THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST.

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. Colossians ii. 11.

THE year begins with Thee,
And Thou beginn'st with woe,
To let the world of sinners see
That blood for sin must flow.

Thine infant cries, O Lord,
Thy tears upon the breast,
Are not enough-the legal sword
Must do its stern behest.

Like sacrificial wine

Pour'd on a victim's head

Are those few precious drops of thine,

Now first to offering led.

They are the pledge and seal
Of Christ's unswerving faith
Given to his Sire, our souls to heal,
Although it cost his death.

They to his church of old, To each true Jewish heart, In Gospel graces manifold Communion blest impart.

Now of thy love we deem
As of an ocean vast,

Mounting in tides against the stream
Of ages gone and past.

Both theirs and ours Thou art,

As we and they are thine;

Kings, Prophets, Patriarchs-all have part

Along the sacred line.

By blood and water too

God's mark is set on Thee,

That in Thee every faithful view

Both covenants might see.

O bond of union, dear

And strong as is Thy grace! Saints, parted by a thousand year, May thus in heart embrace.

Is there a mourner true, Who fallen on faithless days, Sighs for the heart-consoling view Of those, Heaven deign'd to praise ?

In spirit may'st thou meet With faithful Abraham here, Whom soon in Eden thou shalt greet A nursing Father dear.

Would'st thou a Poet be?

And would thy dull heart fain Borrow of Israel's minstrelsy

One high enraptur'd strain?

Come here thy soul to tune, Here set thy feeble chant, Here, if at all beneath the moon, Is holy David's haunt.

Art thou a child of tears

Cradled in care and woe?

And seems it hard, thy vernal years

Few vernal joys can show?

And fall the sounds of mirth

Sad on thy lonely heart,

From all the hopes and charms of earth Untimely call'd to part?

Look here, and hold thy peace :
The Giver of all good

Even from the womb takes no release
From suffering, tears, and blood.

If thou would'st reap in love,
First sow in holy fear:

So life a winter's morn may prove
To a bright endless year.

SECOND SUNDAY AFTER

CHRISTMAS.

When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel wiil not forsake them. Isaiah xli. 17.

AND wilt Thou hear the fever'd heart

To Thee in silence cry?

And as th' inconstant wildfires dart

Out of the restless eye,
Wilt thou forgive the wayward thought,
By kindly woes yet half untaught
A Saviour's right, so dearly bought,
That Hope should never die?

Thou wilt for many a languid prayer
Has reach'd Thee from the wild,