O well and wisely wrought of old,

Nor without guide, be sure, who first
Did cherub forms as infants mould,

And lift them where the full deep burst

Of awful harmony

Might need them most, to waft it onward to the sky :

Where best they may in watch and ward
Around the enthroned Saviour stand,

May quell, with sad and stern regard,
Unruly eye and wayward hand,

May deal the blessed dole

Of saving knowledge round from many a holy scroll.

What if in other lines than ours

They write, in other accents speak? There are whom watchful Love empowers To read such riddles ;-duteous seek,

And thou shalt quickly find.

The Mother best may tell the eager babe's deep mind.

Carved Angels.

Haply some shield their arms embrace,
Rich with the Lord's own blazonry.
The Cross of His redeeming grace,

Or His dread Wounds, we there descry.
His standard-bearers they :

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Learn we to face them on the dread Procession Day.

And O if aught of pride or lust

Have soiled thee in the world, take heed:

Entering, shake off the mire and dust.

Angelic eyes are keen, to read

By the least lightest sign,

When we foul idle thoughts breathe in the air divine.

And how, but by their whisperings soft,
Feel virgin hearts when sin is near,

Sin even in dreams unknown? Full oft
Such instinct we may mark in fear,

Nor our own ill endure

In presence of Christ's babes, and of their Guardians

pure.

10.

CHURCH RITES.

"Christ is all, and in all."

THE wedding guests are met,

The urns are duly set,

Even as the Lord had taught His own of old.

Filled are they to the height

With water pure and bright :—

Now pour them out-'tis done, and purest wine behold.

The bridegroom kneels beside

His bashful loving bride;

Earth on that hour seems showering all her best.

But more than Earth e'er knew

He wins, if hearts be true :

An Angel friend, to share his everlasting rest.

A babe in deep repose

Where holy water flows

Is bathed, while o'er him holiest words are said.

Church Rites.

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A child of wrath he came—

Now hath he JESUS' Name:

A glory like a Saint's surrounds his favoured head.

A mortal youth I saw

Nigh to God's Altar draw

And lowly kneel, while o'er him pastoral hands
Were spread with many a prayer,

And when he rose up there,

He could undo or bind the dread celestial bands.

When Bread and Wine he takes,

And of Christ's Passion makes

Memorial high before the Mercy Throne,

Faith speaks, and we are sure

That offering good and pure

Is more than Angels' bread to all whom Christ will own.

Mid mourners I have stood,

And with sad eye pursued

The coffin sinking in the grave's dark shade :

The immortal life, we know,

Dwells there with hidden glow,

Brightly to burn one day when sun and stars shall fade.

What is this silent might,

Making our darkness light,

New wine our waters, heavenly Blood our wine?

Christ, with His Mother dear,

And all His Saints, is here,

And where they dwell is Heaven, and what they touch, divine.

new.

The change of water into wine was believed by the ancients to typify that change which St. Paul in particular so earnestly dwells on: " Old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new." And St. John, "He that sitteth on the Throne saith, Behold, I make all things Accordingly St. Cyprian applies this first miracle to the admission of the Gentiles into the Church. (Ep. 63. ed. Fell.) And St. Augustine, to the evangelical interpretation of the Old Testament. (In Joan. Tract. 8.) And St. Cyril of Alexandria (in loc.) to the Spirit superseding the letter. This then being the "beginning of miracles," a kind of pattern of the rest, showed how Christ's glory was to be revealed in the effects of His Sacramental Touch; whether immediately, as when He touched the leper and healed him or through the hem of His garment or by Saints, His living members, according to His Promise, "The works that I do shall ye do also: and greater works than these shall ye do, because I go unto my Father." Thus, according to the Scriptures, the Sacramental Touch of the Church is the Touch of Christ: and her system is "deifica disciplina," a rule which, in some sense, makes men gods, and the human, divine; and all this depends on the verity of the Incarnation, therefore His Mother is especially instrumental in it; besides being, as nearest to Him, the most glorious instance of it. "The Mother of Jesus is there, and both Jesus and His Disciples are called,-" (He as the Bridegroom and Author of the whole mystery, they as ministers, servants, and instruments,)—to this mysterious "marriage," or Communion of Saints.