DEVOTIONAL PIECES.

'THE LOVE OF CHRIST WHICH PASSETH

KNOWLEDGE."

I

BORE with thee long weary days and nights, Through many pangs of heart, through many tears; I bore with thee, thy hardness, coldness, slights, For three and thirty years.

Who else had dared for thee what I have dared?
I plunged the depth most deep from bliss above;
I not My flesh, I not My spirit spared :

Give thou Me love for love.

For thee I thirsted in the daily drouth,
For thee I trembled in the nightly frost:
Much sweeter thou than honey to My mouth:
Why wilt thou still be lost?

I bore thee on My shoulders and rejoiced :
Men only marked upon My shoulders borne
The branding cross; and shouted hungry-voiced,
Or wagged their heads in scorn.

Thee did nails grave upon My hands, thy name

Did thorns for frontlets stamp between Mine eyes : I, Holy One, put on thy guilt and shame; I, God, Priest, Sacrifice.

A thief upon My right hand and My left;
Six hours alone, athirst, in misery:

At length in death one smote My heart and cleft
A hiding-place for thee.

Nailed to the racking cross, than bed of down
More dear, whereon to stretch Myself and sleep:
So did I win a kingdom, — share My crown;

A harvest, come and reap.

"A BRUISED REED SHALL HE NOT BREAK."

I

WILL accept thy will to do and be,

Thy hatred and intolerance of sin,

Thy will at least to love, that burns within
And thirsteth after Me:

So will I render fruitful, blessing still

The germs and small beginnings in thy heart,
Because thy will cleaves to the better part. -
Alas, I cannot will.

Dost not thou will, poor soul? Yet I receive
The inner unseen longings of the soul;

I guide them turning towards Me; I control
And charm hearts till they grieve:

If thou desire, it yet shall come to pass,

Though thou but wish indeed to choose My love; For I have power in earth and heaven above.

I cannot wish, alas!

What, neither choose nor wish to choose? and yet I still must strive to win thee and constrain: For thee I hung upon the cross in pain,

How then can I forget?

If thou as yet dost neither love, nor hate,

Nor choose, nor wish, resign thyself, be still
Till I infuse love, hatred, longing, will.—
I do not deprecate.

A BETTER RESURRECTION.

I

HAVE no wit, no words, no tears;

My heart within me like a stone
Is numbed too much for hopes or fears;

Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief
No everlasting hills I see;

My life is in the falling leaf:

O Jesus, quicken me!