LXII. TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. And looking up to Heaven, He sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. Mark vii. 34. THE Son of God in doing good Was fain to look to heaven and sigh: Seek joy unmix'd in charity? He look'd to heaven, and sadly sigh'd- The joy of Heaven-accepted prayer? So o'er the bed where Lazarus slept O'erwhelming thoughts of pain and grief Over his sinking spirit sweep ;"What boots it gathering one lost leaf "Out of yon sere and wither'd heap, "Where souls and bodies, hopes and joys, "All that earth owns or sin destroys, "Under the spurning hoof are cast, "Or tossing in th' autumnal blast?" The deaf may hear the Saviour's voice, No eye but His might ever bear Because none ever saw so clear The shore beyond of endless bliss: The giddy waves so restless hurl'd, The vex'd pulse of this feverish world, He views and counts with steady sight, Used to behold the Infinite. But that in such communion high What then shall wretched sinners do, When in their last, their hopeless day, Sin, as it is, shall meet their view, God turn his face for aye away? Lord, by thy sad and earnest eye, When Thou didst look to heaven and sigh; Thy voice, that with a word could chase The dumb, deaf spirit from his place; As thou hast touch'd our ears, and taught That would make fast our bonds again. From idle words, that restless throng, And haunt our hearts when we would pray, Willing or loth, thy trump shall hear, To own no hope, no God, but Thee. LXIII. THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: for I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. St. Luke x, 23, 24. ON Sinai's top, in prayer and trance, Fasting he watch'd and all alone, Wrapt in a still, dark, solid cloud, The curtain of the Holy One Drawn round him like a shroud : |