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.

At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee, for thou art greatly beloved; therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. Daniel ix. 23.

66

"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 open' 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

f Daniel vi. 10.

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,
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 stedfast 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 stedfast 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.

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:

g Dan. xii. 13. See Bp. Kenn's Sermon on the character of Daniel.