10. CHURCH RITES. "Christ is all, and in all." THE wedding guests are met, The urns are duly set, Even as the Lord had taught his own of old. Now Filled are they to the height With water pure and bright : pour them out 'tis done, and purest wine behold. The bridegroom kneels beside His bashful loving bride; Earth on that hour seems showering all her best. But more than Earth e'er knew He wins, if hearts be true :— An Angel friend, to share his everlasting rest. A babe in deep repose Where holy water flows Is bathed, while o'er him holiest words are said. T A child of wrath he came Now hath he JESUS' Name : A glory like a Saint's surrounds his favoured head. A mortal youth I saw Nigh to God's Altar draw And lowly kneel, while o'er him pastoral hands And when he rose up there, He could undo or bind the dread celestial bands. When Bread and Wine he takes, And of Christ's Passion makes Memorial high before the Mercy Throne, That offering good and pure Is more than Angels' bread to all whom Christ will own. Mid mourners I have stood, And with sad eye pursued The coffin sinking in the grave's dark shade: The immortal life, we know, Dwells there with hidden glow, Brightly to burn one day when sun and stars shall fade. What is this silent might, Making our darkness light, New wine our waters, heavenly Blood our wine? And all His Saints, is here, And where they dwell is Heaven, and what they touch, divine. The change of water into wine was believed by the ancients to typify that change which St. Paul in particular so earnestly dwells on: "Old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new." And St. John, "He that sitteth on the Throne saith, Behold, I make all things new" Accordingly St. Cyprian applies this first miracle to the admission of the Gentiles into the Church. (Ep. 63. ed. Fell.) And St. Augustine, to the evangelical interpretation of the Old Testament. (In Joan. Tract. 8.) And St. Cyril of Alexandria (in loc.) to the Spirit superseding the letter. This then being the "beginning of miracles," a kind of pattern of the rest, showed how Christ's glory was to be revealed in the effects of His Sacramental Touch; whether immediately, as when He touched the leper and healed him or through the hem of His garment: or by Saints, His living members, according to His Promise, "The works that I do shall ye do also: and greater works than these shall ye do, because I go unto my Father." Thus, according to the Scriptures, the Sacramental Touch of the Church is the Touch of Christ and her system is " deifica disciplina," a rule which, in some sense, makes men gods, and the human, divine; and all this depends on the verity of the Incarnation, therefore His Mother is especially instrumental in it; besides being, as nearest to Him, the most glorious instance of it. "The Mother of Jesus is there, and both Jesus and His Disciples are called,-" (He as the Bridegroom and Author of the whole mystery, they as ministers, servants, and instruments,) to this mysterious "marriage," or Communion of Saints. 11. WHITE APPAREL. I. THE CHRISOM. "These are they which have washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb." ALL gorgeous hues are in the pure white beam, All Christian graces in one drop of Love That sparkles from the bright baptismal stream Is spotless white and from its folds afar, : Even as from banner waved in Angels' war, The dark Powers flee. But thou, heaven-honoured child, Let no earth-stain thy robe of glory mar: Yet spread it daily in the clear Heaven's sight, 11. WHITE APPAREL. II. THE SUNDAY DRESS. "Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments." So keep thou, by calm prayer and searching thought, And Heaven rekindles, gladdening earth and sky, And from thy prayer look up with open eye, |