MUSINGS

ON THE

CHURCH AND HER SERVICES

“Her foundations are upon the holy hills: the Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Very excellent things are spoken of thee, thou city of God.”—Psalm lxxxvii. 1, 2.

MUSINGS

ON

THE CHURCH AND HER SERVICES.

The sonnets marked thus *, are added to those in the first two editions ; thus **, to those in the third ; thus ***, to those in the fourth.

I. TO MY COUNTRY'S CHURCH. As oft on thee, my country's CHURCH, I muse,

Thy firm apostolic, thy scripture creed,

Devotions pure, and rites divine, the seed Of heavenly graces, with what else may use The aspiring soul the better part to choose;

I marvel much and grieve that aught should breed

Ill thoughts of thee in Christian men, by deed
Or word to mar thy beauty and refuse
Thy chaste communion. Yes, my early vow

Was thine, and still thy sanctuaries I've trod
With honest zeal. Accept this tribute now

Of filial love, to thee, My Mother, owed; The stay and pillar of God's truth art thou,

And thou the temple of the living God.

IT. THE CHURCH APOSTOLIC. Some are there, nam'd of Christ, who think the" see

His power conferr'd on one vicegerent man:

And somie, who deem the scheme republican
More near akin to Christian liberty:
And some, who, as by light of history

The scripture records of God's will they scan,

From times primeval mark the self-same plan, Which still prevails, my country's Church in thee, Of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.-Peace to all,

Who serve their God in love and faith sincere, Howe'er they serve him! each must stand or fall

To his own Lord. For me, with godly fear And awe I listen to my Saviour's call,

And here I seek, and trust I find him here.

III. TRUE KNOWLEDGE.
What is True KNOWLEDGE !-Is it with keen eye

Of lucre's sons to thread the mazy way?

Is it of civic rights, and royal sway, And wealth political, the depths to try? Is it to delve the earth, or soar the sky ?

To marshal nature's tribes in just array ?

To mix, and analyse, and mete, and weigh
Her elements, and all her powers descryl-
These things, who will may know them, if to know

Breed not vain glory. But o'er all to scan
God, in his works and word shown forth below;

Creation's wonders, and Redemption's plan; Whence came we, what to do, and whither go :

This is True KNOWLEDGE, and “the whole of man.”

IV.* THE NAME OF GOD.1
CHOOSE we a TITLE,

which
may

best beseem
The world's CREATOR! Shall his name declare

The power which made all living things that are?
The providence, whose eye's unerring beam
Sees all things at a glance, that naught may seem

Or dark or distant? The protecting care,

Which sleep impedes not, nor can time impair?
Or, sovereign over all, the will supreme ? -
Well judg’d our Saxon fathers. To their sense

Appear'd the self-existing One indued
With all his nature's dread magnificence.

On all with awe they gaz'd; but most they viewed With deep delight his moral excellence,

Their being's source and stay, and call’d him “Good."

V. THE WORKS OF GOD.

TRACE nature's course; each step the Maker tells !

His majesty the glorious heavens declare ;

His all-pervading breath the expanded air;
The roaring sea his might, which her's excels;
Earth and her sons, each vein with life that swells,

Sentient or senseless, his providing care,

Wise, powerful, good, which form’d them as they are, And still preserves : a host of miracles, Unnumber'd, vast, unceasing! Look around!

Look to thyself, thy frame, thy soul: the sign,
Where'er thou look'st of reasoning power is found,

Forecasting will, intelligent design;
Deem nature not their author; nor confound

With his own laws the Lawgiver divine.

* See Turner's History of the Anglo Saxons, vol. i. p. 212. 8vo.