I have a home on earth I cannot

leave,

I have a friend on earth I cannot grieve: Come down to me, I cannot mount to you.'

'Nay, choose between us both, Choose as you are lief or loth: You cannot keep these things and have me too.'

11 November 1858.

FOR HENRIETTA POLYDORE

ON the land and on the sea Jesus keep both you and me :

Going out and coming in, Christ keep us both from shame and sin:

In this world, in the world to come, Keep us safe and lead us home:

To-day in toil, to-night in rest, Be best beloved and love us best. 16 January 1859.

ASH WEDNESDAY

JESUS, do I love Thee?
Thou art far above me,
Seated out of sight,
Hid in heavenly light
Of most highest height.
Martyred hosts implore Thee,
Seraphs fall before Thee,
Angels and Archangels,
Cherub throngs adore Thee.
Blessed she that bore Thee!
All the saints approve Thee,

All the virgins love Thee.

I show as a blot

Blood hath cleansèd not, As a barren spot

In thy fruitful lot;

I, fig-tree fruit-unbearing,

Thou, righteous Judge unsparing:
What canst Thou do more to me
That shall not more undo me?
Thy Justice hath a sound,
'Why cumbereth it the ground?'
Thy Love with stirrings stronger
Pleads, 'Give it one year longer.'
Thou giv'st me time: but who
Save Thou shall give me dew,
Shall feed my root with blood
And stir my sap for good?—
Oh by Thy gifts that shame me
Give more lest they condemn me.
Good Lord, I ask much of Thee,
But most I ask to love Thee:
Kind Lord, be mindful of me,
Love me and make me love Thee.
21 March 1859.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

BEFORE the paling of the stars,
Before the winter morn,
Before the earliest cock-crow
Jesus Christ was born :

Born in a stable

Cradled in a manger,

In the world His hands had made Born a stranger.

Priest and King lay fast asleep

In Jerusalem,

Young and old lay fast asleep

In crowded Bethlehem : Saint and Angel, ox and ass,

Kept a watch together,

Before the Christmas daybreak
In the winter weather.

Jesus on his Mother's breast

In the stable cold,
Spotless Lamb of God was He,
Shepherd of the fold:

Let us kneel with Mary Maid,

With Joseph bent and hoary, With Saint and Angel, ox and ass, To hail the King of Glory. 26 August 1859.

CHRIST OUR ALL IN ALL

(From 26 August 1859 to before 1893.)

The ransomed of the Lord.

THY lovely saints do bring Thee love,

Incense and joy and gold;

Fair star with star, fair dove with dove,

Beloved by Thee of old.

I, Master, neither star nor dove, Have brought Thee sins and tears;

Yet I too bring a little love

Amid my flaws and fears.

A trembling love that faints and fails

Yet still is love of Thee,

A wondering love that hopes and hails

Thy boundless Love of me;
Love kindling faith and pure desire,
Love following on to bliss,

A spark, O Jesu, from Thy fire,
A drop from Thine abyss.
Before 1893.

Sweet are the waters of Thy shore'less sea,

Make sweet our waters that make haste to Thee;

Pour in Thy sweetness, that ourselves may be

Sweetness to Thee. Before 1893.

An exceeding bitter cry. CONTEMPT and pangs and haunting fears

Too late for hope, too late for ease, Too late for rising from the dead;

Too late, too late to bend my knees,

Or bow my head,

Or weep, or ask for tears.

Hark! ... One I hear Who calls to me:

'Give Me thy thorn and grief and scorn,

Give Me thy ruin and regret. Press on thro' darkness toward the morn:

One loves thee yet:

Have I forgotten thee?'

Lord, Who art Thou? Lord, is it

Thou

My Lord and God Lord Jesus Christ?

How said I that I sat alone And desolate and unsufficed? Surely a stone

sea,

Our waves and ripples all derived

from Thee:

A nothing we should have, a nothing

be, Except for Thee.

Before 1893.

O LORD, when Thou didst call me,

didst Thou know

My heart disheartened thro' and

thro',

Without a hiding-place

To hide me from the terrors of Thy Face.-

'Thy hiding-place is here

In Mine own heart, wherefore the Roman spear

For thy sake I accounted dear.'My Jesus! King of Grace.

. . Without a veil, to give Whiteness before Thy Face that I might live.

'Am I too poor to dress

Thee in My royal robe of righteousness?

Challenge and prove My Love's excess.'

Give, Lord, I will receive.

Without a pool wherein To wash my piteous self and make me clean.

'My Blood hath washed away Thy guilt, and still I wash thee day by day:

Only take heed to trust and pray.'

Lord, help me to begin.

Before 1893.

LORD JESUS, who would think that I am Thine ?

Ah who would think,

Who sees me ready to turn back or

sink,

That Thou art mine?

I cannot hold Thee fast tho' Thou

art mine:

Hold Thou me fast,

So earth shall know at last and heaven at last

That I am Thine. Before 1886.

high,

What was it made Thee stoop to

look at me

While flawless sons of God stood wondering by?

'My love of thee.'

What is there which can lift me up on high

That we may dwell together, Thou with me,

When sin and death and suffering are gone by?

'My love of thee.'

O Lord, what is that best thing hid on high

Which makes heaven heaven as
Thou hast promised me,

Me?

I crave not thine, but thee.'

Ah Lord Who lovest me! Such as I have now give I Thee.' Before 1886.

IF I should say my heart is in my home,'

I turn away from that high halidom Where Jesus sits: for nowhere else

But with its treasure dwells
The heart this Truth and this
experience tells.

If I should say my heart is in a grave,'

I turn away from Jesus risen to save:

I slight that death He died for me ; I too deny to see

His beauty and desirability.

O Lord, Whose Heart is deeper than my heart,

Draw mine to Thine to worship

where Thou art;

For Thine own glory join the twain Never to part again,

Lord, why then am I weak?-Because I give

Power to the weak, and bid the dying live.

Lord, I am tired. He hath not much desired

The goal who at the starting-point is tired.

died in vain.

Before 1886.

LEAF from leaf Christ knows; Himself the Lily and the Rose:

Sheep from sheep Christ tells; Himself the Shepherd, no one else:

Star and star He names,
Himself outblazing all their flames :

Dove by dove, He calls

To set each on the golden walls :

Drop by drop, He counts
The flood of ocean as it mounts:

Grain by grain, His hand Numbers the innumerable sand.

Lord, I lift to Thee

In peace what is and what shall be:

Lord, in peace I trust

To Thee all spirits and all dust. Before 1882.

LORD, carry me.-Nay, but I grant

thee strength

To walk and work thy way to Heaven at length.

what is in man;

What the flesh can, and what the spirit can.——

Lord, dost Thou care?-Yea, for thy gain or loss

So much I cared, it brought Me to the Cross.

Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.

Good is the word; but rise, for life is brief.

The follower is not greater than the Chief:

Follow thou Me along My way of grief.

Before 1893.

LORD, I am here.-But, child, I look for thee

Elsewhere and nearer Me.Lord, that way moans a wide insatiate sea:

How can I come to Thee?Set foot upon the water, test and see If thou canst come to Me.Couldst Thou not send a boat to carry me,

Or dolphin swimming free?