Ah! thou confessest his name, so follow likewise his example, Think of thy brother no ill, but throw a veil over his failings, Guide the erring aright; for the good, the heavenly shepherd Took the lost lamb in his arms, and bore it back to its mother. This is the fruit of Love, and it is by its fruits that we know it. Love is the creature's welfare, with God; but Love among mortals Is but an endless sigh! He longs, and endures, and stands. waiting, Suffers and yet rejoices, and smiles with tears on his eyelids. Hope, so is called upon earth, his recompense,-Hope, the be friending, Does what she can, for she points evermore up to heaven, and faithful Plunges her anchor's peak in the depths of the grave, and beneath it Paints a more beautiful world, a dim, but a sweet play of shad ows ! Races, better than we, have leaned on her wavering promise, Having naught else but Hope. Then praise we our Father in heaven, Him, who has given us more; for to us has Hope been transfigured, Groping no longer in night; she is Faith, she is living assur ance. Faith is enlightened Hope; she is light, is the eye of affection, Dreams of the longing interprets, and carves their visions in marble. Faith is the son of life; and her countenance shines like the Hebrew's, For she has looked upon God; the heaven on its stable foundation Draws she with chains down to earth, and the New Jerusalem sinketh Splendid with portals twelve in golden vapors descending. homestead. Therefore love and believe; for works will follow spontaneous Even as day does the sun; the Right from the Good is an offspring, Love in a bodily shape; and Christian works are no more than Animate Love and faith, as flowers are the animate springtide. Works do follow us all unto God; there stand and bear witness Not what they seemed,—but what they were only. Blessed is he who Hears their confession secure; they are mute upon earth until death's hand Opens the mouth of the silent. Ye children, does Death e'er alarm you? Death is the brother of Love, twin-brother is he, and is only More austere to behold. With a kiss upon lips that are fading Takes he the soul and departs, and rocked in the arms of affec tion, Places the ransomed child, new born, 'fore the face of its father. Sounds of his coming already I hear,-see dimly his pinions, Swart as the night, but with stars strewn upon them! I fear not before him. Death is only released, and in mercy is mute. On his bosom Freer breathes, in its coolness, my breast; and face to face stand ing Look I on God as he is, a sun unpolluted by vapors; Look on the light of the ages I loved, the spirits majestic, Writ in the climate of heaven, in the language spoken by angels. Meanwhile forget not the keeping of vows, forget not the promise, Wander from holiness onward to holiness; earth shall ye heed not; Earth is but dust and heaven is light; I have pledged you to heaven. God of the Universe, hear me! thou fountain of Love everlasting, Hark to the voice of thy servant! I send up my prayer to thy heaven! Let me hereafter not miss at thy throne one spirit of all these, Whom thou hast given me here ! I have loved them all like a father. May they bear witness for me, that I taught them the way of salvation, Faithful, so far as I knew of thy word; again may they know me, Fall on their Teacher's breast, and before thy face may I place them, Pure as they now are, but only more tried, and exclaiming with gladness, Father, lo! I am here, and the children, whom thou hast given me!" Weeping he spake in these words; and now at the beck of the old man Knee against knee they knitted a wreath round the altar's en closure. Kneeling he read them the prayers of the consecration, and softly With him the children read; at the close, with tremulous ac cents, Asked he the peace of heaven, a benediction upon them. Now should have ended his task for the day; the following Sun day Was for the young appointed to eat of the Lord's holy Supper. Sudden, as struck from the clouds, stood the Teacher silent and laid his Hand on his forehead, and cast his looks upward; while thoughts high and holy Flew through the midst of his soul, and his eyes glanced with wonderful brightness. "On the next Sunday, who knows! perhaps I shall rest in the grave-yard! Some one perhaps of yourselves, a lily broken untimely, Bow down his head to the earth; why delay I? the hour is ac complished. Warm is the heart;-I will so! for to-day grows the harvest of heaven. What I began accomplish I now; for what failing therein is Of the new covenant a symbol it is, of Atonement a token, Far hath wandered from God, from his essence. 'T was in the beginning Fast by the Tree of Knowledge he fell, and it hangs its crown o'er the Fall to this day; in the Thought is the Fall; in the Heart the Atonement. Infinite is the Fall, the Atonement infinite likewise. See! behind me, as far as the old man remembers, and forward, Far as Hope in her flight can reach with her wearied pinions, Sin and Atonement incessant go through the lifetime of mortals. Brought forth is sin full-grown; but Atonement sleeps in our bosoms Still as the cradled babe; and dreams of heaven and of angels, Cannot awake to sensation; is like the tones in the harp's strings, Spirits imprisoned, that wait evermore the deliverer's finger. Therefore, ye children beloved, descended the Prince of Atone ment, Woke the slumberer from sleep, and she stands now with eyes all resplendent, Bright as the vault of the sky, and battles with Sin and o'ercomes her, Downward to earth he came and transfigured, thence reas cended, Not from the heart in like wise, for there he still lives in the Spirit, Loves and atones evermore. So long as Time is, is Atonement. Therefore with reverence receive this day her visible token. Tokens are dead if the things do not live. The light everlasting Unto the blind man is not, but is born of the eye that has vision. Neither in bread nor in wine, but in the heart that is hallowed Lieth forgiveness enshrined; the intention alone of amendment Fruits of the earth ennobles to heavenly things, and removes all Sin and the guerdon of sin. Only Love with his arms wide extended, Penitence weeping and praying the Will that is tried, and whose gold flows Purified forth from the flame; in a word, mankind by Atonement Breaketh Atonement's bread, and drinketh Atonement's wine-cup. But he who cometh up hither, unworthy, with hate in his bosom, Scoffing at men and at God, is guilty of Christ's blessed body, And the Redeemer's blood! To himself he eateth and drinketh Death and doom! And from this, preserve us, thou Heavenly Father! Are ye ready, ye children, to eat of the bread of Atonement?" Thus with emotion he asked, and together answered the children Yes! with deep sobs interrupted. Then read he the due supplications, Read the Form of Communion, and in chimed the organ and anthem; O! Holy Lamb of God, who takest away our transgressions, Hear us give us thy peace! have mercy, have mercy upon us! Th' old man, with trembling hand, and heavenly pearls on his eyelids, Filled now the chalice and paten, and dealt round the mystical symbols. O! then seemed it to me as if God, with the broad eye of midday, Clearer looked in at the windows, and all the trees in the churchyard Bowed down their summits of green, and the grass on the graves 'gan to shiver. But in the children, (I noted it well; I knew it) there ran a Tremor of holy rapture along through their icy cold members. Decked like an altar before them, there stood the green earth, and above it Heaven opened itself, as of old, before Stephen; they saw there Radiant in glory the Father, and on his right hand the Redeemer. |