The second day, God stood on high,
The dewy treasures of the sky:

And who the pure glad drops may tell,

Reserv'd in yon ethereal well,

Faith to revive upon her way,

Hope's weary thirst allay?

The third day dawn'd:—at His command
The rushing waters left the land,

With herb and flower the green earth smil❜d,—

So art thou rescued, Christian Child,

From tossings of the world's rude sea,

In vernal Peace to be.

Bright rose the fourth triumphant morn,
For then the sun and stars were born,
And the soft moon, whose chaste cold ray

Tells tidings of a purer day.

Christ in the font became one Noon,

The holy Church, one Moon.

To the fifth dawn and eve belong
Motion and life, and flight and song,
In watery deeps and deeps of Heaven :—
Such gift to thee, dear babe, was given
When from the earth He bade thee rise
To praise Him in the skies.

The sixth dread day, the last in place
Dread in its deeps of untold grace,
Moulded, at noon, the cold dull clay,
Inspired, at eve, the quickening ray;
The same sad morn and evening mild
Renewed us, earth-defiled.

Thee, awful Image of the All-good,
That one atoning day renewed.

For the whole world-the fontal wave
To each apart the glory gave,
Washing us clean, that we might hide

In His love-pierced side.

Thus in each day of toil we read
Tokens of joy to Saints decreed.
What if the day of holy rest

The sleep foreshow of infant blest,

Borne from the font, the seal new given, Perchance to wake in Heaven?

3.

GUARDIAN ANGELS.

"TELL me now thy morning dream."
"In the flowery sweet spring-tide
I beheld a sparkling stream,

Whereby thousand angels glide,
Each beneath the soft bright wing
Seem'd a tender babe to bring,
Where the freshest waters fell,

In an ever-living well.

Far within the unearthly Fount

Showed the pure Heaven's steadfast rays, Stars beyond what eye can count Deepening on the unwearied gaze. Whoso of those springs would draw, Wondrous joy and wondrous awe, On his soul together rise,

Starlight keen and dark blue skies.

Round the margin breath'd and bloom'd

Flowers from Eden: far below

Gems from Heaven the sides illum'd :

:

But nor flower nor gem might show Half so fair as your soft charms,

Who in you wore seraph's arms

Here are wafted, in pure vest,

Robed, and wash'd, and seal'd, and bless'd.

There one moment lay immers'd

Each bright form, and ere it rose,
Rose regenerate, Light would burst
From where golden morning glows,

With a sudden, silent thrill,
Over that mysterious rill.

Ne'er so bright, so gentle, sweep
Lightnings o'er the summer deep.

In a moment came that ray,

Came but went not every sprite,

Through its veil of mortal clay,

Now is drench'd in quickening light;