eyes uplifted, and his hands close clasped, The dumb man, with a supplicating look, Turned, as the Lord passed by: JESUS beheld, And on him bent a pitying look, and spake : His moving lips are by the suppliant seen, And the last accents of the healing sentence Ring in that ear which never heard before. Prostrate the man restored falls to the earth, And uses first the gift, the gift sublime, Of speech, in giving thanks to him, whose voice Was never uttered but in doing good.
"Tis finished: he spake the words, and bowed His head, and died.-Beholding him far off, They, who had ministered unto him, hope,- 'Tis his last agony: The Temple's vail Is rent; revealing the most holy place, Wherein the cherubims their wings extend, O'ershadowing the mercy-seat of God. Appalled, the leaning soldier feels the spear Shake in his grasp; the planted standard falls Upon the heaving ground: The sun is dimmed, And darkness shrouds the body of the Lord.
THE setting orb of night her level ray Shed o'er the land, and, on the dewy sward, The lengthened shadows of the triple cross Were laid far stretched,-when in the east arose, Last of the stars, day's harbinger: No sound Was heard, save of the watching soldier's foot: Within the rock-barred sepulchre, the gloom Of deepest midnight brooded o'er the dead, The holy one; but, lo! a radiance faint Began to dawn around his sacred brow: The linen vesture seemed a snowy weath, Drifted by storms into a mountain cave: Bright, and more bright, the circling halo beamed Upon that face, clothed in a smile benign, Though yet exanimate. Nor long the reign Of death; the eyes, that wept for human griefs,
Unclose, and look around with conscious joy: Yes; with returning life, the first emotion That glowed in JESUS' breast of love, was joy At man's redemption, now complete; at death Disarmed; the grave transformed into the couch Of faith; the resurrection and the life. Majestical he rose; trembled the earth; The ponderous gate of stone was rolled away; The keepers fell; the angel, awe-struck, shrunk Into invisibility, while forth
The Saviour of the World walked, and stood Before the sepulchre, and viewed the clouds Empurpled glorious by the rising sun.
APPEARS TO THE DISCIPLES.
THE HE evening of that day, which saw the Lord Rise from the chambers of the dead, was come. His faithful followers, assembled, sang
A hymn, low-breathed; a hymn of sorrow, blent With hope;-when, in the midst, sudden he stood. The awe-struck circle backward shrink; he looks Around with a benignant smile of love,
And says, Peace be unto you: faith and joy
Spread o'er each face, amazed :—as when the moon, Pavilioned in dark clouds, mildly comes forth, Silvering a circlet in the fleecy rack.
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