14.

DISUSE OF INFANT COMMUNION.

"There shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him."

O LORD, behold these babes are Thine,
Thy treasured nurslings pure and sweet:
We have sought counsel at thy shrine:

"Where may they sit with Thee, and eat?"
Thou saidst, "The Water-Bearer meet

Within the chosen City's round,

Trace Him along the hallowed street, And where He guides, be duteous found.

"Where glorious Sion rests on high
Amid the hills that on her wait,
Him faithful following, ye shall spy
A wicket in a lowly gate:

There early knock, there linger late,

There in Christ's Name the room require,

Where the Great Lord in royal state

Shall eat the Bread of His desire.

"Then to the spacious upper room

The Host will bid you onward fare, Round many a nook of deepest gloom, Up many a broken wearying stair. The handmaid Penance hath been there, And swept and garnished all the place. Haste, and with loyal hands prepare For Me and Mine the Feast of Grace."

Thou spak'st, and we thine infants bore,
And bathed them in the Living Well
That gushes out beside the door,

Where Thou, O Lord, delight'st to dwell:
Then lowly on our knees we fell,

And prayed, that through the world's hot day Dews from that hour, a balmy spell,

Might gently freshen all their way,

Now, trembling still as they advance
Up the far shadowing awful nave,
Full oft we bid them backward glance

Where gleaming from its heavenly cave,

The Saviour's side,-the healing wave Falls in the fount of their new birth.

The ears that hear its murmuring, crave No tinsel melodies of earth.

When to the Chancel arch they come,

"Pause here," we say, "and search with fear If yet the pledge of your high doom Upon the sealed brow appear.

If worn and faint, by many a tear Renew the lines, then humbly kneel

Till He invite-till sure and near The gliding of soft wings ye feel.

"Then to the inner shrine make haste, Fall prostrate with anointed brows,

Adore, and of the Adored taste.

Such bliss the Love untold allows." Of old, we read, the intrusted Spouse Her infants to the Anointing led

Straight from the Laver and the vows ;Yea, Christ was then the children's bread.

But now some mournful instinct chills

Our Mother's joy, and mars our spring : She, as of old, to the bright hills

Her eaglets' speed at once would wing: Now far and wide earth's vapours fling Their tainting dews; and she perchance Shrinks from the fall such flight may bring, Fears the debasing, downward glance.

Then in low place with lowly heart
Wait we, dear babe, both thou and I,
Bide we our time, and take such part
In the Bride's awful minstrelsy,

As she whose laws are sealed on high
Ordains and if long lingering tire,

Yet may we hope, Faith's virgin sigh The purer mounts, to meet Heaven's fire.

15.

THE OFFERTORY.

"God loveth a cheerful giver."

CHRIST before thy door is waiting;
Rouse thee, slave of earthly gold.
Lo, He comes, thy pomp abating,
IIungry, thirsty, homeless, cold :—
Hungry, by whom Saints are fed
With the Eternal Living Bread ;
Thirsty, from whose pierced side
Healing waters spring and glide;
Cold and bare He comes,
who never

May put off His robe of light;

Homeless, who must dwell for ever

In the Father's Bosom bright.