LXXXVI. THE FUNERAL. I ENVY not the feelings which can send The breathless corpse to its sepulchral home, Heedless of Him who made it! Mid the gloom Of sorrows, which the widow'd bosom rend, 'Tis kind, 'tis comforting, 'tis wise to blend [come Earth, as it were, with heaven, whence thoughts may The body, "earth to earth, and dust to dust! LXXXVII. THANKSGIVING FOR THE THIS World abounds in misery and sin! Can tell how much of ill, without, within, By death's kind stroke?-Then count it not dispraise, The flesh-encumber'd spirit: whither goes LXXXVIII. HOPE FOR THE DEPARTED. To doom thy brother, from the flesh releas'd, Christian, befits thee not. 'Twill best behove The grace which "hopeth all things," Christian love, To hope that each may in the Saviour rest. Degrees of hope are various: for the best Well may it rise to faith, but not above: For those, the worst in semblance,—who can prove God's mercy may not rank them with the blest? Yield then, in hope that he in Christ may sleep, To earth thy lifeless brother!-Whom most pure Thou deem'st, in mind his good example keep; Whom soil'd with sin, his sins avoid, abjure : So may'st thou sow in love, in transport reap, Thyself; and make thine own election sure! LXXXIX. CHRISTIAN UNITY. ONE God there is, who reigns above in light: One common faith.1 Who name his name, He bade 1 When most disfigur'd, were most excellent. 1 Eph. iv. 4-6; 1 Cor. x. 17. 2 John xvii. 20-23; Col. iii. 14. XC. BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. WHAT fairer form, my Country's Church, than thine? "Glorious within, thy clothing of wrought gold!"1 What tho', (for who his course on earth may hold, Nor aught betray of earthliness a sign?) A speck perchance of earthly origin May here and there by curious eyes be told, Dimming the brightness of thy raiment's fold; 'Tis of wrought gold from God's celestial mine, Of "glory and beauty "2-Yes, thou'rt passing fair, My Country's Church!-To grace their royal Sire Full many a daughter stands: but few compare With thee for virtuous deeds and meet attire ; Few to their King so pure an offering bear, Tried in the flame, and purified by fire. XCI. SAFETY IN THE CHURCH. WHY should I e'er forsake thy dwelling, blest Of God; or whither from thy shelter move? Whate'er vouchsafement waits us from above To cheer, sustain, enlighten, is possest By thee, and thou to thine distributest: And sure I think, if tempted once to rove From thee, my foot would find, like Noah's dove, O'er the wide waters refuge none, nor rest. Grace is within thy precincts, holy Ark; Grace and salvation! And tho' gathering gloom Now and again with signs of presage dark O'erhang thee, mercy's beams the skreen illume; And faith on blackest clouds may brightest mark God's bow, the pledge of blessings yet to come. • Exod. xxviii. 40. Psa. xlv. 14. XCII.** THE CHURCH'S WORTHIES. Thy stores adopted from heaven's treasury, What sweet memorials of a grace from high, Shed on THY FAITHFUL SONS, her scroll displays. Hail, holy men! by whom of yore was fought, True to your CAPTAIN, to his CONSORT true, The Christian fight! The goal your footsteps sought, Fain would I, following in your track, pursue; And fain my soul, her work of trial wrought, Would find the haven of her rest with you! XCIII.** THE CHURCH'S PROTO-MARTYR, 1555. Ir life preserved for wife and children's sake, Thy firm resolve, and quench thy fervent zeal- The Tempter's vile allurements to withstand. XCIV.** THE MARTYRED BISHOPS, 1555. "TAKE heart, my brother! for from yonder pile, Our deathbed and our sepulchre to day, A lamp shall spring, to light with quenchless ray Encounter'd, for the gain, thenceforth to pay The rays that issued from that blazing wood; And England hail'd, waked from her papal dream, Her Church's seed-time in her martyrs' blood. XCV.** THE PRIMATE AT THE STAKE, 1556. WHO that beholds his hand reluctant trace [claim, Words which the MEEK CONFESSOR'S 2 thoughts dis- Drop for thy renovated Church's Sire, And faith that mark'd unmoved the circling fire! 1 Latimer. Cranmer. |