O then the glory and the bliss, When all that pain'd or seem'd amiss Shall melt with earth and sin away! When saints beneath their Saviour's eye, Fill'd with each other's company, Shall spend in love th' eternal day. LXXXIV. ST. PHILIP AND ST. JAMES. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: but the rich, in that he is made low. St. James i. 9, 10. DEAR is the morning gale of spring, And dear th' autumnal eve; Her bowers are mute, her fountains dry, Sweet is the infant's waking smile, And sweet the old man's rest But middle age by no fond wile, No soothing calm is blest. Still in the world's hot restless gleam She plies her weary task, While vainly for some pleasant dream O shame upon thee, listless heart, As if thy SAVIOUR had no part In thoughts, that make thee grieve. As if along His lonesome way He had not borne for thee Sad languors through the summer day, Storms on the wintry sea. Youth's lightning flash of joy secure No spring was His-no fairy gleamFor He by trial knew How cold and bare what mortals dream, To worlds where all is true. Then grudge not thou the anguish keen Which makes thee like thy LORD, And learn to quit with eye serene Thy treasur'd hopes and raptures highUnmurmuring let them go, Nor grieve the bliss should quickly fly Which CHRIST disdain'd to know. Thou shalt have joy in sadness soon; The pure, calm hope be thine, Which brightens, like the eastern moon, As days wild lights decline. Thus souls, by nature pitch'd too high, Meet in the Church's middle sky, To practise there the soothing lay Thankful for all God takes away, Humbled by all He gives. LXXXV. ST. BARNABAS. The Son of consolation, a Levite. Acts iv. 36. THE world's a room of sickness, where each heart Knows its own anguish and unrest; The truest wisdom there, and noblest art, Is his, who skills of comfort best; Whom by the softest step and gentlest tone Enfeebled spirits own, And love to raise the languid eye, When, like an angel's wing, they feel him fleeting by : Feel only-for in silence gently gliding Fain would he shun both ear and sight, "Twixt Prayer and watchful Love his heart dividing, A nursing father day and night. |