PATRIOTIC SYMPATHIES.

LAST night, without a voice, that Vision spake
Fear to my Soul, and sadness which might seem
Wholly dissevered from our present theme;
Yet, my beloved country! I partake
Of kindred agitations for thy sake;
Thou, too, dost visit oft my midnight dream;
Thy glory meets me with the earliest beam
Of light, which tells that Morning is awake.
If aught impair thy beauty or destroy,
Or but forebode destruction, I deplore
With filial love the sad vicissitude;

If thou hast fallen, and righteous Heaven re

WHO Comes with rapture greeted, and caress'd
With frantic love-his kingdom to regain?
Him Virtue's Nurse, Adversity, in vain
Received, and fostered in her iron breast:
For all she taught of hardiest and of best,
Or would have taught, by discipline of pain
And long privation, now dissolves amain,
Or is remembered only to give zest
To wantonness. -Away, Circean revels!
But for what gain? if England soon must sink
Into a gulf which all distinction levels-
That bigotry may swallow the good name,
And, with that draught, the life-blood: misery,
shame,

By Poets loathed; from which Historians shrink!

IV. LATITUDINARIANISM.

YET Truth is keenly sought for, and the wind Charged with rich words poured out in thought's defence;

Whether the Church inspire that eloquence,
Or a Platonic Piety confined

To the sole temple of the inward mind;
And One there is who builds immortal lays,
Though doomed to tread in solitary ways,
Darkness before and danger's voice behind;
Yet not alone, nor helpless to repel
Sad thoughts; for from above the starry sphere
Come secrets, whispered nightly to his ear;
And the pure spirit of celestial light
Shines through his soul-"that he may see and

tell

Of things invisible to mortal sight."

PERSECUTION OF THE SCOTTISH COVENANTERS.

WHEN Alpine Vales threw forth a suppliant cry,
The majesty of England interposed
And the sword stopped; the bleeding wounds
were closed;

And Faith preserved her ancient purity.
How little boots that precedent of good.
Scorned or forgotten, Thou canst testify,
For England's shame, O Sister Realm! from
wood,

Mountain, and moor, and crowded street, where lie

The headless martyrs of the Covenant,
Slain by Compatriot-protestants that draw
From councils senseless as intolerant
Their warrant. Bodies fall by wild sword-law;
But who would force the Soul tilts with a straw
Against a Champion cased in adamant.

OBLIGATIONS OF CIVIL TO RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

UNGRATEFUL Country, if thou e'er forget
The sons who for thy civil rights have bled!
How, like a Roman, Sidney bowed his head,
And Russel's milder blood the scaffold wet;
But these had fallen for profitless regret
Had not thy holy Church her champions bred,
And claims from other worlds inspirited
The star of Liberty to rise.

Nor yet
(Grave this within thy heart!) if spiritual things
Be lost, through apathy, or scorn, or fear,
Shalt thou thy humbler franchises support,
However hardly won or justly dear:

What came from heaven to heaven by nature clings,

And, if dissevered thence, its course is short.

XI.

SACHEVEREL.

A SUDDEN Conflict rises from the swell
Of a proud slavery met by tenets strained
In Liberty's behalf. Fears, true or feigned,
Spread through all ranks; and lo! the Sentinel
Who loudest rang his pulpit 'larum bell

Stands at the Bar, absolved by female eyes
Mingling their glances with grave flatteries
Lavished on Him-that England may rebel
Against her ancient virtue. HIGH and Low,
Watch-words of Party, on all tongues are rife;
As if a Church, though sprung from heaven,

must owe

To opposites and fierce extremes her life,-
Not to the golden mean, and quiet flow
Of truths that soften hatred, temper strife.

XII.

Down a swift Stream, thus ar, a bold design Have we pursued, with livelier stir of heart Than his who sees, borne forward by the Rhine, The living landscapes greet him, and depart; Sees spires fast sinking-up again to start! And strives the towers to number, that recline O'er the dark steeps, or on the horizon line Striding with shattered crests his eye athwart. So have we hurried on with troubled pleasure: Henceforth, as on the bosom of a stream

That slackens, and spreads wide a watery gleam, We, nothing loth a lingering course to measure, May gather up our thoughts, and mark at leisure

How widely spread the interests of our theme.

XIII.

ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICA.

1. THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

WELL worthy to be magnified are they
Who, with sad hearts, of friends and country
took

A last farewell, their loved abodes forsook,
And hallowed ground in which their fathers lay;
Then to the new-found World explored their
way,

That so a Church, unforced, uncalled to brook
Ritual restraints, within some sheltering nook
Her Lord might worship and his word obey
In freedom. Men they were who could not bend;
Blest Pilgrims, surely, as they took for guide
A will by sovereign Conscience sanctified;
Blest while their Spirits from the woods ascend
Along a Galaxy that knows no end,
But in His glory who for Sinners died.

XIV.

II. CONTINUED.

FROM Rite and Ordinance abused they fled
To Wilds where both were utterly unknown;
But not to them had Providence foreshown
What benefits are missed, what evils bred,
In worship neither raised nor limited
Save by Self-will. Lo! from that distant shore,
For Rite and Ordinance, Piety is led
Back to the Land those Pilgrims left of yore,
Led by her own free choice. So Truth and
Love

By Conscience governed do their steps re

trace.

Fathers! your Virtues, such the power of grace, Their spirit, in your Children, thus approve. Transcendent over time, unbound by place, Concord and Charity in circles move.

XV.

III. CONCLUDED.-AMERICAN EPISCOPACY.

PATRIOTS informed with Apostolic light
Were they, who, when their Country had been
freed,

Bowing with reverence to the ancient creed,
Fixed on the frame of England's Church their
And strove in filial love to reunite
sight,

What force had severed. Thence they fetched the seed

Of Christian unity, and won a meed
Of praise from Heaven. To Thee, O saintly
WHITE,

Patriarch of a wide-spreading family,

Remotest lands and unborn times shall turn, Whether they would restore or build-to Thee, As one who rightly taught how zeal should burn,

As one who drew from out Faith's holiest urn The purest stream of patient Energy.

XVI.

BISHOPS and Priests, blessed are ye, if deep (As yours above all offices is high) Deep in your hearts the sense of duty lie;

PASTORAL CHARACTER.

A GENIAL hearth, a hospitable board,
And a refined rusticity, belong

To the neat mansion, where, his flock among,
The learned Pastor dwells, their watchful Lord.
Though meek and patient as a sheathed sword;
Though pride's least lurking thought appear a
wrong

To human kind; though peace be on his tongue,
Gentleness in his heart-can earth afford
Such genuine state, pre-eminence so free,
As when, arrayed in Christ's authority,
He from the pulpit lifts his awful hand;
Conjures, implores, and labours all he can
For re-subjecting to divine command
The stubborn spirit of rebellious man?

XIX.

THE LITURGY.

YES, if the intensities of hope and fear
Attract us still, and passionate exercise
Of lofty thoughts, the way before us lies
Distinct with signs, through which in set career,
As through a zodiac, moves the ritual year
Of England's Church; stupendous mysteries!
Which whoso travels in her bosom eyes,
As he approaches them, with solemn cheer.
Upon that circle traced from sacred story
We only dare to cast a transient glance,
Trusting in hope that Others may advance
With mind intent upon the King of Glory,
From his mild advent till his countenance
Shall dissipate the seas and mountains hoary.

XX. BAPTISM.

Whose virtue changes to a christian Flower
A Growth from sinful Nature's bed of weeds!-
Fitliest beneath the sacred roof proceeds
The ministration; while parental Love
Looks on, and Grace descendeth from above
As the high service pledges now, now pleads.
There, should vain thoughts outspread their
wings and fly

To meet the coming hours of festal mirth,
The tombs-which hear and answer that brief
cry,

The Infant's notice of his second birth-
Recal the wandering Soul to sympathy
With what man hopes from Heaven, yet fears
from Earth.

ΧΧΙ. SPONSORS.

FATHER! to God himself we cannot give
Both names conjoined, but of thy spiritual care
A holier name! then lightly do not bear
Be duly mindful: still more sensitive

Do Thou, in truth a second Mother, strive
Against disheartening custom, that by Thee
Watched, and with love and pious industry
Tended at need, the adopted Plant may thrive
For everlasting bloom. Benign and pure
This Ordinance, whether loss it would supply,
Prevent omission, help deficiency,

Or seek to make assurance doubly sure.
Shame if the consecrated Vow be found
An idle form, the Word an empty sound!

XXII. CATECHISING.

FROM Little down to Least, in due degree,
Around the Pastor, each in new-wrought ves
We stood, a trembling, earnest Company!
Each with a vernal posy at his breast,
With low soft murmur, like a distant bee,
Some spake, by thought-perplexing fears be-
trayed;

And some a bold unerring answer made:
How fluttered then thy anxious heart for me,
Beloved Mother! Thou whose happy hand
Had bound the flowers I wore, with faithful tie:
Sweet flowers! at whose inaudible command
Her countenance, phantom-like, doth re-

THE Young-ones gathered in from hill and dale,
With holiday delight on every brow:
'Tis passed away; far other thoughts prevail;
For they are taking the baptismal Vow
Upon their conscious selves; their own lips
speak

The solemn promise. Strongest sinews fail,
And many a blooming, many a lovely, cheek
Under the holy fear of God turns pale;
While on each head his lawn-robed Servant
lays

An apostolic hand, and with prayer seals
The Covenant. The Omnipotent will raise

needs

Of Infancy, provides a timely shower

Who, looking round the fair assemblage, feels That ere the Sun goes down their childhood sets.

XXIV.

CONFIRMATION CONTINUED.

I SAW a Mother's eye intensely bent
Upon a Maiden trembling as she knelt;
In and for whom the pious Mother felt
Things that we judge of by a light too faint:
Tell, if ye may, some star-crowned Muse, or
Saint!

Tell what rushed in, from what she was relieved

Then, when her Child the hallowing touch received,

And such vibration through the Mother went That tears burst forth amain. Did gleamis appear?

Opened a vision of that blissful place

Where dwells a Sister-child? And was power given

Part of her lost One's glory back to trace
Even to this Rite? For thus She knelt, and, ere
The summer-leaf had faded, passed to Heaven.

THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. THE Vested Priest before the Altar stands; Approach, come gladly, ye prepared, in sight Of God and chosen friends, your troth to plight With the symbolic ring, and willing hands Solemnly joined. Now sanctify the bands, O Father!-to the Espoused thy blessing give, That mutually assisted they may live Obedient, as here taught, to thy commands. So prays the Church, to consecrate a Vow "The which would endless matrimony make;" Union that shadows forth and doth partake A mystery potent human love to endow With heavenly, each more prized for the other's

sake:

Weep not, meek Bride! uplift thy timid brow.

Of thy fond hopes hereafter walk inclined
To courses fit to make a mother rue
That ever he was born, a glance of mind
Cast upon this observance may renew
A better will; and, in the imagined view
Of thee thus kneeling, safety he may find.

XXVIII.

VISITATION OF THE SICK.

THE Sabbath bells renew the inviting peal;
Glad music! yet there be that, worn with pain
And sickness, listen where they long have lain,
In sadness listen. With maternal zeal
Inspired, the Church sends ministers to kneel
Beside the afflicted; to sustain with prayer,
And soothe the heart confession hath laid bare--
That pardon, from God's throne, may set its seal
On a true Penitent. When breath departs
From one disburthened so, so comforted,
His Spirit Angels greet; and ours be hope
That, if the Sufferer rise from his sick-bed,
Hence he will gain a firmer mind, to cope
With a bad world, and foil the Tempter's arts.

FORMS OF PRAYER AT SEA.

To kneeling worshippers no earthly floor
Gives holier invitation than the deck

Of a storm-shattered Vessel saved from Wreck
(When all that Man could do avail'd no more)
By him who raised the Tempest and restrains:
Happy the crew who this have felt, and pour
Forth for his mercy, as the Church ordains,
Solemn thanksgiving. Nor will they implore
In vain who, for a rightful cause, give breath
To words the Church prescribes aiding the lip
For the heart's sake, ere ship with hostile ship
Encounters, armed for work of pain and death.
Suppliants! the God to whom your cause ye

trust

Will listen, and ye know that He is just.

XXXI.

FUNERAL SERVICE.

FROM the Baptismal hour, thro' weal and woe, The Church extends her care to thought and deed;

Nor quits the Body when the Soul is freed,
The mortal weight cast off to be laid low.
Blest Rite for him who hears in faith, "I know

That my Redeemer liveth,"-hears each word
That follows-striking on some kindred chord
Deep in the thankful heart;-yet tears will flow.
Man is as grass that springeth up at morn,
Grows green, and is cut down and withereth
Ere nightfall-truth that well may claim a sigh,
Its natural echo; but hope comes reborn
At Jesu's bidding. We rejoice, "O Death
Where is thy Sting?-O Grave where is thy
Victory?"

XXXII.

RURAL CEREMONY.

CLOSING the sacred Book which long has fed
Our meditations, give we to a day
Of annual joy one tributary lay:
This day, when, forth by rustic music led,
The village Children, while the sky is red
With evening lights, advance in long array
Through the still church-yard, each with gar-
land gay,

That, carried sceptre-like, o'ertops the head
Of the proud Bearer. To the wide church-door,
Charged with these offerings which their fathers
bore

For decoration in the Papal time,
The innocent Procession softly moves:-
The spirit of Laud is pleased in heaven's pure
clime,

And Hooker's voice the spectacle approves!

XXXIII. REGRETS.

WOULD that our scrupulous Sires had dared to leave

Less scanty measure of those graceful rites
And usages, whose due return invites
A stir of mind too natural to deceive;
Giving to Memory help when she would weave
A crown for Hope!-I dread the boasted lights
That all too often are but fiery blights,
Killing the bud o'er which in vain we grieve.
Go, seek, when Christmas snows discomfort
bring,

The counter Spirit found in some gay church
Green with fresh holly, every pew a perch
In which the linnet or the thrush might sing,
Merry and loud and safe from prying search,
Strains offered only to the genial Spring.

XXXIV. MUTABILITY.

FROM low to high doth dissolution climb,
And sink from high to low, along a scale
Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail;
A musical but melancholy chime,

Which they can hear who meddle not with

crime,

Nor avarice, nor over-anxious care.
Truth fails not; but her outward forms that bear
The longest date do melt like frosty rime,
That in the morning whitened hill and plain
And is no more; drop like the tower sublime
Of yesterday, which royally did wear
His crown of weeds, but could not even sustain
Some casual shout that broke the silent air,
Or the unimaginable touch of Time.

XXXV.

OLD ABBEYS.

MONASTIC Domes! following my downward

way,

Untouched by due regret I marked your fall!

Now, ruin, beauty, ancient stillness, all
Dispose to judgments temperate as we lay
On our past selves in life's declining day:
For as, by discipline of Time made wise,
We learn to tolerate the infirmities
And faults of others-gently as he may,
So with our own the mild Instructor deals,
Teaching us to forget them or forgive.
Perversely curious, then, for hidden ill
Why should we break Time's charitable seals?
Once ye were holy, ye are holy still;
Your spirit freely let me drink, and live!

XXXVI.

EMIGRANT FRENCH CLERGY.

EVEN while I speak, the sacred roofs of France
Are shattered into dust; and self-exiled
From altars threatened, levelled, or defiled,
Wander the Ministers of God, as chance
Opens a way for life, or consonance

Of faith invites. More welcome to no land
The fugitives than to the British strand,
Where priest and layman with the vigilance
Of true compassion greet them. Creed and test
Vanish before the unreserved embrace
Of catholic humanity:-distrest
They came,--and, while the moral tempest roars
Throughout the Country they have left, our
Give to their Faith a fearless resting-place

shores