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ST. JAMES'S DAY.

Ye shall drink indeed of my cap, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. St. Matthew xx. 23.

SIT down and take thy fill of joy

At God's right hand, a bidden guest,
Drink of the cup that cannot cloy,
Eat of the bread that cannot waste.
O great Apostle ! rightly now

Thou readest all thy Saviour meant,
What time His grave yet gentle brow
In sweet reproof on thee was bent.

"Seek ye to sit enthron'd by me?

"Alas! ye know not what ye ask, "The first in shame and agony,

"The lowest in the meanest task

"This can ye be? and can ye drink

"The cup that I in tears must steep, "Nor from the whelming waters shrink "That o'er me roll so dark and deep ?”

"We can-thine are we, dearest Lord, « In glory and in agony,

"To do and suffer all Thy word;

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Only be Thou for ever nigh.”"Then be it so-my cup receive,

"And of my woes baptismal taste : "But for the crown, that angels weave "For those next me in glory plac'd,

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"But in my Father's book are writ

"What names on earth shall lowliest prove, "That they in Heaven may highest sit." Take

up the lesson, O my heart;

Thou Lord of meekness, write it there,
Thine own meek self to me impart,
Thy lofty hope, thy lowly prayer.

If ever on the mount with Thee
I seem to soar in vision bright,

With thoughts of coming agony a

Stay Thou the too presumptuous flight: Gently along the vale of tears

Lead me from Tabor's sunbright steep,

Let me not grudge a few short years

With Thee tow'rd Heaven to walk and weep:

Too happy, on my silent path,

If now and then allow'd, with Thee
Watching some placid holy death,
Thy secret work of love to see ;
But, oh! most happy, should thy call,
Thy welcome call, at last be given-
"Come where thou long hast stor'd thy all,

"Come see thy place prepar'd in Heaven.”

a St. Matthew xvii. 12. "Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them." This was just after the Transfiguration.

ST. BARTHOLOMEW.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. St. John i. 50.

HOLD up thy mirror to the sun,
And thou shalt need an eagle's gaze,

So perfectly the polish'd stone

Gives back the glory of his rays:

Turn it, and it shall paint as true
The soft green of the vernal earth,
And each small flower of bashful hue,
That closest hides its lowly birth.

Our mirror is a blessed book,

Where out from each illumin'd page

We see one glorious Image look

All eyes to dazzle and engage,

The Son of God: and that indeed

We see him as He is, we know,

Since in the same bright glass we read
The very life of things below.-

Eye of God's word! where'er we turn
Ever upon us! thy keen gaze
Can all the depths of sin discern,
Unravel every bosom's maze :

Who that has felt thy glance of dread
Thrill through his heart's remotest cells,
About his path, about his bed,

Can doubt what spirit in thee dwells?

"What word is this? Whence know'st thou me?" All wondering cries the humbled heart,

"The position before us is, that we ourselves, and such as we, are the very persons whom Scripture speaks of and to whom, as men, in every variety of persuasive form, it makes its condescending though celestial appeal. The point worthy of observation is, to note how a book of the description and the compass which we have represented Scripture to be, possesses this versatility of power; this eye, like that of a portrait, uniformly fixed upon us, turn where we will." Miller's Bampton Lectures, p. 128.

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