LVI. CONFIRMATION.
PLEDG'D was their faith in infancy: but now, When opening years the reasoning soul reveal, Before yon altar's rails behold them kneel, Ingenuous youths and maidens! There they bow The modest head, and there the early vow With words of solemn CONFIRMATION seal, And on their brow the hand CONFIRMING feel Of CHRIST's high minister. O GOD, do Thou Save and defend thy children! Gracious Lord, Father, thy hand be o'er, thy Spirit's grace Be ever with them, and thy powerful Word Their light and leader!—Awful is the race Before them set with toil and peril stor❜d, And steep the path-way to behold thy face!
LVII. THE LORD'S SUPPER.
"TAKE, eat, and drink, and thus remember me!” Remember thee! Alas, the mighty debt Of heavenly love that man should e'er forget! Ah! how can I my Lord and Saviour see, Reclining at the board, and on the tree
Suspended bow'd with agony, and yet Breathing sweet love for men against thee set, Thine enemies! and not remember Thee ?- Duty most bounden, thus on thee to think, Thus, as thou biddest! Privilege divine, Pledge of thy boundless love, to eat and drink
Thy body and blood beneath the bread and wine!
O, ever thus, till worn-out nature sink,
That duty, Lord, that privilege be mine!
LVIII. THE WEDDING GARMENT.
SPREAD is the table of the Lord, and there, Who will, may go and freely feast: but high, Bethink thee well! and full of dignity
That table; nor befits it them to share, Whose hearts with malice swell, or pine with care For earthly toys, or grovel in the sty
Of sensual pleasure, or God's truth decry His name, his word dishonor! O, beware! Approach not rashly; but about thee throw
The WEDDING GARMENT, and present thee drest In faith, and love, and penitence; that so,
The King, when he surveys each bridal guest, The appointed sign of fellowship may know, And welcome thee to that celestial feast.
LIX. THE SCRUPULOUS CHRISTIAN
AND wilt thou from Christ's table turn away?— True if profanely, thoughtlessly, thou come, Well may'st thou shrink from God's chastising doom: But what, if God's command thou disobey, Self-will'd, self-led, injurious?—True: thy way
Is mark'd by weakness, sin: yet there is room For such; for where's the just that may presume Safe in unsullied righteousness, to stay?— Come, then, with mind enlighten'd to perceive, Discern, and value that most heavenly feast! Come, with repentant heart, resolv'd to leave The sins it feels and grieves for! Do thy best: And He, who calls thee, will thy wants relieve, Thy sins remit, and give thy conscience rest!
LX. THE HUMBLE COMMUNICANT.
"WHY at Christ's Table dost thou bend thy knee? Is it before a wheaten God to show
Will-worship rash, profane?"-Ah! deem not so: For not in form corporeal here is He, Who sits enthron'd aloft in majesty.
Deem it a sign, with what devotion glow Our hearts for Him, who feeds us thus below: How worthy Christ, and how unworthy we! If there be yet a sign of love more meet
For love divine sent forth our souls to heal, Such Sign, O Lord, be ours! Prepar'd to eat Thy mystic feast, behold, we meekly kneel: O grant us, grant us, at thy mercy-seat
The sense, our bodies show, our hearts may feel!
LXI.* THE POOR BLIND MAN.
DARK were his eyes from childhood! Poor and blind He has travell❜d on, till on his patient head Their gather'd frosts have fourscore winters shed: But still God's word he hears, and in his mind, What can he more? digests; nor fails to find
Each day of rest the church-ward path unled, And share, whene'er dispens'd, the living bread, Pleas'd with God's bounty, to his rod resign'd. Blind though he be, deem him not wholly so,
Who knows the way of heavenly truth to scan! A day perchance may come, when thou shalt throw Thoughts of regret on life's exhausted span, Ah, blest with sight in vain; and long to know
The soul's enlightening of that POOR BLIND MAN!
LXII. THE HIGH FESTIVALS.
'Tis a benignant feeling, which delights In seasons mindful of events gone by,
Dear as they past, and precious. But more high The sense, and holier, which the Church incites, To mark with FESTAL DAYs, and solemn rites, The annual course of God's great mystery,
"The Word made flesh." On that with piercing eye The angels gaze! On that the Church invites Her sons to linger! As thereon we muse, On each strange scene, or all, together wove A wondrous tissue, like the braided hues Which blest the Patriarch's sight, with eye Uplifted, faith the dear memorials views, Signs of past mercy and enduring love!
Not that to them we pray, whose work is done; Not that through them, who ran their earthly race Frail like ourselves, tho' strong in heavenly grace, For aid we supplicate our race to run:
Not for such cause the Church each SAINTED SON Thankful commemorates; but as guides to trace More clear our passage to the appointed place, Proofs of the battle fought, the victory won. Lov'd names! Apostles in communion bright, The Martyrs' noble brotherhood, and they "Whose praise is in the Gospel!" But with might Divine or mediatorial to array
Created beings- -'twere to choose dark night To walk in and reject the golden day!
LXIV. DAILY PRAYERS
A LAW there was, such law our fathers knew, Believing God that He delights to dwell
With his assembled Church; the parish bell Each morn and eve the gather'd people drew God's word to hear, their daily vows renew: Such law their offspring we have bid farewell. Contents us now each week's return to tell Our wants to God, and tender homage due. Is it, our hearts the world's allurements fill ?
That "itching ears" less wholesome food require? That love and piety have waxen chill ?—
Yet, when did zeal to loftier flights aspire ?—
But not most deeply flows the noisiest rill; Nor crackling thorns bespeak the steadiest fire.
LXV. THE MORNING OFFERING. WHEN nature wakes, and man awakes withal To taste the freshness of the new-born day, And feel himself alive; what debt to pay Should conscience prompt him? What, but first of all Before his own and nature's God to fall;
Him, who has chas'd the gloom of night away, To thank; from Him, his being's only stay, To ask for succor?-Hear the MORNING CALL, Almighty Father! Hear, my Guard and Guide! Another day thou giv'st me to begin: Defend me in it for his sake who died
Man's ransom! O, from foes without, within, Protect me; rule my ways; and turn aside The shafts of danger and the snares of sin
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