PART II. REVELATION: THE OLD TESTAMENT. THE BIBLE. BERNARD BARTON. LAMP of our feet! whereby we trace Bread of our souls! whereon we feed; Our guide and chart! wherein we read Pillar of fire, through watches dark! Of radiant cloud, by day! When waves would whelm our tossing bark, Our anchor and our stay! Pole-star on life's tempestuous deep! Beacon! when doubts surround; Compass! by which our course we keep; Our deep-sea lead, to sound! Riches in poverty! our aid Our shield and buckler in the fight! Childhood's preceptor! manhood's trust! Old age's firm ally! Our hope when we go down to dust Of immortality! Pure oracles of Truth Divine! Unlike each fabled dream Given forth from Delphos' mystic shrine, Or groves of Academe! Word of the Ever-living God! Will of his glorious Son! Without thee how could earth be trod? Or heaven itself be won? PLEDGES OF MERCY. Yet to unfold thy hidden worth, That SPIRIT which first gave thee forth And we, if we aright would learn The wisdom it imparts, Must to its heavenly teachings turn PLEDGES OF MERCY. JOHN KEBLE. CHRISTIAN YEAR. 43 "I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth." Gen. ix. 13. SWEET Dove! the softest, steadiest plume In all the sun-bright sky, Brightening in ever-changeful bloom, As breezes change on high; Sweet Leaf! the pledge of peace and mirth, "Long sought and lately won," Blest increase of reviving earth, When first it felt the sun; Sweet Rainbow! pride of summer days, High set at Heaven's command, Though into drear and dusky haze Thou melt on either hand; Dear tokens of a pardoning God, As when our fathers walked abroad, How joyful from the imprisoning ark So home-bound sailors spring to shore, So happy souls, when life is o'er, What wins their first and fondest gaze In all the blissful field, And keeps it through a thousand days? Love, face to face revealed; Love, imaged in that cordial look On souls that sin and earth forsook PLEDGES OF MERCY. And what most welcome and serene What but the gentle rainbow's gleam, That cannot bear the solar beam, Lord, if our fathers turned to thee With such adoring gaze, Wondering frail man thy light should see Without thy scorching blaze, Where is our love, and where our hearts, The Son of God in radiance beamed Too bright for us to scan, But we may face the rays that streamed There, parted into rainbow hues, In sweet, harmonious strife, We see celestial love diffuse Its light o'er Jesus' life. 45 |