1

my

That
From my body weakness banish!
Grant me to pray for everlasting,
Constant, though weak, to be in fasting,
By these two, as CHRIST decreed,

foe may quickly vanish

From this plague I shall be freed.
From this plague release my soul;
'Mongst repentants me enrol;
Give me fear, without which aid,
Health is but an empty shade;
Grant me Faith, and Hope, and Charity;
Grant me pure and humble piety;
Grant me hate of things terrestial,
Growing love of things celestial.
Thou, O LORD, my only hope,
Thou my understanding ope!
Thou, my only good, my praise,
My all, my prize, when end my days;
Thou in toil my consolation;
Thou in sickness my salvation;
Thou in grief my warbling lyre;
Thou my guide in bitter ire;
Thou, who ope'd the prison portals;
Thou, who guidest erring mortals
In time of plenty giving fear,
And hope when poverty is near.
When man hurteth, Thou'lt repay;

When man threat'neth Thou'rt my stay;

What is doubtful-Thou revealest,

What should hidden be-concealest.

Never, never, let me go

To the place of endless woe;

Where are misery and fear,
Where is shed full many a tear,

Where all things are but delusion,
Where there's nothing but confusion,
Where the worm is e'er consuming,
Men to bitter torture dooming,
Where these woes are all unceasing,
None relieving, none releasing.
May I to Sion tread the road-
Sion, David's calm abode,
Whose Creator made the light,
Where the Cross is e'er in sight;
Where St. Peter keeps the portal,
Where's no sin, or woe, for mortal,
Where the walls are angel's wings,
City of the KING of Kings!
There is a perpetual day,

Spring for ever, peace for aye,
Incense sweet perfumes the skies,
Festal melodies arise;

No corruption there remaineth,
No one sinneth, none complaineth;
There abideth naught deformed,
All things are to CHRIST conformed.
Heavenly, blissful habitation,
Built upon a firm foundation,
City free from strife or war,
I salute thee from afar :

I salute thee, longing for thee,
I revere thee, I adore thee:

Thee so full of joy and gladness,

Festal days, and naught of sadness,
Men to rival strive in vain :-

What beautious tints thy mansions stain!

All thy glories none can tell

Save those who 'midst thy radiance dwell.

Oh! may it to me be given,

To join the saints in that blest heaven,
That where Angel voices ring-

I may Hallelujahs sing.

ST. HILDEBERT, who wrote this beautiful poem in Latin in the early part of the twelvth century, was Bishop of Mans, and afterwards of Tours. He is described by his biographer as having been one of the greatest ornaments of the church in the days in which he lived.

June 8, 1850.

F. C. H.

CHAPTERS ON CHURCH ARCHITECTURE.

CHAPTER XI.

THE CHANCEL.

THE CHANCEL is that part of the church, Eastward of the Nave, which is set apart for the performance of Divine Service, and the administration of the Holy Communion. It is seperated, (as we mentioned in the last chapter,) from the Nave, by a skreen, which connects the responds of the Chancel Arch, and it ought to be raised by a step or two above the level of the Nave. The Chancel should be richly decorated; for this purpose the windows should contain stained glass, and the walls should be coloured as far down as the bottom of the splay of the windows; from which line, embroidered hangings worked in various designs and colours should be suspended. The Chancel should be in the form of a parallelogram,-apsidal Chancels are rare in England: when however, the Nave is round, as at Little Maplestead, Essex, an apsided termination is more in accordance with the general outline of the building. The Chancel should be narrower than the Nave, and the

effect is better when it has no aisles, the ridge crest of the roof also will be in proportion lower than that of the Nave: the gable should be surmounted by a stone floriated cross. The sanctuary, on which the altar stands should be at the East end, elevated on three, (or some multiple of three) steps, though five and seven often occur. It should be paved with encaustic tiles, and, if there be no Chancel skreen, fenced in by a low railing of oak.

THE ROOF should be richly carved in oak, (or groined in stone ;) the internal surface, is often plastered and painted sky-blue, covered with gilt stars, to represent the vault of heaven, above the

"Naked rafters, intricately crossed,

Like leafless underboughs 'mid some thick grove,

All withered by the depth of shade above.”

THE CHANCEL should contain stalls for the choir; a Litany desk; a Lectern for the lessons; a pulpit; the Holy Altar; to which might be added, especially in large churches, a Piscina, Sedilia, a Credence, an Aumbrye, and a Reredos; the various uses of which will be described in a future chapter,

THE SEVEN CHURCHES IN ASIA.

F. C. H.

THE CHURCH in Sardis was the next to which St. John was directed to write, saying that He that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars said, “I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." It may be supposed that that deadness had continued; for Sardis has long been a heap of ruins; and "nothing that I had yet seen equalled the desolation of the city of Sardis." The Caicus and the Hermus are two noble rivers, and the vales through which they run are luxuriant; on the plain of the latter river there are a number of round hillocks, which, from their number, figure, and situation in so level a country plainly

appear to be artificial; and probably they are the last resting places of the ancient inhabitants.

THIS LUXURIOUs country is now almost as deserted and melancholy as the regions between Smyrna and Pergamos ; but, says a traveller before cited, nothing I had yet seen equalled the desolation of Sardis. I saw from afar the lofty Acropolis fringed with crumbling ruins, and when I crossed a branch of the golden Pactolus which once flowed through the market-place; and when 1 stood there at eleven o'clock -the very hour in which in its ancient days the place would be crowded-I saw not a soul, nor an object of any sort to remind me that this had been a vast and splendid city, save here and there a patch of ruin—a dismantled wall, or a heap of stone and brickwork mixed with brambles and creeping weeds. Where palaces and temples, theatres and crowded habitations had stood, a green and flowery carpet of smooth sward met the eye; and the tall stately asphodel or day-lily gleamed in its beauty and pallidness where the marble column had risen in other days. The utter solitude that reigned in the market place of the once populous Sardis, became oppressive. Here the hand of destruction had spared nothing but a few rent walls which remained to tell all that had been done; and were they not there, the eye might pass over the plain and the snow-clad Tmolus as a common desert, and never dream that here was the site of Sardis. The Christian Church and the pagan temple of Cybele, have alike been desolated. Mr. Arundel was filled with wonder and awe at beholding the two stupendous columns of the edifice which were still standing in his day; they were silent but impressive witnesses of the power and splendour of antiquity. Four rugged, dark low walls by the side of a little mill on the Pactolus represented the church; and two columns erect, and a few mutilated fragments of other columns, scattered on the sward, or sunk in it, were all that remained of the once splendid temple of Cybele at Sardis. Two Greeks formed the whole resident Christian