Medieval Sequences and Hymns 9, 119, Musings Over the Christian Year and The Caged Lion 26, 131, 238, 345, 444, 542 The Divina Commedia of Dante 105, 209, The First Fruits of Japan 51, 167, 276, 1, 109, 214, 319, The Fifth of July in the Isle of Man 191 The Maiden's Chamber AFTER a feverish, restless, excited night, when sleep has seemed only to confuse and oppress us with a vague burthensome sense of care and sin, how often the whole of our distress is at once dispelled, that of the body by the fresh breath of spring, that of the mind by the thought of the Presence of God. Such are the wonders of God's grace, hourly wrought, according to the words of George Herbert in his poem of 'Temper,' on the fitfulness of man's spirits. 'Although there were some forty heavens or more, Sometimes I peer above them all; Sometimes to hell I fall. So the mood alters from gloom to brightness, from despondency to hope, just as the world does when the sunshine suddenly breaks through a ridge of cloud, and bathes the dull cold world in warm cheerful radiance. Such a change may come on us in the midst even of sorrow for our sins, for we have the Book where heavenly mercy shines out as free to all as the sunlight itself. For example, just as an April shower seems to make the woods assume at once their veil of tender green, 'the lifeless and uncoloured scene flush into variety again;' so the dull cold heart of stone that 'Israel's crowned mourner' had so long borne within him, melted into holy repentance at the words of the prophet. Then Nathan, forestalling the office of the Absolver, since he verily bore the Divine word of pardon, hastened to speak. 'The LORD also VOL. 8. 1 PART 43. hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.' And gently as the word was spoken, Heaven re-echoed it. 'And all the band of angels, used to sing In Heaven, accordant to his raptured string, Now spread their wings and throng around And welcome with bright open face, The broken heart to love's embrace.' For surely, if the angels rejoice over one sinner that repenteth, their joy must have been exceeding, when the sweet Psalmist, who had of all the sons of men best sung with them on earth, returned from his fall to be again 'the Man after God's own heart.' From the time David's hardness of heart broke like the smitten rock, there has welled forth a flood of holy tears, following along with the Church, through her whole course, ever fresh, ever forming the mind to penitence and giving fit vent to the sense of contrition. What thousands and ten thousands of aching hearts have been solaced by the assurance that a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.' What millions of the dying have clung to those earnest prayers to guide their wavering entreaties! Or, again, how many miserable concealments may not have been broken through by the record of David's own experience, 'I said I will confess my sins unto the LORD, and so Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.' There let us seek refreshment, and after repentance after that sort we shall be 'upholden by His free Spirit,' for the force of which expression we are referred to Bishop Horne's comment on the Fifty-first Psalm: 'Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy free (or princely, or liberal) Spirit. David. . . . prayeth . . . . to be preserved and continued in that state of salvation by the Spirit of God, which might enable him to act as became a prophet and a king, free from base desires and enslaving lusts.' And here follows what Dr. Newman in his Apologia tells us he could never read without applying it to Scott, though aware that the author, in his humility, had no thought but of himself. In this he was but like St. Paul in his wholesome humble fear and watchfulness, 'lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.' And, oh! it must needs be the dread of everyone, who in any sort has attempted any work for the spiritual teaching of others. Each must from the very heart re-echo the entreaty to such as may have derived any benefit from such teaching. And a true voice to him may cry, "Presumption is one of the very simple yet very thrilling Lyra poems, and on that same subject of David's sin, and the change it made in the life previously so bright and beautiful, that as it has been remarked, he never was the same man again. It is an address to a child, following his generous indignation at the piteous story of the ewe lamb, and his sense of the impossibility of falling into so cruel and heartless a sin. Then comes the warning. 'But mark, young David was as thou, With motion free as mountain cloud, He trod where mists the moorland shroud, From bear and lion tore the prey, Nor deemed he e'er should rend as they. Such was his morn: but mark how grieve With sackcloth ends, a fallen man. Then wherefore trust youth's eager thought? We cannot help summing up that chequered life of the man after God's own heart in those grand and forcible ones of Dr. Newman's, in which David's spiritual guardians are supposed, at the time of his anointing, to forebode his career, knowing that 'We, thine angels, arching round thee, Wounds from friend and gifts from foe, Dizzied faith, and guilt and woe; Loftiest aims by earth defiled, Gleams of wisdom sin-beguiled, Sated power's tyrannic mood, Counsels shared with men of blood, Sad success, parental tears, And a heavy gift of years. Strange, that guileless face and form To lavish on the scarring storm! * Presumption was added to the second edition of the Lyra, but unfortunately by some accident this and Danger of Praise' have changed places, this being given to the Fourth Sunday in Advent, and 'Danger of Praise' (upon that Sunday's Gospel) to the Sixth Sunday after Trinity. |