Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly | All is so quiet; the troubled breast,

voices,

And jarrest the celestial harmonies?

Were half the power that fills the world

with terror,

The wounded spirit, the heart oppressed,
Here may find the repose it craves.

See, how the ivy climbs and expands
Over this humble hermitage,

And seems to caress with its little hands

Were half the wealth bestow'd on camps The rough, gray stones, as a child that

and courts,

[blocks in formation]

Down the dark future, through long generations,

The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease;

And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations,

stands

Caressing the wrinkled cheeks of age!

You cross the threshold; and dim and small

Is the space that serves for the Shep-
herd's Fold;

The narrow aisle, the bare, white wall,
The pews, and the pulpit quaint and tall,
Whisper and say: "Alas! we are old."
Herbert's chapel at Bemerton

Hardly more spacious is than this;
But Poet and Pastor, blent in one,
Clothed with a splendor, as of the sun,

That lowly and holy edifice.

It is not the wall of stone without

That makes the building small or great, But the soul's light shining round about,

I hear once more the voice of Christ And the faith that overcometh doubt,

"Peace!"

say,

And the love that stronger is than hate.

Peace and no longer from its brazen Were I a pilgrim in search of peace,
portals
Were I a pastor of Holy Church,

The blast of War's great organ shakes More than a bishop's diocese

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]

Grire in grace, & Savinir,
To put off in might,
Dreds of drums of darkuss
In the roles of light.

4. Cleusand foxe
Bp. & Wertm. D. York.
due, 6, 1881.

M

"PSALMS AND HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS."

EPH. V. 19.

WATCHMAN, TELL US OF THE NIGHT. | That He our deadly forfeit should release,

WATCHMAN, tell us of the night—
What its signs of promise are!
Traveller, o'er yon mountain's height
See that glory-beaming star!
Watchman, does its beauteous ray
Aught of hope or joy foretell?
Traveller, yes; it brings the day-
Promised day of Israel.

Watchman, tell us of the night—
Higher yet that star ascends!
Traveller, blessedness and light,

Peace and truth, its course portends. Watchman, will its beams alone

Gild the spot that gave them birth? Traveller, ages are its own

See, it bursts o'er all the earth!

[blocks in formation]

And with His Father work us a perpetual

peace.

II.

That glorious form, that light unsufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of majesty,
Wherewith He wont at heav'n's high coun-
cil-table

To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,
He laid aside; and here with us to be,
Forsook the courts of everlasting day,
And chose with us a darksome house of
mortal clay.

III.

Say, heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred.

vein

Afford a present to the Infant God?
Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn

[blocks in formation]

ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S

NATIVITY.

I.

IV.

See how from far upon the eastern road The star-led wizards haste with odors sweet:

THIS is the month, and this the happy Oh run, prevent them with thy humble ode,

[blocks in formation]

And lay it lowly at His blessed feet;
Have thou the honor first thy Lord to

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

The idle spear and shield were high up Or e'er the point of dawn,

hung,

The hooked chariot stood

Unstain'd with hostile blood,

The trumpet spake not to the armèd

throng,

And kings sat still with awful eye,

Sat simply chatting in a rustic row; Full little thought they then

That the mighty Pan

Was kindly come to live with them below;

Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep,

As if they surely knew their sov'reign Lord Was all that did their silly thoughts so

[blocks in formation]
« FöregåendeFortsätt »