*

Or with his love so deep embrue
Man's sullen heart and gross-
"Jesu, do Thou my soul receive:*
"Jesu, do Thou my foes forgive:"

He who would learn that prayer, must live
Under the holy Cross.

He, though he seem on earth to move,
Must glide in air like gentle dove,
From yon unclouded depths above
Must draw his purer breath;
Till men behold his angel facet
All radiant with celestial grace,‡
Martyr all o'er, and meet to trace
The lines of Jesus' death.

["And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this he fell asleep."]

† And all that were in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Acts vi, 15.

[With awful dread his murderers shook

As, radiant and serene,

The lustre of his dying look

Was like an angel's seen;

Or Moses' face of paly light,

When down the mount he trod,

All glowing from the glorious sight
And presence of his God.

To us, with all his constancy,
Be his rapt vision given,

To look above by faith, and see

Revealments bright of heaven.

And power to speak our triumphs out
As our last hour draws near,

While neither clouds of fear nor doubt
Before our view appear.

Rev. William Croswell.]

ST. JOHN'S DAY.*

[DECEMBER 27.]

Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. St. John, xii. 21, 22. [Gospel for the Day.]

[Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church, that it, being instructed by the doctrine of thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John, may so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may at length attain to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.]

*

"LORD, and what shall this man do?"

Ask'st thou, Christian, for thy friend?

If his love for Christ be true,

Christ hath told thee of his end:
This is he whom God approves,
This is he whom Jesus loves.

Ask not of him more than this,

Leave it in his Saviour's breast,
Whether, early call'd to bliss,

He in youth shall find his rest,
Or armed in his station wait

Till his Lord be at the gate:

Whether in his lonely course

(Lonely, not forlorn) he stay,

[This is the festival of John, the Evangelist and Apostle, the son of Zebedee, and brother of James the Greater. He was especially distinguished during the lifetime of Jesus, as "the beloved disciple." Besides the gospel which bears his name, he wrote three Epistles and the Apocalypse. He lived to be nearly a hundred years old; and, alone, of all the Apostles, died a natural death. When he was too infirm through age to make a longer discourse, his constant exhortation to the Christians at Ephesus, where he lived, was, "Little children, love one another!"

Or with Love's supporting force

Cheat the toil and cheer the way:

Leave it all in His high hand,

Who doth hearts as streams command.*

Gales from heaven, if so He will,

Sweeter melodies can wake

On the lonely mountain rill

Than the meeting waters make.
Who hath the Father and the Son,
May be left, but not alone.

Sick or healthful, slave or free,
Wealthy, or despis'd and poor-
What is that to him or thee,

So his love to Christ endure?
When the shore is won at last,
Who will count the billows past?

Only, since our souls will shrink
At the touch of natural grief,
When our earthly lov'd ones sink,

Lend us, Lord, thy sure relief;
Patient hearts, their pain to see,
And thy grace, to follow Thee.

*The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. Proverbs xxi. 1.

THE HOLY INNOCENTS.*

[DECEMBER 28.]

These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. Revelation xiv. 4. [Scripture appointed for the Epistle.]

[O Almighty God, who out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast ordained strength, and madest infants to glorify thee by their deaths: mortify and kill all vices in us, and so strengthen us by thy grace, that, by the iunocency of our lives and constancy of our faith even unto death, we may glorify thy holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.]

SAY, ye celestial guards, who wait

In Bethlehem, round the Saviour's palace gate,
Say, who are these on golden wings,
That hover o'er the new-born King of kings,
Their palms and garlands telling plain
That they are of the glorious martyr train,†
Next to yourselves ordain'd to praise
His name, and brighten as on Him they gaze?

But where their spoils and trophies? where
The glorious dint a martyr's shield should bear?
How chance no cheek among them wears

* [The Church on this day commemorates the infants slain in Bethlehem, by the command of Herod, in the vain hope of destroying the Lord's Anointed,-then, by the warning of an angel, safe in Egypt. As a service commemorative of children, it is sometimes called " Childermas Day."]

+ [Hail, infant sufferers! martyred flow'rets, hail! Cut off by ruthless knife,

Just at the gate of life,

Ye fell, as new-born roses fall when scattered by the gale.
Earliest of all were ye, that suffered for the word,

Sweet firstlings of that slaughtered flock, so precious to the Lord;
And round his heavenly altar now, his high uplifted throne,
Ye guileless sport the crown and palm your martyrdom hath won.

Imitated from Prudentius -G. W. D.]

The deep-worn trace of penitential tears,
But all is bright and smiling love,

As if, fresh-borne from Eden's happy grove,"
They had flown here, their King to see,
Nor ever had been heirs of dark mortality?

Ask, and some angel will reply,

"These, like yourselves, were born to sin and die,
But ere the poison root was grown,

God set his seal, and marked them for his own.
Baptiz'd in blood for Jesus' sake,

Now underneath the Cross their bed they make,
Not to be scar'd from that sure rest

By frighten'd mother's shriek, or warrior's waving crest."

Mindful of these, the first-fruits sweet
Borne by the suffering Church, her Lord to greet;
Bless'd Jesus ever loved to trace

The "innocent brightness" of an infant's face.
He raised them in his holy arms,

He bless'd them from the world and all its harms:
Heirs though they were of sin and shame,

He bless'd them in his own and in his Father's name.

Then, as each fond unconscious child
On th' everlasting Parent sweetly smil'd,
(Like infants sporting on the shore,
That tremble not at Ocean's boundless roar,)
Were they not present to thy thought,

All souls, that in their cradles thou hast bought?

But chiefly these, who died for Thee,

That thou might'st live, for them a sadder death to see.

And next to these, thy gracious word

Was, as a pledge of benediction, stor'd

For Christian mothers, while they moan
Their treasur'd hopes, just born, baptiz'd, and gone.