Page images
PDF
EPUB

A lamp to give the Gentiles light,
A glory, oh, how infinite!

To Israel's faithful Seed.

George Sandys.

SION, thine hallowed gates unfold,
The priest and victim, Christ behold;
To Truth let empty figures yield,
Truth, that to all stands self-revealed.

Whom seers discerned with far-off ken,
Thou givest to the eyes of men,

Thy self, O Christ, with words of might
Ere long the astonished ear to smite.

The maiden meek, with downcast eye,
Conscious of hidden Deity,

Bears in her arms the God she bare,
With the young doves, her votive pair.

Her forty days she kept right well,
True mother of God's Israel,

A mother-maid, of God the shrine,

Yet entering not the fane divine.

Alas! what swords thy soul shall wound,

O virgin, born to grief profound;
The Lamb, that in thy breast doth lie,
With blood that altar-stone shall dye.

W. J. Blew.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][merged small]

THE EPIPHANY.

WHO are they, travelling from afar,
With jewelled gift and incense fine?
No merchants homeward bound they are,
No sons of Jacob's chosen line.

For now the sun that rose so bright

For all the earth, has dawned in heaven,

Far lands have felt the breaking light,

The temple's veil will soon be riven;

And mercy, like a gentle star,

Looks down from heaven, and leads them on, From Eastern scenes of pomp and war

To worship at a cradle throne.

The wandering star has ceased to roam;
Calm falls her radiance, pure and mild,

On yonder Jewish peasant's home,
On yonder low-born Jewish child.

Laid on a virgin mother's knee,

No waiting guards, no pomp around, The wise men joy exceedingly,

The Monarch whom they sought is found.

They kneel before their Infant King,
And all their treasured gifts unfold,
In costly homage offering

The myrrh, the incense, and the gold.

And meet it was all earth should send
A tribute of her costliest things;
And meet it was her kings should bend
In homage to the King of kings.

Great kings for Christ great things have done;
He bade them nurse His Church below;
And brighter crowns their brows have won,
At His dear cross adoring low.

C. F. H.

DEEP in Sabea's fragrant groves retired,
Long had the Eastern sages studious dwelt,
By love sublime of sacred science fired:

Long had they trained the inquiring youth,
With liberal hand the bread of wisdom dealt,

« PreviousContinue »