We must not stand to gaze too long,
Though on unfolding heaven our gaze we bend,
Where lost behind the bright angelic throng
We see CHRIST's entering triumph slow ascend.
No fear but we shall soon behold,

Faster than now it fades, that gleam revive,
When issuing from his cloud of fiery gold
Our wasted frames feel the true sun, and live.

Then shall we see Thee as Thou art,*
For ever fix'd in no unfruitful gaze,

But such as lifts the new-created heart, Age after age, in worthier love and praise.

SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION.

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 1 St. Peter iv. 10. [Epistle for the Day.]

[O God, the king of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; we beseech thee leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.]

*

THE Earth that in her genial breast
Makes for the down a kindly nest,
Where wafted by the warm south-west
It floats at pleasure,

Yields, thankful, of her very best,

To nurse her treasure:

["When he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 1 John iii. 2.]

1

True to her trust, tree, herb, or reed,
She renders for each scatter'd seed,
And to her Lord with duteous heed
Gives large increase:

Thus year by year she works unfeed,
And will not cease.

Wo worth these barren hearts of ours,
Where Thou hast set celestial flowers,
And water'd with more balmy showers,
Than e'er distill'd

In Eden, on th' ambrosial bowers-
Yet nought we yield.

Largely Thou givest, gracious Lord,
Largely thy gifts should be restor❜d;
Freely Thou givest, and thy word
Is, "freely give,'

He only, who forgets to hoard,
Has learn'd to live.

Wisely Thou givest-all around
Thine equal rays are resting found,
Yet varying so on various ground
They pierce and strike,

That not two roseate cups are crown'd
With dew alike:

Even so, in silence, likest Thee,
Steals on soft-handed Charity,
Tempering her gifts, that seem so free,
By time and place,

Till not a wo the bleak world see,
But finds her grace:

Eyes to the blind, and to the lame
Feet, and to sinners wholesome blame,

*St. Matt. x. 8.

*

To starving bodies food and flame
By turns she brings,

To humbled souls, that sink for shame,
Lends heaven-ward wings:

Leads them the way our Saviour went,
And shows Love's treasure yet unspent;
As when th' unclouded heavens were rent
Opening his road,

Nor yet his Holy Spirit sent
To our abode,

Ten days th' eternal doors display'd*
Were wondering (so th' Almighty bade)
Whom Love enthron'd would send, in aid
Of souls that mourn,

Left orphans in Earth's dreary shade
As soon as born.

Open they stand, that prayers in throngs
May rise on high, and holy songs,
Such incense as of right belongs

To the true shrine,

Where stands the Healer of all wrongs
In light divine;

The golden censer in his hand,
He offers hearts from every land,
Tied to his own by gentlest band
Of silent Love:

About Him winged blessings stand
In act to move.

A little while, and they shall fleet
From Heaven to Earth, attendants meet

[Ten days intervened between the ascension of the Saviour and the descent of the Comforter.]

1

On the life-giving Paraclete
Speeding his flight,

With all that sacred is and sweet,
On saints to light.

Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, all
Shall feel the shower of Mercy fall,
And starting at th' Almighty's call,
Give what He gave,

Till their high deeds the world appal,
And sinners save.

Tε Pentecost

&

WHITSUNDAY.*

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them: and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Acts ii. 2, 3. [Scripture for the Epistle.]

[O God, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort, through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.]

WHEN God of old came down from heaven.
In power and wrath He came;

Before his feet the clouds were riven,

Half darkness and half flame:

[This festival is designed to commemorate the descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles in the shape of cloven fiery tongues. It took place on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, the anniversary of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. The practice in the primitive church of receiving catechumens generally to baptism on this day, clad in white robes, probably gave occasion to its name of white, or, by contraction, Whitsunday.

Around the trembling mountain's base
The prostrate people lay;

A day of wrath and not of grace;
A dim and dreadful day.

But when he came the second time,
He came in power and love,
Softer than gale at morning prime
Hover'd his holy Dove.

The fires that rush'd on Sinai down
In sudden torrents dread,
Now gently light, a glorious crown,
On every sainted head.

Like arrows went those lightnings forth
Wing'd with the sinner's doom,
But these, like tongues, o'er all the earth
Proclaiming life to come:

And as on Israel's awe-struck ear
The voice exceeding loud,

The trump, that angels quake to hear,
Thrill'd from the deep, dark cloud,

So, when the Spirit of our God

Came down his flock to find,
A voice from heaven was heard abroad,
A rushing, mighty wind.

Nor doth the outward ear alone
At that high warning start;
Conscience gives back th' appalling tone;
"I'is echoed in the heart.

It fills the Church of God; it fills
The sinful world around;

Only in stubborn hearts and wills
No place for it is found.