THE VOICE OF SPRING.

I come! I come! ye have call'd me long;
I come o'er the mountains with light and song;
Ye may trace my step o'er the wakening earth,
By the winds which tell of the violet's birth,
By the primrose-stars in the shadowy grass,
By the green leaves opening as I pass.

I have breathed on the south, and the chestnut-flowers
By thousands have burst from the forest-bowers;
And the ancient graves and the fallen fanes
Are veiled with wreaths on Italian plains.
But it is not for me, in my hour of bloom,
To speak of the ruin or of the tomb!

I have pass'd o'er the hills of the stormy north,
And the larch has hung all his tassels forth;
The fisher is out on the sunny sea,

And the rein-deer bounds through the pasture free;
And the pine has a fringe of softer green,

And the moss looks bright where my step has been.

I have sent through the wood-paths a gentle sigh,
And call'd out each voice of the deep-blue sky,
From the night-bird's lay through the starry time,
In the groves of the soft Hesperian1 clime,
To the swan's wild note by the Iceland lakes,
When the dark fir-bough into verdure breaks.

From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain,
They are sweeping on to the silvery main,

1 western.

They are flashing down from the mountain-brows,
They are flinging spray on the forest-boughs,
They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves,
And the earth resounds with the joy of waves.

Come forth, O ye children of gladness, come!
Where the violets lie, may be now your home:
Ye of the rose-cheek, and dew-bright eye,
And the bounding footstep, to meet me fly;
With the lyre, and the wreath, and the joyous lay,
Come forth to the sunshine,-I may not stay!

The summer is hastening, on soft winds borne ;
Ye may press the grape, ye may bind the corn;
For me, I depart to a brighter shore;

I

Ye are marked by care, ye are mine no more. go where the loved who have left you dwell, And the flowers are not Death's-fare ye well, farewell!

SELECT PASSAGES.

The Church.

The Holy Catholic Church.-Apostles' Creed.

One Catholic and Apostolic Church.-Nicene Creed.

THE Church of Christ, which we properly term His body mystical, can be but one; neither can that one be sensibly discerned by any man, inasmuch as the parts thereof are, some in heaven already with Christ, and the rest that are on earth (albeit their natural persons be visible) we do not discern under this property whereby they are truly and infallibly of that body. . . . . Such a real body there is,— a body collective, because it containeth an huge multitude, -a body mystical, because the mystery of their conjunction is removed altogether from sense. Whatsoever we read in Scripture concerning the endless love and the saving mercy which God sheweth towards His Church, the only proper subject thereof is this Church. Concerning this flock it is that our Lord and Saviour hath promised, "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,

1 union, joining together.

neither shall any pluck them out of my hand" (John x. 28). -As those everlasting promises of love, mercy, and blessedness, belong to the mystical Church; even so, on the other side, when we read of any duty which the Church of God is bound unto, the Church whom this doth concern is a sensible known company. And this visible Church is but one, continued from the first beginning of the world to the last end.

The unity of which visible body and Church of Christ consisteth in that uniformity which all several persons thereunto belonging have, by reason of that one Lord, whose servants they all profess themselves; that one faith which they all acknowledge; that one baptism wherewith they are all initiated. The visible Church of Jesus Christ is therefore one, in outward profession of those things which supernaturally appertain to the very essence of Christianity, and are necessarily required in every particular Christian man.

They which belong to the mystical body of our Saviour Christ, and be in number as the stars of heaven, divided successively, by reason of their mortal condition, into many generations, are, notwithstanding, coupled every one to Christ their Head, and all unto every particular person amongst themselves, inasmuch as the same Spirit which anointed the blessed soul of our Saviour Christ doth so formalize,2 unite, and actuate His whole race, as if both He and they were so many limbs compacted into one body, by being quickened all with one and the same soul,

Christ is whole with the whole Church, and whole with every part of the Church.

MR. HOOKER.

There is, and ought to be, a visible company of men professing the service and discipline, that is, the religion, of the gospel, who agree together in the belief of all the truths of God revealed by Jesus Christ, and in confession of the articles of this [Apostles'] Creed; and agree together in praying and praising God through Jesus Christ; to read, and hear the Scriptures read and expounded; to provoke each other to love and to good works; to advance the honour of Christ, and to propagate His faith and worship.

And this Church is catholic . . . . gathered out of all nations, and is not of a differing faith in differing places; but always did, doth, and ever shall, profess the faith which the apostles preached, and which is contained in this creed; which, whosoever believes is a Catholic and a Christian, and he that believes not is neither.

BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR.

I believe, O blessed and adorable Mediator, that the Church is a society of persons, founded by Thy love to sinners, united into one body, of which Thou art the Head; initiated' by baptism, nourished by the eucharist, governed by pastors commissioned by Thee, and endowed with the

1 or admitted.