WHO SHALL ROLL AWAY THE STONE?

The following is by a living English writer, known as the author of a sharp review of Dean Alford's "A Plea for the Queen's English," entitled "The Dean's English."

THAT which weeping ones were saying
Eighteen hundred years ago,
We, the same weak faith betraying,
Say in our sad hours of woe;
Looking at some trouble lying

In the dark and dread unknown,
We, too, often ask with sighing,

"Who shall roll away the stone?”

Thus with care our spirits crushing,
When they might from care be free,
And, in joyous song out-gushing,

Rise in rapture, Lord, to thee.
For, before the way was ended,

Oft we've had with joy to own,
Angels have from heaven descended,
And have rolled away the stone.
Many a storm-cloud sweeping o'er us
Never pours on us its rain;
Many a grief we see before us

Never comes to cause us pain.
Ofttimes in the feared "to-morrow"
Sunshine comes, the cloud has flown!
Ask not, then, in foolish sorrow,

"Who shall roll away the stone?"

Burden not thy soul with sadness;

Make a wiser, better choice; Drink the wine of life with gladness; God doth bid thee, man, "Rejoice!" In to-day's bright sunlight breaking, Leave to-morrow's cares alone; Spoil not present joys by asking "Who shall roll away the stone?"

G. WASHINGTON MOON.

RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

He was a

The Rev. HENRY WARE, JR., father of the Rev. J. F. W. Ware, a prominent minister of Boston, was born at Hingham, Mass., April 21, 1794, and died Sept. 25, 1843. graduate of Harvard College, and was pastor of the Second Church, Boston. Ralph Waldo Emerson was ordained as his colleague in 1829. His works, in four volumes, were edited by Dr. Chandler Robbins, successor of Mr. Emerson in the pastorate of the Second Church.

LIFT your glad voices in triumph on high, For Jesus hath risen, and man cannot die; Vain were the terrors that gathered around him,

And short the dominion of death and the

grave;

EASTER.
Ορθρίσωμεν ὄρθρου βαθέος.
LET us rise in early morning,

And, instead of ointments, bring
Hymns of praises to our Master,
And his resurrection sing:
We shall see the Sun of Justice

Risen with healing on his wing.

Thy unbounded loving-kindness,

They that groaned in Hades' chain, Prisoners, from afar beholding,

Hasten to the light again; And to that eternal Pascha

Wove the dance and raised the strain.

Go ye forth, his saints, to meet him!
Go with lamps in every hand!
From the sepulchre he riseth:
Ready for the Bridegroom stand :
And the Pascha of salvation
Hail, with his triumphant band.

JOHN of Damascus. Translated by
JOHN MASON NEALE.

763

The veil is rent; and, lo! unfold
The things the ancient law foretold :
The figure from the substance flies,
And light the shadow's place supplies.
The type the spotless Lamb conveyed,
The goat where Israel's sins were laid;
Messiah, purging our offence,
Disclosed in all their hidden sense.

By freely yielding up his breath
He freed us from the bonds of death,
Who on that prey forbidden flew,
And lost the prey that was his due.
The ills on sinful flesh that lay
His sinless flesh hath done away,
Which blooming fresh on that third morn
Assurance gave to souls forlorn.

O wondrous death of Christ! may we
Be made to live to Christ by thee!
O deathless death, destroy our sin,
Give us the prize of life to win!

Translator Unknown

BEHOLD THE DAY THE LORD HATH MADE!

"Salve, Dies dierum gloria."

From the Latin of ADAM of St. Victor, the most fertile, and, in the estimation of Trench and Neale, the greatest of the Latin hymnologists of the Middle Ages. This version is from Orby Shipley's "Lyra Messianica."

BEHOLD the day the Lord hath made!
That peerless day which cannot fade;
That day of light, that day of joy,
Of glory which shall never cloy.

The day on which the world was framed
Has signal honor ever claimed;
But Christ, arising from the dead,
Unrivalled brightness o'er it shed.

In hope of their celestial choice,
Now let the sons of light rejoice:
Christ's members in their lives declare
What likeness to their Head they bear.

For solemn is our feast to-day,
And solemn are the vows we pay :
This day's surpassing greatness claims
Surpassing joy, surpassing aims.

The Paschal victory displays
The glory of our festal days;
Which type and shadow dimly bore,
In promise to the saints of

yore.

EASTER HYMN.

Δεῦτε πόμα πίωμεν.

COME, let us drink of that new river,
Not from barren rock divinely poured,
But the fount of life that is forever

From the sepulchre of Christ the Lord.
All the world hath bright illumination, ——
Heaven and earth and things beneath the
earth:

'Tis the festival of all creation:

Christ hath risen, who gave creation birth.

Yesterday with thee in burial lying,
Now to-day with thee arisen I rise;
Yesterday the partner of thy dying,
With thyself upraise me to the skies.

JOHN of Damascus. Translated by
JOHN MASON NEALE.

EASTER.

Αὕτη ἡ κλητή.

THOU hallowed chosen morn of praise
That best and greatest shinest!
Lady and Queen and Day of days

Of things divine, divinest!
On thee our praises Christ adore.
Forever and forevermore.

Come, let us taste the vine's new fruit
For heavenly joy preparing:

WE welcome thee, dear Easter-day!
In grave made sure our Saviour, -
He leaves the dead: with glad surprise
The angels see the Conqueror rise.

Filled up with sorrows was his life;
His death, an agonizing strife;
Then, briefly resting from its woes,
To fit a place for us, he goes.

Bright day that out of darkness breaks!
He now, the Lord of all, awakes;
But, made supreme o'er all beside,
He will our brother yet abide.

Blest vernal fields! Ye well afford
Your emblems of our risen Lord;
And every flower, to life that springs,
Reminds us of the King of kings.

For Easter-present — give to me
A heart that's full of love to thee;
And lead me on, as seems thee best,
Through earthly cares with thee to rest.

An Easter-day far brighter still
Shall all the heart with rapture fill,

When we, through death, reach our reward,
To be forever with the Lord.

Now, looking to thy throne above,

I fain would grow in faith and love;
Nor can I here more happy be

Than when thou sayest, "Peace be with thee!" META HEUSSER-SCHWEIZER. Translated by HENRY MILLS, 1859.

GLORIOUS HYMN OF VICTORY.
̓Αναστάσεως ἡμέρα.

'T Is the Day of Resurrection:
Earth! tell it out abroad!
The Passover of Gladness!

The Passover of God!
From death to life eternal,

From this world to the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us over,
With hymns of victory.

Our hearts be pure from evil,

That we may see aright
The Lord in rays eternal

Of resurrection-light:
And, listening to his accents,

May hear, so calm and plain,
His own All Hail! and hearing,
May raise the victor strain!
Now let the heavens be joyful!

Let earth her song begin!
Let the round world keep triumph,
And all that is therein:
Invisible and visible

Their notes let all things blend,
For Christ the Lord hath risen,
Our Joy that hath no end.

JOHN of Damascus. Translated by
JOHN MASON NEALE, 1866.

FAUST'S EASTER MEDITATION.

"Was sucht ihr, mächtig und gelind?"

WHY, here in dust, entice me with your spell,
Ye gentle, powerful sounds of heaven?
Peal rather there, where tender natures dwell.
Your messages I hear, but faith has not been
given;

The dearest child of Faith is Miracle.
I venture not to soar to yonder regions

Whence the glad tidings hither float;
And yet, from childhood up familiar with the

note,

To life it now renews the old allegiance.
Once Heavenly Love sent down a burning kiss
Upon my brow, in sabbath silence holy,
And filled with mystic presage, chimed the
church-bell slowly,

And prayer dissolved me in a fervent bliss.
A sweet, uncomprehended yearning

Drove forth my feet through woods and meadows free,

And while a thousand tears were burning,
I felt a world arise for me.

These chants to youth and all its sports appealing,

Proclaimed the spring's rejoicing holiday; And memory holds me now, with childish feeling,

Back from the last, the solemn way.

Sound on, ye hymns of heaven, so sweet and mild!

My tears gush forth: the earth takes back her child!

GOETHE. Translated by BAYARD TAYLOR.

EASTER HYMN.

"Christ ist erstanden."

DR. HEDGE, a learned and industrious author, clergyman, and professor, was born in Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 12, 1805, and now lives there. In 1872 he was appointed Professor of German Literature in Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1825. In 1848 he published "The Prose Writers of Germany." He was one of the compilers of "Hymns for the Church," published in 1865, a collection which contains some of his original pieces.

With reference to the following, from Goethe's "Faust," Bayard Taylor says that the "final chorus of the angels is a stumbling-block to the translator, on account of the fivefold dactylic rhyme"; and adds, "Dr. Hedge, I believe, is the only one who has hitherto endeavored to reproduce the difficult structure of this chorus."

ANGELS.

CHRIST hath arisen!

Joy to our buried Head! Whom the unmerited, Trailing inherited

Woes, did imprison !

WOMEN.

Costly devices

We had prepared, Shrouds and sweet spices, Linen and nard. Woe the disaster!

Whom we here laid; Gone is the Master, Empty his bed.

ANGELS.

Christ hath arisen Loving and glorious; Out of laborious Conflict victorious,

Christ hath arisen.

DISCIPLES.

Hath the inhumated Upward aspiring, Hath he consummated

All his desiring? Is he in being's bliss, Near to creative Joy? Wearily we in this

Earthly house sigh: Empty and hollow, us Left he unblest; Master! thy followers Envy thy rest.

ANGELS.

Christ hath arisen

Out of corruption's womb.
Burst every prison !
Vanish death's gloom!
Active in charity,
Praise him in verity!
His feast, prepare it ye!
His message, bear it ye!
His joy, declare it ye!

Then is the Master near,
Then is he here!

765

GOETHE Translated by FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE, D. D.

CHRIST IS ARISEN.

This ode is suggested by, and partly translated from, the famous Easter-chorus in Goethe's "Faust" :

"Christ ist erstanden!
Freude dem Sterblichen,
Den die verderblichen,
Schleichenden, erblichen
Mängel umwanden."
CHRIST is arisen,
Joy to thee, mortal!
Out of his prison,

Forth from its portal! Christ is not sleeping,

Seek him no longer; Strong was his keeping, Jesus was stronger! Christ is arisen,

Seek him not here; Lonely his prison,

Empty his bier;