ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

Jesus, Thou Friend divine,

Our Saviour, and our King,

Thy hand from every snare and foe, Shall great deliverance bring.

Sure as Thy truth shall last,
To Zion shall be given

The brightest glories earth can yield,

And brighter bliss of heaven.

DWIGHT.

[ocr errors]

CHRIST'S LEGACY.

HO deems that Holy Church

has lost

The priceless gift the Saviour gave?

Or,as an idle bauble, tost

Beneath the curst world's hungry wave,

Her keys that, all this wide world o'er,

Oped to man's want God's spirit-store?

That now the Kingdom is but earth alone

Where man's poor sight and wisdom seek their own?

Who deems that hidden Paradise,

Its sweet cool shades, its living streams, Its lustrous air, from seraph's eyes

Radiant with interwoven beams,

And the eternal Light divine

Filling up all with changeless shine,—

That these, and converse with the dwellers

there,

To men in spirit are not free as air?

That His blest Kingdom-which, Christ said, Should ever stand while earth doth stand, And, when the last flames, fierce and red, Should meet and burn up sea and land, Transfigured through these fires should glow Thenceforth no earthiness to know,

That this hath not one, only, changeless frame,

One as the Lord: on earth, in heaven, the same?

Or that the Body of the Lord,

The Godhead dwelling in the flesh,—

Is not, to us, as when that Word

In human nature dwelt afresh?

Or that God's fulness, now, as then,
Doth not inhabit in us men,

A fulness that in each of us hath place
Of grace according to our growth in grace?

Oh! is not God the selfsame now
As when he put on human frame?
His Body is the Church: and how
Is this, His Body, not the same?

It is the same where'er Faith is:

Christ manifests himself in His:

Where Faith is not, to them is Christ no

more

Indwelling, in the Spirit, as of yore.

This glorious Kingdom-rich within,
And glowing with all spirit-powers—
There is no cause, but each man's sin,
If all its treasures be not ours:
Our priests are gifted with the Word.
And every member of the Lord

Hath his own measure of the Holy Ghost:
In the most humble and obedient, most.

And in the Spirit, oh, what height

The feet of faithful men do mount!

There glossy slopes flow all with light,

And vales are rich with stream and fount. side;

The pure see God on every

Them spirits gently serve and guide;

While earth, to them, is sorrow, shame, and

ill,

The Church is heaven on earth, about them still.

Sweet mysteries to them that love,

Do lead to that eye hath not seen;

An open sky is spread above

Wherein no cloud hath ever been. The Word wells full in every heart;

Deep calleth unto deep, apart;

And Love, God's being, maketh them all

one

In Him, the Father, who are in the Son.

[merged small][graphic]
« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »