Where angels down the lucid stair The heathen's wizard fires. Go, with thy voice the altar rend, Shrunk at thy withering charm. Then turn thee, for thy time is short, Thy heedless soul astray. Thou know'st how hard to hurry by, Where maidens to the Queen of Heaven In hymns as soft as balm. Or thee perchance a darker spell Pollute with infant's blood; The giant altar on the rock, The cavern whence the timbrel's call * Isaiah lvii. 6. Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot. Trust not the dangerous path again— Thy message given, thine home in sight, Yield to the false delight Thy better soul could spurn? Alas, my brother! round thy tomb The gray-hair'd saint may fail at last, NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. ELIJAH IN HOREB. 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. [First Evening Lesson, Church of England.] [Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.] IN troublous days of anguish and rebuke, While sadly round them Israel's children look, While underneath each awful arch of green, 'Tis well, true hearts should for a time retire Towards promis'd regions of serener grace; Where all around on mountain, sand, and sky, There, if in jealousy and strong disdain That I should stand, where they have vainly striven?" Perhaps our God may of our conscience ask, And God's own ark with blood of souls defil'd; He on the rock may bid us stand, and see His endless warfare with man's wilful heart; And to their base the trembling mountains part: Yet the Lord is not here: 'tis not by Power * 1 Sam. xvii. 28. Perhaps His Presence thro' all depth and height, The flames of his consuming, jealous ire. Hastes to proclaim," God is not in the fire." Is ever with the soft, meek, tender soul: Here is our Lord, and not where thunders roll. Because the rocks the nearer prospect close. Yet in fallen Israel are their hearts and eyes† That day by day in prayer like thine arise: Thou know'st them not, but their Creator knows.‡ [Beautifully descriptive of the Saviour's way of drawing sinners unto him. "He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench." St. Matthew xii, 20.] [Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him." 1 Kings xix. 18.] [THE SYNAGOGUE. "But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away."St. Paul. I saw them in their synagogue, as in their ancient day, Go, to the world return, nor fear to cast The work be thine, the fruit thy children's part: For dazzling on my vision still, the latticed galleries shine With Israel's loveliest daughters, in their beauty half divine! It is the holy Sabbath eve,-the solitary light Sheds, mingled with the hues of day, a lustre nothing bright; On swarthy brow and piercing glance it falls with saddening tinge, And dimly gilds the Pharisee's phylacteries and fringe. The two-leaved doors slide slow apart before the eastern screen, Robed in his sacerdotal vest, a silvery-headed man And fervently that hour I prayed, that from the mighty scroll, For yet the tenfold film shall fall, O Judah! from thy sight, * Eccles. xi. 1. |