PATRIOTIC SYMPATHIES.
LAST night, without a voice, that Vision spake Fear to my Soul, and sadness which might seem Wholly dissevered from our present theme; Yet, my beloved country! I partake Of kindred agitations for thy sake; Thou, too, dost visit oft my midnight dream; Thy glory meets me with the earliest beam Of light, which tells that Morning is awake. If aught impair thy beauty or destroy, Or but forebode destruction, I deplore With filial love the sad vicissitude;
If thou hast fallen, and righteous Heaven re
The prostrate, then my spring-time is renewed, And sorrow bartered for exceeding joy.
WHO Comes with rapture greeted, and caress'd With frantic love-his kingdom to regain? Him Virtue's Nurse, Adversity, in vain Received, and fostered in her iron breast: For all she taught of hardiest and of best, Or would have taught, by discipline of pain And long privation, now dissolves amain, Or is remembered only to give zest To wantonness.-Away, Circean revels! But for what gain? if England soon must sink Into a gulf which all distinction levels— That bigotry may swallow the good name, And, with that draught, the life-blood: misery, shame,
By Poets loathed; from which Historians shrink!
YET Truth is keenly sought for, and the wind Charged with rich words poured out in thought's defence;
Whether the Church inspire that eloquence, Or a Platonic Piety confined
To the sole temple of the inward mind; And One there is who builds immortal lays, Though doomed to tread in solitary ways, Darkness before and danger's voice behind; Yet not alone, nor helpless to repel Sad thoughts; for from above the starry sphere Come secrets, whispered nightly to his ear; And the pure spirit of celestial light
Shines through his soul-" that he may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight."
PERSECUTION OF THE SCOTTISH COVENANTERS.
WHEN Alpine Vales threw forth a suppliant cry, The majesty of England interposed
And the sword stopped; the bleeding wounds were closed;
And Faith preserved her ancient purity. How little boots that precedent of good, Scorned or forgotten, Thou canst testify, For England's shame, O Sister Realm! from wood,
Mountain, and moor, and crowded street, where lie
The headless martyrs of the Covenant, Slain by Compatriot-protestants that draw From councils senseless as intolerant Their warrant. Bodies fall by wild sword-law; But who would force the Soul tilts with a straw Against a Champion cased in adamant.
ACQUITTAL OF THE BISHOPS. A VOICE, from long-expecting thousands sent, Shatters the air, and troubles tower and spire; For Justice hath absolved the innocent, And Tyranny is balked of her desire: Up, down, the busy Thames-rapid as fire Coursing a train of gunpowder-it went, And transport finds in every street a vent, Till the whole City rings like one vast quire. The Fathers urge the People to be still, With outstretched hands and earnest speechin vain!
That slackens, and spreads wide a watery gleam, We, nothing loth a lingering course to measure, May gather up our thoughts, and mark at leisure
How widely spread the interests of our theme.
ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICA.
I. THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
WELL worthy to be magnified are they Who, with sad hearts, of friends and country took
A last farewell, their loved abodes forsook, And hallowed ground in which their fathers lay; Then to the new-found World explored their way,
That so a Church, unforced, uncalled to brook Ritual restraints, within some sheltering nook Her Lord might worship and his word obey In freedom. Men they were who could not bend; Blest Pilgrims, surely, as they took for guide A will by sovereign Conscience sanctified; Blest while their Spirits from the woods ascend Along a Galaxy that knows no end, But in His glory who for Sinners died.
FROM Rite and Ordinance abused they fled To Wilds where both were utterly unknown; But not to them had Providence foreshown What benefits are missed, what evils bred, In worship neither raised nor limited Save by Self-will. Lo! from that distant shore, For Rite and Ordinance, Piety is led Back to the Land those Pilgrims left of yore, Led by her own free choice. So Truth and Love
By Conscience governed do their steps re.
Fathers! your Virtues, such the power of grace, Their spirit, in your Children, thus approve. Transcendent over time, unbound by place, Concord and Charity in circles move.
III. CONCLUDED.-AMERICAN EPISCOPACY.
PATRIOTS informed with Apostolic light Were they, who, when their Country had been freed,
Bowing with reverence to the ancient creed, Fixed on the frame of England's Church their sight,
And strove in filial love to reunite
What force had severed. Thence they fetched the seed
Of Christian unity, and won a meed Of praise from Heaven. To Thee, O saintly WHITE,
Patriarch of a wide-spreading family,
Remotest lands and unborn times shall turn, Whether they would restore or build-to Thee, As one who rightly taught how zeal should burn, As one who drew from out Faith's holiest urn The purest stream of patient Energy.
BISHOPS and Priests, blessèd are ye, if deep (As yours above all offices is high) Deep in your hearts the sense of duty lie;
YES, if the intensities of hope and fear Attract us still, and passionate exercise Of lofty thoughts, the way before us lies Distinct with signs, through which in set career, As through a zodiac, moves the ritual year Of England's Church; stupendous mysteries! Which whoso travels in her bosom eyes, As he approaches them, with solemn cheer. Upon that circle traced from sacred story We only dare to cast a transient glance, Trusting in hope that Others may advance With mind intent upon the King of Glory, From his mild advent till his countenance Shall dissipate the seas and mountains hoary.
Whose virtue changes to a christian Flower A Growth from sinful Nature's bed of weeds!- Fitliest beneath the sacred roof proceeds The ministration; while parental Love Looks on, and Grace descendeth from above As the high service pledges now, now pleads. There, should vain thoughts outspread their wings and fly
To meet the coming hours of festal mirth, The tombs-which hear and answer that brief
The Infant's notice of his second birth- Recal the wandering Soul to sympathy With what man hopes from Heaven, yet fears from Earth.
FATHER! to God himself we cannot give A holier name! then lightly do not bear Both names conjoined, but of thy spiritual care Be duly mindful: still more sensitive
Do Thou, in truth a second Mother, strive Against disheartening custom, that by Thee Watched, and with love and pious industry Tended at need, the adopted Plant may thrive This Ordinance, whether loss it would supply, For everlasting bloom. Benign and pure Prevent omission, help deficiency,
Or seek to make assurance doubly sure. Shame if the consecrated Vow be found An idle form, the Word an empty sound!
FROM Little down to Least, in due degree, Around the Pastor, each in new-wrought ves We stood, a trembling, earnest Company! Each with a vernal posy at his breast, With low soft murmur, like a distant bee, Some spake, by thought-perplexing fears be- trayed;
And some a bold unerring answer made: How fluttered then thy anxious heart for me, Beloved Mother! Thou whose happy hand Had bound the flowers I wore, with faithful tie: Sweet flowers! at whose inaudible command Her countenance, phantom-like, doth re-
The solemn promise. Strongest sinews fail, And many a blooming, many a lovely, cheek Under the holy fear of God turns pale; While on each head his lawn-robed Servant lays
An apostolic hand, and with prayer seals The Covenant. The Omnipotent will raise
DEAR be the Church, that, watching o'er the Their feeble Souls; and bear with his regrets,
Of Infancy, provides a timely shower
Who, looking round the fair assemblage, feels That ere the Sun goes down their childhood sets.
By chain yet stronger must the Soul be tied: One duty more, last stage of this ascent, Brings to thy food, mysterious Sacrament! The Offspring, haply at the Parent's side; But not till They, with all that do abide In Heaven, have lifted up their hearts to laud And magnify the glorious name of God, Fountain of grace, whose Son for sinners died. Ye, who have duly weighed the summons, pause
No longer; ye, whom to the saving rite The Altar calls; come early under laws That can secure for you a path of light Through gloomiest shade; put on (nor dread its weight)
Armour divine, and conquer in your cause!
THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. THE Vested Priest before the Altar stands; Approach, come gladly, ye prepared, in sight Of God and chosen friends, your troth to plight With the symbolic ring, and willing hands Solemnly joined. Now sanctify the bands, O Father!-to the Espoused thy blessing give, That mutually assisted they may live Obedient, as here taught, to thy commands. So prays the Church, to consecrate a Vow "The which would endless matrimony make;" Union that shadows forth and doth partake A mystery potent human love to endow With heavenly, each more prized for the other's
Weep not, meek Bride! uplift thy timid brow.
THANKSGIVING AFTER CHILDBIRTH. WOMAN! the Power who left his throne on high, And deigned to wear the robe of flesh we wear, The Power that thro' the straits of Infancy Did pass dependent on maternal care, His own humanity with Thee will share, Pleased with the thanks that in his People's eye Thou offerest up for safe Delivery From Childbirth's perilous throes. And should the Heir
Of thy fond hopes hereafter walk incline To courses fit to make a mother rue That ever he was born, a glance of mind Cast upon this observance may renew A better will; and, in the imagined view Of thee thus kneeling, safety he inay find.
VISITATION OF THE SICK.
THE Sabbath bells renew the inviting peal; Glad music! yet there be that, worn with pain And sickness, listen where they long have lain, In sadness listen. With maternal zeal Inspired, the Church sends ministers to kneel Beside the afflicted; to sustain with prayer, And soothe the heart confession hath laid bare- That pardon, from God's throne, may set its seal On a true Penitent. When breath departs From one disburthened so, so comforted, His Spirit Angels greet; and ours be hope That, if the Sufferer rise from his sick-bed, Hence he will gain a firmer mind, to cope With a bad world, and foil the Tempter's arts.
FORMS OF PRAYER AT SEA.
To kneeling worshippers no earthly floor Gives holier invitation than the deck of a storm-shattered Vessel saved from Wreck (When all that Man could do avail'd no more) By him who raised the Tempest and restrains: Happy the crew who this have felt, and pour Forth for his mercy, as the Church ordains, Solemn thanksgiving. Nor will they implore In vain who, for a rightful cause, give breath To words the Church prescribes aiding the lip For the heart's sake, ere ship with hostile ship Encounters, armed for work of pain and death. Suppliants! the God to whom your cause ye
Will listen, and ye know that He is just.
FROM the Baptismal hour, thro' weal and woe, The Church extends her care to thought and deed:
Nor quits the Body when the Soul is freed, The mortal weight cast off to be laid low. Blest Rite for him who hears in faith, "I know
That my Redeemer liveth,"-hears each word That follows-striking on some kindred chord Deep in the thankful heart;-yet tears will flow. Man is as grass that springeth up at morn, Grows green, and is cut down and withereth Ere nightfall-truth that well may claim a sigh, Its natural echo; but hope comes reborn At Jesu's bidding. We rejoice, "O Death. Where is thy Sting?-O Grave where is thy Victory!"
CLOSING the sacred Book which long has fed Our meditations, give we to a day Of annual joy one tributary lay; This day, when, forth by rustic music led, The village Children, while the sky is red With evening lights, advance in long array Through the still church-yard, each with gar- land gay,
That, carried sceptre-like, o'ertops the head Of the proud Bearer. To the wide church-door, Charged with these offerings which their fathers bore
For decoration in the Papal time,
The innocent Procession softly moves :
The spirit of Laud is pleased in heaven's pure clime,
And Hooker's voice the spectacle approves !
WOULD that our scrupulous Sires had dared to
Less scanty measure of those graceful rites And usages, whose due return invites A stir of mind too natural to deceive; Giving to Memory help when she would weave A crown for Hope!-I dread the boasted lights That all too often are but fiery blights, Killing the bud o'er which in vain we grieve. Go, seek, when Christmas snows discomfort bring,
The counter Spirit found in some gay church Green with fresh holly, every pew a perch In which the linnet or the thrush might sing, Merry and loud and safe from prying search, Strains offered only to the genial Spring.
FROM low to high doth dissolution climb, And sink from high to low, along a scale Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail; A musical but melancholy chime,
Which they can hear who meddle not with crime,
Nor avarice, nor over-anxious care. Truth fails not; but her outward forms that bear The longest date do melt like frosty rime, That in the morning whitened hill and plain And is no more; drop like the tower sublime Of yesterday, which royally did wear His crown of weeds, but could not even sustain Some casual shout that broke the silent air, Or the unimaginable touch of Time.
Now, ruin, beauty, ancient stillness, all Dispose to judgments temperate as we lay On our past selves in life's declining day: For as, by discipline of Time made wise, We learn to tolerate the infirmities And faults of others-gently as he may, So with our own the mild Instructor deals, Teaching us to forget them or forgive. Perversely curious, then, for hidden ill Why should we break Time's charitable seals? Once ye were holy, ye are holy still; Your spirit freely let me drink, and live!
EMIGRANT FRENCH CLERGY.
EVEN while I speak, the sacred roofs of France Are shattered into dust; and self-exiled From altars threatened, levelled, or defiled, Wander the Ministers of God, as chance Opens a way for life, or consonance
Of faith invites. More welcome to no land The fugitives than to the British strand, Where priest and layman with the vigilance Of true compassion greet them. Creed and test Vanish before the unreserved embrace Of catholic humanity:-distrest
They came,-and, while the moral tempest roars Throughout the Country they have left, our shores
Give to their Faith a fearless resting-place
In rival haste, the wished-for Temples rise! I hear their sabbath bells' harmonious chime Float on the breeze-the heavenliest of all
That vale or hill prolongs or multiplies!
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