yet, strangely, man's 
 wayward heart wishes his deliverer away, and turns 
 back to earthly passions. When this is so, God's love 
 does not desert him, but wins him back to the gospel 
 by the sights of Nature. 
 
 Miss Yonge would see in "Souls of highest birth 
 wasting their impassioned might on dreams of earth" 
 an allusion to Byron's poetry, and in the last lines a 
 hope that he might be drawn back to Christ. The 
 poem for Palm Sunday might bear this out, but may 
 not the allusion rather be to Wordsworth's change, 
 when he had been led back from his wild republican 
 dreams and spiritual perplexity into faith and peace by 
 his intercourse with Nature ? The last lines read like 
 a fact rather than a hope, and Wordsworth had come 
 to recognise — 
 
 " In nature and the language of the sense 
 The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, 
 The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul 
 Of all my moral being." 
 
 "THEY know the Almighty's power, 
 
 Who, wakened by the rushing mid- 
 night shower, 
 Watch for the fitful breeze 
 To howl and chafe amid the bending trees, 
 creature am I in this prodigious ocean of waters ! My 
 existence is of no concern to the universe ; I am reduced 
 to a kind of nothing and am less than the least of the 
 works of God.' It so happened that an oyster, which 
 lay in the neighbourhood of this drop, chanced to gape 
 
5% FOURTH SUNDAY 
 
 Watch for the still white gleam 
 To bathe the landscape in a fiery stream, 
 Touching the tremulous eye with sense of 
 light 
 Too rapid and too pure for all but angel sight. 
 
 They know the Almighty's love, 
 Who, when the whirlwinds rock the topmost 
 grove, 
 Stand in the shade, and hear 
 The tumult with a deep exulting fear, 
 
 How, in their fiercest sway, 
 Curbed by some power unseen, they die awav, 
 Like a bold steed that owns his rider's arm, 
 Proud to be checked and soothed by that over- 
 mastering charm. 
 
 But there are storms within 
 That heave the struggling heart with wilder 
 din, 
 And there is power and love 
 The maniac's rushing frenzy to reprove, 
 
 And when he takes his seat, 
 Clothed and in calmness, at His Saviour's 
 
 feet, 1 
 Is not the power as strange, the love as blest, 
 As when He said, Be still, and ocean sank to 
 
 rest ? 
 and swallow it up in the midst of this its humble 
 soliloquy. The drop, says the fable, lay a great 
 while hardening in the shell, until by degrees it was 
 ripened into a pearl, which falling into the hands of a 
 diver, after a long- series of adventures, is at present 
 that famous pearl which is fixed on the top of the 
 Persian diadem." 
 
 1 S. Mark v. 15 ; iv 39. 
 
AFTER EPIPHANY 5 3 
 
 Woe to the wayward heart, 
 That gladlier turns to eye the shuddering 
 start 
 Of Passion in her might, 
 Than marks the silent growth of grace and 
 light ;— 
 Pleased in the cheerless tomb 
 To linger, while the morning rays illume 
 Green lake, and cedar tuft, and spicy glade, 
 Shaking their dewy tresses now the storm is laid. 
 
 The storm is laid ; and now 
 In His meek power He climbs the mountain's 
 brow, 
 Who bade the waves go sleep, 
 And lashed the vexed fiends to their yawning 
 deep. 
 How on a rock they stand, 
 Who watch His eye, and hold His guiding 
 
 hand ! 
 Not half so fixed amid her vassal hills, 
 Rises the holy pile that Kedron's valley fills. 
 
 And wilt thou seek again 
 Thy howling waste, thy charnel-house and 
 chain, 
 And with the demons be, 
 Rather than clasp thine own Deliverer's knee ? 
 
 Sure 'tis no Heaven-bred awe 
 That bids thee from His healing touch with- 
 draw. 
 The world and He are struggling in thine 
 heart, 
 And in thy reckless mood thou bidst thy Lord 
 depart. 
 
54 FIFTH SUNDAY 
 
 He, merciful and mild, 
 As erst, beholding, loves His wayward child ; 
 
 When souls of highest birth 
 Waste their impassioned might on dreams of 
 earth, 
 He opens Nature's book, 
 And on His glorious Gospel bids them look, 
 Till by such chords, as rule the choirs above, 
 Their lawless cries are tuned to hymns of perfect 
 Love. 
 
 FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY 
 
 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it 
 cannot save ; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot 
 hear: but your iniquities have separated between you 
 and your God. Isaiah lix. I, 2. 
 
 CURE SIN AND YOU CURE SORROW. 
 May 9, 1826. 
 Often we cry for God to aid us, when really we are 
 only desiring some lost pleasure ; He is really with us 
 in our necessities as surely as He was with S. Philip 
 and the eunuch in the desert, when the eunuch learnt 
 the true peace which the world cannot give, and which 
 springs from the sense of sin forgiven. That peace 
 only sin can destroy, and penitence for sin may win it 
 back and give us power to intercede for others. 
 
 " \A/ AKE, arm divine ! awake, 
 Eye of the only Wise ! 
 Now for Thy glory's sake, 
 Saviour and God, arise, 
 And may Thine ear, that sealed seems, 
 In pity mark our mournful themes ! " J 
 1 " Arm of the Lord, awake, 
 
 Put on thine ancient strength ; 
 
 O for Thy glory's sake 
 
 Arouse thee, Lord, at length. "— MSS. 
 
AFTER EPIPHANY $5 
 
 Thus in her lonely hour 
 
 Thy Church is fain to cry, 
 As if Thy love and power 
 Were vanished from her sky ; 
 Yet God is there, and at His side 
 He triumphs Who for sinners died. 
 
 Ah ! 'tis the world enthralls 
 
 The Heaven-betrothed breast : 
 The traitor Sense recalls 
 The soaring soul from rest. 
 That bitter sigh was all for earth, 
 For glories gone, and vanished mirth. 
 
 Age would to youth return, 
 
 Farther from Heaven would be, 
 To feel the wildfire burn, 
 On idolising knee 
 Again to fall, and rob Thy shrine 
 Of hearts, the right of Love divine. 
 
 Lord of this erring flock ! 1 
 
 Thou whose soft showers distil 
 On ocean waste or rock, 
 Free as on Hermon hill, 
 Do Thou our craven spirits cheer, 
 And shame away the selfish tear. 
 
 'Twas silent all and dead 2 
 
 Beside the barren sea, 
 Where Philip's steps were led — 
 Led by a voice from Thee ; 
 
 1 " Lord of this erring flock : " " our wildering 
 flock."— MSS. "This wandering flock."— Ed. I. Com- 
 pare p. 84, note. 
 
 2 See Acts viii. 26-40. 
 
56 FIFTH SUNDAY 
 
 He rose and went, nor asked Thee why, 
 Nor stayed to heave one faithless sigh ; 
 
 Upon his lonely way 
 
 The high-born traveller came, 
 Reading a mournful lay 
 
 Of " One Who bore our shame, 
 Silent Himself, His Name untold, 
 And yet His glories were of old." l 
 
 To muse what Heaven might mean 
 His wondering brow He raised, 
 And met an eye serene 
 
 That on him watchful gazed. 
 No hermit e'er so welcome crossed 
 A child's lone path in woodland lost. 
 
 Now wonder turns to Love ; 
 The scrolls of sacred lore 
 No darksome mazes prove ; 
 The desert tires no more : 
 They bathe where holy waters flow, 
 Then on their way rejoicing go. 
 
 They part to meet in Heaven : 
 
 But of the joy they share, 
 Absolving and forgiven, 
 
 The sweet remembrance bear. 
 Yes — mark him well, ye cold and proud 
 Bewildered in a heartless crowd, 2 
 
 1 Isaiah liii. 6-8. 
 
 2 " Never again that statesman proud 
 
 Felt lonely in a heartless crowd." 
 
AFTER EPIPHANY 57 
 
 Starting and turning pale 1 
 
 At Rumour's angry din — 
 No storm can now assail 
 
 The charm he wears within, 
 Rejoicing still and doing good, 
 And with the thought of God imbued. 
 
 No glare of high estate, 
 
 No gloom of woe or want, 
 The radiance can abate 
 
 Where Heaven delights to haunt ; 
 Sin only hides the genial ray, 
 And, round the Cross, makes night of day. 
 
 Then weep it from thy heart ; 
 
 So mayst thou duly learn 
 The intercessor's part, 
 
 Thy prayers and tears may earn 
 For fallen souls some healing breath, 
 Ere they have died the Apostate's death. 2 
 
 SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY 
 
 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth 
 not yet appear what we shall be : but we know that, 
 when He shall appear, we shall be like Him ; for we 
 shall see Him as He is. 1 S. John iii. 2. 
 
 THE BENEFITS OF UNCERTAINTY. 1824. 
 As in war and love, that gives us most happiness for 
 which we have taken most effort, and about the issue 
 
 1 " Never again turned pale 
 
 At Rumour's angry din — 
 Nor storms nor foes assail 
 
 The charm he wears within." — MSS. 
 
 2 " God's mercy on some erring child 
 
 In ways of death now wandering wild." — MSS. 
 
$S SIXTH SUNDAY 
 
 of which we have felt most anxiety, so in religion we 
 need constant effort, never resting on assurance, but 
 pressing on beyond earthly to divine conceptions of 
 heaven. 
 
 '"THERE arc, who darkling and alone, 
 
 Would wish the weary night were gone, 
 Though dawning morn should only shew 
 The secret of their unknown woe : 
 Who pray for sharpest throbs of pain 
 To ease them of doubt's galling chain : 
 " Only disperse the cloud, " they cry, 
 " And if our fate be death, give light and let us 
 die." i 
 
 Unwise I deem them, Lord, unmeet 
 To profit by Thy chastenings sweet, 
 For thou wouldst have us linger still 
 Upon the verge of good or ill, 
 That on Thy guiding hand unseen 
 Our undivided hearts may lean, 
 And this our frail and foundering bark 
 Glide in the narrow wake of Thy beloved ark. 
 
 'Tis so in war— the champion true 
 Loves victory more, when dim in view 
 He sees her glories gild afar 
 The dusky edge of stubborn war, 
 Than if the untrodden bloodless field 
 The harvest of her laurels yield ; 
 Let not my bark in calm abide, 
 But win her fearless way against the chafing tide. 
 
 1 iv bk (pdet teal 6\e<T<rov. Horn. II. xvii. 647. 
 The prayer of Ajax to Zeus to remove the heavy cloud 
 that hung over the battlefield. The words are quoted 
 again in Keble's " Eucharistical Adoration," v. 2. 
 
AFTER EPIPHANY 59 
 
 'Tis so in love — the faithful heart 
 From her dim vision would not part, 
 When first to her fond gaze is given 
 That purest spot in Fancy's heaven, 
 For all the gorgeous sky beside, 
 Though pledged her own and sure to abide : 
 Dearer than every past noon-day 
 That twilight gleam to her, though faint and far 
 away. 
 
 So have I seen some tender flower 
 Prized above all the vernal bower, 
 Sheltered beneath the coolest shade, 
 Embosomed in the greenest glade, 
 So frail a gem, it scarce may bear 
 The playful touch of evening air ; * 
 When hardier grown we love it less, 
 And trust it from our sight, not needing our 
 caress. 
 
 And wherefore is the sweet springtide 
 Worth all the changeful year beside ? 
 The last-born babe, why lies its part 
 Deep in the mother's inmost heart ? 
 But that the Lord and source of love 
 Would have His weakest ever prove 
 Our tenderest care — and most of all 
 Our frail immortal souls, His work and Satan's 
 thrall. 
 
 So be it, Lord; I know it best, 
 Though not as yet this wayward breast 
 
 1 M The daintiest, frailest, dearest thing 
 
 That ever brushed an insect's wing." — K. MS. 
 
60 SIXTH SUNDAY 
 
 Beat quite in answer to Thy voice ; 
 Yet surely I have made my choice ; 
 I know not yet the promised bliss, 
 Know not if I shall win or miss ; 
 So doubting, rather let me die, 
 Than close with aught beside, to last eternally. 
 
 What is the heaven we idly dream ? 
 The self-deceiver's dreary theme, 
 A cloudless sun that softly shines, 
 Bright maidens and unfailing vines, 
 The warrior's pride, the hunter's mirth, 
 Poor fragments all of this low earth : 
 Such as in sleep would hardly soothe 
 A soul that once had tasted of immortal Truth. 
 
 What is the Heaven our God bestows ? 
 No Prophet yet, no Angel knows ; 
 Was never yet created eye 
 Could see across Eternity ; 
 Not seraph's wing for ever soaring 
 Can pass the flight of souls adoring, 
 That nearer still and nearer grow 
 To the unapproach£d Lord, once made for them 
 so low. 
 
 Unseen, unfelt their earthly growth, 
 And self-accused of sin and sloth 
 They live and die ; their names decay, 
 Their fragrance passes quite away ; 
 Like violets in the freezing blast 
 No vernal steam around they cast, — 
 But they shall flourish from the tomb, 
 The breath of God shall wake them into 
 odorous bloom. 
 
SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY 61 
 
 Then on the incarnate Saviour's breast, 
 The fount of sweetness, they shall rest, 
 Their spirits every hour imbued 
 More deeply with His precious Blood. 
 But peace — still voice and closed eye 
 Suit best with hearts beyond the sky, 
 Hearts training in their low abode, 
 Daily to lose themselves in hope to find their 
 God. 
 
 SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY 
 
 The invisible things of Him from the creation of 
 the world are jjclearly seen, being understood by the 
 things that are made. Romans i. 20. 
 
 SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 18 19. 
 
 One of the earliest and most beautiful poems, an 
 expression of the truth so dear to Mr Keble that 
 Nature is a type of grace. The principle on which 
 this is based is worked out in Tract for the Times, 
 No. 89; cf. pp. 137-186, and esp. the comment of 
 S. Ambrose on the Creation. " The Church is the 
 true moon which from the never- failing light of her 
 brother borrows for herself the lustre of immortality 
 and grace. For the Church shineth not with her 
 own but with our Saviour's light, and draws to 
 herself splendour from the Sun of Righteousness" 
 ( P . 156). 
 
 A good summary of the chief analogies between 
 Nature and Grace used by patristic writers will be 
 found in I. Williams, " On the Study of the Gospels," 
 PL iv. pp. 268, 269. 
 
 Compare also "De Imitatione Christi," ii. 4. Si 
 rectum esset cor tuum, tunc omnis creatura speculum 
 vitae et liber sanctse doctrinae esset. Non est creatura 
 tarn parva et vilis, quae Dei bonitatem non reprzesentet. 
 And the saying of S. Antony quoted in Socrates, 
 
62 SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY 
 
 "Eccl. Hist." iv. 23. to ifj.6v fiifiXiop, Si <pi\6ao(f>e, 77 
 <f>6<ns t<2v yey ovotwv carl' nal ira.pe<TTLi>, ore fiovKofxai, 
 tovs Xoyovs dv ay ivugkziv tovs rod deov. 
 
 '"THERE is a Book, who runs may read, 
 Which heavenly Truth imparts, 
 
 And all the lore its scholars need, 
 Pure eyes and Christian hearts. 
 
 The works of God above, below, 
 
 Within us and around, 
 Are pages in that Book, to shew 
 
 How God Himself is found. 
 
 The glorious sky embracing all 
 
 Is like the Maker's love, 
 Wherewith encompassed, great and small 
 
 In peace and order move. 
 
 The Moon above, the Church below, 
 
 A wondrous race they run, 
 But all their radiance, all their glow, 
 
 Each borrows of its Sun. 
 
 The Saviour lends the light and heat 
 
 That crowns His holy hill ; 
 The saints, like stars, around His seat, 
 
 Perform their courses still. 1 
 
 The saints above are stars in Heaven — 
 
 What are the saints on earth ? 
 Like trees they stand whom God has given, 2 
 
 Our Eden's happy birth. 
 
 1 Daniel xii. 3. 2 Isaiah ix. 21. 
 
SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY 63 
 
 Faith is their fixed unswerving root, 
 
 Hope their unfading flower, 
 Fair deeds of Charity their fruit, 
 
 The glory of their bower. 
 
 The dew of Heaven is like Thy grace, 1 
 
 It steals in silence down ; 
 But where it lights, the favoured place 
 
 By richest fruits is known. 
 
 One Name above all glorious names 
 
 With its ten thousand tongues 
 The everlasting sea proclaims, 
 
 Echoing angelic songs. 
 
 The raging Fire, 2 the roaring Wind, 
 
 Thy boundless power display : 
 But in the gentler breeze we find 
 
 Thy Spirit's viewless way. 3 
 
 Two worlds are ours : 'tis only Sin 
 
 Forbids us to descry 
 The mystic heaven and earth within, 
 
 Plain as the sea and sky. 
 
 Thou, who hast given me eyes to see 
 
 And love this sight so fair, 
 Give me a heart to find out Thee, 
 
 And read Thee everywhere. 
 
 1 Psalm lxviii. 9. 2 Hebrews xii. 29. 
 
 3 S. John iii. 8. 
 
64 SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY 
 
 SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY 
 
 So He drove out the man ; and He placed at the 
 east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming 
 sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the 
 tree of life. Genesis iii. 20. Cf. vi. 
 
 SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY. Feb. 18, 1824. 
 
 The sad consequences of sin are overruled by God to 
 be sources of blessing 
 
 pOE of mankind ! too bold thy race : 
 Thou runn'st at such a reckless pace, 
 Thine own dire work thou surely wilt con- 
 found : 
 'Twas but one little drop of sin 
 We saw this morning enter in, 
 And lo ! at eventide the world is drowned. 
 
 See here the fruit of wandering eyes, 
 
 Of worldly longings to be wise, 
 Of Passion dwelling on forbidden sweets : 
 
 Ye lawless glances, freely rove : 
 
 Ruin below and wrath above 
 Are all that now the wildering fancy meets. 
 
 Lord, when in some deep garden glade, 
 Of Thee and of myself afraid, 
 From thoughts like these among the bowers I 
 hide, 
 Nearest and loudest then of all 
 I seem to hear the Judge's call : — 
 " Where art thou, fallen man ? come forth, and 
 be thou tried." 
 
SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY 63 
 
 Trembling before Thee as I stand, 
 Where'er I gaze on either hand 
 
 The sentence is gone forth, the ground is cursed : 
 Yet mingled with the penal shower 
 Some drops of balm in every bower 
 
 Steal down like April dews, that softest fall and 
 first. 
 
 If filial and maternal love l 
 Memorial of our guilt must prove, 
 
 If sinful babes in sorrow must be born, 
 Yet, to assuage her sharpest throes, 
 The faithful mother surely knows 
 
 This was the way Thou earnest to save the 
 world forlorn. 
 
 If bless&d wedlock may not bless 2 
 Without some tinge of bitterness 
 
 To dash her cup of joy, since Eden lost, 
 Chaining to earth with strong desire 
 Hearts that would highest else aspire, 
 
 And o'er the tenderer sex usurping ever most ; 
 
 Yet by the light of Christian lore 
 
 'Tis blind Idolatry no more, 
 But a sweet help and pattern of true Love, 
 
 Shewing how best the soul may cling 
 
 To her immortal Spouse and King, 
 How He should rule, and she with full desire 
 approve. 
 
 1 In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. Genesis 
 iii. 16. 
 
 2 Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall 
 rule over thee. Genesis iii. 16. 
 
66 SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY 
 
 If niggard Earth her treasures hide, 1 
 To all but labouring hands denied, 
 
 Lavish of thorns and worthless weeds alone, 
 The doom is half in mercy given 
 To train us in our way to Heaven, 
 
 And show our lagging souls how glory must be 
 won. 
 
 If on the sinner's outward frame 2 
 
 God hath impressed His mark of blame, 
 
 And even our bodies shrink at touch of light, 
 Yet mercy hath not left us bare : 
 The very weeds we daily wear 3 
 
 Are to faith's eye a pledge of God's forgiving 
 might. 
 
 And oh ! if yet one arrow more, 4 
 
 The sharpest of the Almighty's store, 
 Tremble upon the string — a sinner's death — 
 
 Art Thou not by to soothe and save, 
 
 To lay us gently in the grave, 
 To close the weary eye and hush the parting 
 breath ? 
 
 Therefore in sight of man bereft 
 The happy garden still was left, 
 
 The fiery sword that guarded shewed it too, 
 Turning all ways, the world to teach, 
 That though as yet beyond our reach, 
 
 Still in its place the tree of life and glory grew. 
 
 1 Cursed is the ground for thy sake. Genesis iii. 17. 
 
 2 I was afraid, because I was naked. Genesis iii. 10. 
 
 3 The Lord God made coats of skins, and clothed 
 them. Genesis iii. 21. 
 
 4 Thou shalt surely die. Genesis ii. 17. 
 
QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY 67 
 QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY 
 
 I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for 
 a token of a covenant between Me and the earth. 
 Genesis ix. 13. (Cf. viii. 11 and 1 Cor. xiii. — MSS.) 
 
 QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY. March 6, 1824. 
 
 God's pardoning Love — imaged to Noah after the 
 flood in the dove, the olive leaf, and the rainbow, 
 and to us in the life of Jesus. As the rainbow breaks 
 up and softens the light for eyes which could not bear 
 the full glare of the sun, so the face of the Son of Man 
 attracts those who could not gaze upon the Son of God. 
 
 CWEET Dove ! the softest, steadiest plume 
 ^ In all the sunbright sky, 
 Brightening in ever-changeful bloom 
 As breezes change on high ; x — 
 
 Sweet Leaf! the pledge of peace and mirth, 
 " Long sought, and lately won,'* 2 
 
 Blest increase of reviving Earth, 
 When first it felt the Sun ; — 
 
 Sweet Rainbow ! pride of summer days, 
 High set at Heaven's command, 
 
 Though into drear and dusky haze 
 Thou melt on either hand ; — 
 
 Dear tokens of a pardoning God, 
 
 We hail ye, one and all, 
 As when our fathers walked abroad, 
 
 Freed from their twelve months' thrall. 
 
 1 " Each moment as you fly."— MSS. 
 a " Long sought and lately won." Perhaps a re- 
 miniscence of "The Bridal of Triermain," Canto iii. 1 ; 
 " Long-loved, long-wooed, and lately won." 
 
68 QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY 
 
 How joyful from the imprisoning ark 
 On the green earth they spring ! 
 
 Not blither, after showers, the lark 
 Mounts up with glistening wing. 
 
 So home-bound sailors spring to shore, 
 
 Two oceans safely past ; 
 So happy souls, when life is o'er, 
 
 Plunge in the empyreal vast. 
 
 What wins their first and fondest gaze 
 
 In all the blissful field, 
 And keeps it through a thousand days ? 
 
 Love face to face revealed : 
 
 Love imaged in that cordial look 
 
 Our Lord in Eden bends 
 On souls that sin and earth forsook 
 
 In time to die His friends. 
 
 And what most welcome and serene 
 
 Dawns on the Patriarch's eye, 
 In all the emerging hills so green, 
 
 In all the brightening sky ? 
 
 What but the gentle rainbow's gleam, 
 
 Soothing the wearied sight, 
 That cannot bear the solar beam, 
 
 With soft undazzling light ? 
 
 Lord, if our fathers turned to Thee 
 
 With such adoring gaze, 
 Wondering frail man Thy light should see 
 
 Without Thy scorching blaze ; 
 
ASH-WEDNESDAY 69 
 
 Where is our love, and where our hearts — 
 We who have seen Thy Son, 
 
 Have tried Thy Spirit's winning arts, 
 And yet we are not won ? 
 
 The Son of God in radiance beamed 
 
 Too bright for us to scan, 
 But we may face the rays that streamed 
 
 From the mild Son of Man. 
 
 There, parted into rainbow hues, 
 
 In sweet harmonious strife, 
 We see celestial love diffuse 
 
 Its light o'er Jesus' life. 
 
 God, by His bow, vouchsafes to write 
 This truth in Heaven above ; 
 
 As every lovely hue is Light, 
 So every grace is Love. 
 
 ASH-WEDNESDAY 
 
 When thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash 
 thy face ; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but 
 unto thy Father which is in secret. — S. Matthew vi. 
 17, 18. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF CONFESSION. Jan. 22 or 23, 
 1826.— Hursley. 
 
 Our own heart bids us to hide our sin and save others 
 the pain of it, but what a comfort it is to tell it to 
 some loving heart and infer God's forgiveness from 
 his. Even if we have no such friend, the angels, nay, 
 even Christ Himself will be present to cheer the sinner 
 who confesses his sin to God. 
 
 This should be compared with the Twenty-fourth 
 Sunday after Trinity, which dwells even more strongly 
 
70 ASH-WEDNESDAY 
 
 on the sinner's loneliness, and with the poem in the 
 Lyra Innocentium for Ash-Wednesday, " The Three 
 Absolutions," which speaks more clearly of the Church's 
 power to absolve. 
 
 " VES — deep within, and deeper yet 
 
 The rankling shaft of conscience hide, 
 Quick let the swelling eye forget 
 
 The tears that in the heart abide. 
 Calm be the voice, the aspect bold, 
 
 No shuddering pass o'er lip or brow, 
 For why should Innocence be told 
 
 The pangs that guilty spirits bow ? 
 
 " The loving eye that watches thine 
 
 Close as the air that wraps thee round — 
 Why in thy sorrow should it pine, 
 
 Since never of thy sin it found ? 
 And wherefore should the heathen see l 
 
 What chains of darkness thee enslave, 
 And mocking say, Lo, this is he 
 
 Who owned a God that could not save ? " 
 
 Thus oft the mourner's wayward heart 
 
 Tempts him to hide his grief and die, 
 Too feeble for Confession's smart, 
 
 Too proud to bear a pitying eye ; 
 How sweet, in that dark hour, to fall 
 
 On bosoms waiting to receive 
 Our sighs, and gently whisper all ! 
 
 They love us — will not God forgive ? 2 
 
 1 Wherefore should they say among the people, 
 Where is their God ? Joel ii. 17. 
 
 2 This stanza is not found in either MS., but was 
 printed in the first edition. 
 
 
ASH-WEDNESDAY 71 
 
 Else let us keep our fast within, 
 
 Till Heaven and we are quite alone, 1 
 Then let the grief, the shame, the sin, 
 
 Before the mercy-seat be thrown. 
 Between the porch and altar weep, 2 
 
 Unworthy of the holiest place, 
 Yet hoping near the shrine to keep 
 
 One lowly cell in sight of grace. 
 
 Nor fear lest sympathy should fail : — 
 
 Hast thou not seen, in night-hours drear, 
 When racking thoughts the heart assail, 
 
 The glimmering stars by turns appear, 
 And from the eternal home above 
 
 With silent news of mercy steal ? 
 So Angels pause on tasks of love, 
 
 To look where sorrowing sinners kneel. 
 
 Or if no Angel pass that way, 
 
 He who in secret sees, perchance 
 May bid His own heart-warming ray 
 
 Toward thee stream with kindlier glance, 
 As when upon His drooping head 
 
 His Fathers light was poured from Heaven, 
 W T hat time, unsheltered and unfed, 3 
 
 Far in the wild His steps were driven. 
 
 High thoughts were with him in that hour, 
 Untold, unspeakable on earth — 
 
 And who can stay the soaring power 
 Of spirits weaned from worldly mirth, 
 
 1 " But keep thy solemn fast within 
 
 When Heaven and thou are quite alone." — MSS. 
 
 2 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord weep be- 
 tween the porch and the altar. Joel ii. 17. 
 
 3 S. Matthew iv. 1. 
 
72 FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT 
 
 While fei beyond the sound of praise 
 
 W::h „yv,2-.; eye they rl:.-: «r.er.-;. 
 And learn to be^r their Saviour's blaze 
 When Judgment shall undraw the screen ? 
 
 FIRST SUNDAY IX LENT 
 
 Haste thee, escape thither : for I cannot do anything 
 till thon be come thither. Therefore the name of the 
 
 city wz« :i_lri Z:ir. Gr-eii; sis. :: 
 
 THE CITY OF REFUGE. March 9, 1X14 
 
 ~ .-..::; ■ • _ .' - - : • . . :'- . 
 
 ; judgments fall upon the world As Zoar was a 
 
 temporary refuge :: L::. n the visible Church and a 
 
 ::.::-. . ■. ::r.r - . - 
 yet they are in the world, and we must not limit our 
 hopes even to them. 
 
 " ANGEL 0: wrath ! why linger in mid air, 
 
 x While the d :y's cry 
 
 Lce.de: ir.i '.: 
 
 Thy full-charged vial standing by ? " 
 The 5. with stern voice, unsparing Justice pleads : 
 
 He hears her not — with softened gaze 
 His eye is following where n . leads, 
 
 And till she gives the sign, his fury stay* 
 
 Guided by her, along the mountain road, 
 ¥ :-.: though the twihght of the morn, 
 
 With fa rrying footsteps from the accursed abode 
 He sees the holy household borne : 
 
 Angels, or more, on either hand are nigh, 
 T speed them o'er the tempting plain, 
 
 Lingering in heart, and with frail sidelong e 
 
 Seeking how near they may unharmed remain. 
 
FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT y 3 
 
 " Ah ! wherefore gleam those upland slopes so 
 fair? 
 And why, through every woodland arch, 
 Swells yon bright vale, as Eden rich and 
 rare, 
 Where Jordan winds his stately march ; 
 If all must be forsaken, ruined all, 
 
 If God have planted but to burn ? — 
 Surely not yet the avenging shower will fall, 
 Though to my home for one last look I 
 turn." 
 
 Thus while they waver, surely long ago 
 
 They had provoked the withering blast, 
 
 But that the merciful Avengers know 
 
 Their frailty well, and hold them fast. 
 
 " Haste, for thy life escape, nor look behind ! " 
 Ever in thrilling sounds like these 
 
 They check the wandering eye, severely kind, 
 
 Nor let the sinner lose his soul at ease. 
 
 And when, o'erwearied with the steep ascent, 
 
 We for a nearer refuge crave, 
 One little spot of ground in mercy lent, 
 
 One hour of home before the grave, 
 Oft in His pity o'er His children weak, 
 
 His hand withdraws the penal fire, 
 And where we fondly cling, forbears to wreak 
 Full vengeance, till our hearts are weaned entire. 
 
 Thus by the merits of one righteous man, 1 
 The Church, our Zoar, shall abide, 
 
 Till she abuse, so sore, her lengthened span 
 Even Mercy's self her face must hide. 
 1 "Merits": prayers.— MSS. 
 
74 SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT 
 
 Then, onward yet a step, thou hard-won soul ; 
 
 Though in the Church thou know thy place, 
 The mountain farther lies — there seek thy goal, 
 There breathe at large, o'erpast thy dangerous 
 race. 
 
 Sweet is the smile of home ; the mutual look 
 When hearts are of each other sure ; 
 
 Sweet all the joys that crowd the household nook, 
 The haunt of all affections pure ; 
 
 Yet in the world even these abide, and we 
 Above the world our calling boast : 
 
 Once gain the mountain-top, and thou art free : 
 
 Till then, who rest, presume ; who turn to look, 
 are lost. 
 
 SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT 
 
 And when Esau heard the words of his father, he 
 cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said 
 unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. 
 Genesis xxvii. 34. — (Cf. Hebrews xii. 17. He found 
 no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully 
 with tears.) 1 
 
 ESAU'S FORFEIT. ? 1824. 
 
 "The sternest and the most awful of all the Christian 
 Year." — Miss Yonge. The cry of remorse may come 
 
 1 The author earnestly hopes, that nothing in these 
 stanzas will be understood to express any opinion as to 
 the general efficacy of what is called " a death-bed 
 repentance." Such questions are best left in the merci- 
 ful obscurity with which Scripture has enveloped them. 
 Esau's probation, as far as his birthright was concerned, 
 was quite over when he uttered the cry in the text. 
 His despondency, therefore, is not parallel to any thing 
 on this side the grave. — J. K. 
 
SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT 75 
 
 too late ; the revelation of eternal life goes side by side 
 with that of eternal death ; we may not take the one 
 and reject the other. 
 
 The poem should be compared with Mr Keble's last 
 published sermon, preached forty years later. Pente- 
 costal Fear : A Sermon preached in the Parish Church 
 of Cuddesdon, on May 24, 1864. 
 
 " AND is there in God's world so drear a 
 place 
 
 Where the loud bitter cry is raised in vain ? 
 Where tears of penance come too late for grace, 
 
 As on the uprooted flower the genial rain ? " 
 
 'Tis even so : the sovereign Lord of souls 
 Stores in the dungeon of His boundless realm 
 
 Each bolt, that o'er the sinner vainly rolls, 
 With gathered wrath the reprobate to whelm. 
 
 Will the storm hear the sailor's piteous cry, 1 
 Taught to mistrust, too late, the tempting 
 wave, 
 
 When all around he sees but sea and sky, 
 A God in anger, a self-chosen grave ? 
 
 Or will the thorns, that strew intemperance' bed, 
 Turn with a wish to down ? will late remorse 
 
 Recall the shaft the murderer's hand has sped, 
 Or from the guiltless bosom turn its course ? 
 
 Then may the unbodied soul in safety fleet 
 Through the dark curtains of the world above, 
 
 Fresh from the stain of crime ; nor fear to meet 
 The God, whom here she would not learn to 
 
 love : 
 1 Cf. Bp. Butler's " Analogy," pp. 54-64, ed. 1736. — 
 J. K. Cf. also Claudian in "Eutrop." ii. 7: Quid 
 
 juvat errorem mersa jam puppe fateri. 
 
j6 SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT 
 
 Then is there hope for such as die unblest, 
 That angel wings may waft them to the shore, 
 
 Nor need the unready virgin strike her breast, 
 Nor wait desponding round the bridegroom's 
 door. 
 
 But where is then the stay of contrite hearts ? 
 
 Of old they leaned on Thy eternal Word, 
 But with the sinner's fear their hope departs, 
 
 Fast linked as Thy great Name to Thee, O 
 Lord : 
 
 That Name, by which Thy faithful oath is past, 
 That we should endless be, for joy or woe : — 
 
 And if the treasures of Thy wrath could waste, 
 Thy lovers must their promised Heaven forego. 
 
 But ask of elder days, earth's vernal hour, 
 When in familiar talk God's voice was heard, 
 
 When at the Patriarch's call the fiery shower 
 Propitious o'er the turf-built shrine appeared. 
 
 Watch by our father Isaac's pastoral door — 
 The birthright sold, the blessing lost and won, 
 
 Tell, Heaven has wrath that can relent no more, 
 The Grave, dark deeds that cannot be undone. 
 
 We barter life for pottage ; sell true bliss 
 
 For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown ; 
 
 Thus, Esau-like, our Father's blessing miss, 
 Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown. 
 
 Our faded crown, despised and flung aside, 
 Shall on some brother's brow immortal bloom. 
 
 No partial hand the blessing may misguide ; 
 No flattering fancy change our Monarch's 
 doom: 
 
THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT yy 
 
 His righteous doom, that meek true-hearted Love 
 The everlasting birthright should receive, 
 
 The softest dews drop on her from above, 1 
 The richest green her mountain garland weave : 
 
 Her brethren, mightiest, wisest, eldest born, 
 Bow to her sway, and move at her behest : 
 
 Isaac's fond blessing may not fall on scorn, 
 Nor Balaam's curse on Love which God 
 hath blest. 
 
 THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT 
 
 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his 
 goods are in peace ; but when a stronger than he shall 
 come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him 
 all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his 
 spoils. S. Luke xi. 21. 22. 
 
 THE SPOILS OF SATAN. Feb. 9, 1827. 
 
 The consecration of classical literature to Christ. 
 
 As the Israelites at the Exodus spoiled the Egyptians, 
 as at their capture of Canaan they entered upon all the 
 results of the toil of the Canaanites, so Christians can 
 enter into all the treasures of classic literature, for each 
 aspiration there finds its fulfilment in the revelation of 
 Christ. 
 
 This thought is a favourite one in Mr Keble's lectures 
 on poetry, cf. especially " Prasl. Acad." ii. pp. 799-818. 
 It is illustrated by his use of the story of Hector and 
 Andromache in the poem for Monday before Easter ; 
 and may be well compared with the defence of the study 
 of Greek literature in Socrates, " Hist. Eccl." iii. 16, on 
 the ground that to yap KaXdv, evd' av 77, idiov ttjs 
 dXrjdelas iariv. The application of the spoiling of the 
 Egyptians to the use of pagan literature is found in 
 Origen, " Ep. ad. Greg." and Augustine, " De Doctr. 
 Christ." ii. 40. 
 
 1 Genesis xxvii. 27, 28. 
 
yS THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT 
 
 A first draft of the poem was written as early as 1822 
 in four-line stanzas, the greater part of which are pub- 
 lished in Miss Yonge, " Musings," p. 87, but this 
 revised draft of 1827 is far richer in illustration and 
 more poetic in diction. 
 
 CEE Lucifer like lightning fall, 
 
 Dashed from his throne of pride ; 
 While, answering Thy victorious call, 
 
 The Saints his spoils divide ; x 
 This world of Thine, by him usurped too 
 long, 
 Now opening all her stores to heal Thy servants' 
 wrong. 
 
 So when the first-born of Thy foes 
 
 Dead in the darkness lay, 
 When Thy redeemed at midnight rose 
 
 And cast their bonds away, 
 The orphaned realm threw wide her gates, 
 and told 
 Into freed Israel's lap her jewels and her gold. 2 
 
 And when their wondrous march was o'er, 
 
 And they had won their homes, 
 Where Abraham fed his flock of yore, 
 
 Among their fathers' tombs ; — 
 A land that drinks the rain of Heaven at will, 
 Whose waters kiss the feet of many a vine-clad 
 hill ;— 3 
 
 Oft as they watched, at thoughtful eve, 
 
 A gale from bowers of balm 
 Sweep o'er the billowy corn, and heave 
 
 The tresses of the palm, 
 
 1 Cf. Isaiah xiv. 12. S. Luke xi. 22. 
 
 2 Cf. Exodus xii. 35, 36. 3 Cf. Deuteronomy xi. 11. 
 
THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT 79 
 
 Just as the lingering Sun had touched with gold, 
 Far o'er the cedar shade, some tower of giants 
 old; 
 
 It was a fearful joy, I ween, 
 
 To trace the Heathen's toil, 
 The limpid wells, the orchards green 
 
 Left ready for the spoil, 
 The household stores untouched, the roses 
 bright 
 Wre?thed o'er the cottage walls in garlands of 
 delight. 1 
 
 And now another Canaan yields 
 
 To Thine all-conquering ark ; — 
 Fly from the " old poetic M fields, 2 
 
 Ye Paynim shadows dark ! 
 Immortal Greece, dear land of glorious lays, 
 Lo! here the "unknown God " of thy uncon- 
 scious praise ! 3 
 
 The olive wreath, the ivied wand, 
 
 " The sword in myrtles drest," 4 
 Each legend of the shadowy strand 
 
 Now wakes a vision blest ; 
 As little children lisp, and tell of Heaven, 
 So thoughts beyond their thought to those high 
 Bards were given. 
 
 1 Cf. Deuteronomy vi. 1 1. 
 
 2 " Where each old poetic mountain 
 
 Inspiration breathed around." — Gray. " The 
 Progress of Poesy," 73. 74. 3 Cf. Acts xvii. 23. 
 
 4 " The sword in myrtles drest." Translated in 
 Collins, "Ode to Liberty," from the hymn of Calli- 
 stratus in honour of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who 
 had won immortality by the murder of Hipparchus. 
 
80 FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT 
 
 And these are ours : Thy partial grace 
 
 The tempting treasure lends : 
 These relics of a guilty race 
 
 Are forfeit to Thy friends : 
 What seemed an idol hymn, now breathes of 
 Thee, 
 Tuned by Faith's ear to some celestial melody. 
 
 There's not a strain to Memory dear, 1 
 
 Nor flower in classic grove, 
 There's not a sweet note warbled here, 
 
 But minds us of Thy Love. 
 O Lord, our Lord, and spoiler of our foes, 
 There is no light but Thine : with Thee all 
 beauty glows. 
 
 FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT 
 
 Joseph made haste ; for his bowels did yearn upon 
 his brother : and he sought where to weep ; and he 
 entered into his chamber, and wept there. Genesis 
 xliii. 30. 
 
 There stood no man with him, while Joseph made 
 himself known unto his brethren. Genesis xlv. 1. 
 THE ROSEBUD. May 18, 1824. 
 
 The true reserve of religious feeling. Silent and 
 unseen are the great changes of Nature ; so is it with 
 
 1 See Burns' Works, iv. 293. Dr Currie's edition. 
 "I see her in the dewy flowers, 
 I see her sweet and fair : 
 I hear her in the tuneful birds, 
 I hear her charm the air. 
 
 " There's not a bonnie flower that springs 
 By fountain, shaw. or green, 
 There's not a bonnie bird that sings 
 But minds me o' my Jean." 
 Cf. Keble's " Occasional Papers and Reviews/' p. 92, 
 where this same passage of Burns is quoted. 
 
w 
 
 FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT 81 
 
 Love whether of man or of God : it shrinks from display ; 
 even the Holy Spirit has not revealed the Love of the 
 meeting of the Risen Lord with His Mother ; and 
 Joseph, the type of Christ, would have no one present 
 when he made himself known to his brethren. 
 
 This thought — a protest against the unreserved 
 pouring forth of religious experience which was 
 common in the religious world of the time — is very 
 common in Mr Keble, cf. the Review of the Life of Sir 
 W. Scott, " Occasional Papers and Reviews," p. 17. 
 It found its chief expression in the teaching of Isaac 
 Williams, who was his pupil at Southrop at the time 
 when this poem was written, and afterwards the 
 author of Tract No. 87. " Reserve in communicating 
 Religious Knowledge." 
 
 HEN Nature tries her finest touch, 
 Weaving her vernal wreath, 
 Mark ye, how close she veils her round, 
 Not to be traced by sight or sound, 
 
 Nor soiled by ruder breath ? 
 
 Who ever saw the earliest rose 
 
 First open her sweet breast ? 
 Or, when the summer sun goes down, 
 The first soft star in evening's crown 
 Light up her gleaming crest ? 
 
 Fondly we seek the dawning bloom 
 On features wan and fair, — 
 
 The gazing eye no change can trace, 
 
 But look away a little space, 
 
 Then turn, and, lo ! 'tis there. 
 
 But there's a sweeter flower than e'er 
 
 Blushed on the rosy spray — 
 A brighter star, a richer bloom 
 Than e'er did western heaven illume 
 At close of summer day. 
 
82 FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT 
 
 'Tis Love, the last best gift of Heaven ; 
 
 Love gentle, holy, pure : 
 But tenderer than a dove's soft eye, 
 The searching sun, the open sky, 
 
 She never could endure. 
 
 Even human Love will shrink from sight 
 
 Here in the coarse rude earth : 
 How then should rash intruding glance 
 Break in upon her sacred trance 
 
 Who boasts a heavenly birth ? 
 
 So still and secret is her growth, 
 
 Ever the truest heart, 
 Where deepest strikes her kindly root 
 For hope or joy, for flower or fruit, 
 
 Least knows its happy part. 
 
 God only, and good Angels, look 
 
 Behind the blissful screen — 
 As when, triumphant o'er His woes, 
 The Son of God by moonlight rose, 
 
 By all but Heaven unseen : 
 
 As when the holy Maid beheld 
 
 Her risen Son and Lord : 
 Thought has not colours half so fair 
 That she to paint that hour may dare, 
 
 In silence best adored. 
 
 The gracious Dove, that brought from Heaven 
 
 The earnest of our bliss, 
 Of many a chosen witness telling, 
 On many a happy vision dwelling, 
 
 Sings not a note of this. 
 
FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT 83 
 
 So, truest image of the Christ, 
 Old Israel's long-lost son, 
 What time, with sweet forgiving cheer, 
 He called his conscious brethren near, 
 Would weep with them alone. 
 
 He could not trust his melting soul 
 
 But in his Maker's sight — 
 Then why should gentle hearts and true 
 Bare to the rude world's withering view 
 Their treasure of delight ? 
 
 No — let the dainty rose a while 
 
 Her bashful fragrance hide — 
 Rend not her silken veil too soon, 
 But leave her, in her own soft noon, 
 To flourish and abide. 
 
 FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT 
 
 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this 
 great sight, why the bush is not burnt. Exodus iii. 3. 
 
 THE BURNING BUSH. April 24, 1824. 
 
 The lesson of the history of the Jews. 
 
 In all history — which is but a record of " God's way 
 of teaching love and fear " — there is no sight so strange 
 as the permanence of the Jewish race, like the Bush 
 which Moses saw burning yet not consumed. They 
 stand as a warning to the Christian Church : they 
 stand as a type of the undecaying life that may be in 
 store for a lost soul ; and yet there is hope for them, 
 not of a national restoration, but of individual redemp- 
 tion to every Jew who will seek for it. 
 
 This meditation is based on the thought that the 
 history of the Jewish race as a whole was meant to be 
 a type of God's dealing with the individual Christian, 
 cf. " Occasional Papers and Reviews," p. 435. The 
 particular application maybe due to Pascal, " Pensees," 
 
84 FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT 
 
 ii. 1 1 (ed. Molinier) : " C'est une chose estonnante et 
 digne d'une estrange attention de voir ce peuple Juif 
 subsister depuis tant d'annees et de le voir toujours 
 miserable." 
 
 THE historic Muse, from age to age, 
 
 Through many a waste heart-sickening 
 
 page 
 Hath traced the works of Man : 
 
 But a celestial call to-day 
 
 Stays her, like Moses, on her way, 
 The works of God to scan. 
 
 Far seen across the sandy wild, 
 Where, like a solitary child, 
 
 He thoughtless roamed and free, 
 One towering thorn * was wrapt in flame — 
 Bright without blaze it went and came : 
 
 Who would not turn and see ? 
 
 Along the mountain ledges green 
 The scattered sheep at will may glean 
 
 The Desert's spicy stores : 
 The while, with undivided heart, 
 The shepherd talks with God apart, 
 
 And, as he talks, adores. 
 
 Ye too, who tend Christ's wildering flock, 2 
 Well may ye gather round the rock 
 
 That once was Sion's hill, 
 To watch the fire upon the mount 
 Still blazing, like the solar fount, 
 
 Yet unconsuming still. 
 
 1 " Seneh " : said to be a sort of Acacia. — J. K. 
 
 2 "Wildering," i.e. wandering. In 1858 Keble 
 wrote : " With respect to the word which gave occa- 
 sion to our little correspondence, I find that according 
 
FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT 85 
 
 Caught from that blaze by wrath divine, 
 Lost branches of the once-loved vine, 
 
 Now withered, spent, and sere, 
 See Israel's sons, like glowing brands, 
 Tost wildly o'er a thousand lands 
 
 For twice a thousand year. 
 
 God will not quench nor slay them quite, 
 But lifts them like a beacon light 
 
 The apostate Church to scare ; 
 Or like pale ghosts that darkling roam, 
 Hovering around their ancient home, 
 
 But find no refuge there. 
 
 Ye blessed Angels ! if of you 
 There be, who love the ways to view 
 
 Of Kings and Kingdoms here ; 
 (And sure, 'tis worth an Angel's gaze, 
 To see, throughout the dreary maze, 
 
 God teaching love and fear : ) 
 
 Oh ! say, in all the bleak expanse, 
 Is there a spot to win your glance, 
 
 So bright, so dark as this ? 
 A hopeless faith, a homeless race, 
 Yet seeking the most holy place, 
 And owning the true bliss ! 
 to Johnson there is or was such a word as f wildering ' 
 or to ' wilder ' ; only, unluckily for me, it is a verb 
 active — the same as to l bewilder.' So it must be 
 considered an error, and wandering or some such word 
 must be kindly substituted for it." — Coleridge's " Me- 
 moir," p. 162. He never altered it here, or on p. 64, 
 but the MSS. show that he did alter it in some other 
 lines in the "Christian Year" before its publication: 
 e.g. in the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany and Trinity 
 Sunday. 
 
86 FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT 
 
 Salted with fire they seem, 1 to shew 
 How spirits lost in endless woe 
 
 May undecaying live. 
 Oh, sickening thought ! yet hold it fast 
 Long as this glittering world shall last, 
 
 Or sin at heart survive. 
 
 And hark ! amid the flashing fire, 
 Mingling with tones of fear and ire, 
 
 Soft Mercy's undersong — 
 'Tis Abraham's God who speaks so loud, 
 His people's cries have pierced the cloud, 
 
 He sees, He sees their wrong ; 2 
 
 He is come down to break their chain ; 
 Though never more on Sion's fane 
 
 His visible ensign wave ; 
 'Tis Sion, wheresoe'er they dwell, 
 Who with His own true Israel, 
 
 Shall own him strong to save. 
 
 He shall redeem them one by one, 
 Where'er the world-encircling sun 
 
 Shall see them meekly kneel : 
 All that He asks on Israel's part, 
 Is only, that the captive heart 
 
 Its woe and burthen feel. 
 
 Gentiles ! with fixed yet awful eye 
 Turn ye this page of mystery, 
 
 Nor slight the warning sound : 
 " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet — 
 The place where man his God shall meet, 
 
 Be sure, is holy ground." 
 
 1 S. Mark ix. 49, 2 Exodus iii. 7, 8 
 
PALM SUNDAY 87 
 
 PALM SUNDAY 
 
 And He answered and said unto them, I tell you 
 that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would 
 immediately cry out. — S. Luke xix. 40. 
 
 THE CHILDREN IN THE TEMPLE. Date 
 uncertain, but not later than 1821. 
 
 The ideal of Poetry. An appeal to poets to use their 
 gift for God's glory, probably suggested by the degrada- 
 tion of poetry to the praise of earthly passion in the 
 hands of Byron and Shelley. Cf. " Prasl. Acad." i. 222. 
 Compare the poem for the Fourth Sunday after 
 Epiphany, and also George Herbert's " Introit." (Pal- 
 grave, " Treasury of Sacred Song," xxxvii.) 
 
 V^E whose hearts are beating high 
 1 With the pulse of Poesy, 
 Heirs of more than royal race, 
 Framed by Heaven's peculiar grace, 
 God's own work to do on earth, 
 
 (If the word be not too bold,) 
 Giving virtue a new birth, 
 
 And a life that ne'er grows old — l 
 
 Sovereign masters of all hearts ! 
 Know ye, who hath set your parts ? 
 He who gave you breath to sing, 
 By whose strength ye sweep the string, 
 He hath chosen you, to lead 
 
 His Hosannas here below ; — 
 Mount, and claim your glorious meed ; 
 
 Linger not with sin and woe. 
 
 1 Cf. Ovid, ex Ponlo iv. 8, 47, 48, 55. 
 
 Carmine fit vivax virtus ; expersque sepulchri 
 Notitiam seroe posteritates habet, 
 
 Di quoque carminibus (si far est dicere) fiunt. 
 
88 PALM SUNDAY 
 
 But if ye should hold your peace, 
 Deem not that the song would cease — 
 Angels round His glory-throne, 
 Stars, His guiding hand that own, 
 Flowers that grow beneath our feet, 
 
 Stones in earth's dark womb that rest, 
 High and low in choir shall meet, 
 
 Ere His Name shall be unblest. 
 
 Lord, by every minstrel tongue 
 Be Thy praise so duly sung, 
 That Thine angels' harps may ne'er 
 Fail to find fit echoing here : 
 We the while, of meaner birth, 
 
 Who in that divinest spell 
 Dare not hope to join on earth, 
 
 Give us grace to listen well. 
 
 But should thankless silence seal 
 Lips, that might half Heaven reveal, 
 Should bards in idol-hymns profane 
 The sacred soul-enthralling strain, 
 (As in this bad world below 
 
 Noblest things find vilest using,) 
 Then, Thy power and mercy shew, 
 
 In vile things noble breath infusing ; 
 
 Then waken into sound divine 
 The very pavement of Thy shrine, 
 Till we, like Heaven's star-sprinkled floor, 
 Faintly give back what we adore. 
 Childlike though the voices be, 
 
 And untunable the parts, 
 Thou wilt own the minstrelsy, 
 
 If it flow from childlike hearts. 
 
MONDAY BEFORE EASTER 89 
 
 MONDAY BEFORE EASTER 
 
 Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be 
 ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not. — Isaiah 
 lxiii. 16. 
 
 CHRIST WAITING FOR THE CROSS. 
 Jan. 15, 1826. 
 
 The individual love of the Christian for Christ and of 
 Christ for each Christian. 
 
 Christ is to us all that Hector was to Andromache ; 
 nay, more, He never forgets us. We may fancy our- 
 selves deserted, but He cared for and thought of each 
 individual soul in the quiet days of Passion week. We 
 fancy this would appeal to us more, if we had seen the 
 actual scene of His prayer ; but faith must lay hold of 
 the truth, and can do so by reading the Gospel record. 
 
 « CATHER to me Thou art, and Mother 
 dear, 
 And Brother too, kind Husband of my 
 heart ! " 
 So speaks Andromache l in boding fear, 
 
 Ere from her last embrace her hero part — 
 So evermore, by Faith's undying glow, 
 We own the Crucified in weal or woe. 
 
 Strange to our ears the church-bells of our home, 
 The fragrance of our old paternal fields 
 
 May be forgotten ; and the time may come 
 When the babe's kiss no sense of pleasure 
 yields 
 
 Even to the doting mother : but Thine own 
 
 Thou never canst forget, nor leave alone. 2 
 
 1 " Iliad," vi. 429. Cf. note on Holy Innocents' Day 
 and on Third Sunday in Lent. 
 
 2 Cf. p. 46, supra. 
 
9 o MONDAY BEFORE EASTER 
 
 There are who sigh that no fond heart is theirs, 
 None loves them best — O vain and selfish 
 sigh ! 
 
 Out of the bosom of His love He spares — 
 The Father spares the Son, for thee to die : 
 
 For thee He died — for thee He lives again : 
 
 O'er thee He watches in His boundless reign. 
 
 Thou art as much His care, as if beside 
 
 Nor man nor angel lived in Heaven or earth : 
 
 Thus sunbeams pour alike their glorious tide 
 To light up worlds, or wake an insect's mirth : 
 
 They shine and shine with unexhausted store — 
 
 Thou art thy Saviour's darling — seek no more. 
 
 On thee and thine, thy warfare and thine end, 
 Even in His hour of agony He thought, 
 
 When, ere the final pang His soul should rend, 
 The ransomed spirits one by one were brought 
 
 To His mind's eye : two silent nights and 
 days 1 
 
 In calmness for His far-seen hour He stays. 
 
 Ye vaulted cells, where martyred seers of old 
 Far in the rocky walls of Sion sleep, 
 
 Green terraces and arched fountains cold, 
 
 Where lies the cypress shade so still and deep, 
 
 Dear sacred haunts of glory and of woe, 
 
 Help us, one hour, to trace His musings high 
 and low : 
 
 1 In Passion week, from Tuesday evening to 
 Thursday evening: during which time Scripture 
 seems to be nearly silent concerning our Saviour's 
 proceedings. — J. K. 
 
MONDAY BEFORE EASTER 91 
 
 One heart-ennobling hour ! It may not be : 
 The unearthly thoughts have passed from 
 earth away, 
 And fast as evening sunbeams from the sea 
 
 Thy footsteps all in Sion's deep decay 
 Were blotted from the holy ground : yet dear 
 Is every stone of hers ; for Thou wast surely 
 here. 
 
 There is a spot within this sacred dale 
 
 That felt Thee kneeling — touched Thy pros- 
 trate brow : 
 
 One Angel knows it. O might prayer avail 
 To win that knowledge ! sure each holy vow 
 
 Less quickly from the unstable soul would fade, 
 
 Offered where Christ in agony was laid. 
 
 Might tear of ours once mingle with the blood 
 That from His aching brow by moonlight fell, 
 
 Over the mournful joy our thoughts would brood, 
 Till they had framed within a guardian spell 
 
 To chase repining fancies, as they rise, 
 
 Like birds of evil wing, to mar our sacrifice. 
 
 So dreams the heart self-flattering, fondly 
 dreams ; — 
 Else wherefore, when the bitter waves o'er- 
 flow, 
 Miss we the light, Gethsemane, that streams 
 From Thy dear name, where in His page of 
 woe 
 It shines, a pale kind star in winter's sky ? 
 Who vainly reads it there, in vain had seen 
 Him die. 1 
 
 1 Cf. S. Luke xvi. 31. 
 
92 TUESDAY BEFORE EASTER 
 
 TUESDAY BEFORE EASTER 
 
 They gave Him to drink wine mingled with myrrh : 
 but He received it not. S. Mark xv. 23. 
 
 CHRIST REFUSING THE WINE AND 
 MYRRH. March 17, 1827. 
 
 The completeness of Christ's self-sacrifice. He 
 refuses the opiate that would dull His senses, in order 
 that by feeling all He may pity all. Thus He has 
 taught us to face sorrow and to seek the only solace in 
 it which He had, — the joy of forgiving the penitent 
 and committing His Spirit to the Father's hands. 
 
 " CILL high the bowl, and spice it well, and 
 
 pour 
 The dews oblivious : for the Cross is sharp, 
 
 The Cross is sharp, and He 
 
 Is tenderer than a lamb. 
 
 " He wept by Lazarus' grave — how will He 
 
 bear 
 This bed of anguish ? and His pale weak form 
 
 Is worn with many a watch 
 
 Of sorrow and unrest. 
 
 " His sweat last night was as great drops of 
 
 blood, 
 And the sad burthen pressed Him so to earth, 
 
 The very torturers paused 
 
 To help Him on His way. 
 
 " Fill high the bowl, benumb His aching sense 
 With medicined sleep." — O awful in Thy woe ! 
 The parching thirst of death 
 Is on Thee, and Thou triest 
 
TUESDAY BEFORE EASTER 93 
 
 The slumbrous potion bland, and wilt not 
 
 drink : 
 Not sullen, nor in scorn, like haughty man 
 
 With suicidal hand 
 
 Putting his solace by : 
 
 But as at first Thine all-pervading look 
 Saw from Thy Father's bosom to the abyss, 
 
 Measuring in calm presage, 
 
 The infinite descent ; 
 
 So to the end, though now of mortal pangs 
 Made heir, and emptied of Thy glory awhile, 
 
 With unaverted eye 
 
 Thou meetest all the storm. 
 
 Thou wilt feel all, that Thou mayst pity all ; 
 And rather wouldst Thou wrestle with strong 
 pain, 
 
 Than overcloud Thy soul, 
 
 So clear in agony, 
 
 Or lose one glimpse of Heaven before the time. 
 O most entire and perfect sacrifice, 
 
 Renewed in every pulse 
 
 That on the tedious Cross 
 
 Told the long hours of death, as, one by one, 
 The life-strings of that tender heart gave way ; 
 
 Even sinners, taught by Thee, 
 
 Look Sorrow in the face, 
 
 And bid her freely welcome, unbeguiled 
 By false kind solaces, and spells of earth : — 
 
 And yet not all unsoothed ; 
 
 For when was Joy so dear, 
 
94 WEDNESDAY 
 
 As the deep calm that breathed, " Father, 
 
 forgive ! " 
 Or, " Be with Me in Paradise to-day " ? 
 
 And, though the strife be sore, 
 
 Yet in His parting breath 
 
 Love masters Agony ; the soul that seemed 
 Forsaken, feels her present God again, 
 
 And in her Father's arms 
 
 Contented dies away. 
 
 WEDNESDAY BEFORE EASTER 
 
 Saying, Father, if Thou be willing - , remove this cup 
 from Me : nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done. 
 S. Luke xxii. 42. 
 
 CHRIST IN THE GARDEN. August 13, 182 1.— 
 (K.) August 18, 1821.— (R.) "The Christian's 
 Lullaby."— (K2.) 
 
 Perfect rest can be gained only by self-devotion and 
 resignation to God's will. These find their highest 
 expression in the virgin and the martyr ; but the 
 martyr's crown may be won by many whose silent 
 sufferings attract no attention, and the virgin's crown 
 by wedded souls who live in the spirit of detachment 
 and self-surrender. 
 
 In 1820 Keble's friend J. T. Coleridge had lost his 
 first child, and his friend John Patteson had lost his 
 wife. These losses may have been in his mind in 
 composing this poem. Compare also a letter written 
 to Coleridge in 18 18, on the illness of his wife : — 
 
 " After all, these anxieties are the greatest of mercies. 
 They are, I verily believe, the only effectual means to 
 wean us from our idols. We make good resolutions 
 and do much towards keeping them, but there is some- 
 thing so subtle and insinuating in earthly happiness 
 (and the more so in proportion to its innocence and 
 purity) that one such pang or misgiving, as leaves a 
 lasting impression of insecurity, will do more towards 
 lifting our hearts where they ought to be than all that 
 
BEFORE EASTER 95 
 
 most of us could, or at least would, do for another." — 
 " Memoir," p. 81. 
 
 O LORD my God, do Thou Thy holy will- 
 I will lie still ; 
 I will not stir, lest I forsake Thine arm, 
 
 And break the charm 
 Which lulls me, clinging to my Father's breast, 
 In perfect rest. 
 
 Wild fancy, peace ! thou must not me beguile 
 
 With thy false smile : 
 I know thy flatteries and thy cheating ways ; 
 
 Be silent, Praise, 
 Blind guide with siren voice, and blinding all 
 
 That hear thy call. 
 
 Come, Self-devotion, high and pure, 
 Thoughts that in thankfulness endure, 
 Though dearest hopes are faithless found, 
 And dearest hearts are bursting round. 
 Come, Resignation, spirit meek, 
 And let me kiss thy placid cheek, 
 And read in thy pale eye serene 
 Their blessing, who by faith can wean 
 Their hearts from sense, and learn to love 
 God only, and the joys above. 
 
 They say, who know the life divine, 
 And upward gaze with eagle eyne, 
 That by each golden crown on high, 1 
 Rich with celestial jewelry, 
 
 1 . . . "that little coronet or special reward which 
 God hath prepared (extraordinary and beside the great 
 Crown of all faithful souls) for those ' who have not 
 defiled themselves with women, but follow the (virgin) 
 Lamb forever.'" Bp. Taylor, " Holy Living," chap. ii. 
 sect. 3. — J. K. 
 
96 WEDNESDAY 
 
 Which for our Lord's redeemed is set, 
 There hangs a radiant coronet, 
 All gemmed with pure and living light, 
 Too dazzling for a sinner's sight, 
 Prepared for virgin souls, and them 
 Who seek the martyr's diadem. 
 
 Nor deem, who to that bliss aspire, 
 
 Must win their way through blood and fire ; 
 
 The writhings of a wounded heart 
 
 Are fiercer than a foeman's dart. 
 
 Oft in Life's stillest shade reclining, 
 
 In Desolation unrepining, 
 
 Without a hope on earth to find 
 
 A mirror in an answering mind, 
 
 Meek souls there are, who little dream 
 
 Their daily strife an Angel's theme, 
 
 Or that the rod they take so calm 
 
 Shall prove in Heaven a martyr's palm. 
 
 And there are souls that seem to dwell 
 
 Above this earth 1 — so rich a spell 
 
 Floats round their steps, where'er they move, 
 
 From hopes fulfilled and mutual love. 
 
 Such, if on high their thoughts are set, 
 
 Nor in the stream the source forget, 
 
 If prompt to quit the bliss they know, 
 
 Following the Lamb where'er He go, 
 
 By purest pleasures unbeguiled 
 
 To idolize or wife or child ; 
 
 Such wedded souls our God shall own 
 
 For faultless virgins round His throne. 
 
 1 " Above this earth ": " In heaven on earth." — MSS. 
 
BEFORE EASTER 97 
 
 Thus everywhere we find our suffering God, 
 
 And where He trod 
 May set our steps : the Cross on Calvary 
 
 Uplifted high 
 Beams on the martyr host, a beacon light 
 
 In open fight. 
 
 To the still wrestlings of the lonely heart 
 
 He doth impart 
 The virtue of His midnight agony, 
 
 When none was nigh, 
 Save God and one good angel, to assuage 
 
 The tempest's rage. 
 
 Mortal ! if life smile on thee, and thou find 
 
 All to thy mind, 
 Think Who did once from Heaven to Hell 
 descend 
 
 Thee to befriend ; 
 So shalt thou dare forego, at His dear call, 
 
 Thy best, thine all. 
 
 " O Father ! not My will, but Thine be done — " 
 
 So spake the Son. 
 Be this our charm, mellowing Earth's ruder 
 noise 
 
 Of griefs and joys ; 
 That we may cling for ever to Thy breast 
 
 In perfect rest ! 
 
98 THURSDAY 
 
 THURSDAY BEFORE EASTER 
 
 At the beginning of thy supplications the command- 
 ment came forth, and I am come to shew thee ; for 
 thou art greatly beloved : therefore understand the 
 matter, and consider the vision. Daniel ix. 23. 
 
 THE VISION OF THE LATTER DAYS. 
 June 5, 1823. 
 The sad state of the Church in which for all its 
 external dignity and world-wide witness for Christ, 
 there is much unreal profession, passion, and pride, 
 should not make us look for a new faith, but humble 
 ourselves and pray more earnestly, as Daniel did. 
 
 " f~\ HOLY mountain of my God, 
 How do thy towers in ruin lie, 
 How art thou riven and strewn abroad, 
 Under the rude and wasteful sky ! " 
 'Twas thus upon his fasting-day 
 The " Man of Loves " was fain to pray, 1 
 His lattice open toward his darling west, 
 Mourning the ruined home he still must love 
 the best. 2 
 
 Oh ! for a love like Daniel's now, 
 
 To wing to Heaven but one strong prayer 
 For God's new Israel, sunk as low, 
 
 Yet flourishing to sight as fair, 
 As Sion in her height of pride, 
 With queens for handmaids at her side, 
 With kings her nursing-fathers, throned high, 
 And compassed with the world's too tempting 
 blazonry. 
 
 1 The " Man of Loves," i.e. dvTjp eiridvixiCov (LXX.); 
 " Vir desideriorum " (Vulg.) ; " A man greatly beloved" 
 (A. V.), Dan. ix. 23 ; x. 11, 19. 
 
 2 Daniel vi. 10. 
 
BEFORE EASTER 99 
 
 'Tis true, nor winter stays thy growth, 
 
 Nor torrid summer's sickly smile ; 
 The flashing billows of the south 
 
 Break, not upon so lone an isle, 1 
 But thou, rich vine, art grafted there, 
 The fruit of death or life to bear, 
 Yielding a surer witness every day, 
 To thine Almighty Author and His steadfast 
 sway. 
 
 Oh ! grief to think, that grapes of gall 
 
 Should cluster round thine healthiest shoot ! 
 God's herald prove a heartless thrall, 
 
 Who, if he dared, would fain be mute ! 
 Even such is this bad world we see, 
 Which, self-condemned in owning Thee, 
 Yet dares not open farewell of Thee take, 
 For very pride, and her high-boasted Reason's 
 sake. 
 
 What do we then ? if far and wide 
 
 Men kneel to Christ, the pure and 
 meek, 
 Yet rage with passion, swell with pride, 
 Have we not still our faith to seek ? 
 Nay — but in steadfast humbleness 
 Kneel on to Him, Who loves to bless 
 The prayer that waits for Him ; and trembling 
 strive 
 To keep the lingering flame in thine own breast 
 alive. 
 
 1 This thought of the universal witness of the 
 Church for Christ was fully developed in " Continual 
 Services" in the " Lyra Innocentium." 
 
ioo GOOD FRIDAY 
 
 Dark frowned the future even on him, 
 
 The loving and beloved Seer, 
 What time he saw, through shadows dim, 
 
 The boundary of the eternal year ; 
 He only of the sons of men 
 Named to be heir of glory then. 1 
 Else had it bruised too sore his tender heart 
 To see God's ransomed world in wrath and 
 flame depart. 
 
 Then look no more : or closer watch 
 
 Thy course in Earth's bewildering ways, 2 
 For every glimpse thine eye can catch 
 
 Of what shall be in those dread days : 
 So when the Archangel's word is spoken, 
 And Death's deep trance for ever broken, 
 In mercy thou mayst feel the heavenly hand, 
 And in thy lot unharmed before thy Saviour 
 stand. 8 
 
 GOOD FRIDAY 
 
 He is despised and rejected of men. Isaiah liii. 3. 
 
 GOOD FRIDAY. 1826 or 1827: but in a first form 
 as early as 1825. 
 
 The message of Good Friday touches us with more 
 power of comfort than that of the great festivals, for it 
 comes home to us in our own hours of disappointment 
 or rejected love ; then we know how far greater His 
 
 1 Daniel xii. 13. See Bp. Ken's Sermon on the 
 Character of Daniel. — J. K. 
 
 2 " Then look no more : or see thou watch 
 
 More closely thine own wildered ways." 
 
 3 Thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of 
 the days. Daniel xii. 13. 
 
GOOD FRIDAY 101 
 
 suffering was than ours : yet even so we shrink from 
 sharing His Cross. 
 
 "Mr Keble fell asleep on the 29th of March 1866. 
 . . . The mournful family repaired from his deathbed 
 to his wife's bed and knelt round her bed and prayed. 
 She besought them to return thanks for her to God 
 that he had been taken first, that she, not he, had to 
 bear the trial of surviving: but she expressed a hope 
 that she might be released so soon as to admit of her 
 being buried at the same time in one grave. Then she 
 requested her maid to fetch her ' Christian Year,' and 
 turning to the two last stanzas of the verses on Good 
 Friday, 'I know,' said she, 'these were in his dying 
 thoughts.'"— J. T. Coleridge, "Memoir of the Rev. J. 
 Keble." 
 
 IS it not strange, the darkest hour 
 
 That ever dawned on sinful earth 
 Should touch the heart with softer power 
 
 For comfort, than an angel's mirth ? 
 That to the Cross the mourner's eye should turn 
 Sooner than where the stars of Christmas burn ? 
 
 Sooner than where the Easter sun 
 Shines glorious on yon open grave, 
 
 And to and fro the tidings run, 
 
 " Who died to heal, is risen to save " ? 
 
 Sooner than where upon the Saviour's friends 
 
 The very Comforter in light and love de- 
 scends ? 
 
 Yet so it is : for duly there 
 
 The bitter herbs of earth are set, 
 Till tempered by the Saviour's prayer, 
 
 And with the Saviour's life-blood wet, 
 They turn to sweetness, and drop holy balm, 
 Soft as imprisoned martyr's deathbed calm. 
 
io2 GOOD FRIDAY 
 
 All turn to sweet — but most of all 
 
 That bitterest to the lip of pride, 
 When hopes presumptuous fade and fall, 
 
 Or Friendship scorns us, duly tried, 
 Or Love, the flower that closes up for fear 
 When rude and selfish spirits breathe too near. 
 
 Then like a long-forgotten strain 
 
 Comes sweeping o'er the heart forlorn 
 
 What sunshine hours had taught in vain 
 Of Jesus suffering shame and scorn, 
 
 As in all lowly hearts He suffers still, 
 
 While we triumphant ride and have the world 
 at will. 
 
 His pierced hands in vain would hide 
 His face from rude reproachful gaze, 
 
 His ears are open to abide 
 
 The wildest storm the tongue can raise, 
 
 He who with one rough word, 1 some early day, 
 
 Their idol world and them shall sweep for aye 
 away. 
 
 But we by Fancy may assuage 
 
 The festering sore by Fancy made, 
 
 Down in some lonely hermitage 
 Like wounded pilgrims safely laid, 
 
 Where gentlest breezes whisper souls distressed, 
 
 That Love yet lives, and Patience shall find rest. 
 
 Oh ! shame beyond the bitterest thought 
 
 That evil spirit ever framed, 
 That sinners know what Jesus wrought, 
 
 Yet feel their haughty hearts untamed : 
 
 1 Wisdom of Solomon xii. 9. 
 
EASTER EVE 103 
 
 That souls in refuge, holding by the Cross, 
 Should wince and fret at this world's little loss. 1 
 
 Lord of my heart, by Thy last cry, 
 Let not Thy blood on earth be spent ! 
 
 Lo, at Thy feet I fainting lie, 
 
 Mine eyes upon Thy wounds are bent, 
 
 Upon Thy streaming wounds my weary eyes 
 
 Wait like the parched earth on April skies. 
 
 Wash me, and dry these bitter tears, 
 
 let my heart no further roam, 
 'Tis Thine by vows and hopes and fears 
 
 Long since — O call Thy wanderer home ; 
 To that dear home, safe in Thy wounded side, 
 Where only broken hearts their sin and shame 
 may hide. 
 
 EASTER EVE 
 
 As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have 
 sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no 
 water. Zechariah ix. n. 
 
 EASTER EVE. Circ. 1824. 
 After the burial Christ's Spirit may have been work- 
 ing among the spirits of the dead, and with Him was 
 the Penitent Thief. So we after death may be with 
 Him and hold communion with the Saints of old. Yet 
 first we must share Christ's burial here on earth by 
 dying to the world. 
 
 T length the worst is o'er, and Thou art laid 
 Deep in Thy darksome bed ; 
 All still and cold beneath yon dreary stone 
 Thy sacred form is gone ; 
 
 1 This whole stanza is not in the MSS., but appears 
 in the first edition. 
 
 A 
 
104 EASTER EVE 
 
 Around those lips where power and mercy 
 hung, 
 The dews of death have clung ; 
 The dull earth o'er Thee, and Thy foes around, 
 Thou sleep' st a silent corse, in funeral fetters 
 wound. 
 
 Sleep'st Thou indeed ? or is Thy spirit fled 
 
 At large among the dead ? 
 Whether in Eden bowers Thy welcome voice 
 
 Wake Abraham to rejoice, 
 Or in some drearier scene Thine eye controls 
 
 The thronging band of souls ; 
 That, as Thy blood won earth, Thine agony 
 Might set the shadowy realm from sin and sorrow 
 free. 1 
 
 Where'er Thou roam'st, one happy soul, we 
 know, 
 Seen at Thy side in woe, 2 
 Waits on Thy triumph — even as all the blest 
 
 With him and Thee shall rest. 
 Each on his cross, by Thee we hang a while, 
 
 Watching Thy patient smile, 
 Till we have learned to say, " 'Tis justly 
 done, 
 Only in glory, Lord, Thy sinful servant own." 
 
 Soon wilt Thou take us to Thy tranquil bower 
 
 To rest one little hour, 
 Till Thine elect are numbered, and the grave 
 
 Call Thee to come and save : 
 Then on Thy bosom borne shall we descend, 
 
 Again with earth to blend, 
 1 Cf. i S. Peter iii. 18, 19. 2 S. Luke xxiii. 43. 
 
EASTER EVE 105 
 
 Earth all refined with bright supernal fires, 
 Tinctured with holy blood, and winged with 
 pure desires. 
 
 Meanwhile with every son and saint of Thine 
 
 Along the glorious line, 
 Sitting by turns beneath Thy sacred feet 
 
 We'll hold communion sweet, 
 Know them by look and voice, and thank 
 them all 
 For helping us in thrall, 
 For words of hope, and bright examples given 
 To show through moonless skies that there is 
 light in Heaven. 
 
 O come that day, when in this restless heart 
 
 Earth shall resign her part, 
 When in the grave with Thee my limbs shall 
 rest, 
 My soul with Thee be blest ! 
 But stay, presumptuous — Christ with thee 
 abides 
 In the rock's dreary sides : 
 He from the stone will wring celestial dew 
 If but the prisoner's heart be faithful found and 
 true. 
 
 When tears are spent, and thou art left alone 
 With ghosts of blessings gone, 
 
 Think thou art taken from the Cross, and laid 
 In Jesus' burial shade ; 
 
 Take Moses' rod, the rod of prayer, and call 
 Out of the rocky wall 
 
 The fount of holy blood ; and lift on high 
 Thy grovelling soul that feels so desolate and dry. 
 
106 EASTER DAY 
 
 Prisoner of Hope thou art * — look up and sing 
 
 In hope of promised spring. 
 As in the pit his fathers darling lay 2 
 
 Beside the desert way, 
 And knew not how, but knew his God would 
 save 
 Even from that living grave, 
 So, buried with our Lord, we'll close our eyes 
 To the decaying world, till angels bid us rise. 
 
 EASTER DAY 
 
 And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces 
 to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the 
 living among the dead ? He is not here, but is risen. 
 S. Luke xxiv. 5, 6. 
 
 EASTER DAY. April 18,1822. 
 
 Easter Day sheds its glory on all the year : and on 
 ail the universe. It teaches that our hopes are fixed 
 above the earth, and yet it ennobles the earth, as the 
 place which Christ has consecrated : and He is still 
 present to consecrate our lonely and our social hours 
 alike to His service. 
 
 (~\ DAY of days ! shall hearts set free 
 ^ No " minstrel rapture " find for thee ? 8 
 Thou art the Sun of other days, 
 They shine by giving back thy rays : 
 
 1 Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope. 
 Zechariah ix. 12. 
 
 The words " look up and sing " are enclosed in inverted 
 commas in the MSS., as though they were a quotation. 
 
 2 They took him, and cast him into a pit ; and the 
 pit was empty, there was no water in it. Genesis 
 xxxvii. 24. 
 
 3 " O day of days, and can my heart 
 
 No votive hymn to thee impart ? " — MSS. 
 "Minstrel rapture" is borrowed from "The Lay of 
 the Last Minstrel," vi. 1 : 
 
 " For him no minstrel raptures swell." 
 
EASTER DAY 107 
 
 Enthroned in thy sovereign sphere 
 Thou shedd'st thy light on all the year : 
 Sundays by thee more glorious break, 
 An Easter Day in every week : 
 
 And week-days, following in their train, 
 The fulness of thy blessing gain, 
 Till all, both resting and employ, 
 Be one Lord's day of holy joy. 
 
 Then wake, my soul, to high desires, 
 And earlier light thine altar fires : 
 The world some hours is on her way, 
 Nor thinks on thee, thou blessed day : 
 
 Or, if she think, it is in scorn : 
 The vernal light of Easter morn 
 To her dark gaze no brighter seems 
 Than reason's or the law's pale beams. 
 
 " Where is your Lord ? " she scornful asks : 
 " Where is His hire ? we know His tasks ; 
 Sons of a King ye boast to be ; 
 Let us your crowns and treasures see." 
 
 We in the words of Truth reply 
 (An Angel brought them from the sky), 1 
 " Our crown, our treasure is not here, 
 'Tis stored above the highest sphere : 
 
 " Methinks your wisdom guides amiss, 
 To seek on earth a Christian's bliss ; 
 We watch not now the lifeless stone ; 
 Our only Lord is risen and gone." 
 
 1 S. Luke xxiv. 5. 
 
108 EASTER DAY 
 
 Yet even the lifeless stone is dear 
 For thoughts of Him who late lay here ; 
 And the base world, now Christ hath died, 
 Ennobled is and glorified. 1 
 
 No more a charnel-house, to fence 
 The relics of lost innocence, 
 A vault of ruin and decay ; — 
 The imprisoning stone is rolled away : 
 
 'Tis now a cell, where Angels use 
 
 To come and go with heavenly news, 
 
 And in the ears of mourners say, 
 
 " Come, see the place where Jesus lay ! " 2 
 
 'Tis now a fane, where Love can find 
 Christ everywhere embalmed and shrined ; 
 Aye gathering up memorials sweet, 
 Where'er she sets her duteous feet. 
 
 Oh ! joy to Mary first allowed, 
 When roused from weeping o'er his shroud, 
 By His own calm, soul-soothing tone, 
 Breathing her name, as still His own ! 3 
 
 Joy to the faithful three renewed, 
 As their glad errand they pursued ! 4 
 Happy, who so Christ's word convey, 
 That He may meet them on their way ! 
 
 1 After this verse the MSS. insert a whole stanza : — 
 
 " Who love the world for the world's sake 
 Small reckoning of their darling make, 
 Who prize it highest, love it best, 
 Treat it as Christ's redeemed and blest." 
 
 2 S. Mark xvi. 6. 3 S. John xx. 16. 
 4 i.e. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, 
 
 and Salome; cf. S. Mark xvi. i with S. Matthew 
 xxviii. 9. 
 
 
MONDAY IN EASTER WEEK 109 
 
 So is it still : to holy tears, 
 In lonely hours, Christ risen appears : 
 In social hours, who Christ would see, 
 Must turn all tasks to Charity. 
 
 MONDAY IN EASTER WEEK 
 
 Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of 
 persons : but in every nation he that feareth him, and 
 worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. — Acts 
 x. 34. 35- 
 S. PETER AND CORNELIUS. Feb. 12, 1826. 
 
 Two streams rising in distant hills but ultimately 
 joining to form one great river are like two prayers 
 going up to God — as from the centurion Cornelius and 
 S. Peter — and forming one great stream of blessing to 
 the Gentile world. 
 
 f^O up and watch the new-born rill 1 
 ^ Just trickling from its mossy bed, 
 Streaking the heath-clad hill 
 With a bright emerald thread. 
 
 Canst thou her bold career foretell, 
 What rock she shall o'erleap or rend, 
 How far in ocean's swell 
 
 Her freshening billows send ? 
 
 Perchance that little brook shall flow 
 The bulwark of some mighty realm, 
 Bear navies to and fro 
 
 With monarchs at their helm. 
 1 " See the source of the Wye on Plinlimmon." — 
 J. K. MS. Note. The statement, then, of Miss Yonge 
 — (which the present editor followed in his " Memoir 
 of John Keble," p. 60) — that the reference is to the 
 source of the Severn and the Thames, must be a mistake. 
 It probably is to the Severn and the W^e. 
 
no MONDAY IN 
 
 Or canst thou guess, how far away 
 Some sister nymph beside her urn 
 Reclining night and day, 
 
 Mid reeds and mountain fern, 
 Nurses her store, with thine to blend 
 When many a moor and glen are past, 
 Then in the wide sea end 
 Their spotless lives at last ? 
 
 Even so, the course of prayer who knows ? 
 It springs in silence where it will, 
 Springs out of sight, and flows 
 At first a lonely rill : 
 
 But streams shall meet it by and by 
 From thousand sympathetic hearts, 
 Together swelling high 
 
 Their chant of many parts. 
 
 Unheard by all but angel ears 
 The good Cornelius knelt alone, 
 Nor dreamed his prayers and tears 
 Would help a world undone, 
 
 The while upon his terraced roof 
 The loved Apostle to his Lord 
 In silent thought aloof 
 
 For heavenly vision soared. 
 
 Far o'er the glowing western main 
 His wistful brow was upward raised, 
 Where, like an Angel's train, 
 The burnished water blazed. 
 The saint beside the ocean prayed, 
 The soldier in his chosen bower, 
 Where all his eye surveyed 
 Seemed sacred in that hour. 
 
EASTER WEEK 1 1 1 
 
 To each unknown his brother's prayer ; 
 Yet brethren true in dearest love 
 Were they — and now they share 
 Fraternal joys above. 
 
 There daily through Christ's open gate 
 
 They see the Gentile spirits press, 
 
 Brightening their high estate 
 
 With dearer happiness. 
 
 What civic wreath for comrades saved 
 Shone ever with such deathless gleam, 
 Or when did perils braved 
 So sweet to veterans seem ? l 
 
 TUESDAY IN EASTER WEEK 
 
 And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with 
 fear and great joy ; and did run to bring His disciples 
 word. S. Matthew xxviii. 8. 
 
 THE SNOW-DROP. March 7 or 10, 1826. 
 
 We trust the witness of the snow-drop to the coming 
 year, and yet mistrust the witness of the angels and the 
 holy women to the fact of the Lord's Resurrection. 
 Such witness has not ceased. The Pastor finds it still 
 in some simple believer suffering patiently in a cottage 
 home. 
 
 TO THE SNOW-DROP 
 
 '"THOU first-born of the year's delight, 
 
 Pride of the dewy glade, 
 In vernal green and virgin white, 
 Thy vestal robes, arrayed : 
 
 1 The allusion is to the " civica corona," the oak-leaf 
 crown for saving a fellow-citizen's life, which was to 
 the Roman centurion what the Victoria Cross would 
 be to an English soldier. 
 
ii2 TUESDAY IN 
 
 'Tis not because thy drooping form 
 
 Sinks graceful on its nest, 
 When chilly shades from gathering storm 
 
 Affright thy tender breast ; 
 
 Nor for yon river islet wild 
 
 Beneath the willow spray, 
 Where, like the ringlets of a child, 
 
 Thou weavest thy circle gay ; l 
 
 'Tis not for these I love thee dear ; 
 
 Thy shy averted smiles 
 To Fancy bode a joyous year, 
 
 One of Life's fairy isles. 
 
 They twinkle to the wintry moon, 
 
 And cheer the ungenial day, 
 And tell us, all will glisten soon 
 
 As green and bright as they. 
 
 Is there a heart that loves the spring 
 
 Their witness can refuse ? 
 Yet mortals doubt when angels bring 
 
 From Heaven their Easter news : 
 
 When holy maids and matrons speak 
 
 Of Christ's forsaken bed, 
 And voices, that forbid to seek 
 
 The living 'mid the dead, 
 
 And when they say, " Turn, wandering heart, 
 
 Thy Lord is risen indeed, 
 Let Pleasure go, put Care apart, 
 
 And to His presence speed ; " 2 
 
 1 " Yon river islet wild": probably an island on the 
 Test. — Miss Yonge, " Musings," p. 131. 
 
 2 This stanza is not found in the MSS. 
 
EASTER WEEK 113 
 
 We smile in scorn : and yet we know 
 They early sought the tomb, 
 
 Their hearts, that now so freshly glow, 
 Lost in desponding gloom. 
 
 They who have sought, nor hope to find, 
 Wear not so bright a glance : 
 
 They who have won their earthly mind 
 Less reverently advance. 
 
 But where, in gentle spirits, fear 
 
 And joy so duly meet, 
 These sure have seen the angels near, 
 
 And kissed the Saviour's feet. 
 
 Nor let the Pastor's thankful eye 
 
 Their faltering tale disdain, 
 As on their lowly couch they lie, 
 
 Prisoners of want and pain. 
 
 O guide us when our faithless hearts 
 From Thee would start aloof, 1 
 
 Where Patience her sweet skill imparts 
 Beneath some cottage roof: 
 
 Revive our dying fires, to burn 
 
 High as her anthems soar, 
 And of our scholars let us learn 
 
 Our own forgotten lore. 
 
 1 « Start " : stand.— R. 
 
ii 4 FIRST SUNDAY 
 
 FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 
 
 Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God 
 of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of 
 Israel, to bring you near to Himself? Numbers xvi. 9. 
 
 THE RESTLESS PASTOR REPROVED. 
 June 25, 1825 — K., but August 1818. — R. 
 
 The pastor tempted by worldly ambition thanks 
 God for winning him back to the pastor's life, which 
 is intrusted with such great privileges, and which finds 
 comfort and protection in its very duties. 
 
 The best comment on this poem is to be found in 
 Dean Church, " The Oxford Movement," p. 59. " He 
 (I. Williams) had before him in John Keble a spectacle 
 that was absolutely new to him. Ambitious as a rising 
 and successful scholar at College, he saw a man looked 
 up to and wondered at by every one, absolutely without 
 pride and without ambition. He saw the most distin- 
 guished academic of his day, to whom every prospect 
 was open, retiring from Oxford in the height of his 
 fame to busy himself with a few hundreds of Glou- 
 cestershire peasants in a miserable curacy. He saw 
 this man caring for and respecting the ignorant and 
 poor as much as others respected the great and 
 learned." 
 
 CIRST Father of the holy seed, 
 If yet, invoked in hour of need, 
 
 Thou count me for Thine own, 
 Not quite an outcast if I prove, 
 (Thou joy'st in miracles of love,) 
 
 Hear from Thy mercy-throne ! 
 
 Upon Thine altar's horn of gold 
 Help me to lay my trembling hold, 
 
 Though stained with Christian gore ; l — 
 The blood of souls by Thee redeemed, 
 But, while I roved or idly dreamed, 
 
 Lost to be found no more. 
 1 Cf. Ezekiel xxxiii. 6. 
 
AFTER EASTER 115 
 
 For oft, when summer leaves were bright, 
 And every flower was bathed in light, 
 
 In sunshine moments past, 
 My wilful heart would burst away 
 From where the holy shadow lay, 
 
 Where Heaven my lot had cast. 
 
 I thought it scorn with Thee to dwell, 
 A Hermit in a silent cell, 
 
 While, gaily sweeping by, 
 Wild Fancy blew his bugle strain, 
 And marshalled all his gallant train 
 
 In the world's wondering eye. 
 
 I would have joined him — but as oft 
 Thy whispered warnings, kind and soft, 
 
 My better soul confessed. 
 " My servant, let the world alone — 
 Safe on the steps of Jesus' throne 
 
 Be tranquil and be blest. 
 
 " Seems it to thee a niggard hand 
 
 That nearest Heaven has bade thee stand, 
 
 The ark to touch and bear, 
 With incense of pure heart's desire 
 To heap the censer's sacred fire, 
 
 The snow-white Ephod wear ? " 
 
 Why should we crave the worldling's wreath, 
 On whom the Saviour deigned to breathe, 
 
 To whom His keys were given, 
 Who lead the choir where angels meet, 
 With angels' food our brethren greet, 
 
 And pour the drink of Heaven ? 
 
 When sorrow all our heart would ask, 
 We need not shun our daily task, 
 
n6 SECOND SUNDAY 
 
 And hide ourselves for calm ; 
 The herbs we seek to heal our woe 
 Familiar by our pathway grow, 
 
 Our common air is balm. 
 
 Around each pure domestic shrine 
 Bright flowers of Eden bloom and twine, 
 
 Our hearths are altars all ; 
 The prayers of hungry souls and poor, 
 Like arm£d angels at the door, 
 
 Our unseen foes appal. 1 
 
 Alms all around and hymns within — 
 What evil eye can entrance win 
 
 Where guards like these abound ? 
 If chance some heedless heart should roam, 
 Sure, thought of these will lure it home 
 
 Ere lost in Folly's round. 
 
 O joys, that, sweetest in decay, 
 Fall not, like withered leaves, away, 
 
 But with the silent breath 
 Of violets drooping one by one, 
 Soon as their fragrant task is done, 
 
 Are wafted high in death ! 
 
 SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 
 
 He hath said, which heard the words of God, and 
 knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the 
 vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having 
 his eyes open : I shall see Him, but not now : I 
 shall behold Him, but not nigh : there shall come 
 a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of 
 Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy 
 all the children of Sheth. Numbers xxiv. 16, 17. 
 
 1 Cf. Genesis xix. 11. 
 
AFTER EASTER 117 
 
 BALAAM. March 24, 1826. 
 The warning of Balaam — whom neither the sight oi 
 God's almighty Power, nor the prophetic vision could 
 wean from avarice — leads on to a prayer that Christians 
 who see more than Balaam saw may answer to that 
 knowledge with love. 
 
 (~\ FOR a sculptor's hand, 
 
 ^ That thou mightst take thy stand, 
 Thy wild hair floating on the eastern breeze, 
 
 Thy tranced yet open gaze 
 
 Fixed on the desert haze, 
 As one who deep in heaven some airy pageant 
 sees. 
 
 In outline dim and vast 
 
 Their fearful shadows cast 
 The giant forms of empires on their way 
 
 To ruin : one by one 
 
 They tower and they are gone, 
 Yet in the Prophet's soul the dreams of avarice 
 stay. 
 
 No sun or star so bright 
 
 In all the world of light 
 That they should draw to Heaven his down- 
 ward eye : 
 
 He hears the Almighty's word, 
 
 He sees the Angel's sword, 
 Yet low upon the earth his heart and treasure lie. 
 
 Lo, from yon argent field, 
 
 To him and us revealed, 
 One gentle Star glides down, on earth to dwell. 
 
 Chained as they are below 
 
 Our eyes may see it glow, 
 And as it mounts again, may track its brightness 
 well. 
 
n8 SECOND SUNDAY 
 
 To him it glared afar, 
 
 A token of wild war, 
 The banner of his Lord's victorious wrath: 
 
 But close to us it gleams, 
 
 Its soothing lustre streams 
 Around our home's green walls and on our 
 churchway path. 
 
 We in the tents abide 
 
 Which he at distance eyed 
 Like goodly cedars by the waters spread, 
 
 While seven red altar-fires 
 
 Rose up in wavy spires, 
 Where on the mount he watched his sorceries 
 dark and dread. 
 
 He watched till morning's ray 
 
 On lake and meadow lay 
 And willow-shaded streams, that silent sweep 
 
 Around the bannered lines, 
 
 Where by their several signs 
 The desert-wearied tribes in sight of Canaan 
 sleep. 
 
 He watched till knowledge came 
 
 Upon his soul like flame — 
 Not of those magic fires at random caught : 
 
 But true prophetic light 
 
 Flashed o'er him, high and bright, 
 Flashed once, and died away, and left his 
 darkened thought. 
 
 And can he choose but fear, 
 Who feels his God so near, 
 
AFTER EASTER 119 
 
 That when he fain would curse, his powerless 
 tongue 
 In blessing only moves ? — 
 Alas ! the world he loves 
 Too close around his heart her tangling veil 
 hath flung. 
 
 Sceptre and Star divine, 
 
 Who in Thine inmost shrine 
 Hast made us worshippers, O claim Thine own ; 
 
 More than Thy seers we know — 
 
 O teach our love to grow 
 Up to Thy heavenly light, and reap what Thou 
 hast sown. 
 
 THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 
 
 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because 
 her hour is come : but as soon as she is delivered of the 
 child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy- 
 that a man is born into the world. S. John xvi. 21. 
 
 LANGUOR AND TRAVAIL. March 15, 1826. 
 The brightness of spring checks all remorse and 
 despondency ; so the thought of the Incarnation should 
 fill us with bright hope such as each mother feels at the 
 birth of a child. 
 
 \A/ELL may I guess and feel 
 
 Why Autumn should be sad ; 
 But vernal airs should sorrow heal, 
 Spring should be gay and glad : 
 Yet as along this violet bank I rove, 
 
 The languid sweetness seems to choke 
 my breath, 
 I sit me down beside the hazel grove, 
 And sigh, and half could wish my weariness 
 were death. 
 
120 THIRD SUNDAY 
 
 Like a bright veering cloud 
 Grey blossoms twinkle there, 
 Warbles around a busy crowd 
 Of larks in purest air. 
 Shame on the heart that dreams of blessings 
 gone, 
 Or wakes the spectral forms of woe and 
 crime, 
 When nature sings of joy and hope alone, 
 Reading her cheerful lesson in her own sweet 
 time. 
 
 Nor let the proud heart say, 
 In her self-torturing hour, 
 The travail pangs must have their way, 
 The aching brow must lower. 
 To us long since the glorious Child is 
 born, 
 Our throes should be forgot, or only 
 seem 
 Like a sad vision told for joy at morn, 
 For joy that we have waked and found it but a 
 dream. 
 
 Mysterious to all thought 
 A mother's prime of bliss, 
 When to her eager lips is brought 
 Her infant's thrilling kiss. 
 O never shall it set, the sacred light 
 
 Which dawns that moment on her tender 
 gaze, 
 In the eternal distance blending bright 
 Her darling's hope and hers, for love and joy 
 and praise. 
 
AFTER EASTER 121 
 
 No need for her to weep 
 
 Like Thracian wives of yore, 1 
 Save when in rapture still and deep 
 Her thankful heart runs o'er. 
 They mourned to trust their treasure on the 
 main, 
 Sure of the storm, unknowing of their 
 guide : 
 Welcome to her the peril and the pain, 
 For well she knows the home where they may 
 safely hide. 
 
 She joys that one is born 
 Into a world forgiven, 
 Her Father's household to adorn, 
 And dwell with her in Heaven. 
 So have I seen, in Spring's bewitching hour, 
 
 When the glad earth is offering all her best, 
 
 Some gentle maid bend o'er a cherished flower, 
 
 And wish it worthier on a parent's heart to rest. 
 
 FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 
 
 Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; It is expedient for 
 you that I go away : for if I go not away, the Com- 
 forter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will 
 send Him unto you. S. John xvi. 7. 
 
 THE DOVE ON THE CROSS. 1820 or 1821. 
 
 The blessings given by the Holy Spirit compensate 
 for the departure of Christ. 
 
 1 Cf. Herodotus v. 4. " When a child is born, its 
 kindred sit round about it in a circle and weep for the 
 woe it will have to undergo now that it is come into 
 the world, making mention of every ill that falls to the 
 lot of humankind." 
 
122 FOURTH SUNDAY 
 
 AAY Saviour, can it ever be 
 
 That I should gain by losing Thee ? 
 The watchful mother tarries nigh 
 Though sleep have closed her infant's eye, 
 For should he wake, and find her gone, 
 She knows she could not bear his moan. 
 But I am weaker than a child, 
 
 And Thou art more than mother dear ; 
 Without Thee Heaven were but a wild : 
 
 How can I live without Thee here ! 
 
 " 'Tis good for you, that I should go, 
 You lingering yet a while below ; " — 
 'Tis Thine own gracious promise, Lord ! 
 Thy saints have proved the faithful word, 
 When Heaven's bright boundless avenue 
 Far opened on their eager view, 
 And homeward to Thy Father's throne, 
 
 Still lessening, brightening on their sight, 
 Thy shadowy car went soaring on ; 
 
 They tracked Thee up the abyss of light. 
 
 Thou bidst rejoice ; they dare not mourn, 
 But to their home in gladness turn, 
 Their home and God's, that favoured place, 
 Where still He shines on Abraham's race, 
 In prayers and blessings there to wait 
 Like suppliants at their monarch's gate, 
 Who, bent with bounty rare to aid 
 
 The splendours of His crowning day, 
 Keeps back a while His largess, made 
 More welcome for that brief delay : l 
 1 Cf. S. Gregory (quoted in I. Williams, " The Re- 
 surrection," p. 93) : " She sought the body and found it 
 not: she persevered in seeking, and by this perseverance 
 she finds : and so it is brought about that the fulfilment 
 
AFTER EASTER 123 
 
 In doubt they wait, but not unblest ; 
 They doubt not of their Master's rest, 
 Nor of the gracious will of Heaven — 
 Who gave His Son, sure all has given — 
 But in ecstatic awe they muse 
 What course the genial stream may choose, 
 And far and wide their fancies rove, 
 
 And to their height of wonder strain, 
 What secret miracle of love 
 
 Should make their Saviour's going gain. 
 
 The days of hope and prayer are past, 
 The day of comfort dawns at last, 
 The everlasting gates again 
 Roll back, and lo ! a royal train — 
 From the far depth of light once more 
 The floods of glory earthward pour : 
 They part like shower-drops in mid air, 
 
 But ne'er so soft fell noon-tide shower, 
 Nor evening rainbow gleamed so fair 
 
 To weary swains in parched bower. 
 
 Swiftly and straight each tongue of flame 
 
 Through cloud and breeze unwavering came. 
 
 And darted to its place of rest 
 
 On some meek brow of Jesus blest. 
 
 Nor fades it yet, that living gleam, 
 
 And still those lambent lightnings stream ; 
 
 Where'er the Lord is, there are they ; 
 
 In every heart that gives them room, 
 They light His altar every day, 
 
 Zeal to inflame and vice consume, 
 of her longings being deferred, they are increased there- 
 by and thus capable of receiving what she finds. For 
 holy longings are increased by being deferred." (Homil : 
 in Evang. xxv. § 2). 
 
i2 4 FOURTH SUNDAY 
 
 Soft as the plumes of Jesus' Dove 
 They nurse the soul to heavenly love : 
 The struggling spark of good within, 
 Just smothered in the strife of sin, 
 They quicken to a timely glow, 
 The pure flame spreading high and low. 
 Said I, that prayer and hope were o'er ? 
 
 Nay, blessed Spirit ! but by Thee 
 The Church's prayer finds wings to soar, 
 
 The Church's hope finds eyes to see. 
 
 Then, fainting soul, arise and sing ; 
 
 Mount, but be sober on the wing ; 
 
 Mount up, for Heaven is won by prayer, 
 
 Be sober, for thou art not there ; 
 
 Till Death the weary spirit free, 
 
 Thy God hath said, " 'Tis good for thee 
 
 To walk by faith and not by sight " : 
 
 Take it on trust a little while ; 
 Soon shalt thou read the mystery right 
 
 In the full sunshine of His smile. 
 
 Or if thou yet more knowledge crave, 
 Ask thine own heart, that willing slave 
 To all that works thee woe or harm : 
 Shouldst thou not need some mighty charm 
 To win thee to thy Saviour's side, 
 Though He had deigned with thee to bide ? 
 The Spirit must stir the darkling deep, 
 
 The Dove must settle on the Cross, 
 Else we should all sin on or sleep 
 
 With Christ in sight, turning our gain to loss. 
 
AFTER EASTER 125 
 
 FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 
 
 ROGATION SUNDAY 
 And the Lord was very angry with Aaron to have 
 destroyed him : and I prayed for Aaron also the same 
 time. — Deuteronomy ix. 20. 
 
 THE PRIEST'S INTERCESSOR.— June 3, 1824. 
 — K. June 25. — R. 
 Like the clear note of a bird rising on a summer's 
 day before a shower, so should the voice of the Church 
 go up in the Rogation days before the gifts of Ascension 
 Day, praying for more devotion, on the part of all her 
 children, but especially of her priests ; lest the offended 
 Christ should come in wrath to judge her. 
 
 MOW is there solemn pause in earth and 
 Heaven : 
 The Conqueror now 
 His bonds hath riven, 
 And Angels wonder why He stays below : 
 Yet hath not man his lesson learned, 
 How endless love should be returned. 
 
 Deep is the silence as of summer noon, 
 When a soft shower 
 Will trickle soon, 
 A gracious rain, freshening the weary bower — 
 O sweetly then far off is heard 
 The clear note of some lonely bird. 
 
 So let thy turtle-dove's sad call arise 
 In doubt and fear 
 Through darkening skies, 
 And pierce, O Lord, Thy justly sealed ear, 
 Where on the house top, 1 all night long, 
 She trills her widowed, faltering song. 
 1 Psalm cii. 7. 
 
126 FIFTH SUNDAY 
 
 Teach her to know and love her hour of prayer, 
 And evermore, 
 As faith grows rare, 
 Unlock her heart and offer all its store 
 In holier love and humbler vows, 
 As suits a lost returning spouse. 1 
 
 Not as at first, 2 but with intenser cry, 
 Upon the mount 
 She now must lie, 
 Till Thy dear love to blot the sad account 
 Of her rebellious race be won, 
 Pitying the mother in the son. 8 
 
 But chiefly (for she knows Thee angered worst 
 By holiest things 
 Profaned and curst) 
 Chiefly for Aaron's seed she spreads her wings, 
 If but one leaf she may from Thee 
 Win of the reconciling tree. 
 
 For what shall heal, when holy water banes ? 
 
 Or who may guide 
 
 O'er desert plains 
 
 Thy loved yet sinful people wandering wide, 
 
 If Aaron's hand unshrinking mould 
 
 An idol form of earthly gold ? 4 
 
 1 Cf. Hosea ii. 7. 
 
 2 I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty 
 nights, as I fell down at the first. Deuteronomy 
 ix. 25. 
 
 3 Pitying the traces of the mother that still remain 
 in her erring son : i.e. pardoning sinners in the strength 
 of His love for the Church. 
 
 4 Exodus xxxii. 4. 
 
AFTER EASTER 127 
 
 Therefore her tears are bitter, and as deep 
 Her boding sigh, 
 As, while men sleep, 
 Sad-hearted mothers heave, that wakeful lie, 
 To muse upon some darling child 
 Roaming in youth's uncertain wild. 
 
 Therefore on fearful dreams her inward sight 
 Is fain to dwell — 
 What lurid light 
 Shall the last darkness of the world dispel, 
 The Mediator in His wrath 
 Descending down the lightning's path. 
 
 Yet, yet awhile, offended Saviour, pause ; 
 In act to break 1 
 Thine outraged laws, 
 O spare Thy rebels for Thine own dear sake ; 
 Withdraw thine hand, nor dash to earth 
 The covenant of our second birth. 
 
 'Tis forfeit like the first — we own it all — 
 
 Yet for love's sake, 
 
 Let it not fall ; 
 
 But at Thy touch let veiled hearts awake, 
 
 That nearest to Thine altar lie, 
 
 Yet least of holy things descry. 
 
 Teacher of teachers ! Priest of priests ! from 
 Thee 
 The sweet strong prayer 
 Must rise to free 
 First Levi, then all Israel, from the snare. 
 Thou art our Moses out of sight — 
 Speak for us, or we perish quite. 
 1 Exodus xxxii. 19. 
 
128 ASCENSION DAY 
 
 ASCENSION DAY 
 
 Why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? this same 
 Jesus, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall 
 so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into 
 Heaven. Acts L n. 
 
 ASCENSION DAY. June 18, 1825. 
 
 As the eye follows the cloud in the morning sky, so 
 the soul follows the Ascended Lord ; and it sees him 
 adored by all the hosts of Heaven, and yet listening to 
 each suppliant's prayer. So we turn back from such 
 contemplation to help human sorrow, till the time 
 comes when, after this life, we may contemplate Him 
 with worthier love and praise. 
 
 COFT cloud, that while the breeze of May 
 Chants her glad matins in the leafy arch, 
 Draw'st thy bright veil across the heavenly 
 way, 
 Meet pavement for an Angel's glorious march : 
 
 My soul is envious of mine eye, 
 That it should soar and glide with thee so fast, 
 The while my grovelling thoughts half buried 
 lie, 
 Or lawless roam around this earthly waste. 
 
 Chains of my heart, avaunt I say — 
 I will arise, and in the strength of love 
 
 Pursue the bright track ere it fade away, 
 My Saviour's pathway to His home above. 
 
 Sure, when I reach the point where earth 
 Melts into nothing from the uncumbered sight, 
 Heaven will o'ercome the attraction of my 
 birth, 
 And I shall sink in yonder sea of light : 
 
ASCENSION DAY 129 
 
 Till resting by the incarnate Lord, 
 Once bleeding, now triumphant for my sake, 
 I mark Him, how by seraph hosts adored 
 He to earth's lowest cares is still awake. 
 
 The sun and every vassal star, 
 All space, beyond the soar of angel wings, 
 
 Wait on His word : and yet He stays His car 
 For every sigh a contrite suppliant brings. 1 
 
 He listens to the silent tear 
 For all the anthems of the boundless sky — 
 
 And shall our dreams of music bar our ear 
 To His soul-piercing voice for ever nigh ? 2 
 
 Nay, gracious Saviour — but as now 
 Our thoughts have traced Thee to Thy glory- 
 throne, 
 So help us evermore with Thee to bow 
 Where human sorrow breathes her lowly moan. 
 
 We must not stand to gaze too long, 
 Though on unfolding Heaven our gaze we bend, 
 
 Where lost behind the bright angelic throng 
 We see Christ's entering triumph slow ascend. 
 
 No fear but we shall soon behold, 
 Faster than now it fades, that gleam revive, 
 When issuing from his cloud of fiery gold 
 Our wasted frames feel the true sun, and live. 
 
 Then shall we see Thee as Thou art, 
 For ever fixed in no unfruitful gaze, 
 
 But such as lifts the new-created heart, 
 Age after age, in worthier love and praise. 
 
 1 Cf. Isaiah lvii. 15. 
 
 2 " To His soul-piercing voice " : " To duty's wakeful 
 voice."— MSS. 
 
130 SUNDAY AFTER 
 
 SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION 
 
 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister 
 the same one to another, as good stewards of the mani- 
 fold grace of God. 1 S. Peter iv. 10. 
 
 SEED-TIME. June 25, 1824. 
 
 Earth renders her due return to God for every seed 
 Intrusted to her care, and rebukes our hearts which 
 make so little return. God's gifts are liberal and wise, 
 divided severally to each ; and our charity should give 
 with equal liberality and wisdom, pointing each to the 
 unspent treasures of God's love. So was it with the 
 early Church, which waited prayerfully until the gifts 
 of the Spirit came, and then gave back in active service 
 to Him all that He gave to them. 
 
 'X'HE earth that in her genial breast 
 
 Makes for the down a kindly nest, 
 Where wafted by the warm south-west 
 
 It floats at pleasure, 
 Yields, thankful, of her very best, 
 
 To nurse her treasure : 
 
 True to her trust, tree, herb, or reed, 
 She renders for each scattered seed, 
 And to her Lord with duteous heed 
 
 Gives large increase : 
 Thus year by year she works unfee'd, 
 
 And will not cease. 
 
 Woe worth these barren hearts of ours, 
 Where Thou hast set celestial flowers, 
 And watered with more balmy showers 
 
 Than e'er distilled 
 In Eden on the ambrosial bowers — 
 
 Yet naught we yield. 
 
ASCENSION 131 
 
 Largely Thou givest, gracious Lord, 
 Largely Thy gifts should be restored ; 
 Freely Thou givest, and Thy word 
 
 Is, " Freely give." 1 
 He only who forgets to hoard 
 
 Has learned to live. 
 
 Wisely Thou givest ; all around 
 Thine equal rays are resting found, 
 Yet varying so on various ground 
 
 They pierce and strike, 
 That not two roseate cups are crowned 
 
 With dew alike : 
 
 Even so, in silence, likest Thee, 
 Steals on soft-handed Charity, 
 Tempering her gifts, that seem so free, 
 
 By time and place, 
 Till not a woe the bleak world see 
 
 But finds her grace : 
 
 Eyes to the blind, and to the lame 
 Feet, and to sinners wholesome blame, 
 To starving bodies food and flame 
 
 By turns she brings, 
 To humbled souls, that sink for shame, 
 
 Lends heavenward wings : 
 
 Leads them the way our Saviour went, 
 And shews Love's treasure yet unspent, 
 As when the unclouded heavens were rent 
 
 Opening His road, 
 Nor yet His Holy Spirit sent 
 
 To our abode. 
 
 1 S. Matthew x. 8. 
 
132 ASCENSION 
 
 Ten days the eternal doors displayed 
 Were wondering (so the Almighty bade) 
 Whom Love enthroned would send, in aid 
 
 Of souls that mourn, 
 Left orphans in earth's dreary shade 
 
 As soon as born. 
 
 Open they stand, that prayers in throngs 
 May rise on high, and holy songs, 
 Such incense as of right belongs 
 
 To the true shrine, 
 Where stands the Healer of all wrongs 
 
 In light divine ; 
 
 The golden censer in His hand, 
 He offers hearts from every land, 
 Tied to His own by gentlest band 
 
 Of silent Love : 
 About Him winged blessings stand 
 
 In act to move. 
 
 A little while, and they shall fleet 
 From Heaven to earth, attendants meet 
 On the life-giving Paraclete, 
 
 Speeding His flight, 
 With all that sacred is and sweet, 
 
 On saints to light. 
 
 Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, all 
 Shall feel the shower of Mercy fall, 
 And, starting at the Almighty's call, 
 
 Give what He gave, 
 Till their high deeds the world appal, 
 
 And sinners save. 
 
WHITSUNDAY 
 
 WHITSUNDAY 
 
 33 
 
 
 And suddenly there came a sound frem Heaven as of 
 a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where 
 they were sitting. And there appeared unto them 
 cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each 
 of them. And they were all filled with the Holy 
 Ghost. Acts ii. t, 3, 4. 
 
 1 81 9 or 1820. 
 
 The first manifestation of God on Sinai in power 
 and wrath is contrasted with the second manifestation- 
 in power and love on the day of Pentecost, and leads 
 to a prayer that our ears may listen to the Spirit's 
 harmonies. 
 
 \A/HEN God of old came down from 
 Heaven, 
 
 In power and wrath He came ; 
 Before His feet the clouds were riven, 
 
 Half darkness and half flame : 
 
 Around the trembling mountain's base 
 
 The prostrate people lay, 
 A day of wrath, and not of grace ; 
 
 A dim and dreadful day. 
 
 But when He came the second time, 
 He came in power and love, 
 
 Softer than gale at morning prime 
 Hovered His holy Dove. 
 
 The fires that rushed on Sinai down 
 
 In sudden torrents dread, 
 Now gently light, a glorious crown, 
 
 On every sainted head. 
 
34 
 
 WHITSUNDAY 
 
 Like arrows went those lightnings forth 
 Winged with the sinner's doom, 
 
 But these, like tongues, o'er all the earth 
 Proclaiming life to come : 
 
 And as on Israel's awe-struck ear 
 
 The voice exceeding loud, 
 The trump, that angels quake to hear, 
 
 Thrilled from the deep, dark cloud ; 
 
 So, when the Spirit of our God 
 
 Came down His flock to find, 
 A voice from Heaven was heard abroad, 
 
 A rushing, mighty wind. 
 
 Nor doth the outward ear alone 
 
 At that high warning start ; 
 Conscience gives back the appalling tone ; 
 
 'Tis echoed in the heart. 
 
 It fills the Church of God ; it fills 
 
 The sinful world around ; 
 Only in stubborn hearts and wills 
 
 No place for it is found. 
 
 To other strains our souls are set ; 
 
 A giddy whirl of sin 
 Fills ear and brain, and will not let 
 
 Heaven's harmonies come in. 
 
 Come, Lord, come Wisdom, Love, and Power. 
 
 Open our ears to hear ; 
 Let us not miss the accepted hour ; 
 
 Save, Lord, by Love or Fear. 
 
WHITSUN-WEEK 135 
 MONDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK 
 
 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon 
 the face of all the earth : and they left off to build the 
 city. Genesis xi. 8. 
 
 THE CITY OF CONFUSION. Feb. 25, 1826.— 
 
 Hursley. 
 
 The ruins of Babylon — not graceful and picturesque, 
 as we should wish for scenes dear to our affections, but 
 forlorn and weary and the home of wild beasts — are 
 a proof of God's complete overthrow of the world's 
 ambitious Empires. Only one Empire is permanent, 
 the Empire of Christ ; only one ambition is rewarded, 
 the ambition to overcome self. 
 
 CINCE all that is not Heaven must fade, 
 ^ Light be the hand of Ruin laid 
 
 Upon the home I love : 
 With lulling spell let soft decay 
 Steal on, and spare the giant sway, 1 
 
 The crash of tower and grove. 
 
 Far opening down some woodland deep 
 In their own quiet glade should sleep 
 
 The relics dear to thought, 
 And wild-flower wreaths from side to side 
 Their waving tracery hang, to hide 
 
 What ruthless Time has wrought. 
 
 Such are the visions green and sweet 
 That o'er the wistful fancy fleet 
 
 In Asia's sea-like plain, 
 Where slowly, round his isles of sand, 
 Euphrates through the lonely land 
 
 Winds toward the pearly main. 
 
 1 i.e. "Spare the terrific sweep of the blow," cf. 
 Milton Par. Lost, vi. 251: or, "spare the terrible 
 swaying of tower and grove." 
 
136 MONDAY IN 
 
 Slumber is there, but not of rest ; 
 There her forlorn and weary nest 
 
 The famished hawk has found, 
 The wild dog howls at fall of night, 
 The serpent's rustling coils affright 
 
 The traveller on his round. 
 
 What shapeless form, half lost on high, 1 
 Half seen against the evening sky, 
 
 Seems like a ghost to glide, 
 And watch, from Babel's crumbling heap, 
 Where in her shadow, fast asleep, 
 
 Lies fallen imperial Pride ? 
 
 With half-closed eye a lion there 
 Is basking in his noontide lair, 
 
 Or prowls in twilight gloom. 
 The golden city's king he seems, 
 Such as in old prophetic dreams 2 
 
 Sprang from rough ocean's womb. 
 
 But where are now his eagle wings, 
 That sheltered erst a thousand kings, 
 
 Hiding the glorious sky 
 From half the nations, till they own 
 No holier name, no mightier throne ? 
 
 That vision is gone by. 
 
 1 See Sir R. K. Porter's " Travels," ii. 387. " In my 
 second visit to Birs Nimrood, my party suddenly halted, 
 having descried several dark objects moving along the 
 summit of its hill, which they construed into dismounted 
 Arabs on the look-out : I took out my glass to examine, 
 and soon distinguished that the causes of our alarm were 
 two or three majestic lions, taking the air upon the 
 heights of the pyramid." — J. K. 
 
 2 Daniel vii. 4. 
 
WHITSUN-WEEK 137 
 
 Quenched is the golden statue's ray, 1 
 The breath of Heaven has blown away 
 
 What toiling earth had piled, 
 Scattering wise heart and crafty hand, 
 As breezes strew on ocean's sand 
 
 The fabrics of a child. 
 
 Divided thence through every age 
 Thy rebels, Lord, their warfare wage, 
 
 And hoarse and jarring all 
 Mount up their heaven-assailing cries 
 To thy bright watchmen in the skies 
 
 From Babel's shattered wall. 
 
 Thrice only since, with blended might 
 The nations on that haughty height 
 
 Have met to scale the Heaven : 
 Thrice only might a seraph's look 
 A moment's shade of sadness brook — 
 
 Such power to guilt was given. 
 
 Now the fierce bear and leopard keen 2 
 Are perished as they ne'er had been, 
 
 Oblivion is their home : 
 Ambition's boldest dream and last 
 Must melt before the clarion blast 
 
 That sounds the dirge of Rome. 
 
 Heroes and kings, obey the charm, 
 Withdraw the proud high-reaching arm ; 
 
 1 Daniel ii. and iii. 
 
 2 Dan. vii. 5, 6. This is based on the traditional 
 interpretation of the four beasts, as signifying the 
 Chaldaean, Persian, Gretk ; and Roman Empires. 
 
138 TUESDAY IN 
 
 There is an oath on high, 
 That ne'er on brow of mortal birth 
 Shall blend again the crowns of earth, 
 
 Nor in according cry. 
 
 Her many voices mingling own 
 One tyrant lord, one idol throne : 
 
 But to His triumph soon 
 He shall descend who rules above, 
 And the pure language of His love 1 
 
 All tongues of men shall tune. 
 
 Nor let Ambition heartless mourn ; 
 When Babel's very ruins burn, 
 
 Her high desires may breathe : — 
 O'ercome thyself, and thou mayst share 
 With Christ His Father's throne, 2 and wear 
 
 The world's imperial wreath. 
 
 TUESDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK 
 
 When He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth 
 before them. S. John x. 4. 
 
 HOLY ORDERS. 1825. 
 The Lord's life a pattern to all pastors — to prevent 
 them from despondency. 
 
 (addressed to candidates for ordination.) 
 
 " I ORD, in thy field I work all day, 
 
 I read, I teach, I warn, I pray, 
 
 And yet these wilful wandering sheep 
 
 Within Thy fold I cannot keep. 
 
 1 Then will I turn to the people a pure language, 
 that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to 
 serve Him with one consent. Zephaniah iii. 9. 
 
 2 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with 
 Me in My throne. Revelation iii. 21. 
 
WHITSUN-WEEK 139 
 
 " I journey, yet no step is won — 
 Alas ! the weary course I run ! 
 Like sailors shipwrecked in their dreams, 
 All powerless and benighted seems. " 
 
 What ? wearied out with half a life ? 
 Scared with this smooth unbloody strife ? 
 Think where thy coward hopes had flown 
 Had Heaven held out the martyr's crown. 
 
 How couldst thou hang upon the Cross, 
 To whom a weary hour is loss ? 
 Or how the thorns and scourging brook, 
 Who shrinkest from a scornful look ? 
 
 Yet, ere thy craven spirit faints, 
 Hear thine own King — the King of saints ; 
 Though thou wert toiling in the grave, 
 'Tis He can cheer thee, He can save. 
 
 He is the eternal mirror bright, 
 Where angels view the Father's light, 
 And yet in Him the simplest swain 
 May read his homely lesson plain. 
 
 Early to quit His home on earth, 
 And claim His high celestial birth, 
 Alone with His true Father found 
 Within the Temple's solemn round : — 
 
 Yet in meek duty to abide 
 
 For many a year at Mary's side, 
 
 Nor heed, though restless spirits ask, 
 
 " What ? hath the Christ forgot His task ? 
 
 ? » 
 
14© TUESDAY IN 
 
 Conscious of Deity within, 
 
 To bow before an heir of sin, 
 
 With folded arms on humble breast, 
 
 By His own servant washed and blest : — 
 
 Then full of Heaven, the mystic Dove 
 Hovering His gracious brow above, 
 To shun the voice and eye of praise, 
 And in the wild His trophies raise : — 
 
 With hymns of angels in his ears, 
 Back to His task of woe and tears, 
 Unmurmuring through the world to roam 
 With not a wish or thought at home : — I 
 
 All but Himself to heal and save, 
 Till, ripened for the Cross and grave, 
 He to His Father gently yield 
 The breath that our redemption sealed : — 
 
 Then to unearthly life arise, 
 Yet not at once to seek the skies, 
 But glide a while from saint to saint, 
 Lest on our lonely way we faint ; 
 
 And through the cloud by glimpses shew 
 How bright, in Heaven, the marks will glow 
 Of the true Cross, imprinted deep 
 Both on the Shepherd and the sheep : — 
 
 When out of sight, in heart and prayer 
 Thy chosen people still to bear, 
 And from behind Thy glorious veil 
 Shed light that cannot change or fail : — 
 
 1 " At home," i.e. without a thought or wish limited 
 to Himself and His own interests. Compare the taunt, 
 "He saved others: Himself He cannot save." 
 
■ WHITSUN-WEEK 141 
 
 This is Thy pastoral course, O Lord, 
 Till we be saved, and Thou adored ; — 
 Thy course and ours — but who are they 
 Who follow on the narrow way ? 
 
 And yet of Thee from year to year 
 The Church's solemn chant we hear, 
 As from Thy cradle to Thy throne 
 She swells her high heart-cheering tone. 
 
 Listen, ye pure white-robed souls, 
 Whom in her list l she now enrolls, 
 And gird ye for your high emprize 
 By these her thrilling minstrelsies. 
 
 And wheresoe'er, in earth's wide field, 
 Ye lift, for Him, the red-cross shield, 2 
 Be this your song, your joy and pride — 
 " Our Champion went before and died." 
 
 TRINITY SUNDAY 
 
 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, 
 how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things ? 
 
 S. John iii. 12. 
 March 3, 1826. 
 
 The course of the Church's festivals brings us at last 
 to gaze on the mystery of the Trinity ; we are like 
 travellers whose vision is tangled in the woods, but who 
 catch, through the network of the branches, dreamlike 
 glimpses of the bright scene beyond ; or as worshippers 
 who stand outside the choir up to which the three aisles 
 have led them, and listen in adoration to the worship 
 that is going on within. As we worship, we find 
 peace such as the world does not know, for the un filial 
 
 1 "List": but "lists." K.3. 
 
 2 "Red-cross shield." The allusion is to the Red- 
 Cross Knight of Spenser's " Faery Queen." 
 
1 42 TRINITY SUNDAY 
 
 or envious or gloomy heart can never delight in the 
 Father, Son, and Spirit. Keep us then at Thy side, O 
 blessed Trinity. 
 
 The three-lined metre is evidently adapted to the 
 subject. It is not found elsewhere in the " Christian 
 Year." 
 
 /CREATOR, Saviour, strengthening Guide, 
 
 Now on Thy mercy's ocean wide 
 Far out of sight we seem to glide. 
 
 Help us, each hour, with steadier eye 
 To search the deepening mystery, 
 The wonders of Thy sea and sky. 
 
 The blessM angels look and long 
 To praise Thee with a worthier song, 
 And yet our silence does Thee wrong. 1 
 
 Along the Church's central space 
 The sacred weeks with unfelt pace 
 Have borne us on from grace to grace. 
 
 As travellers on some woodland height, 
 When wintry suns are gleaming bright, 
 Lose in arched glades their tangled sight : 
 
 By glimpses such as dreamers love 
 Through her grey veil the leafless grove 
 Shews where the distant shadows rove ; 
 
 Such trembling joy the soul o'erawes 
 As nearer to Thy shrine she draws : 
 And now before the choir we pause. 
 
 1 Cf. S. Augustine," Confess." i. c. 4. Et vae tacenti- 
 bus de te, quoniam loquaces muti sunt. 
 
 
TRINITY SUNDAY 143 
 
 The door is closed — but soft and deep 
 Around the awful arches sweep 
 Such airs as soothe a hermit's sleep. 
 
 From each carved nook and fretted bend 
 
 Cornice and gallery seem to send 
 
 Tones that with seraph hymns might blend. 
 
 Three solemn parts together twine 
 
 In harmony's mysterious line ; 
 
 Three solemn aisles approach the shrine : 
 
 Yet all are One — together all, 
 
 In thoughts that awe but not appal, 
 
 Teach the adoring heart to fall. 
 
 Within these walls each fluttering guest 
 Is gently lured to one safe nest — 
 Without, 'tis moaning 1 and unrest. 
 
 The busy world a thousand ways 
 
 Is hurrying by, nor ever stays 
 
 To catch a note of Thy dear praise. 
 
 Why tarries not her chariot wheel, 
 That o'er her with no vain appeal 
 One gust of heavenly song might steal ? 
 
 Alas ! for her Thy opening flowers 
 Unheeded breathe to summer showers, 
 Unheard the music of Thy bowers. 
 
 What echoes from the sacred dome 
 The selfish spirit may o'ercome 
 That will not hear of love or home ? 
 
 1 " Moaning " : "wildering."— MSS. 
 
i 4 4 FIRST SUNDAY 
 
 The heart that scorned a father's care, 
 How can it rise in filial prayer ? 
 How an all-seeing Guardian bear ? 
 
 Or how shall envious brethren own 
 A Brother * on the eternal throne, 
 Their Father's joy, their hope alone ? 
 
 How shall Thy Spirit's gracious wile 
 The sullen brow of gloom beguile, 
 That frowns on sweet affection's smile ? 
 
 Eternal One, Almighty Trine ! 
 
 (Since thou art ours, and we are Thine) 
 
 By all Thy love did once resign, 
 
 By all the grace Thy heavens still hide, 
 We pray Thee, keep us at Thy side, 
 Creator, Saviour, strengthening Guide ! 
 
 FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 
 
 So Joshua smote all the country . . . and all their 
 kings : he left none remaining. Joshua x. 40. 
 
 ISRAEL AMONG THE RUINS OF CANAAN. 
 Jan. 27, 1826. — Hursley. 
 
 A prayer against sadness. As the Israelite found the 
 Promised Land of milk, and honey to be full of ruins 
 and decay, so the Christian has entered into the 
 promised Kingdom of Heaven, in which the whole 
 Trinity unites to bless him, yet still finds clouds, dis- 
 appointment, and fading joys. May God then open 
 
 1 "Brother": "a child upon the eternal throne." — 
 MSS. There is doubtless an allusion to Joseph's 
 brethren. Cf. Genesis xxxvii. 3-1 r. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 145 
 
 our eyes to see the blessings around us and to press on 
 to the eternal bourne. 
 
 \A/HERE is the land with milk and honey 
 * v flowing, 
 
 The promise of our God, our fancy's theme ? 
 Here over shattered walls dank weeds are growing, 
 And blood and fire have run in mingled stream ; 
 Like oaks and cedars all around 
 The giant corses strew the ground, 
 And haughty Jericho's cloud-piercing wall 
 Lies where it sank at Joshua's trumpet call. 
 
 These are not scenes for pastoral dance at even, 
 For moonlight rovings in the fragrant glades, 
 Soft slumbers in the open eye of Heaven, 
 And all the listless joy of summer shades. 
 We in the midst of ruins live, 
 Which every hour dread warning give, 
 Nor may our household vine or fig-tree hide 
 The broken arches of old Canaan's pride. 
 
 Where is the sweet repose of hearts repenting, 
 
 The deep calm sky, the sunshine of the soul, 
 Now Heaven and earth are to our bliss consenting 
 And all the Godhead joins to make us whole ? 
 The triple crown of mercy now 
 Is ready for the suppliant's brow, 
 By the Almighty Three for ever planned, 
 And from behind the cloud held out by Jesus' 
 hand. 
 
 " Now, Christians, hold your own — the land be- 
 fore ye 
 
 Is open — win your way, and take your rest." 
 So sounds our war-note ; but our path of glory 
 
 By many a cloud is darkened and unblest : 
 
146 SECOND SUNDAY 
 
 And daily as we downward glide, 
 Life's ebbing stream on either side 
 Shows at each turn some mouldering hope or joy, 
 The man seems following still the funeral of the 
 boy. 
 
 Open our eyes, Thou Sun of life and gladness, 
 
 That we may see that glorious world of Thine ! 
 It shines for us in vain, while drooping sadness 
 Enfolds us here like mist : come, Power benign, 
 Touch our chilled hearts with vernal smile, 
 Our wintry course do Thou beguile, 
 Nor by the wayside ruins let us mourn, 
 Who have the eternal towers for our appointed 
 bourne. 
 
 SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 
 
 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. 
 We know that we have passed from death unto life, 
 because we love the brethren, i S. John iii. 13, 14. 
 
 CHARITY THE LIFE OF FAITH. Aug. 7, 1822. 
 Love is the secret of all life, the life of nature and the 
 life of man. The common love of Christ makes every 
 human life precious in our sight, even the sinner's, and 
 it will make us draw closer to each other in spite of 
 temptation and persecution. 
 
 HTHE clouds that wrap the setting sun 
 
 WhenAutumn'ssoftestgleamsareending, 
 Where all bright hues together run 
 
 In sweet confusion blending : — 
 Why, as we watch their floating wreath, 
 Seem they the breath of life to breathe ? 
 To Fancy's eye their motions prove 
 They mantle round l the Sun for love. 
 1 i.e. they enfold as with a mantle. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 147 
 
 When up some woodland dale l we catch 
 
 The many-twinkling smile of ocean, 2 
 Or with pleased ear bewildered watch 
 
 His chime of restless motion ; 8 
 Still as the surging waves retire 
 They seem to gasp with strong desire, 
 Such signs of love old Ocean gives, 
 We cannot choose but think he lives. 
 
 Wouldst thou the life of souls discern ? 
 
 Nor human wisdom nor divine 
 Helps thee by aught beside to learn ; 
 
 Love is life's only sign. 
 The spring of the regenerate heart, 
 The pulse, the glow of every part, 
 Is the true love of Christ our Lord, 
 As man embraced, as God adored. 
 
 But he whose heart will bound to mark 
 
 The full bright burst of summer morn, 
 Loves too each little dewy spark 
 
 By leaf or floweret worn : 
 Cheap forms and common hues, 'tis true, 
 Through the bright shower-drop meet his view : 
 The colouring may be of this earth ; 
 The lustre comes of heavenly birth. 
 
 Even so, who loves the Lord aright, 
 
 No soul of man can worthless find ; 
 All will be precious in his sight, 
 
 Since Christ on all hath shined : 
 1 "Some of the woods round Sidmouth may be 
 taken to have suggested this description." — Miss 
 Yonge, " Musings," p. 178. 
 
 2 ttovtIijiv re KVfxarwv 
 
 av-fipid/xov ytXacr/xa iEschy]. P.V. 89. — J. K. 
 
 3 «• Chime," " tones."— MSS. 
 
148 SECOND SUNDAY 
 
 But chiefly Christian souls ; for they, 
 Though worn and soiled with sinful clay, 
 Are yet, to eyes that see them true, 
 All glistening with baptismal dew. 
 
 Then marvel not, if such as bask 
 
 In purest light of innocence, 
 Hope against hope, in love's dear task, 
 
 Spite of all dark offence. 
 If they who hate the trespass most, 
 Yet, when all other love is lost, 
 Love the poor sinner, marvel not ; 
 Christ's mark outwears the rankest blot. 
 
 No distance breaks the tie of blood ; 
 
 Brothers are brothers evermore ; 
 Nor wrong, nor wrath of deadliest mood, 
 
 That magic may o'erpower ; 
 Oft, ere the common source be known, 
 The kindred drops will claim their own, 
 And throbbing pulses silently 
 Move heart towards heart by sympathy. 1 
 
 So is it with true Christian hearts ; 
 
 Their mutual share in Jesus' blood 
 An everlasting bond imparts 
 Of holiest brotherhood : 
 1 Possibly an allusion to " Cymbeline," Act iii. sc. 
 6. (The interview between Imogen and her brothers.) 
 Cf. Act v. sc. 5. 
 
 Imog. O my gende brothers, 
 
 Have we thus met ? O, never say hereafter 
 But I am truest speaker: you called me brother, 
 When I was but your sister ; I you brothers, 
 When ye were so indeed. 
 Cymb. Did you e'er meet ? 
 
 Arv. Ay, my good lord. 
 Gut. And at first meeting loved. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 149 
 
 Oh ! might we all our lineage prove, 
 Give and forgive, do good and love, 
 By soft endearments in kind strife 
 Lightening the load of daily life ! 
 
 There is much need : for not as yet 
 
 Are we in shelter or repose ; 
 The holy house is still beset 
 
 With leaguer of stern foes ; 
 Wild thoughts within, bad men without, 
 All evil spirits round about, 
 Are banded in unblest device 
 To spoil Love's earthly paradise. 
 
 Then draw we nearer day by day, 
 
 Each to his brethren, all to God ; 
 Let the world take us as she may, 
 
 We must not change our road ; 
 Not wondering, though in grief, to find 
 The martyr's foe still keep her mind ; 
 But fixed to hold Love's banner fast, 
 And by submission win at last. 
 
 THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 
 
 There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over 
 one sinner that repenteth. S. Luke xv. 10. 
 
 COMFORT FOR SINNERS IN THE PRESENCE 
 OF THE GOOD. April 7, 1826. 
 
 Remorse purified into penitence. 
 
 The reproach of conscience drives us from home 
 into the solitudes of Nature, and even there prevents 
 our enjoyment of its beauty, so that we grieve the 
 angels that we cannot join in their praise : but such 
 remorse may be lifted from mere 6elfish fear of conse- 
 
ISO THIRD SUNDAY 
 
 quences into true penitence, and thus, welcomed by 
 gentle forgiving Christians and by the angels, the 
 penitent will no longer shudder at the Presence of God. 
 This poem should be compared with those for Ash 
 Wednesday and the Twenty-fourth Sunday after 
 Trinity. The picture of the murderer of Laius flying 
 into solitude in Sophocles, " (Ed. Tyr." 471, may have 
 coloured the language. 
 
 Q HATEFUL spell of sin ! when friends 
 ^ are nigh, 
 
 To make stern Memory tell her tale unsought, 
 And raise accusing shades of hours gone by, 
 
 To come between us and all kindly thought ! 
 
 Chilled at her touch, the self- reproaching soul 
 Flies from the heart and home she dearest loves 
 
 To where lone mountains tower, or billows roll, 
 Or to your endless depth, ye solemn groves ! 
 
 In vain : the averted cheek in loneliest dell 
 Is conscious of a gaze it cannot bear, 
 
 The leaves that rustle near us seem to tell 
 Our heart's sad secret to the silent air. 
 
 Nor is the dream untrue : for all around 
 
 The heavens are watching with their thousand 
 eyes, 
 
 We cannot pass our guardian angel's bound, 
 Resigned or sullen, he will hear our sighs. 
 
 He in the mazes of the budding wood 
 
 Is near, and mourns to see our thankless glance 
 
 Dwell coldly, where the fresh green earth is 
 strewed 
 With the first flowers that lead the vernal dance. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 151 
 
 In wasteful bounty showered, they smile unseen, 
 Unseen by man — but what if purer sprights 
 
 By moonlight o'er their dewy bosoms lean, 
 To adore the Father of all gentle lights ? 1 
 
 If such there be, O grief and shame to think 
 That sight of thee should overcloud their joy, 
 
 A newborn soul, just waiting on the brink 
 Of endless life, yet wrapt in earth's annoy 1 
 
 O turn, and be thou turned ! the selfish tear, 
 In bitter thoughts of low-born care begun, 
 
 Let it flow on, but flow refined and clear, 
 The turbid waters brightening as they run. 
 
 Let it flow on, till all thine earthly heart 
 In penitential drops have ebbed away, 
 
 Then fearless turn where Heaven hath set thy 
 part, 
 Nor shudder at the Eye that saw thee stray. 2 
 
 O lost and found ! all gentle souls below 
 
 Their dearest welcome shall prepare, and prove 
 
 Such joy o'er thee, as raptured seraphs know, 
 Who learn their lesson at the Throne of Love. 
 
 1 Cf. S. James i. 17. 
 
 2 Cf. 2 Cor. vii. 10. Godly sorrow worketh re- 
 pentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the 
 sorrow of the world worketh death. 
 
i 5 2 FOURTH SUNDAY 
 
 FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 
 
 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth 
 for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the crea- 
 ture was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by 
 reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope, 
 because the creature itself also shall be delivered from 
 the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of 
 the children of God. For we know that the whole 
 creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until 
 now. Romans viii. 19-22. 
 
 THE GROANS OF NATURE. August 20, 1820. 
 
 The whole of creation witnesses to the goodness of 
 God ; it is only man's sin that prevents his hearing the 
 witness ; yet from time to time in some quiet starlit 
 night the thought comes home to him, as it did to 
 Pagan Poets. They caught glimpses of a deeper 
 meaning in Nature, though they could not anticipate 
 the message of Redemption, which was to ennoble the 
 meanest things below. We have heard this message, 
 yet even to us there is a note of sadness in Nature 
 because of the presence of sin. 
 
 Compare the poems on Septuagesima Sunday and 
 Easter Day, and for the reference to Pagan poetry that 
 for the Third Sunday in Lent, and the lectures on 
 Lucretius and Virgil in Keble's " Praelectiones Aca- 
 demical." 
 
 IT was not then a poet's dream, 
 * An idle vaunt of song, 
 Such as beneath the moon's soft gleam 
 On vacant fancies throng ; 
 
 Which bids us see in heaven and earth, 
 
 In all fair things around, 
 Strong yearnings for a blest new birth 
 
 With sinless glories crowned ; 
 
AFTER TRINITY 153 
 
 Which bids us hear, at each sweet pause 
 From care and want and toil, 
 
 When dewy eve her curtain draws 
 Over the day's turmoil, 
 
 In the low chant of wakeful birds, 
 
 In the deep weltering flood, 
 In whispering leaves, these solemn words — 
 
 " God made us all for good." 
 
 All true, all faultless, all in tune, 
 
 Creation's wondrous choir 
 Opened in mystic unison 
 
 To last till time expire. 
 
 And still it lasts : by day and night, 
 
 With one consenting voice, 
 All hymn Thy glory, Lord, aright, 
 
 All worship and rejoice. 
 
 Man only mars the sweet accord, 
 
 O'erpowering with " harsh din " l 
 
 The music of Thy works and word, 
 111 matched with grief and sin. 
 
 1 "Harsh din," from Milton's Ode, "At a Solemn 
 Music" : 
 
 "That we on earth, with undiscording voice 
 May rightly answer that melodious noise ; 
 As once we did, till disproportioned sin 
 Jarred against Nature's chime, and with harsh din 
 Broke the fair music that all creatures made 
 To their great Lord." 
 
 Compare also Sir W. Scott, " Rokeby," Canto iii. i : 
 "Man only mars kind Nature's plan." 
 
154 FOURTH SUNDAY 
 
 Sin is with man at morning break, 
 And through the live-Jong day 
 
 Deafens the ear that fain would wake 
 To Nature's simple lay. 
 
 But when eve's silent foot-fall steals 
 
 Along the eastern sky, 
 And one by one to earth reveals 
 
 Those purer fires on high, 
 
 When one by one each human sound 
 
 Dies on the awful ear, 
 Then Nature's voice no more is drowned, 
 
 She speaks and we must hear. 
 
 Then pours she on the Christian heart 
 
 That warning still and deep, 
 At which high spirits of old would start 
 
 E'en from their Pagan sleep, 
 
 Just guessing, through their murky blind, 1 
 Few, faint, and baffling sight, 
 
 Streaks of a brighter Heaven behind, 
 A cloudless depth of light. 
 
 Such thoughts, the wreck of Paradise, 
 
 Through many a dreary age, 
 Upbore whate'er of good and wise 
 
 Yet lived in bard or sage : 
 
 They marked what agonising throes 
 Shook the great mother's womb ; 
 
 But Reason's spells might not disclose 
 The gracious birth to come ; 
 
 1 " Blind," i.e. a veil, anything which shuts out the 
 light. Cf. " Gunpowder Treason " : St. 7 : 
 « Error's soothing blind." 
 
AFTER TRINITY 155 
 
 Nor could the enchantress Hope forecast 
 God's secret love and power ; 
 
 The travail pangs of Earth must last 
 Till her appointed hour ; 
 
 The hour that saw from opening Heaven 
 
 Redeeming glory stream, 
 Beyond the summer hues of even, 
 
 Beyond the mid-day beam. 
 
 Thenceforth, to eyes of high desire, 
 
 The meanest things below, 
 As with a Seraph's robe of fire 
 
 Invested, burn and glow : 
 
 The rod of Heaven has touched them all, 
 The word from Heaven is spoken ; 
 
 " Rise, shine, and sing, thou captive thrall ; 
 Are not thy fetters broken ? 
 
 " The God Who hallowed thee and blessed, 
 
 Pronouncing thee all good — 
 Hath He not all thy wrongs redressed, 
 
 And all thy bliss renewed ? 
 
 " Why mourn'st thou still as one bereft, 
 
 Now that the eternal Son 
 His blessed home in Heaven hath left 
 
 To make thee all His own ? " 
 
 Thou mourn'st because Sin lingers still 
 In Christ's new Heaven and earth ; 
 
 Because our rebel works and will 
 Stain our immortal birth : 
 
156 FIFTH SUNDAY 
 
 Because, as love and prayer grow cold, 
 The Saviour hides His face, 
 
 And worldlings blot the temple's gold 
 With uses vile and base. 
 
 Hence all thy groans and travail pains, 
 Hence, till thy God return, 
 
 In wisdom's ear thy blithest strains, 
 O Nature, seem to mourn. 
 
 FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 
 
 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we 
 have toiled all the night and have taken nothing: 
 nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net. 
 And when they had this done, they enclosed a great 
 multitude of fishes : and their net brake. S. Luke 
 v. 5, 6. 
 
 THE FISHERMEN OF BETHSAIDA. 1821. 
 
 Christ's Presence has power to cheer the Christian 
 Pastor in his hour of weariness and despondency. If 
 he succeeds, that Presence saves him from self-satisfied 
 conceit: if he fails, it yet brings the assurance that 
 Christ blesses even in disappointment those who work 
 for love. 
 
 " '"THE live-long night we've toiled in vain, 
 But at Thy gracious word, 
 I will let down the net again : — 
 
 Do Thou Thy will, O Lord ! " 
 
 So spake the weary fisher, spent 
 With bootless darkling toil, 
 
 Yet on his Master's bidding bent 
 For love and not for spoil. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 157 
 
 So day by day and week by week, 
 
 In sad and weary thought, 
 They muse, whom God hath set to seek 
 
 The souls His Christ hath bought. 
 
 For not upon a tranquil lake 
 
 Our pleasant task we ply, 
 Where all along our glistening wake 
 
 The softest moonbeams lie ; 
 
 Where rippling wave and dashing oar 
 
 Our midnight chant attend, 
 Or whispering palm-leaves from the shore 
 
 With midnight silence blend. 
 
 Sweet thoughts of peace, ye may not last : 
 Too soon some ruder sound 
 
 Calls us from where ye soar so fast 
 Back to our earthly round. 
 
 For wildest storms our ocean sweep : — 
 
 No anchor but the Cross 
 Might hold : and oft the thankless deep 
 
 Turns all our toil to loss. 
 
 Full many a dreary anxious hour 
 
 We watch our nets alone 
 In drenching spray and driving shower, 
 
 And hear the night-bird's moan : 
 
 At morn we look, and nought is there ; 
 
 Sad dawn of cheerless day ! 1 
 Who then from pining and despair 
 
 The sickening heart can stay ? 
 
 1 "Sad night biings cheerless day."— MSS. 
 
158 FIFTH SUNDAY 
 
 There is a stay — and we are strong ; 
 
 Our Master is at hand, 
 To cheer our solitary song, 
 
 And guide us to the strand, 
 
 In His own time : but yet a while 
 Our bark at sea must ride ; 
 
 Cast after cast, by force or guile, 
 All waters must be tried : 
 
 By blameless guile or gentle force, 
 As when He deigned to teach 
 
 (The lode-star of our Christian course) 
 Upon this sacred beach. 
 
 Should e'er thy wonder-working grace 
 Triumph by our weak arm, 
 
 Let not our sinful fancy trace 
 
 Aught human in the charm : 
 
 To our own nets 1 ne'er bow we down, 
 
 Lest on the eternal shore 
 The angels, while our draught they own, 2 
 
 Reject us evermore : 
 
 Or, if for our unworthiness 
 
 Toil, prayer, and watching fail, 
 
 In disappointment Thou canst bless, 
 So love at heart prevail. 
 
 1 They sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto 
 their drag. Habakkuk i. 16. 
 
 2 S. Matthew xiii. 49. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 159 
 
 SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 
 
 David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the 
 Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also 
 hath put away thy sin ; thou shalt not die. 2 Samuel 
 xii. 13. 
 
 THE PSALMIST REPENTING. April 15, 1826. 
 
 The thought of God's forgiving Presence is the cure 
 for remorse and melancholy ; as the poet-king heard 
 Nathan's message, and then poured forth his peaceful 
 penitence in the Fifty-first Psalm, pray for the present 
 minstrel that he too may know the blessing of for- 
 giveness. 
 
 Compare the " Dedication " prefixed to the later 
 editions of the " Christian Year." 
 
 \A/HEN bitter thoughts, of conscience born, 
 With sinners wake at morn, 
 When from our restless couch we start, 
 With fevered lips and withered heart, 
 Where is the spell to charm those mists away, 
 And make new morning in that darksome day ? 
 One draught of spring's delicious air, 
 One steadfast thought that God is there. 
 
 These are Thy wonders, hourly wrought, 1 
 
 Thou Lord of time and thought, 
 Lifting and lowering souls at will, 
 Crowding a world of good or ill 
 
 1 There seems a reminiscence of G. Herbert, " The 
 Flower," st. 3 : 
 
 " These are Thy wonders, Lord of power, 
 Killing and quickening, bringing down to hell 
 
 And up to heaven in an houre : 
 Making a chiming of a passing-bell. 
 We say amisse, 
 This or that is ; 
 Thy word is all, if we could spell." 
 
160 SIXTH SUNDAY 
 
 Into a moment's vision : even as light 
 Mounts o'er a cloudy ridge, and all is bright, 
 
 From west to east one thrilling ray 
 
 Turning a wintry world to May. 
 
 Wouldst thou the pangs of guilt assuage ? 
 
 Lo ! here an open page, 
 Where heavenly mercy shines as free, 
 Written in balm, sad heart, for thee. 
 Never so fast, in silent April shower, 
 Flushed into green the dry and leafless bower, 1 
 As Israel's crowned mourner felt 
 The dull hard stone within him melt. 
 
 The absolver saw the mighty grief, 
 And hastened with relief; — 
 " The Lord forgives ; thou shalt not die ! " — 
 'Twas gently spoke, yet heard on high, 
 And all the band of angels, used to sing 
 In Heaven, accordant to his raptured string, 
 Who many a month had turned away 
 With veiled eyes, nor owned his lay, 
 
 Now spread their wings and throng around 
 To the glad mournful sound, 
 
 And welcome, with bright open face, 
 
 The broken heart to love's embrace. 
 The rock is smitten, and to future years 
 Springs ever fresh the tide of holy tears 2 
 
 And holy music, whispering peace 
 
 Till time and sin together cease. 
 
 1 " And all this leafless and uncoloured scene 
 
 Shall flush into variety again." 
 
 Cowper, " The Task," vi. 178-180. — J. K. 
 
 2 The fifty-first Psalm. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 161 
 
 There drink : and when ye are at rest, 
 
 With that free Spirit blest, 1 
 Who to the contrite can dispense 
 The princely heart of innocence, 
 If ever, floating from faint earthly lyre, 
 Was wafted to your soul one high desire, 
 By all the trembling hope ye feel, 
 Think on the minstrel as ye kneel : 
 
 Think on the shame, that dreadful hour 
 
 When tears shall have no power, 
 Should his own lay the accuser prove, 
 Cold while he kindled others' love : 
 And let your prayer for charity arise, 
 That his own heart may hear his melodies, 
 And a true voice to him may cry, 
 " Thy God forgives — thou shalt not die." 
 
 SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread 
 here in the wilderness? S. Mark viii. 4. 
 
 THE FEAST IN THE WILDERNESS. 
 November 4, 1825. 
 
 The Four Thousand in the desert — weary, faint, in 
 a landscape of fear, with the lonely hills on the North 
 and the memories of the Dead Sea in the South — yet 
 found their needs supplied by the Saviour even there, 
 and that though He used only a poor fisher's rude and 
 
 1 Psalm li. 12. "Uphold me with thy free spirit." 
 The original word seems to mean " ingenuous, princely, 
 noble." Read Bishop Home's Paraphrase on the 
 verse. —J. K. 
 
 L 
 
G' 
 
 162 SEVENTH SUNDAY 
 
 scanty store ; and they went away with a new bright- 
 ness for all their life. So it is for us now. As travellers 
 are more conscious of God's Presence in the night, so 
 we, when the rapture of life passes away and we feel 
 our loneliness, are then drawn nearer to Heaven. The 
 sounds of Nature, the flowers, the stars, the lives of 
 simple men, nay, even earth's worst and least, are like 
 the loaves and fishes with which Christ can satisfy us. 
 
 The connection is rather obscure, but the whole 
 thought is steeped in Wordsworth's "Ode," and should 
 be compared with his account of his own transition 
 from the rapture of boyhood, through the dreariness of 
 manhood when the vision fades into the light of common 
 day, into 
 
 " The soothing thoughts that spring 
 Out of human suffering. " 
 
 (Compare infra p. 203 and p. 236.) 
 
 O not away, thou weary soul : 
 
 Heaven has in store a precious dole 
 Here on Bethsaida's cold and darksome height, 
 Where over rocks and sands arise 
 Proud Sirion in the northern skies, 
 And Tabor's lonely peak, 'twixt thee and noon- 
 day light. 
 
 And far below, Gennesaret's main 
 Spreads many a mile of liquid plain, 
 (Though all seem gathered in one eager bound), 1 
 
 1 Mr Keble is reported to have said late in life that 
 he supposed he meant something of this sort: "That 
 when you stand on a height such as that referred to, 
 you feel an almost irresistible impulse to leap over."* 
 With all due deference, it seems more probable that he 
 meant either "the lake looks from a distance as though 
 it had gathered itself up in one quick leap over its 
 channel" (bound = leap), or "all seem contained within 
 the limit of one eager gaze" ( bound = boundary, cf. 
 p. 204, st. 1, and also p. 200, st. 2). 
 
 * The " Guardian," March 11, 1874. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 163 
 
 Then narrowing cleaves yon palmy lea, 1 
 Towards that deep sulphureous sea, 
 Where five proud cities lie, by one dire sentence 
 drowned. 2 
 
 Landscape of fear ! yet, weary heart, 
 Thou need'st not in thy gloom depart, 
 
 Nor fainting turn to seek thy distant home : 
 Sweetly thy sickening throbs are eyed 
 By the kind Saviour at thy side ; 
 
 For healing and for balm even now thine hour 
 is come. 
 
 No fiery wing is seen to glide, 
 No cates ambrosial are supplied, 
 
 But one poor fisher's rude and scanty store 
 Is all He asks (and more than needs) 
 Who men and angels daily feeds, 
 
 And stills the wailing sea-bird on the hungry shore. 
 
 The feast is o'er, the guests are gone, 
 
 And over all that upland lone 
 The breeze of eve sweeps wildly as of old ; 
 
 But far unlike the former dreams, 
 
 The heart's sweet moonlight softly gleams 
 Upon life's varied view, so joyless erst and cold. 
 
 As mountain travellers in the night, 
 When heaven by fits is dark and bright, 
 
 Pause listening on the silent heath, and hear 
 Nor trampling hoof nor tinkling bell, 
 Then bolder scale the rugged fell, 
 
 Conscious the more of One, ne'er seen, yet ever 
 near : 
 
 1 "Then narrowing cleaves yon palm-crowned lea." 
 — MSS. 
 
 2 Gen. xiv. 2 ; xix. 29. 
 
 I 
 
1 64 SEVENTH SUNDAY 
 
 So when the tones of rapture gay 
 On the lorn ear die quite away, 
 
 The lonely world seems lifted nearer Heaven ; 
 Seen daily, yet unmarked before, 
 Earth's common paths are strewn all o'er 
 
 With flowers of pensive hope, the wreath of man 
 forgiven. 
 
 The low sweet tones of Nature's lyre 
 
 No more on listless ears expire, 
 Nor vainly smiles along the shady way 
 
 The primrose in her vernal nest, 
 
 Nor unlamented sink to rest 
 Sweet roses one by one, nor autumn leaves decay. 
 
 There's not a star the heaven can shew, 
 
 There's not a cottage hearth below, 
 But feeds with solace kind the willing soul — 
 
 Men love us, or they need our love ; 
 
 Freely they own, or heedless prove 
 The curse of lawless hearts, the joy of self-con- 
 trol. 1 
 
 Then rouse thee from desponding sleep, 
 
 Nor by the wayside lingering weep, 
 Nor fear to seek Him farther in the wild, 
 
 Whose Love can turn earth's worst and least 
 
 Into a conqueror's royal feast : 
 Thou wilt not be untrue, thou shalt not be be- 
 guiled. 
 1 Men either by free obedience own, without experi- 
 encing it, die curse of lawlessness, and, by experiencing 
 it, the joy of self-control ; or by disobedience they prove 
 in experience the curse of lawlessness, and by contrast 
 the joy of self-control. In either case they bring solace 
 to us as proving the truth and justice of God's rule. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 165 
 
 EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 
 
 It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the 
 word of the Lord, i Kings xiii. 26. 
 
 THE DISOBEDIENT PROPHET. April 13, 1826. 
 
 The death of the disobedient Prophet is a warning to 
 the Christian Pastor that he himself may prove a cast- 
 away. 
 
 DROPHET of God, arise and take 
 With thee the words of wrath divine, 
 The scourge of Heaven, to shake 
 O'er yon apostate shrine. 
 
 Where angels down the lucid stair 
 Came hovering to our sainted sires, 
 Now, in the twilight, glare 
 The heathen's wizard fires. 1 
 
 Go, with thy voice the altar rend, 
 
 Scatter the ashes, be the arm, 
 That idols would befriend, 
 Shrunk at thy withering charm. 
 
 Then turn thee, for thy time is short, 
 But trace not o'er the former way, 
 
 Lest idol pleasures court 
 
 Thy heedless soul astray. 
 
 Thou know'st how hard to hurry by, 
 Where on the lonely woodland road 
 Beneath the moonlight sky 
 The festal warblings flowed ; 
 
 1 i.e. at Bethel. Cf. Genesis xxviii. 12. 
 
1 66 EIGHTH SUNDAY 
 
 Where maidens to the Queen of Heaven 
 Wove the gay dance round oak or palm, 
 
 Or breathed their vows at even 
 
 In hymns as soft as balm. 
 
 Or thee perchance a darker spell 
 Enthralls : the smooth stones of the flood, 1 
 
 By mountain grot or fell, 
 
 Pollute with infant's blood ; 
 
 The giant altar on the rock, 
 The cavern whence the timbrel's call 
 Affrights the wandering flock : — 
 Thou long' st to search them all. 
 
 Trust not the dangerous path again — 
 
 forward step and lingering will ! 
 
 O loved and warned in vain ! 
 And wilt thou perish still ? 
 
 Thy message given, thine home in sight, 
 
 To the forbidden feast return ? 
 Yield to the false delight 
 Thy better soul could spurn ? 
 
 Alas, my brother ! round thy tomb 
 
 In sorrow kneeling, and in fear, 
 We read the Pastor's doom 
 Who speaks and will not hear. 
 
 The grey-haired saint may fail at last, 
 The surest guide a wanderer prove ; 
 
 Death only binds us fast 
 
 To the bright shore of love. 
 
 1 Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy 
 portion; they, they are thy lot. Isaiah lvii. 6. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 167 
 
 NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 
 
 And after the earthquake a fire ; but the Lord was 
 not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. 
 1 Kings xix. 12. 
 
 ELIJAH IN HOREB. August 13, 1822 
 
 In moments of despondency for the state of the Church 
 the story of Elijah on Horeb reminds the Christian 
 Pastor that God's chief method is to use soft, meek, 
 and tender ways to draw sinners to Him, that there are 
 others whom he himself knows not praying for God's 
 cause, and that his task is to work on in faith, not 
 hastily looking for results. 
 
 Miss Yonge rightly illustrates this poem by that on 
 "The Gathering of the Church," in the " Lyra Apos- 
 tolica " : (" Miscellaneous Poems," p. 92) : 
 
 " Israel yet hath thousands sealed 
 Who to Baal never kneeled : 
 Seize the banner, spread its fold ; 
 Seize it with no faltering hold ; 
 Spread its foldings high and fair, 
 Let all see the Cross is there. 
 
 " What if to the trumpet's sound 
 Voices few come answering round ? 
 Scarce a votary swell the burst 
 When the anthem peals at first ? 
 God hath sown and He will reap ; 
 Growth is slow when roots are deep." 
 
 I N troublous days of anguish and rebuke, 
 
 While sadly round them Israel's children 
 look, 
 And their eyes fail for waiting on their 
 Lord: 
 While underneath each awful arch of green, 
 On every mountain top, God's chosen scene 
 Of pure heart-worship, Baal is adored : 
 
168 NINTH SUNDAY 
 
 'Tis well true hearts should for a time retire 
 To holy ground, in quiet to aspire 
 
 Towards promised regions of serener grace ; 
 On Horeb, with Elijah, let us lie, 
 Where all around on mountain, sand, and sky, 
 
 God's chariot-wheels have left distinctest 
 trace : 
 
 There, if in jealousy and strong disdain 
 We to the sinner's God of sin complain, 
 
 Untimely seeking here the peace of 
 Heaven — 
 " It is enough, O Lord ! now let me die 
 E'en as my fathers did : for what am I 
 
 That I should stand, where they have 
 vainly striven ? " — 
 
 Perhaps our God may of our conscience ask, 
 " What doest thou here, frail wanderer from thy 
 task? 
 Where hast thou left those few sheep in 
 the wild?" i 
 Then should we plead our heart's consuming pain, 
 At sight of ruined altars, prophets slain, 
 
 And God's own ark with blood of souls 
 defiled, 
 
 He on the rock may bid us stand, and see 
 The outskirts of His march of mystery, 
 
 His endless warfare with man's wilful heart ; 
 First, His great Power He to the sinner shews, 
 Lo ! at His angry blast the rocks unclose, 
 
 And to their base the trembling mountains 
 part: 
 
 1 i Samuel xvii. 28. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 169 
 
 Yet the Lord is not here : 'tis not by Power 
 He will be known ; but darker tempests lower — 
 Still, sullen heavings vex the labouring 
 ground : 
 Perhaps His Presence through all depth and 
 
 height, 
 Best of all gems that deck His crown of light, 
 The haughty eye may dazzle and confound. 
 
 God is not in the earthquake ; but behold 
 From Sinai's caves are bursting, as of old, 
 
 The flames of His consuming jealous ire. 
 Woe to the sinner, should stern Justice prove 
 His chosen attribute ; — but He in love 
 
 Hastes to proclaim, " God is not in the fire." 
 
 The storm is o'er — and hark ! a still small voice 
 Steals on the ear, to say, Jehovah's choice 
 
 Is ever with the soft, meek, tender soul ; 
 By soft, meek, tender ways He loves to draw 
 The sinner, startled by His ways of awe : 
 
 Here is our Lord, and not where thunders 
 roll. 
 
 Back then, complainer ; loath thy life no more, 
 Nor deem thyself upon a desert shore, 
 
 Because the rocks the nearer prospect close 
 Yet in fallen Israel are there hearts and eyes 
 That day by day in prayer like thine arise : 
 
 Thou know'st them not, but their Creator 
 knows. 
 
 Go, to the world return, nor fear to cast 
 Thy bread upon the waters, sure at last 1 
 In joy to find it after many days. 
 1 Ecclesiastes xi. i. 
 
170 TENTH SUNDAY 
 
 The work be thine, the fruit thy children's part : 
 Choose to believe, not see : sight tempts the heart 
 From sober walking in true Gospel ways. 
 
 TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 
 
 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and 
 wept over it. S. Luke xix. 41. 
 
 CHRIST WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM. 18 19. 
 
 The Saviour's tears over Jerusalem are not drawn out 
 by the thought of the death of the crowds, nor by the 
 sorrows in store for Himself, but by the thought of 
 their sin and its consequences. His grief is that not 
 of a conqueror, nor of a martyr, but of a Saviour. 
 
 A sermon on this text preached in 181 8 ("Sermons 
 Occasional and Parochial," No. x.) is the best com- 
 mentary on this poem. 
 
 Miss Yonge ("Musings," p. 210) compares the 
 similar thought in the "Child's Christian Year "for 
 Palm Sunday : 
 
 "Why weeps He? For his people's sin, 
 And for thy follies all ; 
 For each bad dream thine heart within, 
 Those tears the bitterer fall." 
 
 \A/HY doth my Saviour weep 
 At sight of Sion's bowers ? 
 Shews l it not fair from yonder steep, 
 
 Her gorgeous crown of towers ? 
 Mark well His holy pains : 
 
 'Tis not in pride or scorn, 
 That Israel's King with sorrow stains 
 
 His own triumphal morn. 
 
 1 "Shews," i.e. looks, appears (a ntuter verb). Cf. 
 All Saints' Day, st. 2 (p. 268). The MSS. read 
 "looks." 
 
AFTER TRINITY 171 
 
 It is not that His soul 
 
 Is wandering sadly on, 
 In thought how soon at death's dark goal 
 
 Their course will all be run, 
 Who now are shouting round 
 
 Hosanna to their chief; 
 No thought like this in Him is found, 
 
 This were a Conqueror's grief. 1 
 
 Or doth He feel the Cross 
 
 Already in His heart, 
 The pain, the shame, the scorn, the loss ? 
 
 Feel even His God depart ? 
 No : though He knew full well 
 
 The grief that then shall be — 
 The grief that angels cannot tell — 
 
 Our God in agony. 
 
 It is not thus He mourns ; 
 
 Such might be martyr's tears, 
 When his last lingering look he turns 
 
 On human hopes and fears ; 
 But hero ne'er or saint 
 
 The secret load might know 
 With which His spirit waxeth faint ; 
 
 His is a Saviour's woe. 
 
 1 Cf. Herod, vii. 46. Xerxes, while watching the 
 Persian army at Abydo<, prepared for the expedition 
 against Greece, "congratulated himself on his good 
 fortune, but after a little while he wept," for "there 
 came upon me,'' he replied, when asked the reason, '•' a 
 sudden pity when I thought of the shortness of man's 
 life, and considered that of all this host, so numerous 
 as it is, not one will be alive when a hundred years are 
 gone by." 
 
172 ELEVENTH SUNDAY 
 
 " If thou hadst known, even thou, 
 
 At least in this thy day, 
 The message of thy peace ! but now 
 
 'Tis passed for aye away : 
 Now foes shall trench thee round, 
 
 And lay thee even with earth, 
 And dash thy children to the ground, 
 
 Thy glory and thy mirth. ,, 
 
 And doth the Saviour weep 
 
 Over his people's sin, 
 Because we will not let Him keep 
 
 The souls He died to win ? 
 Ye hearts, that love the Lord, 
 
 If at this sight ye burn, 
 See that in thought, in deed, in word, 1 
 
 Ye hate what made Him mourn. 
 
 ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, 
 and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and 
 men-servants, and maid-servants ? 2 Kings v. 26. 
 
 GEHAZI REPROVED. September 28, 1823.— K. 
 September 8. — R. 
 
 The signs of coming Judgment make us grateful for 
 all disappointments that wean us from the world. 
 
 It is interesting to read side by side with this poem 
 Keble's sermon on " The Endurance of Church Imper- 
 fections," written in 1 841, upon the text, Jer. xlv. 4, 5, 
 
 1 Cf. Ps. xcvii. 10. O ye that love the Lord, see that 
 ye hate the thing that is evil. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 173 
 
 quoted in the notes here. (" Sermons Occasional and 
 Academical," xii.) 
 
 ] S this a time to plant and build, 
 1 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, 1 
 Aerial hopes and pensive joys, 
 While souls are wandering far and wide 
 And curses swarm on every side ? 
 
 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 grey. 
 
 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 God is soon to fall 
 (Thou know'st it) on this earthly ball ; 
 Full many a soul, the price of blood, 
 Marked by the Almighty's hand for good, 
 1 " For soft endearments, pastoral joys, 
 
 For memory's shadows, fancy's toys." — MSS. 
 
i74 ELEVENTH SUNDAY 
 
 To utter death that hour shall sweep — x 
 A nd will the Saints in Heaven dare 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 deigned 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. 2 
 
 Snatched sudden from the avenging rod, 
 Safe in the bosom of thy God, 
 How wilt thou then look back, and smile 
 On thoughts that bitterest seemed erewhile, 
 And bless the pangs that made thee see 
 This was no world of rest for thee. 
 
 1 « Shall with the Apostate Church be swept 
 To utter darkness all unwept." — MSS. 
 2 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 1 give unto thee for a prey in all places 
 whither thou goest.— Jeremiah xlv. 4, 5. 
 
AFTER TRINITY ^y 5 
 
 TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 And looking up to Heaven, he sighed, and saith unto 
 him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. S. Mark vii. 34. 
 
 THE DEAF AND DUMB.— August 23, 1822.— K. 
 August 22. — R. 
 Christ even in doing deeds of blessing sighed as He 
 thought of man's rebel will and of those who would 
 refuse His blessings. He only who knew God's face 
 could look upon the face of sin ; what will be the lot 
 of those who refuse to see God and have to face only 
 the consequences of sin ? May Christ, who has already 
 touched our ears and opened our mouths, keep us from 
 everything that would draw us back to the world. 
 
 HTHE Son of God in doing good 
 
 Was fain to look to Heaven and sigh : 
 And shall the heirs of sinful blood 
 
 Seek joy unmixed 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 looked to Heaven, and sadly sighed — 
 
 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 groaned 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 withered heap, 
 
176 TWELFTH SUNDAY 
 
 Where souls and bodies, hopes and joys, 
 All that earth owns or sin destroys, 
 Under the spurning hoof are cast, 
 Or tossing in the autumnal blast ? " 
 
 The deaf may hear the Saviour's voice, 
 
 The fettered 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, 
 Because none ever saw so clear 
 
 The shore beyond of endless bliss : 
 The giddy waves so restless hurled, 
 The vexed pulse of this feverish world, 
 He views and counts with steady sight, 
 Used to behold the Infinite. 
 
 But that in such communion high 
 He hath a fount of strength within, 
 
 Sure His meek heart would break and die, 
 O'erburthened by His brethren's sin ; 
 
 Weak eyes on darkness dare not gaze, 
 
 It dazzles like the noon-day blaze ; 
 
 But He who sees God's face may brook 
 
 On the true face of Sin to look. 
 
 What then shall wretched sinners do, 
 When in their last, their hopeless day, 
 
 Sin, as it is, shall meet their view, 
 God turn His face for aye away ? 
 
AFTER TRINITY 177 
 
 Lord, by Thy sad and earnest eye, 
 When Thou didst look to Heaven and sigh ; 
 Thy voice, that with a word could chase 
 The dumb, deaf spirit from his place ; 
 
 As Thou hast touched our ears, and taught 
 Our tongues to speak Thy praises plain, 
 Quell Thou each thankless, godless thought 
 
 That would make fast our bonds again. 
 From worldly strife, from mirth unblest, 
 Drowning Thy music in the breast, 
 From foul reproach, from thrilling fears, 
 Preserve, good Lord, Thy servants' ears. 
 
 From idle words, that restless throng 
 
 And haunt our hearts when we would pray, 
 From pride's false chime, and jarring wrong, 
 
 Seal Thou my lips and guard the way : 
 For Thou hast sworn, that every ear, 
 Willing or loth, Thy trump shall hear, 
 And every tongue unchained be 
 To own no hope, no God, but Thee. 
 
 THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 And he turned him unto his disciples, and said 
 privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things 
 that ye see : for I tell you, that many prophets and 
 kings have desired to see those things which ye see, 
 and have not seen them ; and to hear those things 
 which ye hear, and have not heard them. S. Luke x. 
 23, 24. 
 
 MOSES ON THE MOUNT. Sept. i6, 1821. 
 The greatness of the Christian's privilege and there- 
 fore of his peril. 
 
 M 
 
o 
 
 178 THIRTEENTH SUNDAY 
 
 Nothing but God can satisfy the soul of man : this 
 truth is witnessed to by Moses on the Mount ; by the 
 restlessness of those who try to be satisfied with the 
 things of earth ; by the dissatisfied longings of the 
 kings and prophets of the Old Testament. But to us 
 it is given to see God in the face of Jesus Christ : we 
 have this privilege ; how terrible must be our fall, if 
 we abuse it ! 
 
 N Sinai's top, in prayer and trance, 
 Full forty nights and forty days 
 The Prophet watched for one dear glance 
 Of Thee and of Thy ways : 
 
 Fasting he watched and all alone, 
 Wrapt in a still, dark, solid cloud, 
 
 The curtain of the Holy One 
 Drawn round him like a shroud : 
 
 So, separate from the world, his breast 
 Might duly take and strongly keep 
 
 The print of Heaven, to be expressed 
 Ere long on Sion's steep. 1 
 
 There, one by one, his spirit saw 
 
 Of things divine the shadows bright, 
 The pageant of God's perfect law ; 
 
 Yet felt not full delight. 
 Through gold and gems, a dazzling maze, 
 
 From veil to veil the vision led, 
 And ended, where unearthly rays 
 
 From o'er the ark were shed. 
 
 Yet not that gorgeous place, nor aught 
 
 Of human or angelic frame, 
 Could half appease his craving thought ; 
 
 The void was still the same. 
 1 Hebrews viii. 5. See that thou make all things 
 according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 179 
 
 " Show me Thy glory, gracious Lord ! 
 
 'Tis Thee," he cries, " not Thine, I seek." 1 
 Nay, start not at so bold a word 
 
 From man, frail worm and weak : 
 
 The spark of his first deathless fire 
 Yet buoys him up, and high above 
 
 The holiest creature, dares aspire 
 To the Creator's love. 2 
 
 The eye in smiles may wander round, 
 Caught by earth's shadows as they fleet ; 
 
 But for the soul no help is found, 
 Save Him who made it, meet. 
 
 Spite of yourselves, ye witness this, 3 
 Who blindly self or sense adore ; 
 
 Else wherefore leaving your own bliss 
 Still restless ask ye more ? 
 
 This witness bore the saints of old 
 When highest rapt and favoured most, 
 
 Still seeking precious things untold, 
 Not in fruition lost. 
 
 Canaan was theirs, and in it all 
 
 The proudest hope of kings dare claim : 
 
 Sion was theirs ; and at their call 
 Fire from Jehovah came. 4 
 
 1 Exodus xxxiii. 18. 
 
 2 Cf. Gen. i. 26. Let us make man in our image, 
 after our likeness. 
 
 3 Pense'es de Pascal 1. viii.— J. K. (This should 
 probably be 1. vii. Misere de l'homme, Art xxi. in 
 modern editions. Cf. S. Aug. " Conf." i. 1., Fecisti 
 nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum donee requiescat 
 in te.) 
 
 4 1 Kings xviii. 38. 2 Kings i. 10. 
 
180 THIRTEENTH SUNDAY 
 
 Yet monarchs walked as pilgrims still 
 
 In their own land, earth's pride and grace ; 
 
 And seers would mourn on Sion's hill 
 Their Lord's averted face. 
 
 Vainly they tried the deeps to sound 
 E'en of their own prophetic thought, 
 
 When of Christ crucified and crowned 
 His Spirit in them taught : l 
 
 But He their aching gaze repressed 
 Which sought behind the veil to see, 
 
 For not without us fully blest 2 
 Or perfect might they be. 
 
 The rays of the Almighty's face 
 No sinner's eye might then receive ; 
 
 Only the meekest man found grace 8 
 To see His skirts and live. 
 
 But we as in a glass espy 
 
 The glory of His countenance, 4 
 
 Not in a whirlwind hurrying by 
 The too presumptuous glance, 
 
 But with mild radiance every hour, 
 From our dear Saviour's face benign 
 
 Bent on us with transforming power, 
 Till we, too, faintly shine. 
 
 Sprinkled with His atoning blood 
 Safely before our God we stand, 
 
 As on the rock the Prophet stood, 
 Beneath His shadowing hand. — 
 
 1 i S. Peter i. n. 
 
 2 That they without us should not be made perfect. 
 Hebrews xi. 40. 
 
 3 Exodus xxxiii. 20-23. 4 2 Cor. iii. 18. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 181 
 
 Bless'd eyes, which see the things we see ! 
 
 And yet this tree of life hath proved 
 To many a soul a poison tree, 
 
 Beheld, and not beloved. 
 
 So like an angel's is our bliss 
 
 (Oh ! thought to comfort and appal ! ) 
 
 It needs must bring, if used amiss, 
 An angel's hopeless fall. 
 
 FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten 
 
 cleansed ? but where are the nine ? There are not 
 
 found that returned to give glory to God, save this 
 stranger. S. Luke xvii. 17, 18. 
 
 THE TEN LEPERS. Circ. 1821. 
 The sadness of man's ingratitude — who often turns to 
 God only when he has exhausted the blessings of earth, 
 and then, when God has answered prayer, forgets to 
 pay his vows — is contrasted with the blessing that 
 waits on thankfulness. 
 
 "PEN cleansed, and only one remain ! 
 
 Who would have thought our nature's stain 
 Was dyed so foul, so deep in grain ? 
 
 Even He who reads the heart, — 
 Knows what He gave and what we lost, 
 Sin's forfeit, and redemption's cost, — 
 By a short pang * of wonder crossed 
 
 Seems at the sight to start : 
 
 Yet 'twas not wonder, but His love 
 Our wavering spirits would reprove, 
 That heavenward seem so free to move 
 When earth can yield no more : 
 1 " Pang,"—" flush," MSS. 
 
1 82 FOURTEENTH SUNDAY 
 
 Then from afar on God we cry, 
 But should the mist of woe roll by, 
 Not showers across an April sky 
 Drift, when the storm is o'er, 
 
 Faster than those false drops and few 
 Fleet from the heart, a worthless dew. 
 What sadder scene can angels view 
 
 Than self-deceiving tears, 
 Poured idly over some dark page 
 Of earlier life, though pride or rage 
 The record of to-day engage, 
 
 A woe for future years ? * 
 
 Spirits, that round the sick man's bed 
 Watched, noting down each prayer he made, 
 Were your unerring roll 2 displayed, 
 His pride of health to abase ; 
 
 1 This stanza is a condensation of two stanzas in the 
 MSS. : 
 
 " So fast as from the mourner's heart 
 Those few false drops unblest depart ; 
 For tears from loveless eyes that start 
 
 Never drew blessing down : 
 They who on earth have lingered long 
 And dived into their own hearts' wrong 
 The fearful import of the song 
 
 Will self-accusing own. 
 
 "But youth in all her vernal hues, 
 Fresh-sprinkled as with Eden's dews 
 "Will not be bade go darkly muse 
 
 Nor fear herself so sore. 
 So o'er Elisha's fateful glass 
 Young Hazael saw a murderer pass, 
 Nor would believe the averted face 
 
 His own dark features wore." 
 
 2 "Roll," "scroll, "MSS. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 183 
 
 Or, when soft showers in season fall 
 Answering a famished nation's call, 1 
 Should unseen ringers on the wall 
 Our vows forgotten trace ; 
 
 How should we gaze in trance of fear ! 
 Yet shines the light as thrilling clear 
 From Heaven upon that scroll severe, 
 
 " Ten cleansed and one remain ! " 
 Nor surer would the blessing prove 
 Of humbled hearts, that own Thy love, 
 Should choral welcome from above 
 
 Visit our senses plain : 
 
 Than by Thy placid voice and brow, 
 With healing first, with comfort now, 
 Turned upon him, who hastes to bow 
 
 Before Thee, heart and knee ; 
 " Oh ! thou, who only wouldst be blest, 
 On thee alone My blessing rest ! 
 Rise, go thy way in peace, possessed 
 
 " For evermore of Me." 
 
 FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. 
 
 S. Matthew vi. 28. 
 THE FLOWERS OF THE FIELD. Feb. 3 , 1826. 
 
 The soothing power that flowers wield over men 
 from childhood to old age and the secret of their calm 
 loveliness lies in their simple trust in the Father's care. 
 
 CWEET nurslings of the vernal skies, 
 
 Bathed in soft airs and fed with dew, 
 What more than magic in you lies, 
 
 To fill the heart's fond view ? 
 1 Cf. J. K. " Sermons, Occasional and Parochial," p. 105. 
 
1 84 FIFTEENTH SUNDAY 
 
 In childhood's sports, companions gay, 
 In sorrow, on life's downward way, 
 How soothing ! — in our last decay 
 Memorials prompt and true. 
 
 Relics ye are of Eden's bowers, 
 As pure, as fragrant, and as fair, 
 
 As when ye crowned the sunshine hours 
 Of happy wanderers there. 
 
 Fallen all beside — the world of life, 
 
 How is it stained with fear and strife ! 
 
 In Reason's world what storms are rife, 
 What passions range and glare ! 
 
 But cheerful and unchanged the while 
 Your first and perfect form ye show, 
 
 The same that won Eve's matron smile 
 In the world's opening glow. 
 
 The stars of heaven a course are taught 
 
 Too high above our human thought ; 
 
 Ye may be found if ye are sought, 
 And as we gaze, we know. 
 
 Ye dwell beside our paths and homes, 
 
 Our paths of sin, our homes of sorrow, 
 And guilty man, where'er he roams, 
 Your innocent mirth may borrow. 
 The birds of air before us fleet, 
 They cannot brook our shame to meet, 
 But we may taste your solace sweet 
 And come again to-morrow. 
 
 Ye fearless in your nests abide — 
 
 Nor may we scorn, too proudly wise, 
 
 Your silent lessons, undescried 
 By all but lowly eyes : 
 
AFTER TRINITY 185 
 
 For ye could draw the admiring gaze 
 Of Him who worlds and hearts surveys : 
 Your order wild, your fragrant maze, 
 He taught us how to prize. 
 
 Ye felt your Maker's smile that hour, 
 
 As when He paused and owned you good ; 
 
 His blessing on earth's primal bower, 
 Ye felt it all renewed. 
 
 What care ye now, if winter's storm 
 
 Sweep ruthless o'er each silken form? 
 
 Christ's blessing at your heart is warm, 
 Ye fear no vexing mood. 
 
 Alas ! of thousand bosoms kind, 
 That daily court you and caress, 1 
 
 How few the happy secret find 
 Of your calm loveliness ; 
 
 " Live for to-day ! to-morrow's light 
 
 To-morrow's cares shall bring to sight ; 
 
 Go sleep like closing flowers at night, 
 And Heaven thy morn will bless." 
 
 SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, 
 which is your glory. Ephesians iii. 13. 
 
 HOPE IS BETTER THAN EASE. 1 824. 
 
 This poem was written originally for Tuesday before 
 Easter, with the text, Isa. 1. 5. The Lord God hath 
 opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither 
 turned away back. 
 
 The Cross is the best cure for sorrow, as it teaches 
 Resignation and makes us ashamed of the love of praise 
 or comfort. 
 
 1 Cf. Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel," — Intro. 
 No longer courted and caressed. 
 
1 86 SIXTEENTH SUNDAY 
 
 For Commentary on the Poem cf. " Sermons, Occa- 
 sional and Parochial," No. xvii., preached in 1825. 
 " The Great Lord of Heaven and earth, for whom and 
 by whom are all things, was content, when He became 
 man, to give up His own will, and to do and suffer the 
 Father's will, in all those respects wherein men in 
 general think it most natural and reasonable for them 
 to expect to have their own way. Men desire to grow 
 rich : Jesus Christ, on purpose, continued all His life 
 in poverty. Men desire to be honoured and esteemed : 
 Jesus Christ willingly came to be despised and rejected 
 of men. Men desire to pass their time in quiet and 
 ease, if not in positive enjoyment : Jesus Christ came 
 to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." 
 
 \ A /ISH not, dear friends, my pain away — 
 
 Wish me a wise and thankful heart, 
 With God, in all my griefs, to stay, 
 Nor from His loved correction start. 
 
 The dearest offering He can crave 
 His portion in our souls to prove, 
 
 What is it to the gift He gave, 
 The only Son of His dear love ? 
 
 But we, like vexed unquiet sprights, 
 Will still be hovering o'er the tomb, 
 
 Where buried lie our vain delights, 
 Nor sweetly take a sinner's doom. 
 
 In life's long sickness evermore 
 
 Our thoughts are tossing to and fro : 
 
 We change our posture o'er and o'er, 
 But cannot rest, nor cheat our woe. 1 
 
 1 Professor Palgrave ("Treasury of Sacred Song ") 
 compares with this verse Dante's description of Florence 
 in her sick state: "Thou wilt behold thyself in sem- 
 blance of that sick one who cannot find repose upon 
 the bed, but with turning over keeps off her pain." 
 "Purg." vi. 149. Comp. also " Rokeby," Canto i. 2. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 187 
 
 Were it not better to lie still, 
 
 Let Him strike home and bless the rod, 
 Never so safe as when our will 
 
 Yields undiscerned by all but God ? 
 
 Thy precious things, whate'er they be 
 
 That haunt and vex thee, heart and brain, 
 
 Look to the Cross, and thou shalt see 
 How thou mayst turn them all to gain. 
 
 Lovest thou praise ? the Cross is shame : 
 Or ease ? the Cross is bitter grief: 
 
 More pangs than tongue or heart can frame 
 Were suffered there without relief. 
 
 We of that Altar would partake, 
 
 But cannot quit the cost — no throne 
 
 Is ours, to leave for Thy dear sake — 
 We cannot do as Thou hast done. 
 
 We cannot part with Heaven for Thee — 
 Yet guide us in Thy track of love : 
 
 Let us gaze on where light should be, 
 Though not a beam the clouds remove. 
 
 So wanderers ever fond and true 
 
 Look homeward through the evening sky, 
 Without a streak of heaven's soft blue 
 
 To aid affection's dreaming eye. 
 
 The wanderer seeks his native bower, 
 And we will look and long for Thee, 
 
 And thank Thee for each trying hour, 
 Wishing, not struggling, to be free. 
 
1 88 SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY 
 
 SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his 
 idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of 
 his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; 
 I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to 
 the multitude of his idols. Ezekiel xiv. 4. 
 
 EZEKIEL'S VISION IN THE TEMPLE. 
 Oct. 11, 1822. To the Church of England.— MSS. 
 
 The vision of Ezekiel, seeing the Temple at Jeru- 
 salem given over to idolatrous worship, is a warning 
 to the Christian Church and to each of us lest in our 
 hearts — the Temples of the Holy Ghost — we should 
 really worship pleasure or praise or some lost earthly 
 love ; if so, may God not answer us according to our 
 idols. Rather may He help us to a single-hearted 
 worship of Himself. 
 
 CTATELY thy walls, and holy are the 
 prayers 
 
 Which day and night before thine altars rise ; 
 Not statelier, towering o'er her marble stairs, 
 
 Flashed Sion's gilded dome to summer skies, 
 Not holier, while around him angels bowed, 
 From Aaron's censer streamed the spicy cloud 
 
 Before the mercy-seat. O Mother dear, 
 
 Wilt thou forgive thy son one boding sigh ? 
 Forgive, if round thy towers he walk in fear, 
 And tell thy jewels o'er with jealous eye ? 1 
 Mindful of that sad vision, which in thought 
 From Chebar's plains the captive prophet brought 
 
 To see lost Sion's shame. 2 ' Twas morning prime, 
 And like a Queen new seated on her throne, 
 
 God's crowned mountain, as in happier time, 
 Seemed to rejoice in sunshine all her own : 
 1 Cf. Ps. xlviii. 1 1. 2 Ezekiel viii. 3. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 189 
 
 !o bright, while all in shade around her lay, 
 Ter northern pinnacles had caught the emerging 
 ray. 
 
 The dazzling lines of her majestic roof 
 
 Crossed with as free a span the vault of heaven, 
 
 As when twelve tribes knelt silently aloof 
 
 Ere God His answer to their king had given, 1 
 
 Ere yet upon the new-built altar fell 
 
 The glory of the Lord, the Lord of Israel. 
 
 All seems the same : but enter in and see 
 
 What idol shapes are on the wall portrayed : 2 
 
 And watch their shameless and unholy glee, 
 Who worship there in Aaron's robes arrayed : 
 
 Hear Judah's maids the dirge to Thammuz pour, 3 
 
 And mark her chiefs yon orient sun adore. 4 
 
 Yet turn thee, son of man — for worse than these 
 Thou must behold : thy loathing were but lost 
 
 On dead men's crimes and Jews' idolatries ; 
 Come,learn to tell aright thine own sins' cost, — 5 
 
 And sure their sin as far from equals thine, 
 
 As earthly hopes abused are less than hopes divine. 
 
 What if within His world, His Church, our Lord 
 
 Have entered thee, 6 as in some temple gate, 
 
 Where, looking round, each glance might thee 
 
 afford 
 
 Some glorious earnest of thine high estate, 
 
 And thou, false heart and frail, hast turned from 
 
 all 
 To worship pleasure's shadow on the wall ? 
 1 1 Kings viii. 5. 2 Ezekiel viii. 10. 
 
 8 Ezekiel viii. 14. 4 Ezekiel viii. 16. 
 
 6 "Sins'": perhaps " sin's." 
 6 i.e. Have given thee entrance. 
 
1 9 o SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY 
 
 If, when the Lord of Glory was in sight, 
 Thou turn thy back upon that fountain clear, 
 
 To bow before the " little drop of light," * 
 Which dim-eyed men call praise and glory here; 
 
 What dost thou but adore the sun, and scorn 
 
 Him at whose only word both sun and stars were 
 born ? 
 
 If, while around thee gales from Eden breathe, 
 Thou hide thine eyes, to make thy peevish moan 
 
 Over some broken reed of earth beneath, 
 Some darling of blind fancy dead and gone, 
 
 As wisely mightst thou in Jehovah's fane 
 
 Offer thy love and tears to Thammuz slain. 
 
 Turn thee from these, or dare not to inquire 
 
 Of Him whose name is Jealous, lest in wrath 
 He hear and answer thine unblest desire : 
 
 Far better we should cross his lightning's path 
 
 1 " Little drop of Light." Probably from E. Waller's 
 
 Poem, " An Apology for having Loved before." There, 
 
 man's admiration for the stars is contrasted with that for 
 
 the sun. 
 
 " To man that was in the evening made 
 Stars gave the first delight, 
 Admiring, in the gloomy shade, 
 
 Those little drops of light ; 
 Then at Aurora, whose fair hand 
 Removed them from the skies, 
 He gazing towards the East did stand, 
 She entertained his eyes. 
 " But when the bright sun did appear, 
 All those he 'gan despise ; 
 His wonder was determined there 
 
 And could no higher rise. 
 He neither might nor wished to know 
 
 A more refulgent light ; 
 For that (as mine your beauties now) 
 Employed his utmost sight." 
 
AFTER TRINITY 191 
 
 Than be according to our idols heard, 
 
 And God should take us at our own vain word. 
 
 Thou who hast deigned the Christian's heart to 
 call 
 Thy Church and Shrine ; whene'er our rebel 
 will 
 Would in that chosen home of Thine instal 
 
 Belial or Mammon, grant us not the ill 
 We blindly ask ; in very love refuse 
 Whate'er Thou knowest our weakness would 
 abuse. 
 
 Or rather help us, Lord, to choose the good, 
 To pray for nought, to seek to none, but Thee, 
 
 Nor by " our daily bread " mean common food, 
 Nor say, " From this world's evil set us free " : 
 
 Teach us to love, with Christ, our sole true bliss, 
 
 Else, though in Christ's own words, we surely 
 pray amiss. 
 
 EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, 
 and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as 
 I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the 
 land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord 
 God. Ezekiel xx. 35, 36. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. 
 October 6, 1823. 
 
 The Christian Church is like the children of Israel in 
 the wilderness, compelled to journey wearily through 
 the desert of the world because it has not pressed on 
 into the Holy Land: its privileges are greater, its 
 scope catholic ; yet few are full of love : and that, 
 
192 EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY 
 
 though the greatness of the privileges makes the peril 
 greater. Do Thou, then, O Lord, make our hearts com- 
 pletely and evermore Thine own. 
 
 Compare for the whole the similar analogy in i Cor. 
 x. 1-13. The thought that greater privilege implies 
 greater peril is very common in Mr Keble's writing. 
 It will be found in the famous sermon on National 
 Apostasy, from which Newman dated the rise of the 
 Tractarian Movement (" Sermons, Occasional and 
 Academical," p. 134), and in the "Sermons on the 
 Baptismal Office," p. 136. 
 
 IT is so! ope thine eyes, and see — 
 
 What view'st thou all around ? 
 A desert, where iniquity 
 
 And knowledge both abound. 
 
 In the waste howling wilderness 
 The Church is wandering still, 1 
 
 Because we would not onward press 
 When close to Zion's hill. 2 
 
 Back to the world we faithless turned, 
 
 And far along the wild, 
 With labour lost and sorrow earned, 
 
 Our steps have been beguiled. 
 
 Yet full before us, all the while, 
 
 The shadowy pillar stays, 
 The living waters brightly smile, 
 
 The eternal turrets blaze. 
 
 Yet Heaven is raining angels' bread 
 
 To be our daily food, 
 And fresh, as when it first was shed, 
 
 Springs forth the Saviour's blood. 
 
 1 Revelation xii. 14. 2 Cf. Numbers xiv. 34. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 193 
 
 From every region, race, and speech, 
 
 Believing myriads throng, 
 Till, far as sin and sorrow reach, 
 
 Thy grace is spread along ; 
 
 Till sweetest nature, brightest art, 
 
 Their votive incense bring, 
 And every voice and every heart 
 
 Own Thee their God and King. 
 
 All own ; but few, alas ! will love ; 
 
 Too like the recreant band 
 That with Thy patient Spirit strove 
 
 Upon the Red Sea strand. 
 
 O Father of long-suffering grace, 
 Thou who hast sworn to stay 
 
 Pleading with sinners face to face 
 Through all their devious way, 
 
 How shall we speak to Thee, O Lord, 
 
 Or how in silence lie ? 
 Look on us, and we are abhorred, 
 
 Turn from us, and we die. 
 
 Thy guardian fire, Thy guiding cloud, 
 
 Still let them gild our wall, 
 Nor be our foes and Thine allowed 
 
 To see us faint and fall. 
 
 Too oft, within this camp of Thine, 
 
 Rebellious murmurs rise ; 
 Sin cannot bear to see Thee shine 
 
 So awful to her eyes. 
 M 
 
1 94 EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY 
 
 Fain would our lawless hearts escape, « 
 
 And with the heathen be, 
 To worship every monstrous shape 
 
 In fancied darkness free. 1 
 
 Vain thought, that shall not be at all ! 2 
 
 Refuse we or obey, 
 Our ears have heard the Almighty's call, 
 
 We cannot be as they. 
 
 We cannot hope the heathen's doom 
 
 To whom God's Son is given, 
 Whose eyes have seen beyond the tomb, 
 
 Who have the key of Heaven. 
 
 Weak tremblers on the edge of woe, 
 
 Yet shrinking from true bliss, 
 Our rest must be "no rest below," 
 
 And let our prayer be this : 
 
 " Lord, wave again Thy chastening rod, 
 
 Till every idol throne 
 Crumble to dust, and Thou, O God, 
 
 Reign in our hearts alone. 
 
 " Bring all our wandering fancies home, 
 
 For thou hast every spell, 
 And 'mid the heathen where they roam, 
 
 Thou knowest, Lord, too well. 
 
 1 Cf. Ezekiel viii. 12. Son of man, hast thou seen 
 what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, 
 every man in the chambers of his imagery ? 
 
 2 Cf. Ezekiel xx. 32. That which cometh into your 
 mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the 
 heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood 
 and stone. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 195 
 
 " Thou knowest our service sad and hard, 
 Thou knowest us fond and frail ; — 
 
 Win us to be beloved and spared 
 When all the world shall fail. 
 
 "So when at last our weary days 
 
 Are well-nigh wasted here, 
 And we can trace Thy wondrous ways 
 
 In distance calm and clear. 
 
 " When in Thy love and Israel's sin 
 
 We read our story true, 
 We may not, all too late, begin 
 
 To wish our hopes were new : 
 
 " Long loved, long tried, long spared as they, 
 
 Unlike in this alone, 
 That, by Thy grace, our hearts shall stay 
 
 For evermore Thine own." 
 
 NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and 
 rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his coun- 
 sellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the 
 midst of the fire ? They answered and said unto the 
 king, True, O King. He answered and said, Lo, I see 
 four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and 
 they have no hurt ; and the form of the fourth is like 
 the Son of God. Daniel iii. 24, 25. 
 
 SHADRACH, MESHACH, AND ABEDNEGO. 
 1819 or 1820. 
 
 The Saviour, who was present to save Shadrach, 
 Meshach, and Abednego in the fire, is still present, 
 
196 NINETEENTH SUNDAY 
 
 supporting the widow in her first hour of widowhood, 
 the father watching by the son whose reason has gone, 
 and the Pastor in his thankless toil. 
 
 WHEN Persecution's torrent blaze 
 Wraps the unshrinking Martyr's head ; 
 When fade all earthly flowers and bays, 
 
 When summer friends are gone and fled, 
 Is he alone in that dark hour, 
 Who owns the Lord of love and power ? 
 
 Or waves there not around his brow 
 A wand no human arm may wield, 
 
 Fraught with a spell no angels know, 
 His steps to guide, his soul to shield ? 
 
 Thou, Saviour, art his Charmed Bower, 
 
 His Magic Ring, his Rock, his Tower. 
 
 And when the wicked ones behold 
 Thy favourites walking in Thy light, 
 
 Just as, in fancied triumph bold, 
 
 They deemed them lost in deadly night, 
 
 Amazed they cry, " What spell is this, 
 
 " Which turns their sufferings all to bliss ? 
 
 " How are they free whom we had bound ? 
 
 Upright, whom in the gulf we cast ? 
 What wondrous helper have they found 
 
 To screen them from the scorching blast ? 
 Three were they — who hath made them four ? 
 And sure a form divine He wore. 
 
 " Even like the Son of God." So cried 
 The Tyrant, when in one fierce flame 
 
 The Martyrs lived, the murderers died : 
 Yet knew he not what angel came 
 
AFTER TRINITY 197 
 
 To make the rushing fire-flood seem 
 Like summer breeze by woodland stream. 1 
 
 He knew not, but there are who know : 
 The Matron, who alone hath stood, 2 
 
 When not a prop seemed left below, 
 The first lorn hour of widowhood, 
 
 Yet cheered and cheering all the while, 
 
 With sad but unaffected smile ; — 
 
 The Father, who his vigil keeps 3 
 
 By the sad couch whence hope hath flown, 
 Watching the eye where reason sleeps, 
 
 Yet in his heart can mercy own, 
 Still sweetly yielding to the rod, 
 Still loving man, still thanking God ; — 
 
 The Christian Pastor, bowed to earth 
 With thankless toil, and vile esteemed, 
 
 Still travailing in second birth 
 
 Of souls that will not be redeemed, 
 
 Yet steadfast set to do his part, 
 
 And fearing most his own vain heart ; — 
 
 These know : on these look long and well, 
 Cleansing thy sight by prayer and faith, 
 
 And thou shalt know what secret spell 
 Preserves them in their living death : 
 
 Through sevenfold flames thine eye shall see 
 
 The Saviour walking with His faithful Three. 
 
 1 " As it had been a moist whistling wind." " Song 
 of the Three Children," ver. 27. 
 
 2 "The Christian Matron who hath stood." — MSS. 
 
 3 "The Christian father keeping watch 
 
 By the sad couch whence hope hath flown, 
 Striving in vain one gleam to catch 
 Of reason in his maniac son." — MSS. 
 
198 TWENTIETH SUNDAY 
 
 TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and 
 ye strong foundations of the earth. Micah vi. 2. 
 
 MOUNTAIN SCENERY. October 7, 1823. 
 
 God's voice is heard most clearly in the loneliness of 
 some mountain scene, and it pleads with us by the 
 memory of all that He has done for us to take up our 
 Cross and to trust that He is working for our good. 
 
 Two passages of Wordsworth may have been in 
 Keble's mind. 
 
 11 Two voices are there : one is of the sea, 
 One of the mountain, each a mighty voice." 
 
 Poems dedicated to National Independence, xii. 
 
 " Early had he learned 
 To reverence the volume that displays 
 The mystery, the life that cannot die ; 
 Bat in the mountains did he feel his faith." 
 The Excursion, Book I. 
 
 The circumstances by which this poem was probably 
 suggested are explained in the following extract from 
 the Autobiography of Isaac Williams: "This summer, 
 1822, John Keble came to see his old friend Mr Richards 
 at Aberystwith : I was introduced to him and rode with 
 him on his returning home the chief part of the way to 
 the Devil's Bridge, amidst that scenery which sug- 
 gested, I believe, at that time, the hymn for the 
 Twentieth Sunday after Trinity." (p. 12.) 
 
 \ X /HERE is thy favoured haunt, eternal Voice, 
 * " The region of Thy choice, 
 Where, undisturbed by sin and earth, the soul 
 
 Owns Thy entire control ? — 
 
 'Tis on the mountain's summit dark and high, 
 
 When storms are hurrying by: 
 
AFTER TRINITY 199 
 
 'Tis 'mid the strong foundations of the earth, 
 Where torrents have their birth. 
 
 No sounds of worldly toil ascending there 
 
 Mar the full burst of prayer ; 
 Lone Nature feels that she may freely breathe, 
 
 And round us and beneath 
 Are heard her sacred tones : the fitful sweep 
 
 Of winds across the steep, 
 Through withered bents 1 — romantic note and 
 clear, 
 
 Meet for a hermit's ear, — 
 
 The wheeling kite's wild solitary cry, 
 
 And, scarcely heard so high, 
 The dashing waters when the air is still 
 
 From many a torrent rill 
 That winds unseen beneath the shaggy fell, 
 
 Tracked by the blue mist well : 
 Such sounds as make deep silence in the heart 
 
 For Thought to do her part. 
 
 'Tis then we hear the voice of God within, 
 
 Pleading with care and sin : 
 " Child of My love ! how have I wearied thee ? 
 
 Why wilt thou err from Me ? 
 Have I not Drought thee from the house of slaves, 
 
 Parted the drowning waves, 
 And set My saints before thee in the way, 
 
 Lest thou should faint or stray ? 
 
 1 "Bents," cf. "What a delightful feeling it is to sit 
 under the shelter of one of the rocks here (Malvern) 
 and hear the wind sweeping with that peculiar kind of 
 strong moaning sigh which it practises on the bent 
 grass." J. K. to G. J. Cornish, on July 8, 1822. 
 Quoted in Coleridge's "Memoir," p. 10 1. 
 
200 TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY 
 
 "What ! was the promise made to thee alone ? 
 
 Art thou the excepted one ? 
 An heir of glory without grief or pain ? 
 
 O vision false and vain ! 
 There lies thy cross ; beneath it meekly bow ; 
 
 It fits thy stature now : 
 Who scornful pass it with averted eye, 
 
 'Twill crush them by and bye. 
 
 " Raise thy repining eyes, and take true measure 
 
 Of thine eternal treasure ; 
 The Father of thy Lord can grudge thee nought, 
 
 The world for thee was bought, 
 And as this landscape broad — earth, sea, and 
 sky,— 
 
 All centres in thine eye, 
 So all God does, if rightly understood, 
 
 Shall work thy final good." 1 
 
 TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the 
 end it shall speak, and not lie; though it tarry, wait 
 for it ; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 
 
 Habakkuk ii. 3. 
 
 THE RED-BREAST IN SEPTEMBER. 
 September 25, 1823. 
 
 The red-breast warbling in autumn teaches the 
 lesson of resignation, both to the individual Christian 
 in hours of sorrow, and to the Churchman in moments 
 of anxiety about the Church. 
 
 Cf. J. K. to J. T. Coleridge. "You know the 
 
 1 Cf. Rom. viii. 28, 32. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 201 
 
 'Christian Year' (as far as I remember it) everywhere 
 supposes the Church to be in a state of decay." 
 "Memoir," p. 1 6 1. 
 
 "THE morning mist is cleared away, 
 * Yet still the face of Heaven is grey, 
 Nor yet the autumnal breeze has stirred the grove, 
 Faded yet full, a paler green * 
 Skirts soberly the tranquil scene, 
 The red-breast warbles round this leafy cove. 
 
 Sweet messenger of " calm decay," 2 
 
 Saluting sorrow as you may, 
 As one still bent to find or make the best, 
 
 In thee, and in this quiet mead, 
 
 The lesson of sweet peace I read, 
 Rather in all to be resigned than blest. 
 
 1 "A paler green." " September green." — MSS. 
 
 2 The expression, " calm decay," is borrowed from 
 a friend : by whose kind permission the following 
 stanzas are here inserted: 
 
 TO THE RED-BREAST 
 Unheard in summer's flaring ray, 
 
 Pour forth thy notes, sweet singer, 
 Wooing the stillness of the autumn day : 
 Bid it a moment linger, 
 Nor fly 
 Too soon from winter's scowling eye. 
 
 The blackbird's song at eventide, 
 
 And hers, who gay ascends, 
 Filling the heavens far and wide, 
 
 Are sweet. But none so blends, 
 As thine, 
 With calm decay and peace divine. — J. K 
 
 These stanzas will be found in " Come to the Woods " 
 (p. 2i), by G. J. Cornish. The phrase "calm decay" 
 is also to be found in Wordsworth's "Address to 
 Kilchurn Castle." 
 
202 TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY 
 
 'Tis a low chant, according well 
 
 With the soft solitary knell, 
 As homeward from some grave beloved we turn, 
 
 Or by some holy death-bed dear, 
 
 Most welcome to the chastened ear 
 Of her whom Heaven is teaching how to mourn. 
 
 cheerful tender strain ! the heart 
 That duly bears with you its part, 
 
 Singing so thankful to the dreary blast, 
 Though gone and spent its joyous prime, 
 And on the world's autumnal time, 
 
 Mid withered hues and sere, its lot be cast : 
 
 That is the heart for thoughtful seer, 
 
 Watching, in trance nor dark nor clear, 1 
 The appalling Future as it nearer draws : 
 
 His spirit calmed the storm to meet, 
 
 Feeling the rock beneath his feet, 
 And tracing through the cloud the eternal Cause. 
 
 That is the heart for watchmen true 
 Waiting to see what God will do, 
 
 As o'er the Church the gathering twilight falls : 
 No more he strains his wistful eye, 
 If chance the golden hours be nigh, 
 
 By youthful Hope seen beaming round her walls. 
 
 Forced from his shadowy paradise, 
 
 His thoughts to Heaven the steadier rise : 
 There seek his answer when the world reproves : 
 
 Contented in his darkling round, 
 
 If only he be faithful found, 
 When from the east the eternal morning moves. 
 
 1 It shall come to pass in that day, that the light 
 shall not be clear, nor dark. Zechariah xiv. 6. 
 

 AFTER TRINITY 203 
 
 TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and 
 I forgive him? S. Matthew xviii. Si. 
 
 THE RULE OF CHRISTIAN FORGIVENESS. 
 
 February 7, 1826. 
 As the mountain boy passing from his simple home 
 into the world with all its pleasures loses his joy and 
 liberty : so we can measure the distance we have 
 travelled from heaven and from the mind of God by 
 our loss of the willingness to forgive ; for Christ 
 resigned everything to win the bliss of forgiving. 
 
 In this poem, too (cf. p. 198), there seem to be 
 reminiscences of two passages of Wordsworth. For 
 the description of the mountain boy, cf. " The Excur- 
 sion," Book 1. ad in., "Such was the boy, but for the 
 growing youth": and for the narrowing heart cf. 
 ■ The Ode on Intimations of Immortality," st. 5 : 
 11 Heaven lies about us in our infancy ! 
 Shades of the prison-house begin to close 
 
 Upon the growing boy, 
 But he beholds the light and whence it flows, 
 
 He sees it in his joy; 
 The youth who daily farther from the east 
 Must travel, still is Nature's priest, 
 And by the vision splendid 
 Is on his way attended ; 
 At length the man perceives it die away 
 And fade into the light of common day." 
 
 \A/ HAT liberty so glad and gay, 
 As where the mountain boy, 
 Reckless of regions far away, 
 A prisoner lives in joy ? 
 
 The dreary sounds of crowded earth, 
 
 The cries of camp or town, 
 Never untuned his lonely mirth, 
 
 Nor drew his visions down. 
 
2o 4 TWENTY-SECOND 
 
 The snow-clad peaks of rosy light 
 That meet his morning view, 
 
 The thwarting cliffs that bound his sight, 
 They bound his fancy too. 
 
 Two ways alone his roving eye 
 
 For aye may onward go, 
 Or in the azure deep on high, 
 
 Or darksome mere below. 
 
 O blest restraint ! more blessed range ! 
 
 Too soon the happy child 
 His nook of homely thought will change 
 
 For life's seducing wild : 
 
 Too soon his altered day-dreams show 
 This earth a boundless space, 
 
 With sun-bright pleasures to and fro 
 Sporting in joyous race : 
 
 While of his narrowing heart each year 
 Heaven less and less will fill, 
 
 Less keenly, through his grosser ear, 
 The tones of mercy thrill. 1 
 
 It must be so : 2 else wherefore falls 
 The Saviour's voice unheard, 
 
 While from His pard'ning Cross He calls, 
 " O spare as I have spared " ? 
 
 By our own niggard rule we try 
 The hope to suppliants given ! 
 
 We mete our love, as if our eye 
 Saw to the end of Heaven. 
 
 1 " Mercy " : " pardon." R. 
 
 2 This stanza is a later addition, not found in either 
 MS. copy, nor in the first edition. 
 
SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 205 
 
 Yes, ransomed sinner ! wouldst thou know 
 
 How often to forgive, 
 How dearly to embrace thy foe, 
 
 Look where thou hop'st to live ; — 
 
 When thou hast told these isles of light, 
 
 And fancied all beyond, 
 Whatever owns, in depth or height, 
 
 Creation's wondrous bond ; 
 
 Then in their solemn pageant learn 
 
 Sweet mercy's praise to see : 
 Their Lord resigned them all to earn 
 
 The bliss of pardoning thee. 
 
 TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be 
 fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the 
 working whereby he is able even to subdue all things 
 unto himself. Philippians iii. 21. 
 
 FOREST LEAVES IN AUTUMN. 
 November 12, 1825. 
 
 The leaves fall uncomplaining, though there is no 
 new life for them, and man complains of death, though 
 there is a life in store for him, and that a life not, as 
 the heathen fancied, a mere repetition of this life, but 
 one in which we shall break through the limitations of 
 earth. But if we are to share that life, trial and woe 
 must teach us to make the body obedient to the soul. 
 
 The rhythm recalls Gray's Elegy. 
 
 D ED o'er the forest peers the setting sun, 
 A ^ The line of yellow light dies fast away 
 That crowned the eastern copse : and chill and 
 dun 
 Falls on the moor the brief November day. 
 
206 TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY 
 
 Now the tired hunter winds a parting note, 
 And Echo bids good-night from every glade ; 
 
 Yet wait a while, and see the calm leaves float 
 Each to his rest beneath their parent shade. 
 
 How like decaying life they seem to glide ! 
 
 And yet no second spring have they in store, 
 But where they fall forgotten to abide 
 
 Is all their portion, and they ask no more. 
 
 Soon o'er their heads blithe April airs shall sing, 
 A thousand wild-flowers round them shall 
 unfold, 
 
 The green buds glisten in the dews of Spring, 
 And all be vernal rapture as of old. 
 
 Unconscious they in waste oblivion lie, 
 In all the world of busy life around 
 
 No thought of them ; in all the bounteous sky 
 No drop, for them, of kindly influence found. 
 
 Man's portion is to die and rise again — 
 
 Yet he complains, while these unmurmuring 
 part 
 
 With their sweet lives, as pure from sin and stain, 
 As his when Eden held his virgin heart. 
 
 And haply half unblamed his murmuring voice 
 Might sound in Heaven, were all his second 
 life 
 
 Only the first renewed — the heathen's choice, 
 A. round of listless joy and weary strife. 1 
 
 1 Cf. the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, st. 8 (p. 60). 
 
AFTER TRINITY 207 
 
 For dreary were this earth, if earth were all, 
 Though brightened oft by dear affection's 
 kiss ; — 
 
 Who for the spangles wears the funeral pall ? 
 But catch a gleam beyond it, and 'tis bliss. 
 
 Heavy and dull this frame of limbs and heart, 
 Whether slow creeping on cold earth, or borne 
 
 On lofty steed, or loftier prow, we dart 
 
 O'er wave or field: yet breezes laugh to scorn 
 
 Our puny speed, and birds, and clouds in heaven, 
 And fish, like living shafts that pierce the main, 
 
 And stars that shoot through freezing air at even — 
 Who but would follow, might he break his 
 chain ? 
 
 And thou shalt break it soon ; the grovelling worm 
 Shall find his wings, and soar as fast and free 
 
 As his transfigured Lord with lightning form 
 And snowy vest ; such grace He won for thee, 
 
 When from the grave He sprung at dawn of morn, 
 And led through boundless air thy conquering 
 road, 
 
 Leaving a glorious track, where saints new-born 
 Might fearless follow to their blest abode. 
 
 But first, by many a stern and fiery blast 
 
 The world's rude furnace must thy blood refine, 
 
 And many a gale of keenest woe be passed, 
 Till every pulse beat true to airs divine ; 
 
 Till every limb obey the mounting soul, 
 
 The mounting soul, the call by Jesus given. 
 
 He who the stormy heart can so control, 
 
 The laggard body soon will waft to Heaven. 
 
208 TWENTY-FOURTH 
 
 TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY 
 AFTER TRINITY 
 
 The heart knoweth his own bitterness ; and a 
 stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy. Proverbs 
 xiv. 10. 
 
 THE IMPERFECTION OF HUMAN 
 
 SYMPATHY. June 7, 1825. 
 
 There is a loneliness which we must feel on earth : 
 no human friend can know all the secrets of our hearts : 
 and this is well, for, if there were perfect sympathy 
 here, our affection would rest on earth and not pass up 
 to Heaven : it is well, too, for another reason ; for if 
 others knew all that is in our hearts they would cease 
 to love us. Hence a veil hangs between man and man : 
 but hope can picture absent friends unchanged, and 
 innocent children and loving old age can imagine us 
 better than we are. Meanwhile the sinner who knows 
 his own sin, knows that the Saviour has entered into 
 his sinful nature and knowing all yet loves him. 
 
 Compare the poem for Ash Wednesday. The 
 following lines from Young's "Night Thoughts" (iii, 
 26) may have been in Mr Keble's mind : 
 
 " Heaven's Sovereign saves all beings but Himself 
 That hideous sight, a naked human heart." 
 
 \A7HY should we faint and fear to live alone, 
 ™ Since all alone, so Heaven has willed, 
 we die, 1 
 
 Nor even the tenderest heart, and next our own, 
 Knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh ? 
 
 Each in his hidden sphere of joy or woe 
 Our hermit spirits dwell, and range apart, 
 
 Our eyes see all around in gloom or glow — 
 Hues of their own, fresh borrowed from the 
 heart. 2 
 
 1 Je mourrai seul. — Pascal, ii. § vii. 
 
 2 Cf. Crabbe's Tales. Tale x. The Lover's Journey. 
 
SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 209 
 
 And well it is for us our God should feel 
 
 Alone our secret throbbings : so our prayer 
 May readier spring to Heaven, nor spend its zeal 
 
 On cloud-born idols of this lower air. 
 For if one heart in perfect sympathy 
 
 Beat with another, answering love for love, 
 Weak mortals, all entranced, on earth would lie, 
 
 Nor listen for those purer strains above. 
 
 Or what if Heaven for once its searching light 
 
 Lent to some partial eye, disclosing all 
 The rude bad thoughts that in our bosom's night 
 
 Wander at large, nor heed Love's gentle 
 thrall? 1 
 Who would not shun the dreary uncouth place ? 
 
 As if, fond leaning where her infant slept, 
 A mother's arm a serpent should embrace : 2 
 
 So might we friendless live, and die unwept. 
 
 Then keep the softening veil in mercy drawn, 
 Thou who canst love us, though thou read us 
 true; 
 
 As on the bosom of the aerial lawn 
 
 Melts in dim haze each coarse ungentle hue. 
 
 So too may soothing Hope Thy leave enjoy 
 Sweet visions of long severed hearts to frame : 
 
 Though absence may impair or cares annoy, 
 Some constant mind may draw 3 us still the same. 
 
 1 " Many times when I consider what my friend 
 would think of me, if I were to print the other nine- 
 tenths of my thoughts, I really feel quite ashamed of 
 having printed the book (the • Christian Year ') at 
 alL" — J. K. to Mr Pruen. Coleridge's " Memoir," p. 
 121. 
 
 2 Probably an allusion to iEschylus, " Choephorae," 
 520. 8 "Draw," i.e. picture 
 
 O 
 
2 1 o TWENTY-FOURTH 
 
 We in dark dreams are tossing to and fro, 
 Pine with regret, or sicken with despair, 
 
 The while she bathes us in her own chaste glow, 
 And with our memory wings her own fond 
 prayer. 
 
 O bliss of child-like innocence, and love 
 Tried to old age ! creative power to win 
 
 And raise new worlds, where happy fancies rove, 
 Forgetting quite this grosser world of sin. 
 
 Bright are their dreams, because their thoughts 
 are clear, 
 Their memory cheering : but the earth-stained 
 spright, 
 Whose wakeful musings are of guilt and fear, 
 Must hover nearer earth and less in light. 
 
 Farewell, for her, the ideal scenes so fair — 
 Yet not farewell her hope, since Thou hast 
 deigned, 
 Creator of all hearts ! to own and share 
 
 The woe of what Thou mad'st and we have 
 stained. 
 
 Thou know'st our bitterness 1 — our joys are Thine ; 
 
 No stranger Thou to all our wanderings wild : 
 Nor could we bear to think how every line 
 
 Of us, Thy darkened likeness and defiled, 
 
 Stands in full sunshine of Thy piercing eye, 
 But that Thou call'st us Brethren : 2 sweet 
 repose 
 
 Is in that word ! the Lord who dwells on high 
 Knows all, yet loves us better than He knows. 
 1 Thou hast known my soul in adversities. — Psalm 
 
 xxxi. 7. 2 Heb. ii. 1 1. 
 
SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 211 
 
 TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER 
 TRINITY 
 
 The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in 
 the way of righteousness. Proverbs xvi. 31. 
 
 THE TWO RAINBOWS. July 15, 1823. 
 
 As the experienced shepherd distrusts a rainbow in 
 the morning, so the Christian pastor distrusts quick 
 forwardness and love of praise in children, and loves 
 rather the shyness and dependence and desire to do right 
 which will make the evening of life bright with the 
 promise of a brighter morning in Heaven. 
 
 This poem contains the germ of many of the poems 
 in the Lyra Innocentium. 
 
 THE bright-haired morn is glowing 
 
 O'er emerald meadows gay, 
 With many a clear gem strowing 
 
 The early shepherd's way. 
 Ye gentle elves, by fancy seen 
 
 Stealing away with night 
 To slumber in your leafy screen, 
 
 Tread more than airy light. 
 
 And see what joyous greeting 
 
 The sun through heaven has shed, 
 Though fast yon shower be fleeting, 
 
 His beams have faster sped. 
 For lo ! above the western haze 
 
 High towers the rainbow arch 
 In solid span of purest rays : 
 
 How stately is its march ! 
 
 Pride of the dewy morning ! 
 
 The swain's experienced eye 
 From thee takes timely warning, 
 
 Nor trusts the gorgeous sky. 
 
2i2 TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY 
 
 For well he knows, such dawnings gay 
 Bring noons or storm and shower, 
 
 And travellers linger on the way 
 Beside the sheltering bower. 1 
 
 Even so, in hope and trembling 
 
 Should watchful shepherd view 
 His little lambs assembling 
 
 With glance both kind and true ; 
 'Tis not the eye of keenest blaze, 
 
 Nor the quick-swelling breast, 
 That soonest thrills at touch of praise — 
 
 These do not please him best. 
 
 But voices low and gentle, 
 
 And timid glances shy, 
 That seem for aid parental 
 
 To sue all wistfully, 
 Still pressing, longing to be right, 
 
 Yet fearing to be wrong — 
 In these the Pastor dares delight, 
 
 A lamb-like, Christ-like throng. 
 
 These in Life's distant even 
 
 Shall shine serenely bright, 
 As in the autumnal heaven 
 
 Mild rainbow tints at night, 
 When the last shower is stealing down, 
 
 And, ere they sink to rest, 
 The sunbeams weave a parting crown 
 
 For some sweet woodland nest. 
 1 In the first part of the above, allusion is made to a 
 Cotswold proverb : 
 
 "A rainbow at night is the shepherd's delight, 
 A rainbow in the morning gives the shepherd warning." 
 
 — MSS. 
 
AFTER TRINITY 213 
 
 The promise of the morrow 
 
 Is glorious on that eve, 
 Dear as the holy sorrow 
 
 When good men cease to live ; 
 When brightening ere it die away 
 
 Mounts up their altar flame, 
 Still tending with intenser ray 
 
 To Heaven whence first it came. 
 
 Say not it dies — that glory ; 
 
 'Tis caught unquenched on high, 
 Those saintlike brows so hoary 
 
 Shall wear it in the sky. 
 No smile is like the smile of death, 
 
 When all good musings past 
 Rise wafted with the parting breath, 
 
 The sweetest thought the last. 
 
 SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE ADVENT 
 
 Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing 
 be lost. S. John vi. i z. 
 
 SELF-EXAMINATION BEFORE ADVENT. 
 
 July 14, 1825. 
 The Christian Year with all its festivals, with all its 
 religious rites, has passed over us, and we have not yet 
 found our peace. We may not plead that Christ's 
 standard is impossible for us, for the Saints' Days have 
 reminded us that other men have lived up to it. What 
 if life were as near its end as the year is ! Needs must 
 we watch and pray, for Christ's love can gather up and 
 purify the fragments still left. 
 
 WILL God indeed with fragments bear, 
 Snatched late from the decaying year ? 
 Or can the Saviour's blood endear 
 The dregs of a polluted life ? 
 
2i 4 SUNDAY NEXT 
 
 When down the overwhelming current tossed 
 Just ere he sink for ever lost, 
 The sailor's untried arras are crossed 
 In agonizing prayer, will ocean cease her strife ? l 
 
 Sighs that exhaust but not relieve, 
 Heart-rending sighs, O spare to heave 
 A bosom freshly taught to grieve 
 
 For lavished hours and love misspent ! 
 Now through her round of holy thought 
 The Church our annual steps has brought, 
 But we no holy fire have caught — 
 Back on the gaudy world our wistful eyes were 
 bent. 
 
 Too soon the ennobling carols, poured 
 To hymn the birth-night of the Lord, 
 Which duteous Memory should have stored 
 
 For thankful echoing all the year — 
 Too soon those airs have passed away ; 
 Nor long within the heart would stay 
 The silence of Christ's dying day, 
 Profaned by worldly mirth or scared by worldly 
 fear. 
 
 Some strain of hope and victory 
 On Easter wings might lift us high ; 
 A little while we sought the sky : 
 
 And when the Spirit's beacon fires 
 On every hill began to blaze, 
 Lightening the world with glad amaze, 
 Who but must kindle while they gaze ? 
 But faster than she soars our earth-bound Fancy 
 tires. 
 1 Cf. Second Sunday in Lent, st. 3, note (p. 75). 
 
BEFORE ADVENT 215 
 
 Nor yet for these, nor all the rites 
 By which our Mother's voice invites 
 Our God to bless our home delights, 
 
 And sweeten every secret tear : — 
 The funeral dirge, the marriage vow, 
 The hallowed font where parents bow, 
 And now elate, and trembling now, 
 To the Redeemer's feet their new-found treasures 
 bear : — 
 
 Not for the Pastor's gracious arm 
 Stretched out to bless — a Christian charm 
 To dull the shafts of worldly harm : — 
 Nor, sweetest, holiest, best of all, 
 For the dear feast of Jesus dying, 
 Upon that altar ever lying, 
 Where souls with sacred hunger sighing 
 Are called to sit and eat, while angels prostrate 
 fall :— 
 
 No, not for each and all of these 
 Have our frail spirits found their ease. 
 The gale that stirs the autumnal trees 
 
 Seems tuned as truly to our hearts 
 As when, twelve weary months ago, 
 'Twas moaning bleak, so high and low, 
 You would have thought Remorse and Woe 
 Had taught the innocent air their sadly thrilling 
 parts. 
 
 Is it Christ's light is too divine, 
 
 We dare not hope like Him to shine ? 
 
 But see, around His dazzling shrine 
 
 Earth's gems the fire of Heaven have 
 caught ; 
 
216 S. ANDREW'S DAY 
 
 Martyrs and saints — each glorious day 
 Dawning in order on our way — 
 Remind us how our darksome clay 
 May keep the ethereal warmth our new Creator 
 brought. 
 
 These we have scorned, O false and frail ! 
 And now once more the appalling tale, 
 How love divine may woo and fail, 
 
 Of our lost year in Heaven is told : 
 What if as far our life were past, 
 Our weeks all numbered to the last, 
 With time and hope behind us cast, 
 And all our work to do with palsied hands and 
 cold? 
 
 O watch and pray e'er Advent dawn ! 
 For thinner than the subtlest lawn 
 'Twixt thee and death the veil is drawn. 
 
 But love too late can never glow : 
 The scattered fragments Love can glean, 
 Refine the dregs, and yield us clean 
 To regions where one thought serene 
 Breathes sweeter than whole years of sacrifice 
 below. 
 
 S. ANDREW'S DAY 
 
 He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith 
 unto him, We have found the Messias. . . . And he 
 brought him to Jesus. S. John i. 41, 42. 
 
 S. ANDREW'S DAY. January 27, 1822 
 The tie of brotherhood can only be made eternal by 
 
 a religious bond, by helping one another in the spiritual 
 
 life and by common religious acts. 
 
 "This poem was originally addressed to his own 
 
S. ANDREW'S DAY 217 
 
 brother." Miss Yonge, "Musings," p. 280. Side by 
 side with it should be read Keble's Sermon preached on 
 S. Andrew's Day 1841. ("Sermons Occasional and 
 Academical," xi.) 
 
 \A7 HEN brothers part for manhood's race, 
 v * What gift may most endearing prove 
 To keep fond memory in her place, 
 And certify a brother's love ? 
 
 'Tis true, bright hours together told, 
 And blissful dreams in secret shared, 
 
 Serene or solemn, gay or bold, 
 Shall last in fancy unimpaired. 1 
 
 Even round the death-bed of the good 
 Such dear remembrances will hover, 
 
 And haunt us with no vexing mood, 
 When all the cares of earth are over. 
 
 But yet our craving spirits feel 
 
 We shall live on, though Fancy die, 
 
 And seek a surer pledge — a seal 
 Of love to last eternally. 
 
 Who art thou, that wouldst grave thy name 
 Thus deeply in a brother's heart ? 
 
 Look on this Saint, and learn to frame 
 Thy love-charm with true Christian art. 
 
 First seek thy Saviour out, and dwell 
 Beneath the shadow of His roof, 
 
 Till thou have scanned His features well, 
 And known Him for the Christ by proof; 
 
 1 M Tis true bright hours together spent, 
 And blissful dreams in secret shared, 
 Grave talk and fearless merriment 
 
 Shall last in fancy unimpaired." — MSS. 
 
218 S. THOMAS' DAY 
 
 Such proof as they are sure to find 
 
 Who spend with Him their happy days, 
 
 Clean hands and a self-ruling mind 
 Ever in tune for Jove and praise. 
 
 Then, potent with the spell of Heaven, 
 Go, and thine erring brother gain, 
 
 Entice him home to be forgiven, 
 Till he, too, see his Saviour plain. 
 
 Or, if before thee in the race, 
 
 Urge him with thine advancing tread, 
 
 Till, like twin stars, with even pace, 
 Each lucid course be duly sped. 1 
 
 No fading frail memorial give 
 
 To soothe his soul when thou art gone, 
 But wreaths of hope for aye to live, 
 
 And thoughts of good together done. 
 
 That so before the judgment- seat, 
 
 Though changed and glorified each face, 
 
 Not unremembered ye may meet, 
 For endless ages to embrace. 
 
 S. THOMAS' DAY 
 
 Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast be- 
 lieved: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet 
 have believed. S. John xx. 29. 
 
 S. THOMAS' DAY. Feb. 9, 1824. 
 
 Our time on earth is an expectation time like the 
 
 first week after the Resurrection, and the Risen Lord 
 
 reveals Himself to the same qualities as He did then : 
 
 to Love as to Mary Magdalene ; to Reason as to S. 
 
 1 "To holy rivalry in grace: 
 
 Rest not till all thy course be sped." — K.2. 
 
S. THOMAS' DAY 219 
 
 Peter ; to Faith as to S. John ; to those who meditate 
 and talk of His Passion, as to the disciples on the way 
 to Emmaus : to all who wait for Redemption, as to the 
 Apostles on the evening of Easter Day : and even to 
 those who doubt — as to S. Thomas — if, like him, they 
 keep their love to their Master true. 
 
 \A/E were not by when Jesus came, 1 
 * * But round us, far and near, 
 We see His trophies, and His name 
 
 In choral echoes hear. 
 In a fair ground our lot is cast, 
 As in the solemn week that past, 
 W hile some might doubt, but all adored, 2 
 Ere the whole widowed Church had seen her 
 risen Lord. 
 
 Slowly, as then, His bounteous hand 
 
 The golden chain unwinds, 
 Drawing to Heaven with gentlest band 
 
 Wise hearts and loving minds. 
 Love sought Him first : at dawn of morn 3 
 From her sad couch she sprang forlorn, 
 She sought to weep with Thee alone, 
 And saw Thine open grave, and knew that 
 Thou wert gone. 
 
 Reason and Faith at once set out 4 
 To search the Saviour's tomb ; 
 
 Faith faster runs, but waits without, 
 As fearing to presume, 
 
 1 Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was 
 not with them when Jesus came. S. John xx. 24. 
 
 2 When they saw him, they worshipped him : but 
 some doubted. S. Matthew xxviii. 17. 
 
 3 S. Mary Magdalene's visit to the sepulchre. 
 
 4 S. Peter and S. John. 
 
2 2o S. THOMAS' DAY 
 
 Till Reason enter in and trace 
 
 Christ's relics round the holy place — 
 
 " Here lay His limbs, and here His sacred 
 
 head, 
 And who was by, to make his new-forsaken 
 
 bed?" 
 
 Both wonder, one believes — but while 
 
 They muse on all at home, 
 No thought can tender Love beguile 
 
 From Jesus' grave to roam. 
 Weeping she stays till He appear — 
 Her witness first the Church must hear — 
 All joy to souls that can rejoice 
 With her at earliest call of His dear gracious voice. 
 
 Joy too to those who love to talk 
 
 In secret how He died, 
 Though with sealed eyes awhile they walk, 
 
 Nor see Him at their side ; 
 Most like the faithful pair are they, 
 Who once to Emmaus took their way, 
 Half darkling, till their Master shed 
 His glory on their souls, made known in break- 
 ing bread. 
 
 Thus, ever brighter and more bright, 
 
 On those He came to save 
 The Lord of new-created light 
 
 Dawned gradual from the grave : 
 
 Till passed the inquiring daylight hour, 
 
 And with closed door in silent bower 
 
 The Church in anxious musing sate, 
 
 As one who for redemption still had long to wait. 
 
S. THOMAS' DAY 221 
 
 Then, gliding through the unopening door, 
 
 Smooth without step or sound, 
 " Peace to your souls ! " He said — no more ; 
 
 They own Him, kneeling round. 
 Eye, ear, and hand, and loving heart, 
 Body and soul in every part, 
 Successive made His witnesses that hour, 
 Cease not in all the world to shew His saving 
 power. 
 
 Is there, on earth, a spirit frail, 
 Who fears to take their word, 
 
 Scarce daring, through the twilight pale, 
 To think he sees the Lord ? 
 
 With eyes too tremblingly awake 
 
 To bear with dimness for His sake ? 
 
 Read and confess the hand divine 
 That drew thy likeness here so true in every line. 
 
 For all thy rankling doubts so sore, 
 
 Love thou thy Saviour still, 
 Him for thy Lord and God adore, 
 
 And ever do His will. 
 Though vexing thoughts may seem to last, 
 Let not thy soul be quite o'ercast ; — 
 Soon will he shew thee all His wounds, and 
 say, 
 " Long have I known thy name J — know thou 
 My face alway." 
 
 1 In Exodus xxxiii. 17, God says to Moses, "I know 
 thee by name"; meaning, "I bear especial favour to- 
 wards thee." Thus our Saviour speaks to S. Thomas 
 by name in the place here referred to. — J. K. 
 
222 CONVERSION OF S. PAUL 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF S. PAUL 
 
 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying 
 unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? And 
 he said, Who art thou, Lord ? And the Lord said, I 
 am Jesus whom thou persecutest. Acts ix. 4, 5. 
 
 CHRIST'S PRESENCE IN CHRISTIANS. 
 March 2, 1822. 
 
 The Lord's words spoken to Saul on the way to 
 Damascus taught him the great truth of His Presence 
 in each Christian, and filled him with zeal and love. 
 May that Presence control our thoughts, make our zeal 
 greater, our love tenderer. 
 
 THE midday sun, with fiercest glare, 
 Broods o'er the hazy, twinkling air ; 
 Along the level sand 
 The palm-tree's shade unwavering lies, 
 Just as thy towers, Damascus, rise 
 To greet yon wearied band. 
 
 The leader of that martial crew 
 Seems bent some mighty deed to do, 
 
 So steadily he speeds, 
 With lips firm closed and fixed eye, 
 Like warrior when the fight is nigh, 
 
 Nor talk nor landscape heeds. 
 
 What sudden blaze is round him poured, 
 As though all Heaven's refulgent hoard 
 
 In one rich glory shone ? 
 One moment — and to earth he falls : 
 What voice his inmost heart appals ? — 
 
 Voice heard by him alone. 
 
CONVERSION OF S. PAUL 223 
 
 For to the rest both words and form 
 Seem lost in lightning and in storm, 
 
 While Saul, in wakeful trance, 
 Sees deep within that dazzling field 
 His persecuted Lord revealed 
 
 With keen yet pitying glance : 
 
 And hears the meek upbraiding call 
 As gently on his spirit fall, 
 
 As if the Almighty Son 
 Were prisoner yet in this dark earth, 
 Nor had proclaimed His royal birth, 
 
 Nor His great power begun. 
 
 " Ah ! wherefore persecut'st thou Me ? " 
 He heard and saw, and sought to free 
 
 His strained eye from the sight : 
 But Heaven's high magic bound it there, 
 Still gazing, though untaught to bear 
 
 The insufferable light. 
 
 " Who art Thou, Lord ? " he falters forth 
 So shall Sin ask of Heaven and earth 
 
 At the last awful day. 
 " When did we see Thee suffering nigh, 1 
 And passed Thee with unheeding eye ? 
 
 Great God of judgment, say ! " 
 
 Ah ! little dream our listless eyes 
 What glorious presence they despise, 
 
 While, in our noon of life, 
 To power or fame we rudely press : — 
 Christ is at hand, to scorn or bless, 
 
 Christ suffers in our strife. 
 
 1 S. Matthew xxv. 44. 
 
224 CONVERSION OF S. PAUL 
 
 And though Heaven gate long since have closed, 
 And our dear Lord in bliss reposed 
 
 High above mortal ken, 
 To every ear in every land 
 (Though meek ears only understand) 
 
 He speaks as He did then. 
 
 " Ah ! wherefore persecute ye Me ? 
 'Tis hard, ye so in love should be 
 
 With your own endless woe. 
 Know, though at God's right hand I live, 
 I feel each wound ye reckless give 
 
 To the least saint below. 
 
 " I in your care My brethren left, 
 Not willing ye should be bereft 
 
 Of waiting on your Lord. 
 The meanest offering ye can make — 
 A drop of water — for love's sake, 1 
 
 In Heaven, be sure, is stored." 
 
 O by those gentle tones and dear, 
 When Thou hast stayed our wild career, 
 
 Thou only hope of souls, 
 Ne'er let us cast one look behind, 
 But in the thought of Jesus find 
 
 What every thought controls. 
 
 As to Thy last Apostle's heart 
 Thy lightning glance did then impart 
 
 Zeal's never-dying fire, 
 So teach us on Thy shrine to lay 
 Our hearts, and let them day by day 
 
 Intenser blaze and higher. 
 
 1 S. Matthew x. 42. 
 
THE PURIFICATION 225 
 
 And as each mild and winning note l 
 (Like pulses that round harp-strings float 
 
 When the full strain is o'er) 
 Left lingering on his inward ear 
 Music, that taught, as death drew near, 
 
 Love's lesson more and more : 2 
 
 So, as we walk our earthly round, 
 Still may the echo of that sound 
 
 Be in our memory stored : 
 " Christians ! behold your happy state : 
 Christ is in these who round you wait ; 
 
 Make much of your dear Lord ! " 
 
 THE PURIFICATION 
 
 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 
 S. Matthew v. 8. 
 
 THE PURIFICATION. October 10, 1819. 
 
 This is probably the earliest poem in the volume : its 
 date is 181 9, and it is written first in Mr Keble's own 
 MS. of 1820. It is also one of the clearest and 
 simplest : the thought being that now, as at the time 
 of the Purification, purity and lowliness are the 
 qualities which enable man to see God. There was 
 no earthly pomp when, as on this day, the Prince 
 entered His Temple, but the angels were there, and 
 the mother undefiled and the guileless Joseph and the 
 prayerful Simeon and the meek, devout Anna. 
 
 1 "And as Thy soft meek words of Love, 
 
 Like pulses that round harp-strings move." 
 
 — MSS. 
 
 2 Perhaps there is a reference to S. Paul's own 
 account of his conversion as given late in life, 1 Tim. 
 i. 12-16. 
 
226 THE PURIFICATION 
 
 D LESS'D are the pure in heart, 
 For they shall see our God, 
 
 The secret of the Lord is theirs, 
 Their soul is Christ's abode. 
 
 Might mortal thought presume 
 To guess an angel's lay, 
 Such are the notes that echo through 
 The courts of Heaven to-day. 
 
 Such the triumphal hymns 
 On Sion's Prince that wait, 
 In high procession passing on 
 Towards His temple-gate. 
 
 Give ear, ye kings — bow down, 
 Ye rulers of the earth — 
 This, this is He ! your Priest by grace, 
 Your God and King by birth. 
 
 No pomp of earthly guards 
 Attends with sword and spear, 
 And all-defying, dauntless look, 
 
 Their monarch's way to clear ; 
 
 Yet are there more with Him 
 Than all that are with you — 
 The armies of the highest Heaven, 
 All righteous, good, and true. 1 
 
 Spotless their robes and pure, 
 Dipped in the sea of light 
 That hides the unapproach&d shrine 
 From men's and angels' sight. 
 1 Cf. 2 Kings vi. 16. 
 
THE PURIFICATION 227 
 
 His throne, thy bosom blest, 
 O Mother undefiled ! 
 That throne, if aught beneath the skies, 
 Beseems the sinless Child. 
 
 Lost in high thoughts, " whose son 
 The wondrous Babe might prove," 
 Her guileless husband walks beside, 
 Bearing the hallowed dove ; 
 
 Meet emblem of His vow, 
 Who, on this happy day, 
 His dove-like soul — best sacrifice — 
 Did on God's altar lay. 
 
 But who is he, by years 
 Bowed, but erect in heart, 
 Whose prayers are struggling with his tears ? 
 " Lord, let me now depart ; 
 
 " Now hath Thy servant seen 
 Thy saving health, O Lord ; 
 'Tis time that I depart in peace, 
 According to Thy word." 
 
 Yet swells the pomp : one more 
 Comes forth to bless her God : 
 Full fourscore years, meek widow, she 
 Her heavenward way hath trod. 
 
 She who to earthly joys 
 So long had given 1 farewell, 
 Now sees, unlooked for, Heaven on earth, 
 Christ in His Israel. 
 
 1 "Given " : <• bid " or « bidden."— MSS. 
 
228 S. MATTHIAS' DAY 
 
 Wide open from that hour 
 The temple-gates are set, 
 And still the saints rejoicing 1 there 
 The holy Child have met. 
 
 Now count His train to-day, 
 And who may meet Him, learn : 
 Him child-like sires, meek maidens find, 
 Where pride can nought discern. 
 
 Still to the lowly soul 
 He doth Himself impart, 
 And for His cradle and His throne 
 Chooseth the pure in heart. 
 
 S. MATTHIAS' DAY 
 
 Wherefore of these men which have companied with 
 us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out 
 among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto 
 that same day that he was taken up from us, must one 
 be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. 
 Acts i. 2I ; 22. 
 
 THE QUALIFICATION FOR THE 
 PRIESTHOOD. 1820. (?) 
 
 God's Priest must be one who has followed Christ 
 from His Cradle to His Ascension, and learnt, the 
 lesson of His agony and glory. Yet no mortal could 
 undertake the task had not Christ promised to be 
 with His Church, as Husband to support, as Guide 
 to direct her: therefore only those whom she com- 
 missions may act for her. We dread our own un- 
 worthiness, and need Christ's help to teach us. 
 
 1 " Rejoicing " : " resorting."— MSS. 
 
S. MATTHIAS' DAY 229 
 
 With the whole poem, cf. Mr Keble's "Tract for 
 the Times," No. 4, " Adherence to the Apostolical 
 Succession the Safest Course." 
 
 \A/HO is God's chosen priest ? 
 v * He who on Christ stands waiting day 
 
 and night, 
 Who traced His holy steps, nor ever ceased, 
 From Jordan banks to Bethphage height : 
 
 Who hath learned lowliness 
 From his Lord's cradle, patience from His Cross ; 
 Whom poor men's eyes and hearts consent to 
 bless ; 
 To whom, for Christ, the world is loss ; 
 
 Who both in agony 
 Hath seen Him and in glory ; and in both 
 Owned him divine, and yielded, nothing loth, 
 Body and soul, to live and die, 
 
 In witness of his Lord, 
 In humble following of his Saviour dear : 
 This is the man to wield the unearthly sword, 
 Warring unharmed with sin and fear. 
 
 But who can e'er suffice 1 — 
 What mortal — for this more than angels' task, 
 Winning or losing souls, Thy life-blood's price . ? 
 The gift were too divine to ask, 
 
 But Thou hast made it sure 
 By Thy dear promise to Thy Church and Bride, 
 That Thou, on earth, wouldst aye with her 
 endure, 
 Till earth to Heaven be purified. 
 1 Cf. 2 Cor. ii. 16. 
 
230 S. MATTHIAS' DAY 
 
 Thou art her only Spouse, 
 Whose arm supports her, on Whose faithful breast 
 Her persecuted head she meekly bows, 
 Sure pledge of her eternal rest. 
 
 Thou, her unerring Guide, 
 Stayest her fainting steps along the wild ; 
 Thy mark is on the bowers of lust and pride, 
 That she may pass them undefiled. 
 
 Who then, uncalled by Thee, 
 Dare touch Thy spouse, Thy very self below ? 
 Or who dare count him summoned worthily, 
 Except Thine hand and seal he shew ? 
 
 Where can Thy seal be found, 
 But on the chosen seed, from age to age 
 By Thine anointed heralds duly crowned, 
 As kings and priests Thy war to wage ? 
 
 Then fearless walk we forth, 
 Yet full of trembling, Messengers of God : 
 Our warrant sure, but doubting of our worth, 1 
 By our own shame alike and glory awed. 
 
 Dread Searcher of the hearts, 
 Thou who didst seal by Thy descending Dove 
 Thy servants' choice, O help us in our parts, 2 
 Else helpless found, to learn and teach Thy 
 love. 
 
 1 " Not doubting our commission but our worth." 
 
 — MSS. 
 
 2 "But Thou who know'st all hearts 
 
 As by Thy Spirit, Thou didst the choice approve 
 Of Thine Apostles, help us in our parts." — MSS. 
 The original form seems conclusive evidence that 
 we should read " Thy servants' choice," not " Thy 
 servant's choice" as in nearly all previous editions. 
 
THE ANNUNCIATION 231 
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE 
 BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 
 
 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou 
 that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee, blessed 
 art thou among women. S. Luke i. 28. 
 
 CHRIST'S CONSECRATION OF THE LOVE OF 
 MOTHER AND SON. June 1, 1823. March 
 9, 1826. 
 
 The one earthly tie which Christ sanctified by His 
 own example was that between Son and mother: He 
 being the true Son, She the true mother prepared by 
 God's love for such a task, and therefore worthy of all 
 but adoring love from us. And the blessing that was 
 hers, Christ has promised to all who do His Father's 
 will. 
 
 The first six stanzas were written soon after his 
 own mother's death in May 1823. They were 
 followed then by four stanzas, in which he con- 
 fessed his own shortcomings as a son, and prayed 
 for true penitence and love for her who was gone. 
 These were felt too sacred for publication when the 
 volume first appeared, and the last four, written in 
 1826, were substituted for them. The original four, 
 which have since been published in the " Miscellaneous 
 Poems," are appended here : 
 
 " Alas, when those we love are gone, 
 Of all sad thoughts, 'tis only one 
 
 Brings bitterness indeed : 
 The thought what poor, cold, heartless aid 
 We lent to cheer them while they stayed, 
 
 This makes the conscience bleed. 
 
 " Lord, by Thy love and by Thy power, 
 And by the sorrows of that hour, 
 
 Let me not weep too late. 
 Help me in anguish meet and true 
 My thankless words and ways to rue, 
 Now justly desolate. 
 
232 THE ANNUNCIATION 
 
 " By Thine own mother's first caress, 
 Whom Thou with smiles so sweet didst bless, 
 
 Twas heaven on earth to see : 
 Help me though late to love aright 
 Her who has glided from my sight 
 
 To rest — dear Saint — with Thee. 
 
 " Thou knowest if her gentle glance 
 Look on us, as of old, to enhance 
 
 Our evening calm so sweet : 
 But, Son of Mary, Thou art there : 
 Oh make us ('tis a mourner's prayer) 
 
 For such dear visits meet." 
 
 f~\ ! Thou who deign'st to sympathise 
 With all our frail and fleshly ties, 
 
 Maker yet Brother dear, 
 Forgive the too presumptuous thought, 
 If, calming wayward grief, I sought 
 
 To gaze on Thee too near. 
 
 Yet sure 'twas not presumption, Lord, 
 'Twas Thine own comfortable word 
 
 That made the lesson known : 
 Of all the dearest bonds we prove, 
 Thou countest sons' and mothers' love 
 
 Most sacred, most Thine own. 
 
 When wandering here a little span, 
 Thou took'st on Thee to rescue man, 
 
 Thou hadst no earthly sire : 
 That wedded love we prize so dear, 
 As if our heaven and home were here, 
 
 It lit in Thee no fire. 
 
 On no sweet sister's faithful breast 
 Wouldst Thou Thine aching forehead rest, 
 On no kind brother lean : 
 
OF THE VIRGIN MARY 233 
 
 But who, O perfect filial heart, 
 E'er did like Thee a true son's part, 
 Endearing, firm, serene ? 
 
 Thou weptst, meek Maiden, Mother mild, 
 Thou weptst upon thy sinless Child, 
 
 Thy very heart was riven : 
 And yet, what mourning matron here 
 Would deem thy sorrows bought too dear 
 
 By all on this side Heaven ? 
 
 A Son that never did amiss, 
 
 That never shamed His Mother's kiss, 
 
 Nor crossed her fondest prayer : 
 Even from the Tree He deigned to bow 
 For her His agonised brow, 
 
 Her, His sole earthly care. 
 
 Ave Maria ! blessed Maid ! 
 Lily of Eden's fragrant shade, 
 
 Who can express the love 
 That nurtured thee so pure and sweet, 
 Making thy heart a shelter meet 
 
 For Jesus' holy Dove ? 
 
 Ave Maria ! Mother blest, 
 
 To whom, caressing and caressed, 
 
 Clings the Eternal Child ; 
 Favoured beyond archangels' dream, 
 When first on thee with tenderest gleam 
 Thy new-born Saviour smiled : — 
 
 Ave Maria ! thou whose name 
 All but adoring love may claim, 
 
 Yet may we reach thy shrine ; 
 
234 S. MARK'S DAY 
 
 For He, thy Son and Saviour, vows 
 To crown all lowly lofty brows 
 With love and joy like thine. 
 
 Bless'd is the womb that bare Him — bless'd l 
 The bosom where His lips were pressed ! — 
 
 But rather bless'd are they 
 Who hear His word and keep it well, 
 The living homes where Christ shall dwell 
 
 And never pass away. 
 
 S. MARK'S DAY 
 
 And the contention was so sharp between them, that 
 they departed asunder one from the other. Acts xv. 
 39. Cf. 2 Timothy iv. 11. Take Mark, and bring 
 him with thee : for he is profitable to me for the 
 ministry. 
 
 THE RECONCILIATION OF CHRISTIANS. 1 820. 
 
 How little can we rest on earthly ties, when change 
 and dispute can separate even Apostles as they did S. 
 Paul from S. Barnabas and S. Mark ! Yet even on 
 earth the reconciliation may come, as it did between 
 S. Paul and S. Mark, and, if not, yet though their path 
 on earth be divided, faithful Christians shall meet in 
 the Saviour's Presence, with all mists cleared away. 
 
 What a new force this poem must have gained to its 
 writer after 1845, when Newman left the Church of 
 England ! Miss Yonge rightly quotes, as an illustra- 
 tion of the fourth stanza, the meeting of Keble, 
 Newman, and Pusey at Hursley in 1865. "Musings 
 on the Christian Year," p. 302 : cf. Coleridge's 
 "Memoir," p. 517. 
 
 /^\H ! who shall dare in this frail scene 
 ^ On holiest, happiest thoughts 2 to lean, 
 On Friendship, Kindred, or on Love? 
 1 S. Luke xi. 27, 28. 
 2 "Thoughts: " " things."— MSS. 
 
S. MARK'S DAY 235 
 
 Since not Apostles' hands can clasp 
 Each other in so firm a grasp, 
 
 But they shall change and variance prove. 
 
 Yet deem not, on such parting sad 
 Shall dawn no welcome dear and glad : 
 
 Divided in their earthly race, 
 Together at the glorious goal, 
 Each leading many a rescued soul, 
 
 The faithful champions shall embrace. 
 
 For even as those mysterious Four, 
 Who the bright whirling wheels upbore 
 
 By Chebar in the fiery blast, 1 
 So, on their tasks of love and praise 
 The Saints of God their several ways 
 
 Right onward speed, yet join at last. 
 
 And sometimes even beneath the moon 
 The Saviour gives a gracious boon, 
 
 When reconciled Christians meet, 
 And face to face and heart to heart, 
 High thoughts of holy love impart 
 
 In silence meek or converse sweet. 
 
 Companion of the Saints ! 'twas thine 
 To taste that drop of peace 2 divine, 
 
 When the great soldier of thy Lord 
 Called thee to take his last farewell, 
 Teaching the Church with joy to tell 
 
 The story of your love restored. 
 
 1 They turned not when they went ; they went every 
 one straight forward. Ezekiel i. 9. 
 
 2 "That drop of peace " : "that cup of joy."— K. z. 
 
236 S. PHILIP AND S. JAMES 
 
 O then the glory and the bliss, 
 When all that pained or seemed amiss 
 
 Shall melt with earth and sin away ! 
 When Saints beneath their Saviour's eye, 
 Filled with each other's company, 
 
 Shall spend in love the eternal day ! T 
 
 S. PHILIP AND S. JAMES 
 
 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is 
 exalted ; but the rich, in that he is made low. S. 
 James i. 9, 10. 
 
 THE STRAIN OF MIDDLE AGE LIGHTENED 
 BY THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST. August 
 3, 1825. 
 
 As summer has little in it to inspire the poet's fancy, 
 so middle age has little that is inspiring, and is forced 
 to surrender the pleasing dreams of youth. Yet the 
 Saviour knew the loneliness and sadness of life : He 
 never was misled by youthful fancies of perfect happi- 
 ness on earth, but has shown us how to pass through 
 sadness to a deeper joy ; hence the most sensitive soul 
 in its deepest suffering can find soothing and content- 
 ment in His Church. 
 
 Compare the Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity, 
 and, as there, Wordsworth's ode " On the Intimations 
 of Immortality," especially the last stanza of that ode. 
 
 pvEAR is the morning gale of spring, 
 *-^ And dear the autumnal eve ; 
 But few delights can summer bring 
 A poet's crown to weave. 
 
 Her bowers are mute, her fountains dry, 
 
 And ever Fancy's wing 
 Speeds from beneath her cloudless sky 
 To autumn or to spring. 
 * " Shall live and love in endless day."— MSS. 
 
S. PHILIP AND S. JAMES 237 
 
 Sweet is the infant's waking smile, 
 And sweet the old man's rest — 
 
 But middle age by no fond wile, 
 No soothing calm is blest. 
 
 Still in the world's hot restless gleam 
 
 She plies her weary task, 
 While vainly for some pleasant dream 
 
 Her wandering glances ask. — 
 
 O shame upon thee, listless heart, 
 
 So sad a sigh to heave, 
 As if thy Saviour had no part 
 
 In thoughts that make thee grieve. 
 
 As if along His lonesome way 
 He had not borne for thee 
 
 Sad languors through the summer day, 
 Storms on the wintry sea. 
 
 Youth's lightning-flash of joy secure 
 Passed seldom o'er His spiight, — 
 
 A well of serious thought and pure, 
 Too deep for earthly light. 
 
 No spring was His — no fairy gleam — 
 
 For He by trial knew 
 How cold and bare what mortals dream, 
 
 To worlds where all is true. 1 
 
 1 "To worlds ": i.e. in comparison to worlds where 
 all is true. One early form of the lines was : 
 
 " How far unlike the joys we dream 
 To joys where all is true." 
 
238 S. BARNABAS 
 
 Then grudge not thou the anguish keen 
 Which makes thee like thy Lord, 
 
 And learn to quit with eye serene 
 Thy youth's ideal hoard. 
 
 Thy treasured hopes and raptures high — 
 Unmurmuring let them go, 
 
 Nor grieve the bliss should quickly fly 
 Which Christ disdained to know. 
 
 Thou shalt have joy in sadness soon ; 
 
 The pure, calm hope be thine, 
 Which brightens, like the eastern moon, 
 
 As day's wild lights decline. 
 
 Thus souls, by nature pitched too high, 
 By sufferings plunged too low, 
 
 Meet in the Church's middle sky, 
 Half way 'twixt joy and woe, 
 
 To practise there the soothing lay 
 That sorrow best relieves : 
 
 Thankful for all God takes away, 
 Humbled by all He gives. 
 
 S. BARNABAS 
 
 The son of consolation, a Levite. Acts iv. 36. 
 
 THE CONSOLING POWER OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 MINISTER BOTH IN THIS LIFE AND AFTER 
 IT. July 4, 1825. 
 
 In this world of sickness and unrest he helps most 
 who can comfort and console : such power had the first 
 Apostles : such, above all, S. Barnabas, the son of con- 
 solation, who, by entire surrender of his own goods, 
 
S. BARNABAS 239 
 
 won the power to draw others to Christ, to clear away 
 distrust between Christians, and to carry the Church's 
 alms to those in need. Such saints even when 
 departed may still sympathize with our griefs, and 
 may delight to think that while they love and praise 
 in Heaven, they still help Christ's work on earth, as 
 their memory kindles the Christian Pastor to like 
 deeds of consolation. 
 
 Perhaps there is no poem which expresses so beauti- 
 fully the influence of the saints after death, and none 
 which so truly is a picture of Mr Keble's own character 
 and work. (Cf. W. Lock, "Memoir of Keble," 
 chapter x.) 
 
 "THE world's a room of sickness, where each 
 * heart 
 
 Knows its own anguish and unrest ; 
 The truest wisdom there and noblest art, 
 
 Is his who skills of comfort best ; 1 
 Whom by the softest step and gentlest tone 
 Enfeebled spirits own, 
 And love to raise the languid eye, 
 When, like an angel's wing, they feel him fleeting 
 by:- 
 
 Feel only — for in silence gently gliding 
 
 Fain would he shun both ear and sight, 
 'Twixt prayer and watchful love his heart 
 dividing, 
 A nursing-father day and night. 
 Such were the tender arms where cradled lay, 
 In her sweet natal day, 
 The Church of Jesus; such the love 
 He to His chosen taught for his dear widowed 
 Dove. 
 
 1 Compare the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity, 
 written a month before. 
 
2 4 o S. BARNABAS 
 
 Warmed underneath the Comforter's 1 safe wing 
 
 They spread the endearing warmth around : 
 Mourners, speed here your broken hearts to 
 bring, 
 Here healing dews and balms abound : 
 Here are soft hands that cannot bless in vain, 
 By trial taught your pain : 
 Here loving hearts, that daily know 
 The heavenly consolations they on you bestow. 
 
 Sweet thoughts are theirs, that breathe serenest 
 calms, 
 Of holy offerings timely paid, 2 
 Of fire from Heaven to bless their votive alms 
 
 And passions on God's altar laid. 
 The world to them is closed, and now they 
 shine 
 With rays of love divine, 
 Through darkest nooks of this dull earth 
 Pouring, in showery times, their glow of " quiet 
 mirth." 
 
 New hearts before their Saviour's feet to lay, 
 This is their first, their dearest joy : 
 
 Their next, from heart to heart to clear the 
 way 3 
 For mutual love without alloy : 
 
 lu The Comforter." There is probably a connection 
 drawn between the comforter (6 irapa.KkT]Tb$) and the 
 son of comfort (vlos trapaKk-qaewi). Compare also 2 
 Cor. i. 3-7. 
 
 2 Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and 
 laid it at the apostles' feet. Acts iv. 37. 
 
 3 Barnabas took him, and brought him (Saul) to the 
 apostles. Acts ix. 27. 
 
S. BARNABAS 241 
 
 Never so blest as when in Jesus' roll 
 They write some hero-soul, 
 More pleased upon his brightening road 
 To wait, than if their own with all his radiance 
 glowed. 1 
 
 O happy spirits, marked by God and man 
 
 Their messages of love to bear, 2 
 What though long since in Heaven your brows 
 began 
 The genial amarant wreath to wear, 
 And in the eternal leisure of calm love 
 Ye banquet there above, 
 Yet in your sympathetic heart 
 We and our earthly griefs may ask and hope a part. 
 
 Comfort's true sons ! amid the thoughts of down 
 
 That strew your pillow of repose, 
 Sure 'tis one joy to muse how ye, unknown, 
 
 By sweet remembrance soothe our woes, 
 And how the spark ye lit of heavenly cheer 
 Lives in our embers here, 8 
 
 Where'er the Cross is borne with smiles, 
 Or lightened secretly by Love's endearing wiles : 
 
 Where'er one Levite in the temple keeps 
 The watch-fire of his midnight prayer, 
 
 Or issuing thence, the eyes of mourners steeps 
 In heavenly balm, fresh gathered there ; 
 
 1 So Keble himself watched with delight the growing 
 brightness of his pupil Hurrell Froude and of Newman. 
 
 2 Acts xi. 22 ; xiii. 2. 
 
 3 Cf. Wordsworth's ode "On Intimations of Im- 
 mortality " : 
 
 " O joy that in our embers 
 Is something that doth live." 
 
 Q 
 
242 S. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY 
 
 Thus saints, that seem to die in earth's rude 
 strife, 
 Only win double life : 
 They have but left our weary ways 
 To live in memory here, 1 in heaven by love and 
 praise. 
 
 S. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY 
 
 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before 
 the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord : 
 and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, 
 and the heart of the children to their fathers. 
 
 Malachi iv. 5, 6. 
 
 A PRAYER FOR THE CLERGY— THAT THE 
 SPIRIT OF JOHN THE BAPTIST MAY BE 
 THEIRS. April 11, 1826. 
 
 Twice hath Elijah appeared, first in his own person, 
 then in that of John the Baptist, and we need him once 
 more to warn us in this " season of decay." But he 
 has passed to heaven and has welcomed John there, 
 and while they are praying for us, it is the duty of the 
 Church's Pastors to show the spirit of John, his courage, 
 his self-denial and prayer, his self-suppression, that so, 
 teaching < ; first filial duty, then divine," they may draw 
 all to Christ. 
 
 nPWICE in her season of decay 
 1 The fallen Church hath felt Elijah's 
 
 eye 
 Dart from the wild its piercing ray : 
 Not keener burns, in the chill morning sky, 
 The herald star, 
 Whose torch afar 
 Shadows and boding night-birds fly. 
 
 1 " To live by healing here."— MSS. 
 
S. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY 243 
 
 Methinks we need him once again, 
 That favoured seer — but where shall he be 
 found ? 
 By Cherith's side we seek in vain, 
 In vain on Carmel's green and lonely mound : 
 Angels no more 
 From Sinai soar, 
 On his celestial errands bound. 
 
 But wafted to her glorious place 
 By harmless fire, among the ethereal thrones, 
 
 His spirit with a dear embrace 
 Thee the loved harbinger of Jesus owns, 
 Well-pleased to view 
 Her likeness true, 
 And trace, in thine, her own deep tones. 
 
 Deathless himself, he joys with thee 
 To commune how a faithful martyr dies ; 
 
 And in the blest could envy be, 
 He would behold thy wounds with envious eyes, 
 Star of our morn, 
 Who, yet unborn, 1 
 Didst guide our hope where Christ should rise. 2 
 
 Now resting from your jealous care 
 For sinners, such as Eden cannot know, 
 
 Ye pour for us your mingled prayer, — 
 No anxious fear to damp Affection's glow ; 
 Love draws a cloud 
 From you to shroud 
 Rebellion's mystery here below. 
 
 1 The babe leaped in my womb for joy. S. Luke 
 i. 44. 
 
 2 "Didst warn us where the sun should rise." — MSS. 
 
244 S. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY 
 
 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 sealed 
 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 ? 
 Who counts it gain 1 
 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, 2 
 
 We pray Thee, ere the Judge descend, 
 With flames like these, all bright and undefiled, 
 Her watchfires light, 
 To guide aright 
 Our weary souls, by earth beguiled. 
 
 So glorious let Thy Pastors shine, 
 That by their speaking lives the world may learn 
 First filial duty, then divine, 3 
 
 1 He must increase, but I must decrease. S. John 
 iii. 30. 2 Revelation xii. 14. 
 
 3 He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the 
 children, and the heart of the children to their fathers. 
 Malachi iv. 6. 
 
 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. S. Luke i. 17. 
 Compare Trinity Sunday, st. 17 (p. 144). 
 
S. PETER'S DAY 245 
 
 That sons to parents, all to Thee may turn ; 
 And ready prove 
 In fires of love, 
 At sight of Thee, for aye to burn. 
 
 S. PETER'S DAY 
 
 When Herod would have brought him forth, the 
 same night Peter was sleeping. Acts xii. 6. 
 
 S. PETER'S DAY. May 15, 1825: but begun 
 
 in 1824. 
 The scene described is that of S. Peter's sleep on the 
 night of his arrest by Herod. Christ watches by the 
 sleeper and makes his dreams peaceful with the thought 
 of His past love, especially of His loving look in the 
 Judgment-hall, and of the last scene on the Lake of 
 Galilee, when he was told that hereafter another should 
 gird him and carry him whither he would not. The 
 sleep is broken, as he thinks, by the executioner coming 
 for him, but it is an Angel who leads him into freedom, 
 and he turns himself back to his task of feeding Christ's 
 sheep, till the time of his crucifixion shall come. 
 
 "PHOU thrice denied, yet thrice beloved, 1 
 Watch by Thine own forgiven friend ; 
 In sharpest perils faithful proved, 
 Let his soul love Thee to the end. 
 
 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 beloved again — 
 Can his soul choose but be at rest ? 
 
 Sorrow hath fled away, and pain 
 Dares not invade the guarded nest. 
 1 S. John xxi. 15-17. 
 
246 S. PETER'S DAY 
 
 He dearly loves, and not alone : 
 
 For his winged 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 sealed Thy welcome and his love — 
 
 One look lives in him, and endears 
 
 Crosses and wrongs, where'er he rove ; 
 
 That gracious chiding look, 1 Thy call 
 To win him to himself and Thee, 
 
 Sweetening the sorrow of his fall 
 Which else were rued too bitterly. 
 
 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, 2 
 
 When to the bosom of His friend, 
 
 The Shepherd, He whose name is Good, 
 
 Did His dear lambs and sheep commend, 
 Both bought and nourished with His blood : 
 
 1 S. Luke xxii. 61. The language seems borrowed 
 from the prayer in Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living, IV. 
 § 10 (vol. iii. p. 242, ed. Eden.). " Blessed be Thy name, 
 O holy Jesus, and blessed be Thy mercy, Who, when 
 Thy servant Peter denied Thee, and forsook Thee, and 
 forswore Thee, didst look back upon him, and by that 
 gracious and chiding look didst call him back to him- 
 self and Thee." 
 
 2 Cf. S. John xxi. 15-19. 
 
S. PETER'S DAY 247 
 
 Then laid on him the inverted tree, 1 
 
 Which firm embraced 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 through the eternal gates, 
 
 To his sweet home — so nearly won, 
 He seems, as by the door he waits, 
 
 The unexpressive 2 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 changed — the Tyrant's voice 
 Calls to that last of glorious deeds — 
 
 But 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. 
 
 1 The inverted tree. " He was crucified with his 
 head downwards, having himself requested to suffer in 
 this way.'' — Origen ap. Euseb. iii. i. 
 
 2 " Unexpressive " : i.e. ineffable. Cf. apprjTa p-q^ara 
 of 2 Cor. xii. 4. Keble has probably borrowed the 
 phrase from Milton, " Ode on the Nativity," 112: 
 
 "Harping in loud and solemn quire 
 With unexpressive notes to heaven's new-born heir." 
 
 Cf. also Lycidas, 175. 
 
248 S. JAMES'S DAY 
 
 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. 1 
 
 Touched he upstarts — his chains unbind — 
 Through darksome vault, up massy stair, 
 
 His dizzy, doubting footsteps wind 
 To freedom and cool moonlight air. 
 
 Then all himself, all joy and calm, 
 Though for a while his hand forego, 
 
 Just as it touched, the martyr's palm, 
 He turns him to his task below : 
 
 The pastoral staff, the keys of Heaven, 
 To wield awhile in grey-haired might, 
 
 Then from his cross to spring forgiven, 
 And follow Jesus out of sight. 
 
 S. JAMES'S DAY 
 
 Ye shall drink indeed of My cup, and be baptized 
 with the baptism that I am baptized with : but to sit 
 on My right hand and on My left, is not mine to give ; 
 but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of 
 My Father. S. Matthew xx. 23. 
 
 S. JAMES'S DAY. October 7, 1823. 
 The example of S. James — prepared by the sight of 
 the Transfiguration to drink of Christ's cup — leads to 
 a prayer for each Christian that the visions of Christ's 
 glory which are given us sometimes on earth, as, for 
 instance, at the sight of some " holy placid death." may 
 
 1 2 Peter iii. 9-1 1 ; Rev. xxi. 4. The heavenly light 
 which saves him from death, is the same which ere long 
 at the Resurrection will awake all the dead and bring 
 them to Him who will wipe away all tears. 
 
S. JAMES'S DAY 249 
 
 nerve him to endure suffering until the time of id 
 shall come. 
 
 The poem was probably written at a time when 
 Keble's heart was still full of the thought of his 
 mother's death. 
 
 CIT down and take thy fill of joy 
 
 ^ At God's right hand, a bidden guest, 
 
 Drink of the cup that cannot cloy, 
 
 Eat of the bread that cannot waste. 
 O great Apostle ! rightly now 
 
 Thou readest all thy Saviour meant, 
 What time His grave yet gentle brow 
 
 In sweet reproof on thee was bent. 
 
 M Seek ye to sit enthroned by Me ? 
 
 Alas ! ye know not what ye ask ! 
 The first in shame and agony, 
 
 The lowest in the meanest task — 
 This can ye be ? and can ye drink 
 
 The cup that I in tears must steep, 
 Nor from the whelming waters shrink 
 
 That o'er Me roll so dark and deep ? " 
 
 "We can — Thine are we, dearest Lord, 
 In glory and in agony, 
 To do and suffer all Thy word ; 
 Only be Thou for ever nigh." 
 " Then be it so ; My cup receive, 
 And of My woes baptismal taste ; 
 But for the crown that angels weave 
 For those next Me in glory placed. 
 
 " I give it not by partial love ; 
 
 But in My Father's book are writ 
 What names on earth shall lowliest prove, 
 That they in Heaven may highest sit." 
 
250 S. JAMES'S DAY 
 
 Take up the lesson, O my heart ; 
 
 Thou Lord of meekness, write it there, 
 Thine own meek self to me impart, 
 
 Thy lofty hope, Thy lowly prayer : 
 
 If ever on the mount with Thee 
 
 I seem to soar in vision bright, 
 With thoughts of coming agony x 
 
 Stay Thou the too presumptuous flight : 
 Gently along the vale of tears 
 
 Lead me from Tabor's 2 sunbright steep, 
 Let me not grudge a few short years 
 
 With Thee tow'rd Heaven to walk and 
 weep: 
 
 Too happy, on my silent path, 
 
 If now and then allowed, with Thee 
 Watching some placid holy death, 
 
 Thy secret work of love to see ; 
 But, oh ! most happy, should Thy call, 
 
 Thy welcome call, at last be given — 
 " Come where thou long hast stored thy all, 
 
 Come see thy place prepared in Heaven." 
 
 1 Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them. 
 S. Matthew xvii. 12. This was just after the Trans- 
 figuration. — J. K. 
 
 2 Tabor, the supposed scene of the Transfiguration, 
 but against this identification see Archbishop Trench, 
 "Studies in the Gospels," p. 195; Ruskin, " Modern 
 Painters," Part v. chap. xx. § 48. 
 
S. BARTHOLOMEW 251 
 
 S. BARTHOLOMEW 
 
 Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said 
 unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest 
 thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. S. 
 John i. 50. 
 
 S. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY. 1821. 
 
 As a mirror reflects alike the dazzling rays of the 
 sun and the simple colours and flowers of earth, so 
 the Bible reflects the Image of God and the very- 
 life of man ; and we trust that the former is true be- 
 cause we know that the latter is true. The Bible 
 pierces into the secrets of our heart and reveals us to 
 ourselves, as Christ read Nathanael's heart and drew 
 forth his worship. Simple faith, like his, daily sees 
 fresh witnesses of God on every side, but the first 
 call that appealed directly to his heart remains 
 always the surest witness. 
 
 The earlier part of the poem, with the metaphor 
 of the portrait, is based upon the quotation from 
 Miller's " Bampton Lectures" (p. 252, note), but 
 the metaphors are awkwardly mixed, the Bible 
 being compared to a mirror, a portrait, and a 
 speaking voice. 
 
 LJOLD up thy mirror to the sun, 
 
 And thou shalt need an eagle's gaze, 
 So perfectly the polished stone 
 Gives back the glory of his rays : 
 
 Turn it, and it shall paint as true 
 The soft green of the vernal earth, 
 
 And each small flower of bashful hue, 
 That closest hides its lowly birth. 
 
 Our mirror is a blessed book, 
 
 Whereout from each illumined page 
 
 We see one glorious Image look, 
 All eyes to dazzle and engage, 
 
2 5 2 S. BARTHOLOMEW 
 
 The Son of God : and that indeed 
 We see Him as He is, we know, 
 
 Since in the same bright glass we read 
 The very life of things below. — 
 
 Eye of God's word ! l where'er we turn 
 
 Ever upon us ! thy keen gaze 
 Can all the depths of sin discern, 
 
 Unravel every bosom's maze : 
 
 Who that has felt thy glance of dread 
 Thrill through his heart's remotest cells, 
 
 About his path, about his bed, 
 
 Can doubt what spirit in thee dwells ? 
 
 " What word is this ? Whence know'st thou 
 me?" 
 
 All wondering cries the humbled heart, 
 To hear thee that deep mystery, 
 
 The knowledge of itself, impart. 
 
 The veil is raised ; who runs may read, 
 By its own light the truth is seen, 
 
 And soon the Israelite indeed 
 
 Bows down t' adore the Nazarene. 
 
 1 " The position before us is, that we ourselves, and 
 such as we, are the very persons whom Scripture speaks 
 of, and to whom, as men, in every variety of persuasive 
 form, it makes its condescending though celestial appeal. 
 The point worthy of observation is. to note how a book 
 of the description and the compass which we have repre- 
 sented Scripture to be, possesses this versatility of power ; 
 this eye, like that of a portrait, uniformly fixed upon us, 
 turn where we will." — Miller's " Bampton Lectures," 
 p. 128 (Ed. 2). J. K. 
 
S. BARTHOLOMEW 253 
 
 So did Nathanael, guileless man, 
 At once, not shame-faced or afraid, 
 
 Owning Him God who so could scan 
 His musings in the lonely shade : 
 
 In his own pleasant fig-tree's shade, 
 Which by his household fountain grew, 
 
 Where at noon-day his prayer he made 
 To know God better than he knew. 
 
 Oh ! happy hours of heavenward thought ! 
 
 How richly crowned ! how well improved ! 
 In musing o'er the Law he taught, 
 
 In waiting for the Lord he loved. 
 
 We must not mar with earthly praise 
 
 What God's approving word hath sealed ; 
 
 Enough, if right our feeble lays 
 Take up the promise He revealed ; 
 
 " The child-like faith, that asks not sight, 
 Waits not for wonder or for sign, 
 
 Believes, because it loves, aright — 
 Shall see things greater, things divine. 
 
 11 Heaven to that gaze shall open wide, 
 And brightest angels to and fro 
 
 On messages of love shall glide 
 
 Twixt God above and Christ below." 
 
 So still the guileless man is blest, 
 
 To him all crooked paths are straight, 
 
 Him on his way to endless rest 
 
 Fresh, ever-growing strengths await. 1 
 
 1 They go from strength to strength. Psalm lxxxiv. 7. 
 
254 S. MATTHEW 
 
 God's witnesses, a glorious host, 
 Compass him daily like a cloud ; l 
 
 Martyrs and seers, the saved and lost, 
 Mercies and judgments cry aloud. 
 
 Yet shall to him the still small voice, 
 That first into his bosom found 
 
 A way, and fixed his wavering choice, 
 Nearest and dearest ever sound. 
 
 S. MATTHEW 
 
 And after these things He went forth and saw a 
 publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom : 
 and he said unto him. Follow Me. And he left all, 
 rose up, and followed him. S. Luke v. 27, 28. 
 
 THE CONSECRATION OF RICHES AND OF 
 CITY LIFE. September 14, 1822. 
 
 Those who live a sheltered religious life in country 
 scenes may doubt whether Christian faith can exist in 
 crowded cities ; but Christian love and hope can bloom 
 in any place : Christ's Presence may be in the heart of 
 men of business, who take delight in remembering how 
 S. Matthew gave up all for Christ and drew sinners 
 near to Him. What peace then should theirs be who 
 ever see the work of God in the country ! yet worldli- 
 ness can make a Babel even of Paradise. 
 
 This poem was written just after a visit to the 
 Misses Tucker at Town Mailing, the three sisters of 
 Mr Keble's friend, the Rev. J. Tucker. It is perhaps 
 not fanciful to think that they were primarily in his 
 mind in the first verse ; and that the reference to men 
 or women living the religious life in monasteries or 
 sisterhoods is secondary. 
 
 For the whole poem, cf. H. Vaughan's " Retirement," 
 and especially the last two lines — 
 " If Eden be on earth at all, 
 Tis that which we the country call." 
 
 1 Cf. Hebrews xii. 1. 
 
S. MATTHEW 255 
 
 YE hermits blest, ye holy maids, 
 
 The nearest Heaven on earth, 
 Who talk with God in shadowy glades, 
 
 Free from rude care and mirth ; 
 To whom some viewless teacher brings 
 The secret lore of rural things, 
 The moral of each fleeting cloud and gale, 
 The whispers from above, that haunt the twilight 
 vale : 
 
 Say, when in pity ye have gazed 
 On the wreathed smoke afar, 
 That o'er some town, like mist upraised, 
 
 Hung hiding sun and star, 
 Then as ye turned your weary eye 
 To the green earth and open sky, 
 Were ye not fain to doubt how Faith could 
 dwell 
 Amid that dreary glare, in this world's citadel ? 
 
 But Love's a flower that will not die 
 
 For lack of leafy screen, 
 And Christian Hope can cheer the eye 
 
 That ne'er saw vernal green ; 
 Then be ye sure that Love can bless 
 Even in this crowded loneliness, 
 Where ever-moving myriads seem to say, 
 Go — thou art nought to us, nor we to thee — 
 away ! 
 
 There are in this loud stunning tide 
 
 Of human care and crime, 
 With whom the melodies abide 
 
 Of the everlasting chime ; 
 
256 
 
 S. MATTHEW 
 
 Who carry music in their heart 
 Through dusky lane and wrangling mart, 
 Plying their daily task with busier feet, 
 Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat. 1 
 
 How sweet to them, in such brief rest 
 
 As thronging cares afford, 
 In thought to wander, fancy-blest, 
 
 To where their gracious Lord, 
 In vain, to win proud Pharisees, 
 Spake, and was heard by fell disease — 
 But not in vain, beside yon breezy lake, 
 Bade the meek publican his gainful seat forsake : 2 
 
 At once he rose, and left his gold ; 
 
 His treasure and his heart 
 Transferred, where he shall safe behold 
 
 Earth and her idols part ; 
 While he beside his endless store 
 Shall sit, and floods unceasing pour 
 Of Christ's true riches o'er all time and space, 
 First angel of His Church, first steward of His 
 Grace : 
 
 Nor can ye not delight to think 
 Where He vouchsafed to eat, 
 
 How the Most Holy did not shrink 
 From touch of sinners' meat ; 
 
 What worldly hearts and hearts impure 
 
 Went with Him through the rich man's 
 door, 
 
 1 il The mo<;t perfect specimen of Mr Keble's versifica- 
 tion." — Miss Yonge. 
 
 2 It seems from S. Matthew ix. 8, 9, that the calling 
 of Levi took place immediately after the healing of the 
 paralytic in the presence of the Pharisees. — J. K. 
 
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258 S. MICHAEL AND 
 S. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS 
 
 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to 
 minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? 
 
 Hebrews i. 14. 
 
 S. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS. 1821. 
 
 The angels, — who are like eagles in Heaven — are 
 implored to let earth's faint warblers combine with 
 their praise ; for they, victorious in their own struggle, 
 are always ready to help struggling man. They were 
 present at Bethlehem, at the Temptation, at Gethsemane, 
 at the Resurrection : they foretold Christ's coming again, 
 and we could not venture to face that day, were it not 
 that the Lord and our Angel-friends will meet us 
 there. May they at that day find Christ's mark upon 
 us still, and rejoice over our penitence. 
 
 Cf. S. Luke ii. 13. S. Matt. iv. n. S. Luke xxii. 
 43. S. Matt, xxviii. 5. Acts i. 11. S. Matt, xviii. 
 10. S. Luke xv. 10. 
 
 E stars that round the Sun of Righteousness 
 
 In glorious order roll, 
 With harps for ever strung, ready to bless 
 
 God for each rescued soul, 
 Ye eagle spirits, that build in light divine, 
 
 Oh ! think of us to-day, 
 Faint warblers of this earth, that would combine 
 Our trembling notes with your accepted lay. 
 
 Your amarant wreaths were earned ; and home- 
 ward all, 
 
 Flushed with victorious might, 
 Ye might have sped to keep high festival 
 
 And revel in the light ; 
 But meeting us, weak worldlings, on our way, 
 
 Tired ere the tight begun, 
 Ye turned to help us in the unequal fray, 
 Remembering Whose we were, how dearly won : 
 
 Y 
 
ALL ANGELS 259 
 
 Remembering Bethlehem, and that glorious night 
 
 When ye, who used to soar 
 Diverse along all space in fiery flight, 
 
 Came thronging to adore 
 Your God new-born, and made a sinner's child ; 
 
 As if the stars should leave 
 Their stations in the far ethereal wild, 
 And round the sun a radiant circle weave. 
 
 Nor less your lay of triumph greeted fair 
 Our Champion and your King, 
 
 In that first strife, whence Satan in despair 
 Sunk down on scathed wing : 
 
 Alone He fasted, and alone He fought ; 
 But when His toils were o'er, 
 
 Ye to the sacred Hermit duteous brought 
 
 Banquet and hymn, your Eden's festal store. 1 
 
 Ye too, when lowest in the abyss of woe 
 He plunged to save His sheep, 
 
 Were leaning from your golden thrones to know 
 The secrets of that deep : 
 
 But clouds were on His sorrow : one alone 
 His agonising call 
 
 Summoned from Heaven to still that bitterest 
 groan, 
 
 And comfort Him, the Comforter of all. 
 
 Oh ! highest favoured of all Spirits create, 
 
 (If right of thee we deem) 
 How didst thou glide on brightening wing elate 
 
 To meet the unclouded beam 
 
 1 Cf. Milton, "Paradise Regained," iv. 562-639. 
 
260 S. MICHAEL AND 
 
 Of Jesus from the couch of darkness rising ! 
 How swelled thine anthem's sound, 
 With fear and mightier joy weak hearts surprising, 
 " Your God is risen, and may not here be found ! " 
 
 Pass a few days, and this dull darkling globe 
 Must yield Him from her sight ; — 
 
 Brighter and brighter streams His glory- robe, 
 And He is lost in light. 
 
 Then, when through yonder everlasting arch, 
 Ye in innumerous 1 choir 
 
 Poured heralding Messiah's conquering march, 
 
 Lingered around His skirts two forms of fire : 
 
 With us they stayed, high warning to impart ; 
 
 " The Christ shall come again 
 Even as He goes ; with the same human heart, 
 
 With the same Godlike train." — 
 Oh ! jealous God ! how could a sinner dare 
 
 Think on that dreadful day, 
 But that with all Thy wounds Thou wilt be there, 
 And all our angel friends to bring Thee on Thy 
 way? 
 
 Since to Thy little ones is given such grace, 
 That they who nearest stand 
 
 Alway to God in Heaven, and see His face, 
 Go forth at His command, 
 
 To wait around our path in weal or woe, 
 As erst upon our King, 
 
 Set Thy baptismal seal upon our brow, 
 
 And waft us heavenward with enfolding wing : 
 
 2 " Innumerous : " i.e. beyond all count. Cf. Milton, 
 " Paradise Lost," vii. 455 ; " Comus," 348. The 
 language of the whole poem recalls that of Milton. 
 
ALL ANGELS 261 
 
 Grant, Lord, that when around the expiring world 
 
 Our Seraph guardians wait, 
 While on her death-bed, ere to ruin hurled, 
 
 She owns thee, all too late, 
 They to their charge may turn, and thankful see 
 
 Thy mark upon us still ; 
 Then all together rise, and reign with Thee, 
 And all their holy joy o'er contrite hearts fulfil ! 
 
 S. LUKE 
 
 Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you. 
 Colossians iv. 14. 
 
 Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present 
 world. . . Only Luke is with me. 2 Timothy iv. 10,11. 
 
 S. LUKE. April 6, 1822. 
 The fortunes of S. Luke and Demas are types of the 
 different destinies of men, and teach us that no position 
 of privilege, no nearness to the saints, can save without 
 the true pilgrim's heart. 
 
 pWO clouds before the summer gale 
 In equal race fleet o'er the sky ; 
 Two flowers, when wintry blasts assail, 
 Together pine, together die. 
 
 But two capricious human hearts — 
 No sage's rod may track their ways, 
 
 No eye pursue their lawless starts 
 Along their wild self-chosen maze. 
 
 He only, by Whose sovereign Hand 
 
 Even sinners for the evil day x 
 Were made — who rules the world He planned, 
 
 Turning our worst His own good way ; 
 1 The Lord hath made all things for Himself; yea, 
 even the wicked for the day of evil. Proverbs xvi. 4. 
 
262 S. LUKE 
 
 He only can the cause reveal, 
 
 Why, at the same fond bosom fed, 
 
 Taught in the self-same lap to kneel 
 Till the same prayer were duly said, 
 
 Brothers in blood and nurture too 
 Aliens in heart so oft should prove ; 
 
 One lose, the other keep, Heaven's clue ; 
 One dwell in wrath, and one in love. 
 
 He only knows, — for He can read 
 The mystery of the wicked heart, — 
 
 Why vainly oft our arrows speed 
 When aimed with most unerring art ; 
 
 While from some rude and powerless arm 
 
 A random shaft in season sent 
 Shall light upon some lurking harm, 
 
 And work some wonder little meant. 1 
 
 Doubt we how souls so wanton change, 
 Leaving their own experienced rest ? 
 
 Need not around the world to range ; 
 One narrow cell may teach us best. 
 
 Look in, and see Christ's chosen saint 
 In triumph wear his Christ-like chain ; 
 
 No fear lest he should swerve or faint ; 
 " His life is Christ, his death is gain." 2 
 
 1 " See Scott's < Marmion.' "— MSS. The reference 
 is to the effect of the Palmer's words on Marmion. 
 Canto iii. 13, 14: 
 
 " Thus oft it haps, that when within 
 They shrink at sense of secret sin, 
 
 A feather daunts the brave ; 
 A fool's wild speech confounds the wise, 
 And proudest princes veil their eyes 
 Before their meanest slave." 
 
 2 Philippians i. 21. 
 
S. LUKE 263 
 
 Two converts, watching by his side, 
 Alike his love and greetings share ; 
 
 Luke the beloved, the sick soul's guide, 
 And Demas, named in faltering prayer. 
 
 Pass a few years — look in once more — 
 The saint is in his bonds again ; 
 
 Save that his hopes more boldly soar, 1 
 He and his lot unchanged remain. 
 
 But only Luke is with him now : — 
 Alas ! that even the martyr's cell, 
 
 Heaven's very gate, should scope allow 
 For the false world's seducing spell. 
 
 'Tis sad — but yet 'tis well, be sure, 
 We on the sight should muse awhile, 
 
 Nor deem our shelter all secure 
 Even in the Church's holiest aisle. 
 
 Vainly before the shrine he bends 
 
 Who knows not the true pilgrim's part : 
 
 The martyr's cell no safety lends 
 
 To him who wants the martyr's heart. 
 
 But if there be who follows Paul 
 
 As Paul his Lord, in life and death, 
 
 Where'er an aching heart may call, 
 Ready to speed and take no breath ; 
 
 1 In the Epistle to the Philippians, " I know that I 
 shall abide and continue with you all : ... I count 
 not myself to have apprehended," i. 25 ; iii. 13. 
 
 In 2 Timothy, " I have finished my course," etc., iv. 
 7, 8— J. K. 
 
264 S. LUKE 
 
 Whose joy is, to the wandering sheep 
 To tell of the great Shepherd's love ; 
 
 To learn of mourners while they weep 
 The music that makes mirth above ; l 
 
 Who makes the Saviour all his theme, 
 The Gospel all his pride and praise — 
 
 Approach : for thou canst feel the gleam 
 That round the Martyr's death-bed plays : 
 
 Thou hast an ear for angels' songs, 
 A breath the Gospel trump to fill, 
 
 And taught by thee the Church prolongs 
 Her hymns of high thanksgiving still. 2 
 
 Ah ! dearest Mother, since too oft 
 The world yet wins some Demas frail 
 
 Even from thine arms, so kind and soft, 
 May thy tried comforts never fail ! 
 
 When faithless ones forsake thy wing, 
 Be it vouchsafed thee still to see 
 
 Thy true, fond nurslings closer cling, 
 Cling closer to their Lord and thee. 
 
 1 The gospel of S. Luke abounds most in such 
 passages as the parable of the lost sheep, which dis- 
 play God's mercy to penitent sinners. — J. K. 
 
 2 The Christian hymns are all in S. Luke: the 
 Magnificat, Benedictus, and Nunc Dimittis. — J. K. 
 
S. SIMON AND S. JUDE 263 
 
 
 S. SIMON AND S. JUDE 
 
 That ye should earnestly contend for 1 the faith 
 which was once delivered unto the saints. S. Jude 3. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF COMRADESHIP. 
 April 3, 1826. 
 
 As at the time of the Church's greatest sorrow, be- 
 tween the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, S. John 
 took the Virgin (the type of the Church) to his home 
 for comfort ; as also our Lord sent out His apostles 
 two by two ; so He always loves to see His servants tluly 
 paired and helping each other, old with young, eager 
 students with simple souls, saddened penitents with 
 cheerful spirits ; such comradeship gives strength in 
 the darkest hours. 
 
 The first few verses describe the days after the 
 Crucifixion, (cf. the Sunday after Ascension Day) 
 but perhaps they are coloured by reference to later 
 persecutions of the Church, as in the time of the 
 Commonwealth, when its ministers had to take refuge 
 in the private houses of the Cavaliers (cf. the poem for 
 the Restoration of the Royal Family). 
 
 C EEST thou how tearful and alone, 
 ^ And drooping like a wounded dove, 
 The cross in sight, but Jesus gone, 
 
 The widowed Church is fain to rove ? 
 
 Who is at hand that loves the Lord ? 2 
 Make haste and take her home, and bring 
 
 Thine household choir, in true accord 
 Their soothing hymns for her to sing. 
 
 1 eiraywi/lteadcu : " be very anxious for it " : u feel 
 for it as for a friend in jeopardy. "' — J. K. 
 
 2 Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother ! 
 And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own 
 home. S. John xix. 27. 
 
266 S. SIMON AND S. JUDE 
 
 Soft on her fluttering heart shall breathe 
 The fragrance of that genial isle, 
 
 There she may weave her funeral wreath, 
 And to her own sad music smile. 
 
 The Spirit of the dying Son 
 Is there, and fills the holy place 
 
 With records sweet of duties done, 
 
 Of pardoned foes and cherished grace. 
 
 And as of old by two and two 1 
 His herald Saints the Saviour sent 
 
 To soften hearts like morning dew, 
 Where He to shine in mercy meant ; 
 
 So evermore He deems His Name 
 
 Best honoured, and His way prepared, 
 
 When watching by His altar-flame 
 He sees His servants duly paired. 
 
 He loves when age and youth are met, 
 Fervent old age and youth serene, 
 
 Their high and low in concord set 
 For sacred song, Joy's golden mean. 2 
 
 He loves when some clear soaring mind 
 
 Is drawn by mutual piety 
 To simple souls and unrefined, 
 
 Who in life's shadiest covert lie. 
 
 Or if perchance a saddened heart 
 
 That once was gay and felt the spring, 
 
 Cons slowly o'er its altered part, 
 In sorrow and remorse to sing, 
 
 1 S. Mark vi. 7. S. Luke x. 1. 
 
 2 Cf. S. Philip and S. James, st. 12 and 13 (p. 238). 
 

 ALL SAINTS' DAY 267 
 
 Thy gracious care will send that way 
 Some spirit full of glee, yet taught 
 
 To bear the sight of dull decay, 
 
 And nurse it with all-pitying thought ; 
 
 Cheerful as soaring lark, and mild 
 
 As evening black-bird's full-toned lay, 
 
 When the relenting sun has smiled 
 
 Bright through a whole December day. 
 
 These are the tones to brace and cheer 
 
 The lonely watcher of the fold, 
 When nights are dark, and foemen near, 
 
 When visions fade and hearts grow cold. 
 
 How timely then a comrade's song 
 Comes floating on the mountain air, 
 
 And bids thee yet be bold and strong — 
 Fancy may die, but Faith is there. 
 
 ALL SAINTS' DAY 
 
 Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till 
 we have sealed the servants of our God in their fore- 
 heads. Revelation vii. 3. 
 
 October 28, 1825. 
 
 As on a quiet autumn day the winds seem bound 
 and waiting till the last flower shall fade, so in the 
 world God's judgments seem stayed, and it is because 
 He is waiting till some saint or some penitent is ready 
 for the skies, or because the prayers of some simple soul 
 are still upholding the fabric of the world. May such 
 saints still fight their fight until they are ready to join 
 the saints above. 
 
 \A7 HY blow'st thou not, thou wintry wind, 
 
 Now every leaf is brown and sere, 
 And idly droops, to thee resigned, 
 The fading chaplet of the year ? 
 
268 ALL SAINTS' DAY 
 
 Yet wears the pure aerial sky 
 Her summer veil, half drawn on high, 
 Of silvery haze, and dark and still 
 The shadows sleep on every slanting hill. 
 
 How quiet shews 1 the woodland scene ! 
 
 Each flower and tree, its duty done, 
 Reposing in decay serene, 
 
 Like weary men when age is won, 
 Such calm old age as conscience pure 
 And self-commanding hearts ensure, 
 Waiting their summons to the sky, 
 Content to live, but not afraid to die. 
 
 Sure, if our eyes were purged to trace 
 God's unseen armies hovering round, 
 We should behold by angels' grace 
 
 The four strong winds of Heaven fast 
 bound, 
 Their downward sweep a moment stayed 
 On ocean cove and forest glade, 
 Till the last flower of autumn shed 
 Her funeral odours on her dying bed. 
 
 So in Thine awful armoury, Lord, 
 
 The lightnings of the judgment day 
 Pause yet awhile, in mercy stored, 
 
 Till willing hearts wear quite away 
 Their earthly stains ; and spotless shine 
 On every brow in light divine 
 The Cross by angej hands impressed, 
 The seal of glory won, and pledge of promised 
 rest. 
 
 1 See p. 170, note. 
 

 ALL SAINTS' DAY 269 
 
 Little they dream, those haughty souls 
 
 Whom empires own with bended knee, 
 What lowly fate their own controls, 
 
 Together linked by Heaven's decree ; — 
 As bloodhounds hush their baying wild 
 To wanton with some fearless child, 1 
 So Famine waits, and War with greedy eyes, 
 Till some repenting heart be ready for the skies. 
 
 Think ye the spires that glow so bright 
 
 In front of yonder setting sun, 
 Stand by their own unshaken might ? 
 
 No — where the upholding grace is won, 
 We dare not ask, nor Heaven would tell ; 
 But sure from many a hidden dell, 
 From many a rural nook unthought of there, 
 Rises for that proud world the Saints' prevail- 
 ing prayer. 
 
 On, Champions blest, in Jesus' name, 
 
 Short be your strife, your triumph full, 
 Till every heart have caught your flame, 
 And, lightened of the world's misrule, 
 Ye soar those elder Saints to meet, 
 Gathered long since at Jesus' feet, 
 No world of passions to destroy, 
 Your prayers and struggles o'er, your task all 
 praise and joy. 
 
 1 Cf. " Lyra Innocentium," " Children with dumb 
 creatures," st. 3 : 
 
 " And as thou hold'st the creatures dear, 
 So are they fain on thee to wait : 
 Bloodhounds at thy caress abate 
 Their bayings wild." 
 
270 HOLY COMMUNION 
 
 HOLY COMMUNION 
 
 January 31, 1827. 
 
 Sinners shrink back from the awful Presence of God 
 in the Eucharist, but the Church draws them near with 
 the comfortable words of invitation, and by the sense of 
 the presence of the Saints and Angels joining in our 
 Eucharistic praise. 
 
 Q GOD of Mercy, God of Might, 
 
 How should pale sinners bear l the sight, 
 If, as Thy power is surely here, 
 Thine open glory should appear ! 
 
 For now Thy people are allowed 
 To scale the mount and pierce the cloud, 
 And Faith may feed her eager view 
 With wonders Sinai never knew. 
 
 Fresh from the atoning sacrifice 
 The world's Creator bleeding lies, 
 That man, His foe, by whom He bled, 
 May take Him for his daily bread. 
 
 O agony of wavering thought 
 When sinners first so near are brought ! 
 " It is my Maker — dare I stay ? 
 My Saviour — dare I turn away ? " 
 
 Thus while the storm is high within 
 'Twixt love of Christ and fear of sin, 
 Who can express the soothing charm, 
 To feel thy kind upholding arm, 
 
 1 "Bear": « brook."— MSS. 
 
HOLY COMMUNION 271 
 
 My mother Church ? and hear thee tell 
 Of a world lost, yet loved so well, 
 That He, by whom the angels live, 
 His only Son for her would give r l 
 
 And doubt we yet ? thou call'st again ; 
 A lower still, a sweeter strain ; 
 A voice from Mercy's inmost shrine, 
 The very breath of Love Divine. 
 
 Whispering it says to each apart, 
 " Come unto Me, thou trembling heart w ; 2 
 And we must hope, so sweet the tone, 
 The precious words are all our own. 
 
 Hear them, kind Saviour — hear Thy spouse 
 Low at Thy feet renew her vows ; 
 Thine own dear promise she would plead 
 For us her true though fallen seed. 
 
 She pleads by all Thy mercies, told 
 
 Thy chosen witnesses of old, 
 
 Love's heralds sent to man forgiven, 
 
 One from the Cross, 3 and one from Heaven. 4 
 
 This, of true penitents the chief, 
 To the lost spirit brings relief, 
 
 1 " So God loved the world, that He gave His only- 
 begotten Son." See the Sentences in the Communion 
 Service, after the Confession. — J. K. 
 
 2 " Come unto me all that travail and are heavy laden, 
 and I will refresh you." 
 
 3 "One from the Cross": i.e. S. John. (S. John 
 xix. 26.) 
 
 4 "One from Heaven": i.e. S. Paul. (Acts xxvi. 
 15-18.) 
 
272 HOLY COMMUNION 
 
 Lifting on high the ador&d Name : — 
 " Sinners to save, Christ Jesus came." l 
 
 That, dearest of Thy bosom friends, 
 Into the wavering heart descends : — 
 " What ! fallen again ? yet cheerful rise, 
 Thine Intercessor never dies." 2 
 
 The eye of Faith, that waxes bright 
 Each moment by Thine altar's light, 
 Sees them e'en now : they still abide 
 In mystery kneeling at our side ; 
 
 And with them every spirit blest, 
 From realms of triumph or of rest, 
 From him who saw creation's morn, 
 Of all Thine angels eldest born, 3 
 
 To the poor babe, who died to-day, 
 Take part in our thanksgiving lay, 
 Watching the tearful joy and calm, 
 While sinners taste Thine heavenly balm. 
 
 Sweet awful hour ! the only sound 
 One gentle footstep gliding round, 
 Offering by turns on Jesus' part 
 The Cross to every hand and heart. 
 
 1 i* This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be 
 received, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save 
 sinners." 
 
 2 " If any man sin, we have an advocate with the 
 Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 
 
 8 " Therefore with Angels and Archangels and with 
 all the company of Heaven we laud and magnify Thy 
 glorious name." 
 

 HOLY BAPTISM 273 
 
 Refresh us, Lord, to hold it fast ; 
 And when Thy veil is drawn at last, 
 Let us depart where shadows cease, 
 With words of blessing and of peace. 
 
 HOLY BAPTISM 
 
 GOD'S PRESENCE IN THE BAPTIZED CHILD. 
 
 April 13, 1826. Written as for the Eighth Sunday 
 
 after Trinity, with Romans viii. 15 as text, and 
 
 suggested by the baptism of his brother's eldest son. 
 
 The happy parents who bring their child to Holy 
 
 Baptism are sent happier away, as they take it home 
 
 with its new life arid new consecration, so that they 
 
 see a new meaning in each movement and expression, 
 
 and find God's Presence more clearly there than in the 
 
 stars or in the flowers. May the child early know 
 
 that Presence too. 
 
 "VA/HERE is it mothers learn their love ? — 
 In eveiy Church a fountain springs 
 O'er which the eternal Dove 
 Hovers on softest wings. 
 
 What sparkles in that lucid flood 
 Is water, by gross mortals eyed : 
 But seen by Faith, 'tis blood 
 Out of a dear Friend's side. 
 
 A few calm words of faith and prayer, 
 A few bright drops of holy dew, 
 Shall work a wonder there, 
 Earth's charmers never knew. 
 
 O happy arms, where cradled lies, 
 And ready for the Lord's embrace, 
 That precious sacrifice, 
 The darling of His grace ! 
 
274 HOLY BAPTISM 
 
 Blest eyes, that see the smiling gleam 
 Upon the slumbering features glow, 
 When the life-giving stream 
 Touches the tender brow ! 
 
 Or when the holy cross is signed, 
 And the young soldier duly sworn 
 With true and fearless mind 
 To serve the Virgin-born. 
 
 But happiest ye, who sealed and blest 
 Back to your arms your treasure take, 
 With Jesus' mark impressed, 
 To nurse for Jesus' sake : 1 
 
 To whom — as if in hallowed air 
 
 Ye knelt before some awful shrine — 
 His innocent gestures wear 
 A meaning half divine : 
 
 By whom Love's daily touch is seen 
 
 In strengthening form and freshening hue, 
 In the fixed brow serene, 
 The deep yet eager view. — 
 
 Who taught thy pure and even breath 
 To come and go with such sweet grace ? 
 Whence thy reposing faith, 
 Though in our frail embrace ? 
 
 tender gem, and full of Heaven ! 
 Not in the twilight stars on high, 
 
 Not in moist flowers at even 
 See we our God so nigh. 
 
 1 Cf. Exodus ii. 9. Take the child away and nurse 
 it for me. 
 
CATECHISM 275 
 
 Sweet one, make haste and know Him too, 
 Thine own adopting Father love, 
 That like thine earliest dew 
 Thy dying sweets may prove. 1 
 
 CATECHISM 
 
 THE POWER OF CHILDREN TO LEARN THE 
 TRUTH. February 16, 1827. The MS. adds 
 the text — S. Mark x. 14: Suffer litde children to 
 come unto me, and forbid them not. 
 Though children may not understand all they learn, 
 yet they can take it in, and in time unwind its har- 
 monies ; for Our Lord was taught as a child, and loved 
 to speak of Heaven in the presence of children. Though 
 angels praise Him, He loves also to hear the simplest 
 attempt of children: their praises maybe imperfect; 
 yet so are our own prayers, we are only half conscious 
 of their meaning : to the angels they mean much more; 
 but to God they mean much more even than to the 
 angels : yet God accepts them. 
 
 (~\H ! say not, dream not, heavenly notes 
 
 To childish ears are vain, 
 That the young mind at random floats, 
 
 And cannot reach the strain. 
 1 " Sweets " : sweet — R. ; but the plural is common 
 in 17th and 18th century writers in the sense of 
 " sweetness," " pleasures/' Cf. Milton, " Paradise 
 Lost," iv. 760: 
 
 " Hail wedded love, . . . 
 Perpetual fountain of domestic sweets." 
 The meaning seems to be: that as the waters of 
 Baptism tell of God's love to you, so your dying happi- 
 ness may be a witness to the same love having followed 
 you all your life. Cf. S. James's Day, st. 6, p. 250 : 
 "Too happy, on my silent path, 
 If now and then allowed, with Thee 
 Watching some placid holy death, 
 Thy secret work of love to see. " 
 
276 CATECHISM 
 
 Dim or unheard the words may fall, 
 And yet the heaven-taught mind 
 
 May learn the sacred air, and all 
 The harmony unwind. 1 
 
 Was not our Lord a little child, 
 
 Taught by degrees to pray, 
 By father dear and mother mild 
 
 Instructed day by day ? 
 
 And loved He not of Heaven to talk 
 
 With children in His sight, 
 To meet them in His daily walk, 
 
 And to His arms invite ? 
 
 What though around His throne of lire 
 
 The everlasting chant 
 Be wafted from the seraph choir 
 
 In glory jubilant ? 
 
 Yet stoops He, ever pleased to mark 
 
 Our rude essays of love, 
 Faint as the pipe of wakening lark, 
 
 Heard by some twilight grove : 
 
 Yet is He near us, to survey 
 
 These bright and ordered files, 
 
 Like spring-flowers in their best array, 
 All silence and all smiles, 
 
 1 " The sacred words unheard may fall. 
 And yet the heaven-taught ear 
 At pleasure may the chant recall 
 And love the music dear." 
 
 So K. and R. The latter has not the verse here, but 
 inserts it after stanza 8. 
 
CATECHISM 277 
 
 Save that each little voice in turn 
 Some glorious truth proclaims, 
 
 What sages would have died to learn, 
 Now taught by cottage dames. 
 
 And if some tones be false or low, 
 What are all prayers beneath 
 
 But cries of babes, that cannot know 
 
 Half the deep thought they breathe ? 
 
 In His own words we Christ adore, 
 
 But Angels, as we speak, 
 Higher above our meaning soar 
 
 Than we o'er children weak : 1 
 
 And yet His words mean more than they, 2 
 And yet He owns their praise: 
 
 Why should we think He turns away 
 From infants' simple lays ? 
 
 1 Compare the poem for the Fourth Sunday after 
 Advent. 
 
 2 «' More than they " : i.e. than the angels. There 
 is a picture of a hierarchy of prayer. The Lord's 
 Prayer is lifted up from sphere to sphere as it is uttered 
 by a child, by a man, by an angel : in each it gains a 
 fresh meaning and power : and in each it falls short of 
 the full meaning which it conveys to God. 
 
 Compare the Evening Hymn for Emigrants ("Mis- 
 cellaneous Poems," p. 10 1) : 
 
 ** We say the prayer our Saviour taught 
 As household words with homely thought : 
 But angels bear it on and on 
 In all its meaning to the Throne." 
 
278 CONFIRMATION 
 
 CONFIRMATION 
 
 February 21, 1827. 
 
 As the Israelites in the wilderness sometimes rested 
 with the cloud overshadowing them, then at the sign of 
 the pillar of fire moved forth to war : so the Holy Spirit 
 first rests on Christ's champions in Confirmation, and 
 then sends them forth fearless to face life. Hence their 
 love is both steady and fixed like stars reflected in the 
 ice, and also gentle and soft in its influence on life. 
 May the Spirit which has this double power shelter 
 them from all feverish restlessness in youth and age, 
 and make the memory of the Confirmation a strength 
 in time of sin and sorrow. 
 
 '""THE shadow of the Almighty's cloud 
 
 Calm on the tents of Israel lay, 
 While drooping paused twelve banners proud, 
 Till He arise and lead the way. 1 
 
 Then to the desert breeze unrolled 
 Cheerly the waving pennons fly, 
 
 Lion or eagle — each bright fold 
 A lodestar to a warrior's eye. 
 
 So should Thy champions, ere the strife, 
 By holy hands o'ershadowed kneel, 
 
 So, fearless for their charmed life, 
 Bear, to the end, Thy Spirit's seal. 
 
 Steady and pure as stars that beam 
 In middle heaven, all mist above, 
 
 Seen deepest in the frozen stream : — 
 Such is their high courageous love 
 
 1 Cf. Numbers ix. 15-23. 
 
CONFIRMATION 279 
 
 And soft as pure, and warm as bright, 
 They brood upon life's peaceful hour, 
 
 As if the Dove that guides their flight 
 Shook from her plumes a downy shower. 
 
 Spirit of might and sweetness too ! 
 
 Now leading on the wars of God, 
 Now to green isles of shade and dew 
 
 Turning the waste Thy people trod ; 1 
 
 Draw, Holy Ghost, Thy seven-fold veil 
 Between us and the fires of youth ; 
 
 Breathe, Holy Ghost, Thy freshening gale, 
 Our fevered brow in age to soothe. 
 
 And oft as sin and sorrow tire, 
 
 The hallowed hour do thou renew, 
 
 When beckoned up the awful choir 
 
 By pastoral hands, tow'rd Thee we drew ; 
 
 When trembling at the sacred rail 
 We hid our eyes and held our breath, 
 
 Felt Thee how strong, our hearts how frail, 
 And longed to own Thee to the death. 
 
 For ever on our souls be traced 
 
 That blessing dear, that dove-like hand, 
 
 A sheltering rock in Memory's waste, 
 O'ershadowing all the weary land. 2 
 
 1 Cf. Psalm cvii. 35. a Cf. Isaiah xxxii. 2. 
 
2 8o MATRIMONY 
 
 MATRIMONY 
 
 1827. Entitled in the MS. " Communion after 
 Matrimony," which explains the allusion in stanza 6. 
 
 The Fall of Man has caused an element of awe and 
 fear in our joys ; even wedded joy distrusts itself until 
 it has received God's blessing, and even then its strain 
 is tuned and measured ; far different from the poetry 
 which would profane love by thoughts of wild passion 
 are the strains which welcome Christian love as it draws 
 near to receive Christ's blessing, feeling sure that He 
 will give an eternal value to each prayer and offering 
 that it makes. 
 
 Cf. Sexagesima Sunday, st. 6 (p. 65). 
 
 '"THERE is an awe in mortals' joy ; 
 
 A deep mysterious fear 
 Half of the heart will still employ, 
 
 As if we drew too near 
 To Eden's portal and those fires 1 
 That bicker 2 round in wavy spires, 
 Forbidding, to our frail desires, 
 
 What cost us once so dear. 
 
 We cower before the heart-searching eye 
 
 In rapture as in pain ; 
 Even wedded Love, till Thou be nigh, 
 
 Dares not believe her gain : 
 Then in the air she fearless springs, 
 The breath of Heaven beneath her wings, 
 And leaves her woodnote wild, and sings 
 
 A tuned and measured strain. 3 
 
 1 Cf. Genesis iii. 24. 
 
 2 "Bicker": i.e. flash. Cf. Milton's "Paradise 
 Lost," vi. 767: "Bickering flame and sparkle dire." 
 
 3 Is there a reminiscence here of Wordsworth's poem, 
 "O Nightingale! thou surely art," with its contrast 
 between the fiery heart of the nightingale and the 
 stock-dove's homely tale? 
 
MATRIMONY 281 
 
 111 fare the lay, though soft as dew 
 
 And free as air it fall, 
 That, with Thine altar full in view, 
 
 Thy votaries would enthrall 
 To a foul dream, of heathen night, 
 Lifting her torch in Love's despite, 
 And scaring with base wildfire light 
 
 The sacred nuptial hall. 1 
 
 Far other strains, far other fires, 
 Our marriage offering grace : 2 
 
 Welcome, all chaste and kind desires, 
 With even matron pace 
 
 Approaching down the hallowed aisle ! 
 
 Where should ye seek Love's perfect smile, 
 
 But where your prayers were learned erewhile, 
 In her own native place ? 
 
 Where, but on His benignest brow, 
 Who waits to bless you here ? 
 
 Living, He owned no nuptial vow, 
 No bower to Fancy dear : 
 
 Love's very self — for Him no need 
 
 To nurse, on earth, the heavenly seed : 
 
 Yet comfort in His eye we read 
 For bridal joy and fear. 3 
 
 'Tis He who clasps the marriage band, 
 
 And fits the spousal ring, 
 Then leaves ye kneeling, hand in hand, 
 
 Out of His stores to bring 
 
 1 The allusion is perhaps to Byron's poetry. Cf. 
 Palm Sunday (p. 87, note). 
 
 2 " Our marriage offering * : " our bridal pageant." — 
 MSS. ; but the offering brings out more clearly the idea 
 of sacrifice and consecration emphasised in stanza 7. 
 
 3 Cf. the poem for the Annunciation (p. 232). 
 
282 VISITATION AND 
 
 His Father's dearest blessing, shed 
 Of old on Isaac's nuptial bed, 
 Now on the board before ye spread 
 Of our all-bounteous King. 
 
 All blessings of the breast and womb, 
 Of Heaven and earth beneath, 
 
 Of converse high and sacred home, 
 Are yours, in life and death. 
 
 Only kneel on, nor turn away 
 
 From the pure shrine, where Christ to-day 
 
 Will store each flower ye duteous lay 
 For an eternal wreath. 
 
 VISITATION AND COMMUNION 
 OF THE SICK 
 
 1827. 
 
 The spell by which we can soothe others in sorrow 
 can only be learnt from our own sufferings ; and its best 
 language is taught by the Church in her services for the 
 Visitation of the Sick with its salutations of peace, and 
 for the Holy Communion with its memorial of Jesus' 
 death. The memories of such hours become a soothing 
 power ever after to ourselves. 
 
 The poem scarcely needs analysis. Perhaps more than 
 any one other it illustrates ' that soothing tendency in 
 the Prayer Book ' of which the Advertisement speaks 
 (p. xxxviii.). 
 
 (~\ YOUTH and Joy, your airy tread 
 ^^^ Too lightly springs by Sorrow's bed, 
 Your keen eye-glances are too bright, 
 Too restless for a sick man's sight. 
 Farewell : for one short life we part : 
 I rather woo the soothing art, 
 Which only souls in sufferings tried 
 Bear to their suffering brethren's side. 
 
COMMUNION OF SICK 283 
 
 Where may we learn that gentle spell ? 
 Mother of Martyrs, thou canst tell ! 1 
 Thou, who didst watch thy dying Spouse 
 With pierced hands and bleeding brows, 
 Whose tears from age to age are shed 
 O'er sainted sons untimely dead, 
 If e'er we charm a soul in pain, 
 Thine is the key-note of our strain. 
 
 How sweet with thee to lift the latch, 
 Where Faith has kept her midnight watch, 
 Smiling on woe : with thee to kneel, 
 Where fixed, as if one prayer could heal, 
 She listens, till her pale eye glow 
 With joy, wild health can never know, 
 And each calm feature, ere we read, 
 Speaks, silently, thy glorious Creed. 
 
 Such have I seen : and while they poured 
 Their hearts in every contrite word, 
 How have I rather longed to kneel 
 And ask of them sweet pardon's seal ! 
 How blessed the heavenly music brought 
 By thee to aid my faltering thought ! 
 " Peace ! " ere we kneel, and when we cease 
 To pray, the farewell word is, " Peace ! " 
 
 I came again : the place was bright 
 
 " With something of celestial light " — 2 
 
 A simple altar by the bed 
 
 For high Communion meetly spread, 
 
 1 " Mother of Martyrs": i.e. the Church, as typified 
 by the Virgin. Cf. S. Simon and S. Jude, st. i (p. 265). 
 
 2 "With something of celestial light": a slightly 
 
284 COMMUNION OF SICK 
 
 Chalice and plate and snowy vest. — 
 We ate and drank : then, calmly blest, 
 All mourners, one with dying breath, 
 We sate and talked of Jesus' death. 
 
 Once more I came : the silent room 
 Was veiled in sadly-soothing gloom, 
 And ready for her last abode 
 The pale form like a lily shewed, 
 By virgin fingers duly spread, 
 And prized for love of summer fled. 
 The light from those soft-smiling eyes 
 Had fleeted to its parent skies. 
 
 O soothe us, haunt us, night and day, 
 Ye gentle spirits far away, 
 With whom we shared the cup of grace, 
 Then parted : ye to Christ's embrace, 
 We to the lonesome world again, 
 Yet mindful of the unearthly strain 
 Practised with you at Eden's door, 
 To be sung on, where angels soar, 
 With blended voices evermore. 
 
 inaccurate quotation from Wordsworth's poem, "She 
 was a phantom of delight." 
 
 " And yet a spirit still and bright 
 With something of an angel light." 
 
 (Or, as in ed. 1845 : 
 
 " With something of Angelic light.") 
 
BURIAL OF THE DEAD 285 
 BURIAL OF THE DEAD 
 
 And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on 
 her, and said unto her, Weep not. And He came and 
 touched the bier : and they that bare him stood still. 
 And He said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. 
 
 S. Luke vii. 13, 14. 
 
 September 27, 1822. Originally written for the 
 Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 Even an autumnal scene has promise of spring in it, 
 and so Christ can speak a word of hope even to mourners 
 as they carry out their dead. The assurance, " I am 
 the Resurrection and the Life," which meets us as we 
 enter the Churchyard, leads us to trust our dear ones to 
 Him, feeling that it is better for them to be with Him, 
 and sends us back with fresh hope to the tasks of life. 
 
 Side by side with this poem should be read the 
 paraphrase of the Burial Service, printed in Keble's 
 " Letters of Spiritual Counsel," cliv. 
 
 \A/HO says the wan autumnal sun 
 Beams with too faint a smile 
 To light up nature's face again, 
 And, though the year be on the wane, 
 
 With thoughts of spring the heart beguile ? 
 
 Waft him, thou soft September breeze, 
 
 And gently lay him down 
 Within some circling woodland wall, 
 Where bright leaves, reddening ere they fall, 
 
 Wave gaily o'er the waters brown. 1 
 
 And let some graceful arch be there 
 
 With wreathed mullions proud, 
 With burnished ivy for its screen, 
 And moss, that glows as fresh and green 
 As though beneath an April cloud. — 
 1 Compare Monday in Whitsun week. Miss Yonge 
 suggests that the allusion is to the Church at Burthrop, 
 near Fairford. 
 
286 BURIAL OF THE DEAD 
 
 Who says the widow's heart must break, 
 
 The childless mother sink ? — 
 A kinder, truer voice I hear, 
 Which even beside that mournful bier 
 
 Whence parent's eyes would hopeless shrink, 
 
 Bids weep no more — O heart bereft, 
 How strange, to thee, that sound ! 
 
 A widow o'er her only son, 
 
 Feeling more bitterly alone 
 
 For friends that press officious round. 
 
 Yet is the voice of comfort heard, 
 For Christ hath touched the bier — 
 
 The bearers wait with wondering eye, 
 
 The swelling bosom dares not sigh, 
 But all is still, 'twixt hope and fear. 
 
 Even such an awful soothing calm 
 
 We sometimes see alight 
 On Christian mourners, while they wait 
 In silence, by some churchyard gate, 
 
 Their summons to the holy rite. 
 
 And such the tones of love which break 
 
 The stillness of that hour, 
 Quelling th' embittered spirit's strife — 
 " The Resurrection and the Life 
 
 Am I : believe, and die no more." — 
 
 Unchanged that voice — and though not yet 
 
 The dead sit up and speak, 
 Answering its call, we gladlier rest 
 Our darlings on earth's quiet breast, 
 
 And our hearts feel they must not break. 
 
CHURCHING OF WOMEN 287 
 
 Far better they should sleep awhile 1 
 
 Within the Church's shade, 
 Nor wake, until new Heaven, new earth, 
 Meet for their new immortal birth, 
 
 For their abiding-place be made, 
 
 Than wander back to life, and lean 
 
 On our frail love once more. 
 'Tis sweet, as year by year we lose 
 Friends out of sight, in faith to muse 
 
 How grows in Paradise our store. 
 
 Then pass, ye mourners, cheerly on, 
 
 Through prayer unto the tomb, 
 Still, as ye watch life's falling leaf, 
 Gathering from every loss and grief 
 Hope of new spring and endless home. 
 
 Then cheerly to your work again, 
 With hearts new-braced and set 
 To run, untired, love's blessed race, 
 As meet for those who face to face 
 Over the grave their Lord have met. 
 
 CHURCHING OF WOMEN 
 
 March 13, 1827. 
 The " awe in mortal's joy " that was present at 
 matrimony is present still when the mother comes to 
 offer her thanks for the birth of a child. Hope, joy, 
 and love inspire her prayers, but the gentlest of all 
 angels must be there to carry the prayer upward ; 
 Heaven's fire must fall to kindle the incense : the Holy 
 Spirit must mould earth's wishes into heavenly aspira- 
 tions : the thought of the childhood of Jesus must 
 come to soothe the mother's fluttering heart. 
 
 1 " Far better " : cf. Phil. i. 23. To be with Christ, 
 which is far better. 
 
288 CHURCHING OF WOMEN 
 
 J S there, in bowers of endless spring, 
 
 One known from all the seraph band 
 By softer voice, by smile and wing 
 More exquisitely bland ! 
 Here let him speed : to-day this hallowed air 
 Is fragrant with a mother's first and fondest prayer. 
 
 Only let Heaven her fire impart, 
 
 No richer incense breathes on earth : 
 " A spouse with all a daughter's heart," l 
 Fresh from the perilous birth, 
 To the great Father lifts her pale glad eye, 
 Like a reviving flower when storms are hushed 
 on high. 
 
 O what a treasure of sweet thought 
 
 Is here ! what hope and joy and love ! 
 All in one tender bosom brought, 
 For the all-gracious Dove 
 To brood o'er silently, and form for Heaven 
 Each passionate wish and dream to dear affection 
 given. 
 
 Her fluttering heart, too keenly blest, 
 
 Would sicken, but she leans on Thee, 
 Sees Thee by faith on Mary's breast, 
 And breathes serene and free. 
 Slight tremblings only of her veil declare 2 
 Soft answers duly whispered to each soothing 
 prayer. 
 
 1 Perhaps the allusion is to Andromache (cf. p. 89, 
 note), but I cannot trace the quotation to its source. 
 
 2 When the woman comes to this office, the rubric 
 (as it was altered at the last review) directs that she be 
 decently apparelled, i.e. as the custom and order was 
 formerly, with a white covering or veil. Wheatly, 
 " On the Common Prayer," c. xiii. sect. i. 3. — J. K. 
 
COMMINATION 289 
 
 We are too weak, when Thou dost bless, 
 
 To bear the joy — help, Virgin-born, 
 By Thine own mother's first caress, 
 That waked Thy natal morn ! 
 Help, by the unexpressive 1 smile, that made 
 A Heaven on earth around the couch where 
 Thou wast laid ! 
 
 COMMINATION 
 
 March 9, 1827. 
 
 On Ash Wednesday the Church in this time of her 
 decay waits before celebrating the Eucharist to do 
 penance for her sins. First she warns, then she pro- 
 nounces all the curses of the law on sin, which come 
 with a sterner note from her forgiving voice — and at 
 last (like a mother baring her breast to win her child 
 from a precipice) she ends with pleading words. 
 Perhaps the sinner may think, his sin too easily 
 pardoned : if so, he is called upon to pronounce his own 
 condemnation, and then to rise up in thankfulness, not 
 shaming the Cross by indulging in remorse. 
 
 HpHE prayers are o'er : why slumberest 
 thou so long, 
 Thou voice of sacred song ? 
 Why swell'st thou not, like breeze from 
 mountain cave, 
 High o'er the echoing nave, 
 The white-robed priest, as otherwhile, to 
 guide 
 Up to the altar's northern side ? — 
 A mourner's tale of shame and sad decay 
 Keeps back our glorious sacrifice to-day, 
 
 1 "Unexpressive." Compare S. Peter's day, st. 12, 
 note (p. 247). 
 
290 COMMUTATION 
 
 The widowed spouse of Christ ; with 
 ashes crowned, 
 Her Christmas robes unbound, 1 
 She lingers in the porch for grief and fear, 
 
 Keeping her penance drear. — 
 O is it nought to you ? that idly gay, 
 Or coldly proud, ye turn away ? 2 
 But if her warning tears in vain be spent, 
 Lo, to her altered eye the Law's stern fires are 
 lent. 
 
 Each awful curse, that on Mount Ebal 
 rang, 
 Peals with a direr clang 
 Out of that silver trump, whose tones of old 
 
 Forgiveness only told. 
 And who can blame the mother's fond 
 affright, 3 
 Who sporting on some giddy height 
 Her infant sees, and springs with hurried hand 
 To snatch the rover from the dangerous strand? 
 
 But surer than all words the silent spell 
 (So Grecian legends tell) 
 
 1 " Robes " : " wreaths."— MSS. 
 
 2 Cf. Lamentations i. 12. 
 
 3 Alluding to a beautiful anecdote in the " Greek 
 Anthology," torn. i. 180, ed. Jacobs. See Rogers: 
 " Pleasures of Memory," p. 133 : 
 
 11 While on the cliff with calm delight she kneels, 
 And the blue vales a thousand joys recall, 
 See to the last verge her infant steals : 
 O fly, yet stir not, speak not, lest it fall. 
 Far better taught she lays her bosom bare, 
 And the fond boy springs back to nestle there. *• — 
 
 J. K. 
 
COMMENTATION 291 
 
 When to her bird, too early scaped the nest, 
 
 She bares her tender breast. 
 Smiling he turns and spreads his little wing, 
 There to glide home, there safely cling. 
 So yearns our mother o'er each truant son, 
 So softly falls the lay in fear and wrath begun. 1 
 
 Wayward and spoiled she knows ye : the 
 keen blast 
 That braced her youth is past : 
 The rod of discipline, the robe of shame — 2 
 
 She bears them in your name : 
 Only return and love. But ye perchance 
 Are deeper plunged in sorrow's trance : 
 Your God forgives, but ye no comfort 3 take 
 Till ye have scourged the sins that in your 
 conscience ache. 
 
 O heavy-laden soul ! kneel down and hear 
 
 Thy penance in calm fear : 
 With thine own lips to sentence all thy sin ; 
 
 Then, by the judge within 
 Absolved, in thankful sacrifice to part 
 For ever with thy sullen heart, 
 Nor on remorseful thoughts to brood, and stain 
 The glory of the Cross, forgiven and cheered in 
 vain. 4 
 
 1 Compare the last few paragraphs of the Exhorta- 
 tion in the Commination Service. 
 
 2 "The rod of penance and the robe of shame." — 
 MSS. 
 
 3 " Comfort " : " pardon."— MSS. 
 
 4 Cf. Keble's " Letters of Spiritual Counsel," Letter 
 1 , "lam certain no person who believes in the Atone- 
 ment ought to indulge in bitter remorse, and therefore, 
 by God's blessing, I do not mean to be uncomfortable 
 if I can help it, even in the thought of my past faults." 
 
292 FORMS OF PRAYER 
 
 FORMS OF PRAYER TO BE USED 
 AT SEA 
 
 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with 
 thee. Isaiah xliii. 2. 
 
 1827. 
 
 As the sights and sounds at sea recall those on land, 
 so the Church Service used at sea with its prayers and 
 thanksgiving, at times of tempest or of fight, reminds 
 the sailor of the worship of the Church at home. The 
 Presence of the Church soothes him in time of victory, 
 and also when he commits a comrade to the deep, 
 reminding him that God can guard him there and 
 bring him thence on the Resurrection Day, as surely as 
 if he lay in the Churchyard at home. 
 
 "T^HE shower of moonlight falls as still and 
 clear 
 Upon the desert main, 
 As where sweet flowers some pastoral garden 
 cheer 
 With fragrance after rain : 
 The wild winds rustle in the piping shrouds, 
 
 As in the quivering trees : 
 Like summer fields beneath the shadowy clouds, 
 The yielding waters darken in the 
 breeze. 1 
 
 1 I cannot doubt that there is a reminiscence in this 
 stanza of Wordsworth's poem, "The Brothers." Com- 
 pare especially the lines : 
 
 " But he had been reared 
 Among the mountains, and he in his heart 
 Was half a shepherd on the stormy seas. 
 Oft in the piping shrouds had Leonard heard 
 The tones of waterfalls and inland sounds 
 Of caves and trees." 
 
TO BE USED AT SEA 293 
 
 Thou too art here with thy soft inland tones, 
 
 Mother of our new birth ; 
 The lonely ocean learns thy orisons, 
 
 And loves thy sacred mirth : 
 When storms are high, or when the fires of war 
 
 Come lightening round our course, 
 Thou breath'st a note like music from afar, 
 
 Tempering rude hearts with calm angelic 
 force. 1 
 
 Far, far away, the homesick seaman's hoard, 2 
 
 Thy fragrant tokens live, 
 Like flower- leaves in a precious volume stored, 
 
 To solace and relieve 
 Some heart too weary of the restless world ; 
 
 Or like thy sabbath Cross, 3 
 That o'er the brightening billow streams unfurled, 
 
 Whatever gale the labouring vessel toss. 
 
 O kindly soothing in high victory's hour, 
 
 Or when a comrade dies, 
 In whose sweet presence sorrow dares not lower, 
 
 Nor expectation rise 
 
 1 The service in the Prayer Book is divided into 
 three parts : Prayer in storms at sea and thanksgiving 
 for deliverance : Prayer before a fight and thanksgiving 
 for victory: Prayer at the burial of the dead at sea. 
 To each of these allusion is made here. 
 
 2 While the homesick sailor is far away at sea, the 
 service becomes treasured by him because of its associa- 
 tions, just as dried flowers which recall some past 
 happiness are treasured by one weary of life, or as the 
 cross that floats on the ship reminds him of all that it 
 symbolises. 
 
 3 " Thy sabbath Cross " : i.e. the special flag, bearing 
 a Cross upon it, hoisted on men of war during the 
 
294 FORMS OF PRAYER 
 
 Too high for earth ; what mother's heart could 
 spare 
 To the cold cheerless deep 
 Her flower and hope ? but thou art with him 
 there, 
 Pledge of the untired arm and eye that 
 cannot sleep : * 
 
 The eye that watches o'er wild ocean's dead, 
 
 Each in his coral cave, 
 Fondly as if the green turf wrapt his head 
 
 Fast by his father's grave. — 
 One moment, and the seeds of life shall spring 
 
 Out of the waste abyss, 
 And happy warriors triumph with their King 
 
 In worlds without a sea, 2 unchanging 
 orbs of bliss. 
 
 religious service on Sunday. Compare the Morning 
 Hymn for Emigrants, st. 9. (" Miscellaneous Poems," 
 P- 98) : 
 
 " Still overhead the saving sign 
 Streams, and we know that we are thine : 
 What course soe'er the vessel take, 
 The signal of our King we make." 
 
 1 The Church service prevents elation in the hour of 
 victory or too great grief on the loss of a comrade. 
 Compare the words of the penultimate prayer : " We 
 bless and magnify Thy great and glorious name for this 
 happy victory, the whole glory whereof we do ascribe 
 to Thee, who art the only Giver of victory " ; and the 
 words with which the body is committed to the sea: 
 " We therefore commit his body to the deep, to be 
 turned into corruption, looking for the Resurrection of 
 the body (when the sea shall give up her dead) and the 
 life of the world to come, through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 3 And there was no more sea. Revelation xxi. 1. 
 
GUNPOWDER TREASON 295 
 GUNPOWDER TREASON 
 
 As thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must 
 thou bear witness also at Rome. Acts xxiii. n. 
 
 November II, 1827. "Addressed to converts from 
 Popery."— MSS. 
 
 The Church, which mourned her Lord's Crucifixion 
 in the East, has now to bear her Cross in the West. 
 There she mourns over the sight of misdirected worship 
 and of martyrs slain at Rome. She mourns also for the 
 perplexities of those who are separated from Rome, and 
 who long to be united to her. But they may not go 
 back ; for she offers them, where they are, the sure 
 certainty of truth, and allows the imagination to dwell 
 on the Presence of the Dead (without the lurid mist of 
 Purgatory), and on the presence of the Lord on the 
 altar and in the heart. They may not then be tempted 
 back, but they should speak gently of Rome's fall, that 
 she may be restored. 
 
 ENEATH the burning eastern sky 
 The Cross was raised at morn : 
 The widowed Church to weep stood by, 
 The world, to hate and scorn. 
 
 Now, journeying westward, evermore 
 We know the lonely Spouse 
 
 By the dear mark her Saviour bore 
 Traced on her patient brows. 
 
 At Rome she wears it, as of old 
 
 Upon the accursed hill : * 
 By monarchs clad in gems and gold, 
 
 She goes a mourner still. 
 
 She mourns that tender hearts should bend 
 
 Before a meaner shrine, 
 And upon Saint or Angel spend 
 The love that should be thine. 
 1 " The accursed hill " : i.e. Calvary. 
 
 B 
 
296 GUNPOWDER TREASON 
 
 By day and night her sorrows fall 
 Where miscreant hands and rude 
 
 Have stained her pure ethereal pall 
 With many a martyr's blood. 
 
 And yearns not her parental heart, 
 
 To hear their secret sighs, 
 Upon whose doubting way apart 
 
 Bewildering shadows rise ? 
 
 Who to her side in peace would cling, 
 
 But fear to wake, and find 
 What they had deemed her genial wing 
 
 Was Error's soothing blind. 1 
 
 She treasures up each throbbing prayer : 
 Come, trembler, come and pour 
 
 Into her bosom all thy care, 
 For she has balm in store. 
 
 Her gentle teaching sweetly blends 
 With the clear light of Truth 
 
 The aerial gleam that Fancy lends 
 To solemn thoughts in youth. — 
 
 If thou hast loved, in hours of gloom, 
 To dream the dead are near, 
 
 And people all the lonely room 
 With guardian spirits dear, 
 
 Dream on the soothing dream at will : 
 
 The lurid mist is o'er, 
 That shewed the righteous suffering still 
 
 Upon the eternal shore. 
 
 1 Cf. p. 154, note. 
 
GUNPOWDER TREASON 297 
 
 If with thy heart the strains accord, 
 
 That on His altar-throne 
 Highest exalt thy glorious Lord, 
 
 Yet leave Him most thine own ; 
 
 O come to our Communion Feast : 
 There present, in the heart * 
 
 As in the hands, 2 the eternal Priest 
 Will His true self impart. — 
 
 Thus, should thy soul misgiving turn 
 Back to the enchanted air, 
 
 Solace and warning thou mayst learn 
 From all that tempts thee there. 
 
 And O ! by all the pangs and fears 
 
 Fraternal spirits know, 
 When for an elder's shame the tears 
 
 Of wakeful anguish flow, 
 
 Speak gently of our sister's fall : 
 Who knows but gentle love 
 
 May win her at our patient call 
 The surer way to prove ? 
 
 1 "There present in the heart." A copy in a private 
 letter written by Miss Keble reads : '•' There treasured 
 in the heart." 
 
 2 " As in the hands ■ : " not in the hands." — MSS. 
 and all early editions. For the meaning which Mr 
 Keble attached to the words cf. his "Eucharistical 
 Adoration," ed. 2. p. xiii. note. And for the circum- 
 stances of the change which was made in 1866 cf. 
 Coleridge's "Memoir," p. 163. or "J. Keble: a Bio- 
 graphy": by W. Lock, p. 56, and Church Quarterly 
 Review, July 1878, pp. 539-544. 
 
298 KING CHARLES 
 
 KING CHARLES THE MARTYR 
 
 This is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward 
 God endure grief, suffering wrongfully, i S. Peter ii. 1 9. 
 1827. 
 
 Though Apostles and Prophets have passed away, 
 we still have martyrs, alike in cottage hearths and on 
 the throne ; such was our royal Saint around whose 
 memory have grown almost sacred associations, and 
 who has endeared the prayers and psalms which he 
 used. The Church which he loved tended him in his 
 death, and thanks God still for his memory. 
 
 For Mr Keble's feeling towards Charles the First 
 compare the sermon preached on this day in 1831 
 (" Sermons Academical and Occasional," No. 5.), and 
 also " Occasional Papers and Reviews," p. 1 20. 
 
 D RAISE to our pardoning God! though 
 silent now 
 
 The thunders of the deep prophetic sky, l 
 Though in our sight no powers of darkness bow 
 
 Before the Apostles' glorious company ; 2 
 
 The Martyrs' noble army still is ours, 
 
 Far in the North our fallen days have seen 
 
 How in her woe the tenderest spirit towers 
 For Jesus' sake in agony serene. 
 
 Praise to our God ! not cottage hearths alone, 
 And shades impervious to the proud world's 
 glare, 
 
 Such witness yield : a monarch from his throne 
 Springs to his Cross and finds his glory there. 
 
 Yes : wheresoe'er one trace of thee is found, 
 A 8 in the Sacred Land, the shadows fall : 3 
 
 1 Cf. S. Luke ix. 54, 55 ; Revelation x. 3,4. 
 
 2 Cf. S. Luke x. 17, 18 ; Acts x. 9 ; xiii. 8, 1 1. 
 
 8 " The shadows fall." Perhaps, " shadows of bless- 
 ing fall upon our spirits, like the shadow of S. Peter 
 
THE MARTYR 299 
 
 With beating hearts we roam the haunted ground, 
 Lone battle-field or crumbling prison hall. 
 
 And there are aching solitary breasts, 
 
 Whose widowed walk with thought of thee is 
 cheered, 
 
 Our own, our royal Saint : thy memory rests 
 On many a prayer, the more for thee endeared. 
 
 True son of our dear Mother, early taught 
 With her to worship and for her to die, 
 
 Nursed in her aisles to more than kingly thought, 
 Oft in her solemn hours we dream thee nigh. 
 
 For thou didst love to trace her daily lore, 
 And where we look for comfort or for calm, 
 
 Over the self-same lines to bend, and pour 
 Thy heart with hers in some victorious psalm. 
 
 And well did she thy loyal love repay ; 
 
 When all forsook, her Angels still were nigh, 
 Chained and bereft, and on thy funeral way, 
 
 Straight to the Cross she turned thy dying eye. 1 
 falling upon and healing the sick" (Acts v. 15); or 
 perhaps, " there is a restful overshadowing atmo- 
 sphere, as though we were in the Holy Land " (cf. the 
 Fourth Sunday in Advent, p. 1 7). 
 
 1 His Majesty then bade him (Mr Herbert) with- 
 draw ; for he was about an hour in private with the 
 Bishop (Juxon) : and being called in, the Bishop went 
 to prayer ; and reading also the 27th chapter of the 
 Gospel of S. Matthew, which relateth the Passion of 
 our Blessed Saviour. The King, after the Service was 
 done, asked the Bishop, if he had made choice of that 
 chapter, being so applicable to his present condition ? 
 The Bishop replied, " May it please your Gracious 
 Majesty, it is the proper lesson for the day, as appears 
 by the Kalender; " which the King was much affected 
 with, so apdy serving as a seasonable preparation for his 
 death that day." Herbert's " Memoirs," p. 1 3 1 .— J. K. 
 
3 oo THE RESTORATION OF 
 
 And yearly now, before the Martyrs' King, 
 For thee she offers her maternal tears, 
 
 Calls us, like thee, to His dear feet to cling, 
 And bury in His wounds our earthly fears. 
 
 The Angels hear, and there is mirth in Heaven, 
 Fit prelude of the joy, when spirits won 
 
 Like thee to patient Faith, shall rise forgiven, 
 And at their Saviour's knees thy bright ex- 
 ample own. 
 
 THE RESTORATION OF THE 
 ROYAL FAMILY 
 
 And Barzillai said unto the King, How long have I 
 to live, that I should go up with the King unto Jeru- 
 salem ? 2 Samuel xix. 34. 
 
 1827. 
 
 As in the brightness of Easter there is mingled a 
 reminiscence of the Saviour's death, so amid the 
 triumph of the Restoration of the Monarchy there was 
 a note of sadness in the memory of the martyred king 
 and in the coincidence of the death of Dr Hammond. 
 May teachers, true to his teaching, ever remind us not 
 to confine our hopes to earthly kingdoms. 
 
 A S when the Paschal week is o'er, 
 Sleeps in the silent aisles no more 
 The breath of sacred song, 
 But by the rising Saviour's light 
 Awakened soars in airy flight, 
 Or deepening rolls along : 1 
 
 1 The organ is silent in many Churches during 
 Passion week : and in some it is the custom to put up 
 evergreen boughs at Easter as well as at Christmas 
 time.— J. K. 
 
THE ROYAL FAMILY 301 
 
 The while round altar, niche, and shrine, 
 The funeral evergreens entwine, 
 
 And a dark brilliance cast, 
 The brighter for their hues of gloom, 
 Tokens of Him who through the tomb 
 
 Into high glory passed : 
 
 Such were the lights and such the strains, 
 When proudly streamed o'er Ocean plains 
 
 Our own returning Cross ; 
 For with that triumph seemed to float 
 Far on the breeze one dirge-like note 
 
 Of orphanhood and loss. 
 
 Father and King, 1 O where art thou ? 
 A greener wreath adorns thy brow, 
 
 And clearer rays surround ; 
 O for one hour of prayer like thine, 
 To plead before the all-ruling shrine 
 
 For Britain lost and found ! 
 
 And he, 2 whose mild persuasive voice 
 Taught us in trials to rejoice, 
 
 Most like a faithful dove, 
 That by some ruined homestead builds, 
 And pours to the forsaken fields 
 
 His wonted lay of love : 
 
 1 " Father and King": i.e. Charles the First. 
 
 2 Read Fell's " Life of Hammond," p. 283-296. 
 Oxford, 1806. — J. K. Dr Henry Hammond, who had 
 been Charles the First's chaplain and one of the most 
 active Episcopalian writers during the Commonwealth, 
 was summoned to London in 1660 at the time of the 
 Restoration, " to assist in the composure of breaches in 
 the Church " ; but he was seized with a fatal illness 
 and died on the very day on which Parliament decided 
 on the Restoration of Charles the Second. 
 
3 o2 THE RESTORATION 
 
 Why comes he not to bear his part, 
 To lift and guide the exulting heart ? — 
 
 A hand that cannot spare 
 Lies heavy on his gentle breast : 
 We wish him health ; he sighs for rest, 
 
 And Heaven accepts the prayer. 
 
 Yes, go in peace, dear placid spright, 
 111 spared ; but would we store aright 
 
 Thy serious sweet farewell, 
 We need not grudge thee to the skies, 
 Sure after thee in time to rise, 
 
 With thee for ever dwell. 
 
 Till then, whene'er with duteous hand, 
 Year after year, my native Land 
 
 Her royal offering brings, 
 Upon the Altar lays the Crown, 
 And spreads her robes of old renown 
 
 Before the King of Kings, 
 
 Be some kind spirit, likest thine, 
 Ever at hand, with airs divine 
 
 The wandering heart to seize ; 
 Whispering, " How long hast thou to live, 
 That thou shouldst Hope or Fancy give 
 
 To flowers or crowns like these ? " 
 
THE ACCESSION 303 
 ACCESSION 
 
 As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will 
 not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Joshua i. 5. 
 1827. 
 
 God's Promise to Joshua, " I will not fail thee nor 
 forsake thee," is a constant source of comfort in times 
 of death. The glimpse which it gives of one unchang- 
 ing love and might gives strength to the monarch as 
 he ascends the throne : to the Priest as he takes up 
 his pastoral task : and to all it tells of the lesson of 
 content. 
 
 HTHE voice that from the glory came 
 
 To tell how Moses died unseen, 
 And waken Joshua's spear of flame 
 
 To victory on the mountains green, 
 Its trumpet tones are sounding still, 
 
 When Kings or Parents pass away, 
 They greet us with a cheering thrill 
 
 Of power and comfort in decay. 
 
 Behind the soft bright summer cloud 
 
 That makes such haste to melt and die, 
 Our wistful gaze is oft allowed 
 
 A glimpse of the unchanging sky : 
 Let storm and darkness do their worst ; 
 
 For the lost dream the heart may ache, 
 The heart may ache, but may not burst : 
 
 Heaven will not leave thee nor forsake. 
 
 One rock amid the weltering floods, 
 
 One torch in a tempestuous night, 
 One changeless pine in fading woods : — 
 
 Such is the thought of Love and Might, 
 True Might and ever-present Love, 
 
 When Death is busy near the throne, 
 And Sorrow her keen sting would prove 
 
 On Monarchs orphaned and alone. 
 
304 ORDINATION 
 
 In that lorn hour and desolate, 
 
 Who could endure a crown ? but He 
 Who singly bore the world's sad weight, 
 
 Is near, to whisper, " Lean on Me : 
 Thy days of toil, thy nights of care, 
 
 Sad lonely dreams in crowded hall, 
 Darkness within, while pageants glare 
 
 Around — the Cross supports them all." 
 
 O promise of undying Love ! 
 
 While monarchs seek thee for repose, 
 Far in the nameless mountain cove 
 
 Each pastoral heart thy bounty knows. 
 Ye, who in place of shepherds true 
 
 Come trembling to their awful trust, 
 Lo here the fountain to imbue 
 
 With strength and hope your feeble dust. 
 
 Not upon Kings or Priests alone 
 
 The power of that dear word is spent ; 
 It chants to all in softest tone 
 
 The lowly lesson of Content : 
 Heaven's light is poured on high and low ; 
 
 To high and low Heaven's Angel spake ; 
 " Resign thee to thy weal or woe, 
 
 I ne'er will leave thee nor forsake." 
 
 ORDINATION 
 
 After this, the congregation shall be desired, secretly 
 in their prayers, to make their humble supplications to 
 God for all these things : for the which prayers there 
 shall be silence kept for a space. 
 
 After which shall be sung or said by the Bishop (the 
 persons to be ordained Priests all kneeling), " Veni, 
 Creator Spiritus." (Rubric in the Office for Ordering 
 of Priests.) 
 
ORDINATION 305 
 
 March 28. 1828. 
 The thought of the poem is so simple that no analysis 
 seems needed. 
 
 ' HpWAS silence in Thy temple, Lord, 
 
 A When slowly through the hallowed air 
 The spreading cloud of incense soared, 
 
 Charged with the breath of Israel's prayer. 1 
 
 'Twas silence round Thy throne on high, 
 When the last wondrous seal unclosed, 2 
 
 And in the portals of the sky 
 
 Thine armies awfully reposed. 
 
 And this deep pause, that o'er us now 
 Is hovering — comes it not of Thee ? 
 
 Is it not like a mother's vow, 
 
 When with her darling on her knee, 
 
 She weighs and numbers o'er and o'er 
 
 Love's treasure hid in her fond breast, 
 
 To cull from that exhaustless store 
 
 The dearest blessing and the best ? 
 
 And where shall mother's bosom find, 
 With all its deep love-learned skill, 
 
 A prayer so sweetly to her mind, 
 
 As, in this sacred hour and still, 
 
 Is wafted from the white-robed choir, 
 Ere yet the pure high-breathed lay, 
 
 " Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire," 
 Rise floating on its dove-like way ? 
 
 1 Cf. 1 Kings viii. 10 ff. 
 
 2 When he had opened the seventh seal, there was 
 silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. 
 Revelation viii. 1. 
 
306 ORDINATION 
 
 And when it comes, so deep and clear 
 The strain, so soft the melting fall, 
 
 It seems not to the entranced ear 
 
 Less than Thine own heart-cheering call, 
 
 Spirit of Christ — Thine earnest given 
 
 That these our prayers are heard, and they 
 
 Who grasp this hour the sword of Heaven, 
 Shall feel Thee on their weary way. 
 
 Oft as at morn or soothing eve 
 
 Over the Holy Fount they lean, 
 
 Their fading garland freshly weave, 
 
 Or fan them with Thine airs serene, 
 
 Spirit of Light and Truth ! to Thee 
 We trust them in that musing hour, 
 
 Till they, with open heart and free, 
 
 Teach all Thy word in all its power. 
 
 When foemen watch their tents by night, 
 
 And mists hang wide o'er moor and fell, 
 
 Spirit of Counsel and of Might, 
 
 Their pastoral warfare guide Thou well. 
 
 And O ! when worn and tired they sigh 
 With that more fearful war within, 
 
 When Passion's storms are loud and high, 
 And brooding o'er remembered sin 
 
 The heart dies down — O mightiest then, 
 Come ever true, come ever near, 
 
 And wake their slumbering love again, 
 Spirit of God's most holy Fear ! 
 
INDEX 
 
 And is there in God's world so drear a place 
 
 And wilt Thou hear the fevered heart 
 
 Angel of wrath ! why linger in mid air . 
 
 As rays around the source of light . 
 
 As when the Paschal week is o'er . 
 
 At length the worst is o'er, and Thou art laid 
 
 Awake — again the Gospel-trump is blown 
 
 Beneath the burning eastern sky 
 Bless'd are the pure in heart 
 
 Creator, Saviour, strengthening Guide 
 
 Dear is the morning gale of spring . 
 
 Father to me Thou art, and Mother dear 
 Fill high the bowl, and spice it well, and 
 First Father of the holy seed . 
 Foe of mankind ! too bold thy race . 
 
 Go not away, thou weary soul . 
 
 Go up and watch the new-born rill . 
 
 Hold up thy mirror to the sun 
 Hues of the rich unfolding morn 
 
 I marked a rainbow in the north 
 
 In troublous days of anguish and rebuke 
 
 Is it not strange, the darkest hour . 
 
 Is there, in bowers of endless spring . 
 
 Is this a time to plant and build 
 
 It is so ! — ope thine eyes and see 
 
 It was not then a poet's dream 
 
 pour 
 
 3°7 
 
3 o8 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Lessons sweet of spring returning 
 
 " Lord, and what shall this man do ? " 
 
 Lord, in Thy field I work all day 
 
 My Saviour, can it ever be . 
 
 Not till the freezing blast is still 
 
 Now is there solemn pause in earth and Heaven 
 
 O day of days 1 shall hearts set free . 
 
 O for a sculptor's hand .... 
 
 O God of Mercy, God of Might 
 
 O hateful spell of sin ! when friends are nigh 
 
 O holy mountain of my God 
 
 O Lord my God, do Thou Thy holy will 
 
 O Youth and Joy, your airy tread 
 
 Of the bright things in earth and air 
 
 Oh ! say not, dream not, heavenly notes . 
 
 Oh ! Thou who deign'st to sympathise 
 
 Oh ! who shall dare in this frail scene 
 
 On Sinai's top, in prayer and trance 
 
 Praise to our pardoning God ! though silent now 
 Prophet of God, arise and take 
 
 Red o'er the forest peers the setting 
 
 Say, ye celestial guards, who wait 
 
 See Lucifer like lightning fall . 
 
 Seest thou how tearful and alone 
 
 Since all that is not Heaven must fade 
 
 Sit down and take thy fill of joy 
 
 Soft cloud, that while the breeze of May 
 
 Star of the East, how sweet art Thou 
 
 Stately thy walls, and holy are the prayers 
 
 Sweet Dove ! the softest, steadiest plume 
 
 Sweet nurslings of the vernal skies . 
 
 Ten cleansed, and only one remain ! . 
 Tis gone, that bright and orbed blaze 
 'Tis true, of old the unchanging sun . 
 The bright-haired morn is glowing . 
 
 sun 
 
 PAGE 
 
 42 
 
 26 
 
 I38 
 
 122 
 
 I I 
 
 I2 S 
 
INDEX 
 
 3°9 
 
 The clouds that wrap the setting sun 
 
 The earth that in her genial breast . 
 
 The heart of childhood is all mirth . 
 
 The historic Muse, from age to age . 
 
 The live-long night we've toiled in vain 
 
 The midday sun, with fiercest glare . 
 
 The morning mist is cleared away . 
 
 The prayers are o'er : why slumberest thou so long 
 
 The shadow of the Almighty's cloud 
 
 The shower of moonlight falls as still and clear 
 
 The Son of God in doing good 
 
 The voice that from the glory came . 
 
 The world's a room of sickness, where each heart 
 
 The year begins with Thee 
 
 There are, who darkling and alone . 
 
 There is an awe in mortals' joy 
 
 There is a Book, who runs may read 
 
 They know the Almighty's power . 
 
 Thou first-born of the year's delight . 
 
 Thou thrice denied, yet thrice beloved 
 
 Twas silence in Thy temple, Lord . 
 
 Twice in her season of decay . 
 
 Two clouds before the summer gale . 
 
 Wake, arm divine ! awake 
 
 We were not by when Jesus came 
 
 Well may I guess and feel 
 
 What liberty so glad and gay 
 
 What sudden blaze of song 
 
 What went ye out to see . 
 
 When bitter thoughts, of conscience born . 
 
 When brothers part for manhood's race 
 
 When God of old came down from Heaven 
 
 When Nature tries her finest touch . 
 
 When Persecution's torrent blaze 
 
 Where is it mothers learn their love? 
 
 Where is the land with milk and honey flowing 
 
 Where is Thy favoured haunt, eternal Voice 
 
 Who is God's chosen priest? 
 
 Who says the wan autumnal sun 
 
 Why blow'st thou not, thou wintry wind . 
 
 Why doth my Saviour weep 
 
3io INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Why should we faint and fear to live alone . 20S 
 
 Will God indeed with fragments bear . . 213 
 
 Wish not, dear friends, my pain away . . 186 
 
 Ye hermits blest, ye holy maids . . . 255 
 
 Ye stars that round the Sun of righteousness . 258 
 
 Ye whose hearts are beating high ... 87 
 
 Yes — deep within, and deeper yet ... 70 
 
PRINTED BY 
 
 TURXBULL AND SPEARS, 
 
 EDINBURGH