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
Were spread with many a prayer,

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,

Faith speaks, and we are sure

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

Christ, with His Mother dear,

And all His Saints, is here,

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 vassed 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
Over the fair young brow, where gently move
Christ's dawning rays. Therefore the veil ye wove,
Good Angels, under Bethlehem's healing star,
Whose virtue this our new-born joy shall prove,
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:

Wrap it around thy bosom undefiled;

Yet spread it daily in the clear Heaven's sight,

To be new-bathed in its own native Light.

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,
Thy Chrisom pure, that still as weeks roll by,
And Heaven rekindles, gladdening earth and sky,
The glow that from the grave our Champion brought,
Pledge of high victory by His dread Wounds wrought,
Thou mayst put on the garb of Purity,

And from thy prayer look up with open eye,
Him owning, who from shame and sinful blot
Hath kept thee safe, nor suffered base desire
Thy soul to haunt, unhallowing the good hour.
Then on thy way to church rejoicing fare,
Yet needful, gathering up from earthly mire
The glittering folds: for even in Sunday air
Foul spirits love to lurk with tainting power.

11.

WHITE APPAREL.

III. CONFIRMATION.

"Ye shall be as the wings of a Dove, that is covered with silver wings."

SPEED on, ye happy Sunday hours, O speed
The moment when a richer gift shall crown
A riper faith-when Childhood, casting down
Her innocent vesture, the pure Chrisom weed,
Shall claim the sevenfold radiance, erst decreed
Where true hearts kneel 'neath Apostolic hands.
White are his mantle folds, who ready stands
Before the shrine, to bless and intercede :
And duteous maidens, skilful in Love's law,
Unbidden use in stainless white to come:

As doves, that to the bright clouds upward draw,
Plume the soft lily breast, the more to win

Of splendour from the Light's far cloudless home.
O deep, that hour, the bliss or curse within!