N

WOW morning lifts her dewy veil

With new-born blessings crown'd;
Oh, haste we then her light to hail
In courts of holy ground!

But Christ, triumphant o'er the grave,
Shines more divinely bright:
Oh, sing we then His power to save,
And walk we in His light!

Christ Risen.

When from the swaddling bands of shade

Sprang forth the world so fair,

In robes of brilliancy array'd,

Oh, what a Power was there!

When He, who gave His guiltless Son

A guilty world to spare, Restored to life the Holy One, Oh, what a Love was there!

When forth from its Creator's hand
The earth in beauty stood,

All deck'd with light at His command,
He saw, and call'd it good.

But still more lovely in His sight,
The earth still fairer stood,

When the Holy Lamb had wash'd it white
In His atoning blood.

Still, as the morning rays return,

To the pious soul 'tis given

In fancy's mirror to discern

The radiant domes of Heaven.

But now that our eternal Sun
Hath shed His beams abroad,
In Him we see the Holy One,
And mount at once to God.

Oh, holy, blessed Three in One!
May Thy pure light be given,
That we the paths of death may shun,
And keep the road to Heaven!

309

Christ the Lord is Risen To-day.

REV. CHARLES WESLEY.

HRIST the Lord is risen to-day,

CHRIS

Sons of men and angels say:

Raise your joys and triumphs high,
Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply.

Love's redeeming work is done,
Fought the fight, the battle won:
Lo, our Sun's eclipse is o'er!
Lo, He sets in blood no more!

Vain the stone, the watch, the seal,
Christ hath burst the gates of hell!
Death in vain forbids His rise;
Christ hath open'd Paradise!

Lives again our glorious King:
Where, O Death, is now thy sting?
Once He died, our souls to save:
Where thy victory, O Grave?

Soar we now where Christ has led,
Following our exalted Head;

Made like Him, like Him we rise;
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies.

What though once we perish'd all,
Partners in our parents' fall?
Second life we all receive,
In our Heavenly Adam live.

Risen with Him, we upward move;

Still we seek the things above;

Christ's Ascension.

Still pursue, and kiss the Son,
Seated on His Father's throne.

Scarce on earth a thought bestow,
Dead to all we leave below;
Heaven our aim, and loved abode,
Hid our life with Christ in God:

Hid, till Christ our Life appear
Glorious in His members here;
Join'd to Him, we then shall shine,
All immortal, all divine.

Hail the Lord of Earth and Heaven!
Praise to Thee by both be given !
Thee we greet triumphant now!
Hail, the Resurrection Thou!

King of Glory, Soul of bliss!
Everlasting life is this,-

Thee to know, Thy power to prove,

Thus to sing, and thus to love!

G

Christ's Ascension.

HENRY MOORE.

OD is ascended up on high

With merry noise of trumpet-sound,

And princely seated in the sky,

Rules over all the world around.

Sing praises then, sing praises loud
Unto our universal King:

He who ascended on a cloud,

To Him all laud and praises sing.

311

In human flesh and shape He went,
Adorned with His passion's scars;
Which in Heaven's sight He did present,
More glorious than the glittering stars.

Oh, happy pledge of pardon sure,
And of an endless blissful state,
Since human nature once made pure,
For Heaven becomes so fit a mate!

Lord, raise our sinking minds therefore,
Up to our proper country dear;
And purify us evermore,

To fit us for those regions clear.

That when He shall return again
In clouds of glory, as He went,
Our souls no foulness may retain,
But be found pure and innocent.

And so may mount to His bright hosts
On eagle wings up to the sky,
And be conducted to the courts
Of everlasting bliss and joy.

I

The Resurrection.

GEORGE HERBERT.

GOT me flowers to strew Thy way;

I got me boughs from many a tree :

But Thou wast up by break of day,

And brought'st Thy sweets along with Thee.