AT MIDNIGHT.

O the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest Thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save?JEREM. XIV.

"Fac, Christe, nostri gratiâ."

CHRIST, to aid our fallen nature,

Thou didst bear bereavements stern,

Grant we such with spirits holy,

And with grateful hymns return;

Though eternal born, yet Thou would'st learn to die, And didst put on the shape of frail humanity.

Soon as born, a helpless infant,

Thou didst suffer winter's cold;
For a couch of costly purple,

Hay-bands rude Thy form enfold:

Pitying us, to need our pity Thou dost seem,
And yieldest to the law, the Lawgiver supreme.

The blood its stern behest requires

From Thy deepest heart doth come;
The sword that slays the harmless infants,
To Thy breast it pierces home;—

Lo, to Pharos now, an exile poor, He flies,
The true God mix'd with foul and lying deities.

But with hosts of highest Heaven,
Hence Thy ransom'd heritage
Shall, with lowest adoration,

Worship Thee from age to age;

Father eternal, and Thee, eternal Son,
And Thee, eternal Spirit, Three in One.

AT THE MATTINS.

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the know.. ledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine.-EPHES. iv.

"Divine, crescebas, puer."

AND Thou art growing up, O Child divine!
While on Thy life a daily dying lies;
All things that open on this life of Thine
Are preludes to Thy dying agonies.

God, born of God, Himself He fain would hide
With a mean sire the scorn of human pride;
And He who moulded Heav'n's o'erarching dome
In a poor earthly cottage makes His home.

K

Hands, that sustain the pillars of heav'n's roof,

Handle the ignoble craft of feeble man ; The Framer of the stars, that speed aloof,

Himself becomes a low-housed artizan. Lo, He who hath the world beneath His feet, He at whose dread behest Archangels fleet, And far and wide His Kingly mandates bear, Is subject to an humble carpenter.

Jesu, the Maiden-born, to Thee we sing-
Father, Son, Spirit; Maker, Lord, and King;—
Glory to Thee, when earth and heav'n have gone,
And everlasting time His course hath run.

AT THE VESPERS.

The Word whom God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all.-ACTS x.

"Christus tenebris obsitam."

AND now Heav'n's growing light is manifest Through Judah's land, which in the darkness lies; But they have steel'd their breast,

And closed their earth-bound eyes.

Now signs of present Godhead teem around, The dead are rais'd, feet to the lame are given, The dumb a tongue hath found,

The blind man sees the heaven.

But Israel hath become blind, deaf, and dead; He is their Sun; but they, like birds of night, To unclean haunts have fled,

And will not brook the light.

But we would turn to Thee, and court the ray; Thou art the eternal Father's Charity;

And never-setting day

For ever dwells in Thee

Let not the night creep o'er us Light divine; Let not the night creep o'er our hearts below; With Thy truth may they shine,

With Thy love burn and glow.

To Thee, with Father and with Spirit blest,
Jesu, to Thee, born of a Maiden pure,

Be highest praise addrest,

And evermore endure.

ON THE SEVENTH DAY BEFORE

SEPTUAGESIMA.

AT THE VESPERS.

The children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested.-EXODUS Xxxi.

"Te læta, mundi Conditor."

THOU, Lord, in endless rest,
Dost Thy sure Sabbath keep,

Where angels ever blest,

Do sing and never sleep;

To us, from virtue fallen, toils belong,

For how can exiles sad sing their lost country's song?

But Thou art pledg'd to spare

On tears of penitence;

Grant us to mourn with stedfast care

The sins that keep us thence,

That faith and hope may temper healthful woes, Until we be restored to Thy secure repose.