Thou the shame, the grief hast known; Though the sins were not Thine own, Thou hast deigned their load to bear: Gracious Son of Mary, hear!

HENRY HART MILMAN.

THE DEAD CHRIST.

TAKE the dead Christ to my chamber-
The Christ I brought from Rome;

Over all the tossing ocean,

He has reached His western home: Bear Him as in procession,

And lay Him solemnly

Where, through weary night and morning,

He shall bear me company.

The name I bear is other

Than that I bore by birth;

And I've given life to children

Who'll grow and dwell on earth; But the time comes swiftly towards meNor do I bid it stay

When the dead Christ will be more to me Than all I hold to-day.

Lay the dead Christ beside me—
O, press Him on my heart;

I would hold Him long and painfully,
Till the weary tears should start-
Till the divine contagion

Heal me of self and sin,

And the cold weight press wholly down The pulse that chokes within.

Reproof and frost, they fret me; Towards the free, the sunny lands, From the chaos of existence,

I stretch these feeble hands

And, penitential, kneeling,

Pray God would not be wroth, Who gave not the strength of feeling And strength of labor both.

Thou 'rt but a wooden carving,
Defaced of worms, and old;

Yet more to me Thou couldst not be
Wert Thou all wrapt in gold

In Lebanon my lonely home I made;

I heard the wind among the cedars roar,
And saw far off the Dead Sea's solemn shore-
But 't is a dreary wilderness, I said,
Since the prophetic spirit hence has sped.
Then from the convent in the vale I heard,
Slow chanted forth, the everlasting Word-
Saying "I am He that liveth, and was dead;
And lo I am alive for evermore."
Then forth upon my pilgrimage I fare,
Resolved to find and praise Him every where.

A HYMN.

DROP, drop, slow tears,

ANONYMOUS.

And bathe those beauteous feet
Which brought from Heaven
The news and Prince of Peace!
Cease not, wet eyes,

His mercies to entreat!

To cry for vengeance

Sin doth never cease;

In your deep floods

Drown all my faults and fears; Nor let His eye

See sin, but through my tears.

PHINEAS FLETCHES