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:
How happier far than life the end

Of souls that infant-like beneath their burden bend.

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS.

THE SUN-DIAL OF AHAZ.

So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down. Isaiah, xxxviii. 8. (Compare Josh. x. 13.) [First Evening Lesson, Church of England Prayer Book.]

[Almighty God, who hast given us thy only begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure Virgin; grant that we, being regenerate and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit, through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.]

"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 oncef on earth's defiled breast, [Joshua.]

*

[The Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.]

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 hides his weary eyes to pray,

Should change your mystic dance, ye wanderers of the sky?

We too, O Lord, would fain command,
As then, thy wonder-working hand,

And backward force the waves of Time,

That now so swift and silent bear

Our restless bark from year to year;

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Help us to pause and mourn to Thee our tale of crime.

Bright hopes, that erst the bosom warm'd,
And vows, too pure to be perform'd,

And prayers blown wide by gales of care;-
These, and such faint half-waking dreams,

Like stormy lights on mountain streams,
Wavering and broken all, athwart the conscience glare.

How shall we 'scape th' o'erwhelming Past?

Can spirits broken, joys o'ercast,

And eyes that never more may smile.-
Can these th' avenging bolt delay,

Or win us back one little day,

The bitterness of death to soften and beguile?

Father and Lover of our souls!
Though darkly round thine anger rolls,

Thy sunshine smiles beneath the gloom;
Thou seek'st to warn us, not confound,

Thy showers would pierce the harden'd ground,

And win it to give out its brightness and perfume.

*And Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall, and prayed unto the Lord. Isaiah xxxviii. 2.

.

Thou smil'st on us in wrath, and we,
Even in remorse, would smile on Thee;

The tears that bathe our offer'd hearts,
We would not have them stain'd and dim,
But dropp'd from wings of seraphim,
All glowing with the light accepted Love imparts.

Time's waters will not ebb nor stay,
Power cannot change them, but Love may;
What cannot be, Love counts it done.
Deep in the heart, her searching view
Can read where Faith is fix'd and true,

Through shades of setting life can see Heaven's work begun.

O Thou, who keep'st the Key of Love,

Open thy fount, Eternal Dove,

And overflow this heart of mine,*

Enlarging as it fills with Thee,

Till in one blaze of charity

Care and remorse are lost, like motes in light divine;

Till, as each moment wafts us higher,

By every gush of pure desire,

And high-breath'd hope of joys above,
By every sacred sigh we heave,

Whole years of folly we outlive,

In His unerring sight, who measures Life by Love.

*

send thy Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues; without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee." Collect for Quinquagesima Sunday.]

THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST.*

[JANUARY 1.]

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. Colossians ii. 11. [Second Evening Lesson.]

[Almighty God, who madest thy blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the law for man; grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit, that, our hearts and all our members being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey thy blessed will, through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.]

*

THE year begins with Thee,
And thou beginn'st with wo,
To let the world of sinners see
That blood for sin must flow.
Thine infant cries, O Lord,
Thy tears upon the breast,
Are not enough-the legal sword
Must do its stern behest.

Like sacrificial wine

Poured on a victim's head

Are those few precious drops of thine,
Now first to offering led.

They are the pledge and seal
Of Christ's unswerving faith
Given to his Sire, our souls to heal,
Although it cost his death.

They to his Church of old,
To each true Jewish heart,
In Gospel graces manifold,
Communion blest impart.

[Jesus Christ, taking our nature upon him, and becoming obedient to the law for our sakes, was circumcised on the eighth day, that he might "fulfil all righteousness."]

Now of thy love we deem
As of an ocean vast,

Mounting in tides against the stream
Of ages gone and past.

Both theirs and ours Thou art,
As we and they are thine;
Kings, Prophets, Patriarchs-all have part
Along the sacred line.

By blood and water too*

God's mark is set on Thee,
That in Thee every faithful view
Both covenants might see.

O bond of union, dear

And strong as is Thy grace!
Saints, parted by a thousand years,
May thus in heart embrace.

Is there a mourner true,
Who, fallen on faithless days,
Sighs for the heart-consoling view
Of those Heaven deign'd to praise?
In spirit may'st thou meet
With faithful Abraham here,
Whom soon in Eden thou shalt greet
A nursing Father dear.

Would'st thou a Poet be?

And would thy dull heart fain
Borrow of Israel's minstrelsy
One high enraptur'd strain?

Come here thy soul to tune,
Here set thy feeble chant,
Here, if at all beneath the moon,
Is holy David's haunt.

*

[Jesus was baptized as well as circumcised.]

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