FORMS OF PRAYER TO BE USED AT SEA. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. Isaiah xliii. 2. THE shower of moonlight falls as still and clear Upon the desert main, As where sweet flowers some pastoral garden cheer The wild winds rustle in the piping shrouds, Like summer fields, beneath the shadowy clouds Thou too art here with thy soft inland tones, The lonely ocean learns thy orisons, And loves thy sacred mirth : When storms are high, or when the fires of war Thou breath'st a note like music from afar, Tempering rude hearts with calm angelic force. Far far away, the homesick seaman's hoard, Like flower-leaves in a precious volume stor❜d, Some heart too weary of the restless world; That o'er the brightening billow streams unfurl'd, O kindly soothing in high Victory's hour, In whose sweet presence Sorrow dares not lower, Too high for earth; what mother's heart could spare To the cold cheerless deep Her flower and hope? but thou art with him there, Pledge of the untir'd arm and eye that cannot sleep : The eye that watches o'er wild Ocean's dead, Fondly as if the green turf wrapt his head One moment, and the seeds of life shall spring And happy warriors triumph with their King e And there was no more sea. Rev. xxi. 1, GUNPOWDER TREASON. As thou hast testified of me at Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome, Acts xxiii. 11. BENEATH the burning eastern sky The widow'd Church to weep stood by, Now, journeying westward, evermore At Rome she wears it, as of old By monarchs clad in gems and gold, She mourns that tender hearts should bend Before a meaner shrine, And upon Saint or Angel spend By day and night her sorrows fall Where miscreant hands and rude Have stain'd her pure ethereal pall And yearns not her parental heart, Who to her side in peace would cling, She treasures up each throbbing prayer : Come, trembler, come and pour Into her bosom all thy care, For she has balm in store. |