Yet in your sympathetic heart We and our earthly griefs may ask and hope a part. Comfort's true sons! amid the thoughts of down Sure, 'tis one joy to muse, how ye unknown Where'er the Cross is borne with smiles, Or lighten'd secretly by Love's endearing wiles : Where'er one Levite in the temple keeps Or issuing thence, the eyes of mourners steeps Thus saints, that seem to die in earth's rude strife, They have but left our weary ways To live in memory here, in heaven by love and praise. ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers unto the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers. Malachi iv. 5, 6. TWICE in her season of decay The fallen Church hath felt Elijah's eye Whose torch afar Shadows and boding night-birds fly. Methinks we need him once again, In vain on Carmel's green and lonely mound: From Sinai soar, On his celestial errands bound. But wafted to her glorious place By harmless fire, among the ethereal thrones, Her likeness true, And trace, in thine, her own deep tones. Deathless himself, he joys with thee To commune how a faithful martyr dies, And in the blest could envy be, He would behold thy wounds with envious eyes, Star of our morn, Who yet unborn Didst guide our hope, where Christ should rise. Now resting from your jealous care For sinners, such as Eden cannot know, Ye pour for us your mingled prayer, No anxious fear to damp Affection's glow. Love draws a cloud From you to shroud Rebellion's mystery here below. c St. Luke i. 74. The Babe leaped in her womb for joy. And since we see, and not afar, The twilight of the great and dreadful day, Why linger, till Elijah's car Stoop from the clouds? Why sleep ye? rise and pray, Ye heralds seal'd In camp or field Your Saviour's banner to display. Where is the lore the Baptist taught, His light should wane, So the whole world to Jesus throng? Thou Spirit who the Church didst lend Her eagle wings, to shelter in the wild, To guide aright Our weary souls, by earth beguil❜d. d St. John iii. 30. He must increase, but I must decrease. e Revelations xii. 14. So glorious let thy Pastors shine, That by their speaking lives the world may learn That sons to parents, all to Thee may turn ; In fires of love, At sight of Thee, for aye to burn. ST. PETER'S DAY. When Herod would have brought him out, the same night Peter was sleeping. Acts xii. 6. THOU thrice denied, yet thrice belov’d3, In sharpest perils faithful prov'd, Let his soul love thee to the end. f Malachi iv. 6. He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers. St. Luke i. 17. To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. g St. John xxi. 15, 16, 17. |