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Thou Framer of the light and dark,
Steer through the tempest thine own ark:
Amid the howling wintry sea

We are in port if we have Thee b.

The Rulers of this Christian land,
'Twixt Thee and us ordained to stand,-
Guide Thou their course, O Lord, aright,
Let all do all as in thy sight.

Oh! by thine own sad burthen, borne
So meekly up the hill of scorn,
Teach Thou thy Priests their daily cross
To bear as thine, nor count it loss!

If some poor wandering child of thine
Have spurn'd, to-day, the voice divine,
Now, Lord, the gracious work begin;
Let him no more lie down in sin.

Then they willingly received Him into the ship: and imme. diately the ship was at the land whither they went.

St. John vi.

21.

Watch by the sick: enrich the poor
With blessings from thy boundless store:
Be every mourner's sleep to-night
Like infant's slumbers, pure and light.

Come near and bless us when we wake, Ere through the world our way we take : Till in the ocean of thy love

We lose ourselves in Heaven above.

ADVENT SUNDAY.

Now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Romans xiii. 11.

AWAKE—again the Gospel-trump is blown-
From year to year it swells with louder tone,
From year to year the signs of wrath

Are gathering round the Judge's path,

Strange words fulfill'd, and mighty works achiev'd, And truth in all the world both hated and believ'd.

Awake! why linger in the gorgeous town,
Sworn liegemen of the Cross and thorny crown?
Up from your beds of sloth for shame,
Speed to the eastern mount like flame,
Nor wonder, should ye find your King in tears,
Even with the loud Hosanna ringing in his ears.

Alas! no need to rouse them: long ago
They are gone forth to swell Messiah's show:
With glittering robes and garlands sweet

They strew the ground beneath his feet:

All but your hearts are there-O doom'd to prove The arrows wing'd in Heaven for Faith that will not love!

Meanwhile He paces through th' adoring crowd, Calm as the march of some majestic cloud,

That o'er wild scenes of ocean-war

Holds its still course in Heaven afar:

Even so, heart-searching Lord, as years roll on, Thou keepest silent watch from thy triumphal throne:

Even so, the world is thronging round to gaze
On the dread vision of the latter days,

Constrain'd to own Thee, but in heart
Prepar'd to take Barabbas' part:
"Hosanna" now, to-morrow" Crucify,"

The changeful burden still of their rude lawless cry.

Yet in that throng of selfish hearts untrue
Thy sad eye rests upon thy faithful few,

Children and childlike souls are there,

Blind Bartimeus' humble prayer,

And Lazarus waken'd from his four days' sleep, Enduring life again, that Passover to keep.

And fast beside the olive-border'd way
Stands the bless'd home, where Jesus deign'd to stay,
The peaceful home, to Zeal sincere

And heavenly Contemplation dear,

Where Martha lov'd to wait with reverence meet, And wiser Mary linger'd at thy sacred feet.

Still through decaying ages as they glide,
Thou lov'st thy chosen remnant to divide;
Sprinkled along the waste of years
Full many a soft green isle appears:
Pause where we may upon the desert road,
Some shelter is in sight, some sacred safe abode.

When withering blasts of error swept the sky, And Love's last flower seem'd fain to droop and die, How sweet, how lone the ray benign

On shelter'd nooks of Palestine !

< Arianism in the fourth century.

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