Cheat the toil and cheer the way: Leave it all in His high hand, Who doth hearts as streams command".

Gales from heaven, if so He will,

Sweeter melodies can wake On the lonely mountain rill

Than the meeting waters make. Who hath the Father and the Son, May be left, but not alone.

Sick or healthful, slave or free,

Wealthy, or despis’d and poorWhat is that to him or thee,

So his love to Christ endure ? When the shore is won at last, Who will count the billows past?

Only, since our souls will shrink

At the touch of natural grief, When our earthly lov'd ones sink,

Lend us, Lord, thy sure relief; Patient hearts, their pain to see, And thy grace, to follow Thee.

THE HOLY INNOCENTS.

These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb. Revelations xiv. 4.

SAY,

ye

celestial guards, who wait In Bethlehem, round the Saviour's palace gate,

Say, who are these on golden wings, That hover o'er the new-born King of kings,

Their palms and garlands telling plain
That they are of the glorious martyr train,

Next to yourselves ordain'd to praise
His name, and brighten as on Him they gaze ?

But where their spoils and trophies ? where The glorious dint a martyr's shield should bear ? How chance no cheek among

them wears The deep-worn trace of penitential tears,

6
The Holy Innocents.

32

But all is bright and smiling love,
As if, fresh-borne from Eden's happy grove,

They had flown here, their King to see,
Nor ever had been heirs of dark mortality ?

Ask, and some angel will reply, “ These, like yourselves, were born to sin and die,

“ But ere the poison root was grown, "s God set his seal, and mark'd them for his own.

Baptiz'd in blood for Jesus' sake, “ Now underneath the cross their bed they make,

“ Not to be scar'd from that sure rest By frighten'd mother's shriek, or warrior's waving

66 crest."

66

Mindful of these, the first-fruits sweet
Borne by the suffering Church her Lord to greet ;

Bless'd Jesus ever lov'd to trace
The “ innocent brightness" of an infant's face.

He rais'd them in his holy arms,
He bless'd them from the world and all its harms:

Heirs though they were of sin and shame, He bless'd them in his own and in his Father's name.

Then, as each fond unconscious child On th' everlasting Parent sweetly smild,

(Like infants sporting on the shore, That tremble not at Ocean's boundless roar)

Were they not present to thy thought,
All souls, that in their cradles thou hast bought ?

But chiefly these, who died for Thee,
That Thou might’st live for them a sadder death to see.

And next to these, thy gracious word Was as a pledge of benediction, stor’d

For Christian mothers, while they moan
Their treasur'd hopes, just born, baptiz'd, and gone.

Oh joy for Rachel's broken heart !
She and her babes shall meet no more to part;

So dear to Christ her pious haste
To trust them in his arms, for ever safe embrac'd.

She dares not grudge to leave them there, Where to behold them was her heart's first prayer,

She dares not grieve-but she must weep,
As her pale placid martyr sinks to sleep,

Teaching so well and silently
How, at the shepherd's call, the lamb should die :

D

How happier far than life the end Of souls that infant-like beneath their burthen bend.

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS.

So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down. Isaiah xxxviii. 8. Compare Josh. x. 13.

'TIS true, of old th' unchanging sun
His daily course refus'd to run,

The pale moon hurrying to the west
Paus'd at a mortal's call, to aid

Th’avenging storm of war, that laid
Seven guilty realms at once on earth's defiled breast.

But can it be, one suppliant tear
Should stay the ever-moving sphere?

A sick man's lowly breathed sigh,
When from the world he turns away',

° And Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall, and prayed unto the Lord.