Floats round their steps, where'er they move, Such wedded souls our God shall own Thus every where we find our suffering God, May set our steps: the Cross on Calvary Beams on the martyr host, a beacon light To the still wrestlings of the lonely heart The virtue of His midnight agony, When none was nigh, Save God and one good angel, to assuage Mortal! if life smile on thee, and thou find Think, who did once from Heaven to Hell descend So shalt thou dare forego, at His dear call, “O Father! not my will, but thine be done ”- Be this our charm, mellowing Earth's ruder noise That we may cling for ever to thy breast THURSDAY BEFORE EASTER. THE VISION OF THE LATTER DAYS. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and 1 am come to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved; therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. Daniel ix. 23. [First Morning Lesson, Church of England.] "O HOLY mountain of my God, How do thy towers in ruin lie, The "Man of Loves" was fain to pray,* Oh for a love like Daniel's now, To wing to Heaven but one strong prayer For God's new Israel, sunk as low, Yet flourishing to sight as fair, As Sion in her height of pride, With queens for handmaids at her side, With kings her nursing-fathers, throned high, And compass'd with the world's too tempting blazonry. * 'Tis true, nor winter stays thy growth, Nor torrid summer's sickly smile; The flashing billows of the south Break not upon so lone an isle, ["O Daniel, a man greatly beloved;" Hebrew, a man of desires, or loves. Daniel x. 11.] † Daniel vi. 10. But thou, rich vine, art grafted there, To thine Almighty Author, and his steadfast sway. Should cluster round thine healthiest shoot! Who, if he dar'd, would fain be mute! What do we then? if far and wide Men kneel to CHRIST, the pure and meek, Kneel on to Him, who loves to bless The prayer that waits for Him; and trembling strive To keep the lingering flame in thine own breast alive. Dark frown'd the future even on him, The loving and beloved Seer, What time he saw, through shadows dim, The boundary of th' eternal year; He only of the sons of men Nam'd to be heir of glory then.* *Dan. xii. 13. See Bishop Kenn's Sermon on the Character of Daniel. ["All these wonderful vouchsafements from above to Daniel, though they were most illustrious demonstrations that he was greatly beloved, yet they were indulged him for the sake of others, as well as for his own. There is therefore one more illustrious than all these, and that is a favour which God bestows on but very few, and on none but great saints, who are greatly beloved; and not usually on them, till near their death, and is the very Else had it bruis'd too sore his tender heart To see God's ransom'd world in wrath and flame depart. Then look no more: or closer, watch Thy course in Earth's bewildering ways, In mercy thou may'st feel the heavenly hand, And in thy lot unharm'd before thy Saviour stand.* top blessing of which man is capable in this life, the highest bliss on this side of heaven; and that is an absolute assurance of a glorious immortality; and such an assurance as this had the beloved Daniel: for the angel, having discoursed to him of the resurrection of those that sleep in the dust and of their awaking to everlasting life, adds, Go thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in the lot at the end of the days. O the unutterable felicity of this man, thus greatly beloved by God! whilst the generality of saints sigh under their flesh and blood, which clogs, and loads, and depresses them; whilst the penitent are still begging their pardon, and the humble full of fears and misgivings, by reason of their numerous failings; while the best of them all see heaven only through a glass darkly, and at a distance, and can reach no higher in this world than hope, and desire, and reliance on God's promise, and patient expectation; Daniel, the man greatly beloved, has an angel sent on purpose by God, to assure him of his lot in a glorious eternity, and that his mansion there was prepared and brightened to receive him. And yet this is not all; Daniel was not only assured of future glory, but of a greater degree of glory than others had: for having made it his great business here below to love God himself, and greatly to love him, and to excite others to love God as greatly as he loved him, he was to have a more sublime exaltation in bliss than ordinary; the greater his love was, the nearer was he to be seated to the throne of God his beloved; and having turned many to righteousness, he was to shine as the stars for ever and ever."—A Short Account of the Life of the Rt. Rev. Father in God, Thomas Kenn, D. D. By W. Hawkins, Esq. London, 1713, 12mo. * Dan. xii. 13. Thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. GOOD FRIDAY.* He is despised and rejected of men. Isaiah liii. 3. [First Evening Lesson.] [Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross, who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified; receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Church, that every member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly and godly serve thee, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. O merciful God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor desirest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics; and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.] IS it not strange, the darkest hour That ever dawn'd on sinful earth Should touch the heart with softer power That to the Cross the mourner's eye should turn Sooner than where the Easter sun Shines glorious on yon open grave, And to and fro the tidings run, ،، Who died to heal, is ris'n to save." Sooner than where upon the Saviour's friends * [The most solemn fast of the Christian Church, observed in commemoration of her Saviour's crucifixion, making atonement for the sins of men.] |