Look on us, Lord, and take our parts
Even on thy throne of purity!

From these our proud yet grovelling hearts
Hide not thy mild forgiving eye.

Did not the Gentile Church find grace,
Our mother dear, this favour'd day?
With gold and myrrh she sought thy face,
Nor didst Thou turn thy face away.

She too3, in earlier, purer days,

Had watch'd Thee gleaming faint and far—

But wandering in self-chosen ways

She lost Thee quite, thou lovely Star.

Yet had her Father's finger turn'd

To Thee her first enquiring glance:

The deeper shame within her burn'd,

When waken'd from her wilful trance.

Behold, her wisest throng thy gate,
Their richest, sweetest, purest store,

The Patriarchal Church.

(Yet own'd too worthless and too late) They lavish on thy cottage-floor.

They give their best-O tenfold shame On us their fallen progeny,

Who sacrifice the blind and lame '

Who will not wake or fast with Thee!

Malachi i. 8.

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER

EPIPHANY.

They shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water Isaiah xliv. 4.

courses.

LESSONS sweet of spring returning,

Welcome to the thoughtful heart!
May I call ye sense or learning,

Instinct pure, or heav'n-taught art?
Be your title what it may,
Sweet the lengthening April day,
While with you the soul is free,
Ranging wild o'er hill and lea.

Soft as Memnon's harp at morning,

To the inward ear devout,

Touch'd by light, with heavenly warning

Your transporting chords ring out.

Every leaf in every nook,

Every wave in every brook,
Chanting with a solemn voice,
Minds us of our better choice.

Needs no show of mountain hoary, Winding shore or deepening glen, Where the landscape in its glory

Teaches truth to wandering men : Give true hearts but earth and sky, And some flowers to bloom and die,— Homely scenes and simple views Lowly thoughts may best infuse.

See the soft green willow springing
Where the waters gently pass,
Every way her free arms flinging
O'er the moist and reedy grass.
Long ere winter blasts are fled,
See her tipp'd with vernal red,
And her kindly flower display'd
Ere her leaf can cast a shade.

Though the rudest hand assail her,
Patiently she droops awhile,

But when showers and breezes hail her,

Wears again her willing smile.
Thus I learn Contentment's power
From the slighted willow bower,
Ready to give thanks and live
On the least that Heaven may give.

If, the quiet brooklet leaving,
Up the stony vale I wind,
Haply half in fancy grieving

For the shades I leave behind,
By the dusty wayside drear,
Nightingales with joyous cheer
Sing, my sadness to reprove,
Gladlier than in cultur'd grove.

Where the thickest boughs are twining
Of the greenest darkest tree,
There they plunge, the light declining—

All may hear, but none may see.
Fearless of the passing hoof,
Hardly will they fleet aloof;

So they live in modest ways,
Trust entire, and ceaseless praise.