Floats round their steps, where'er they move,
From hopes fulfill'd 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 unbeguil'd
To idolize or wife or child;

Such wedded souls our God shall own
For faultless virgins round His throne.

Thus every where 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!

THURSDAY BEFORE EASTER.

THE VISION OF THE LATTER DAYS.

At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and 1 am come to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved; therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. Daniel ix. 23. [First Morning Lesson, Church of England.]

"O 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,*
His lattice opent toward his darling west,
Mourning the ruin'd home he still must love the best,

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 compass'd with the world's too tempting blazonry.

*

'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,

["O Daniel, a man greatly beloved;" Hebrew, a man of desires, or loves. Daniel x. 11.]

† Daniel vi. 10.

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 dar'd, would fain be mute!
Even such is this bad world we see,
Which, self-condemn'd 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. Dark frown'd the future even on him,

The loving and beloved Seer,

What time he saw, through shadows dim,

The boundary of th' eternal year;

He only of the sons of men

Nam'd to be heir of glory then.*

*Dan. xii. 13. See Bishop Kenn's Sermon on the Character of Daniel.

["All these wonderful vouchsafements from above to Daniel, though they were most illustrious demonstrations that he was greatly beloved, yet they were indulged him for the sake of others, as well as for his own. There is therefore one more illustrious than all these, and that is a favour which God bestows on but very few, and on none but great saints, who are greatly beloved; and not usually on them, till near their death, and is the very

Else had it bruis'd too sore his tender heart

To see God's ransom'd world in wrath and flame depart.

Then look no more: or closer, watch

Thy course in Earth's bewildering ways,
For every glimpse thine eye can catch
Of what shall be in those dread days:
So when th' Archangel's word is spoken,
And Death's deep trance for ever broken,

In

mercy thou may'st feel the heavenly hand, And in thy lot unharm'd before thy Saviour stand.*

top blessing of which man is capable in this life, the highest bliss on this side of heaven; and that is an absolute assurance of a glorious immortality; and such an assurance as this had the beloved Daniel: for the angel, having discoursed to him of the resurrection of those that sleep in the dust and of their awaking to everlasting life, adds, Go thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in the lot at the end of the days. O the unutterable felicity of this man, thus greatly beloved by God! whilst the generality of saints sigh under their flesh and blood, which clogs, and loads, and depresses them; whilst the penitent are still begging their pardon, and the humble full of fears and misgivings, by reason of their numerous failings; while the best of them all see heaven only through a glass darkly, and at a distance, and can reach no higher in this world than hope, and desire, and reliance on God's promise, and patient expectation; Daniel, the man greatly beloved, has an angel sent on purpose by God, to assure him of his lot in a glorious eternity, and that his mansion there was prepared and brightened to receive him. And yet this is not all; Daniel was not only assured of future glory, but of a greater degree of glory than others had: for having made it his great business here below to love God himself, and greatly to love him, and to excite others to love God as greatly as he loved him, he was to have a more sublime exaltation in bliss than ordinary; the greater his love was, the nearer was he to be seated to the throne of God his beloved; and having turned many to righteousness, he was to shine as the stars for ever and ever."—A Short Account of the Life of the Rt. Rev. Father in God, Thomas Kenn, D. D. By W. Hawkins, Esq. London, 1713, 12mo.

* Dan. xii. 13. Thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

GOOD FRIDAY.*

He is despised and rejected of men. Isaiah liii. 3. [First Evening Lesson.]

[Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross, who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified; receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Church, that every member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly and godly serve thee, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

O merciful God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor desirest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics; and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.]

IS it not strange, the darkest hour

That ever dawn'd 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 ris'n to save."

Sooner than where upon the Saviour's friends
The very Comforter in light and love descends.

*

[The most solemn fast of the Christian Church, observed in commemoration of her Saviour's crucifixion, making atonement for the sins of men.]