O, rich the tint of earthly gold,
And keen the diamond's spark,

But the

young Lamb of JESUS' fold

Should other splendours mark.

To soothe him in the unquiet night
I ask no taper's gleam,

But bring him where aerial light
Falls from the Moon's soft beam.

His heart at early morn to store
With fancies fresh and rare,
Count not thy jewels o'er and o'er,
Show him no mirror's glare,

But lift him where the Eastern heaven

Glows with the Sun unseen,

Where the strong wings, to morning given,

Brood o'er a world serene.

There let him breathe his matin thought
Of pure unconscious love,

There taste the dew by Angels brought
In silence from above.

Looking Westward.

Yet, might I choose a time, me seems
That earliest wistful gaze

Were best to meet the softening beams
Of sunset's glowing maze.

Wide be the western casement thrown
At sultry evening's fall,

The gorgeous lines be duly shown
That weave Heaven's wondrous pall.

Calm be his sleep, whose eyelids close

Upon so fair a sight :

Not gentler mother's music flows,
Her sweetest, best good night.

So hastes the Lord our hearts to fill
With calm baptismal grace,

Preventing all false gleams of ill

By His own glorious Face.

41

7.

UPWARD GAZING.

"And whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy."

"WHENCE is the mighty grace,

Mother of God, that thou to me shouldst come,

Me, who but fill a sinner's place,

A sinful child hid in my womb?
Who in God's sight am I,

And who mine unborn boy,

That I should view Heaven's Spouse so nigh,

He in my bosom leap for joy ?"

O cry of deep delight

By Aaron's sainted daughter breath'd that hour! O joy preventing life and light,

When th' Incarnate in His Power

Upward Gazing.

Came to th' Unborn! even now

Your echo faint we feel,

When o'er the newly sealed brow

Glad airs and gleams of summer steal.

Oft as in sunbright dawn
The infant lifts his eye, joying to find
The dusky veil of sleep undrawn,
And to the East gives welcome kind :
Or in the morning air

Waves high his little arm,

As though he read engraven there

His fontal name, Christ's saving charm:

Oft as in hope untold

The parent's eye pursues that eager look,

Enkindling like the shafts of old,

Where mid the stars their way they took :*

Still in Love's steady gaze,

In Joy's unbidden cry,

That holy mother's glad amaze,

That infant's worship, we descry.

*Vir. En. v. 525.

43

Still Mary's Child unseen

Comes breathing, in the heart just seal'd His own, Prayers of high hope: what bliss they mean, And where they soar, to Him is known !— But, joyous Mothers, mark,

And mark, exulting Sires,

All who the pure baptismal spark
Would duteous nurse to saintly fires:

Stern is the Babe, and lone :
Vow'd from his birth, unborn he seals the vow,
And ere he win his glory-throne,

Vigil and fast his frame must bow,

And hours of prayer, apart

From Home's too soothing praise ;

His Saviour's image in his heart

Increasing while his own decays.