Oh Thoa, by all thy works adored, Blessed was the parent's eye SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY. Virgin-born! we bow before thee! FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT. Oh, God! by whom the seed is given; QUINQUAGESIMA. LORD of mercy and of might, Jesus, hear and save! Jesus, hear and save ! Strong, Creator, Saviour mild, Humbled to a mortal child, Captive, beaten, bound, reviled, Jesus, hear and save! Throned above celestial things, Borne aloft on angels' wings, Lord of lords, and King of kings, Jesus, hear and save! Oh, King of earth and air and sea! The hungry ravens cry to thee; To thee the scaly tribes that sweep The bosom of the boundless deep; To thee the lions roaring call, The common Father, kind to all! Then grant thy servants, Lord! we pray, Our daily bread from day to day! The fishes may for food complain; The ravens spread their wings in vain; The roaring lions lack and pine; But God! thou carest still fo. thine! Thy bounteous hand with food can bless The bleak and lonely wilderness; And thou hast taught us, Lord! to pray For daily bread from day to day! And oh, when through the wilds we roam That part us from our heavenly home; When, lost in danger, want, and wo, Our faithless tears begin to flow; Do thou thy gracious comfort give, By which alone the soul may live; And grant thy servants, Lord! we pray, The bread of life from day to day! Soon to come to earth again, Judge of angels and of men, Hear us now, and hear us then, Jesus, hear and save! THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT. FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT. Om Thou, whom neither time nor space Can circle in, unseen, unknown, Nor faith in boldest flight can trace, Save through thy Spirit and thy Son! And Thou that from thy bright abode, To us in mortal weakness shown, Didst graft the manhood into God, Eternal, co-eternal Son! And Thou whose unction from on high By comfort, light, and love is known! Who, with the parent Deity, Dread Spirit! art for ever one! VIRGIN-born! we bow before thee! Great First and Last! thy blessing give! And grant us faith, thy gift alone, To love and praise thee while we live, And do whate'er thou would'st have done! Now empty are the courts of death, And crushed thy sting, despair : For Jesus hath been there! And dragged him through the sky, He hath bound captivity! Of saints that sing on high ; He hath won the victory! SIXTH SUNDAY IN LENT. The Lord of might, from Sinai's brow, Gave forth his voice of thunder; And Israel lay on earth below, Outstretched in fear and wonder. Beneath his feet was pitchy night, And, at his left hand and his right, The rocks were rent asunder! The Lord of love, on Calvary, A meek and suffering stranger, Upraised to heaven his languid eye, In nature's hour of danger. And met his Father's anger. The king of all created, On clouds of glory seated ; O'er Death and Hell defeated ! FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. Life nor Death shall us dissever When to him we cry! Their fangs against us try; Comfort ere we die ! a GOOD FRIDAY. ASCENSION DAY, AND SUNDAY Oh more than merciful! whose bounty gave AFTER. Thy guiltless self to glut the greedy grave! "Sir thou on my right hand, my Son !" saith the Whose heart was rent to pay thy people's price, Lord. The great High-priest at once and sacrifice! “Sit thou on my right hand, my Son! Help, Saviour, by thy cross and crimson stain, Till in the fatal hour Nor let thy glorious blood be spilt in vain ! Of my wrath and my power, Thy foes shall be a footstool to thy throne ! When sin with flow'ry garland hides her dart, When tyrant force would daunt the sinking heart, “ Prayer shall be made to thee, my Son !" saith When fleshly lust assails, or worldly care, the Lord. Or the soul Autters in the fowler's snare, — · Prayer shall be made to thee, my Son! Help, Saviour, by thy cross and crimson stain, From earth and air and sea, Nor let thy glorious blood be spilt in vain! And all that in them be, Which thou for thine heritage hast won !" And chiefest then, when nature yields the strife, And mortal darkness wraps the gate of life, “ Daily be thou praised, my Son !" saith the Lord. When the poor spirit, from the tomb set free, Daily be thou praised, my Son! Sinks at thy feet and lifts its hope to thee And all that live and move, Help, Saviour, by thy cross and crimson stain! Let them bless thy bleeding love, Nor let thy glorious blood be spilt in vain! And the work which thy worthiness hath done !" EASTER DAY. Of saints that sing on high; He hath won the victory! WHITSUNDAY. To thee for help we cry; Of dark mortality! We ask not, Lord! thy cloven flame, Or tongues of various tone; With fervour in our own. Is found on earth no more ; In Scripture's sacred lore. III demons to control; Shall chase them from the soul. No mystic dreams we share; And bless thee in our prayer. When tongues shall cease, and power decay, And knowledge empty prove, Do thou thy trembling servants stay With Faith, with Hope, with Love! Room for the proud! but slow the feet Who purple lately wore! Who showed it not before ! That shuts to ope no more. “Lo here with us the seat,” they cry, For him who mocked at poverty, And bade intruding conscience fly Far from his palace door!" TRINITY SUNDAY. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee; Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity! Holy, holy, holy! all the saints adore thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee, Which wert and art and evermore shall be ! Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide thee, Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may FOR THE SAME. The feeble pulse, the gasping breath, The clenched teeth, the glazed eye, Are these thy sting, thou dreadful death! O grave, are these thy victory? The mourners by our parting bed, The wise, the children, weeping nigh, The dismal pageant of the dead, These, these are not thy victory! But, from the much-loved world to part, Our lust untamed, our spirit high, All nature struggling at the heart, Which, dying, feels it dare not die ! To dream through life a gaudy dream Of pride and pomp and luxury, Till wakened by the nearer gleam Of burning, boundless agony; To meet o'er soon our angry king, Whose love we past unheeded by; Lo this, O Death, thy deadliest sting! O Grave, and this thy victory ! O Searcher of the secret heart, Who deigned for sinful man to die ! Restore us ere the spirit part, Nor give to hell the victory! not see, Only thou art holy, there is none beside thee, Perfect in power, in love, and purity! Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty ! All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity! FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. Room for the proud! Ye sons of clay, His chariot wheels before ! Lo! with what scorn his lofty eye Glances o'er age and poverty, And bids intruding conscience fly Far from his palace door! SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. Long have we roamed in want and pain, If thus thy bounties gild the span Of ruined earth and sinful man, How glorious must the mansion be Long have our souls been tempest-tost; Where thy redeemed shall dwell with Thee! Low at thy feet our sins we lay; Turn not, O Lord! thy guests away! FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. CREATOR of the rolling flood ! On whom thy people hope alone; Who cam'st, by water and by blood, For man's offences to atone; Who from the labours of the deep Didst set thy servant Peter free, To feed on earth thy chosen sheep, And build an endless church to thee. Grant us, devoid of worldly care, And leaning on thy bounteous hand Sank around the stranded ark, To seek thy help in humble prayer, And the rainbow's watery span And on thy sacred rock to stand: And when, our livelong toil to crown, Thy call shall set the spirit free, To cast with joy our burthen down, And rise, O Lord! and follow thee! SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. When spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil; There is joy in heaven! When summer's balmy showers refresh the mowThere is joy in heaven! er's toil; When the sheep that went astray When winter binds in frosty chains the fallow and Turns again to virtue's way; the flood, When the soul, by grace subdued, In God the earth rejoiceth still, and owns his Sobs it prayer of gratitude, Maker good. The birds that wake the morning, and those that love the shade; FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. The winds that sweep the mountain or lull the drowsy glade; I PRAISED the earth, in beauty seen The sun that from his amber bower rejoiceth on With garlands gay of varicus green; I praised the sea, whose ample field The moon and stars, their Master's name in silent Shone glorious as a silver shield; pomp display. And earth and ocean seemed to say, " Our beauties are but for a day!" Shall man, the lord of nature, expectant of the sky, Shall man, alone unthankful, his little praise deny? I praised the sun, whose chariot rolled No, let the year forsake his course, the seasons On wheels of amber and of gold; cease to be, I praised the moon, whose softer eye Thee, Master, must we always love, and, Saviour, Gleamed sweetly through the summer sky! honour thee. And moon and sun in answer said, “Our days of light are numbered!" The flowers of spring may wither, the hope of summer fade, O God! O good beyond compare! The autumn droop in winter, the birds forsake If thus thy meaner works are fair! the shade; his way, The winds be lulled—the sun and moon forget their old decree, But we in nature's latest hour, O Lord! will cling to thee. “What ruffian hand hath stript thee bare ? Whose fury laid thee low ?" -"Sin for my footsteps twined her snare, And death has dealt the blow!" “Can art no medicine for thy wound, Nor nature strength supply ?" -" They saw me bleeding on the ground, And passed in silence by!" “But, sufferer! is no comfort near Thy terrors to remove ?" _“There is to whom my soul was dear, But I have scorned his love." “What if his hand were nigh to save From endless death thy days ?" -"The soul he ransomed from the grave Should live but to his praise ! "Rise then, O rise! his health embrace, With heavenly strength renewed; And such as is thy Saviour's grace, Such be thy gratitude!" TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. JERUSALEM, Jerusalem! enthroned once on high, Thou favoured home of God on earth, thou heaven below the sky! Now brought to bondage with thy sons, a curse and grief to see, Jerusalem, Jerusalem! our tears shall flow for thee. Oh! hadst thou known thy day of grace, and flocked beneath the wing Of him who called thee lovingly, thine own anoint ed King, Then had the tribes of all the world gone up thy pomp to see, And glory dwelt within thy gates, and all thy sons been free! "And who art thou that mournest me?" replied the ruin gray, "And fear'st not rather that thyself may prove a castaway? I am a dried and abject branch, my place is given to thee; But wo to every barren graft of thy wild olive-tree! "Ow day of grace is sunk in night, our time of mercy spent, For heavy was my children's crime, and strange their punishment; Yet gaze not idly on our fall, but, sinner, warned be, Who spared not his chosen seed may send his wrath on thee! * Our day of grace is sunk in night, thy noon is in its prime; Oh! turn and seek thy Saviour's face in this ac cepted time! So, Gentile, may Jerusalem a lesson prove to thee, And in the new Jerusalem thy home for ever be !" FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRI NITY. THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRI NITY. Who yonder on the desert heath, Complains in feeble tone ?" -"A pilgrim in the vale of death, Faint, bleeding, and alone!" " How cam'st thou to this dismal strand Of danger, grief, and shame ?” SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRI NITY. Wake not, oh mother! sounds of lamentation! Weep not, oh widow! weep not hopelessly! Strong is his arm, the bringer of salvation, Strong is the word of God to succour thee! |