To correct and amend in you whatsoever doth offend the eyes of your Heavenly Father.

N

JEREMIAH X. 24.

S. Wilberforce.

OT all at once, not in Thy wrath, O Lord,
Break Thou these stubborn hearts of ours,

we pray!

Not all at once,-for we are weak, and they
Draw trembling back from that Thy fiery sword.
But as a tender mother day by day

Weans the weak babe she loves, lest it should pine,
So wean us, Lord-so make us wholly Thine,
Lest in our feebleness we start away

From Thy loved chastening: for we could not bear
The sudden vision of ourselves and Thee,
Or learn at once how vain our bright hopes be.
Then be our earthly weakness, Lord, Thy care,
And e'en in wounding heal-in breaking spare.

To correct and amend in you whatsoever doth offend the eyes of your Heavenly Father.

HYMN.

TH

THE THIRD DAY OF CREATION.

(PART.)

T. Whytehead.

HOU spakest; and the waters roll'd
Back from the earth away,

They fled, by Thy strong voice controll'd,
Till Thou didst bid them stay:
Then did that rushing mighty ocean
Like a tame creature cease its motion,
Nor dared to pass where'er Thy hand
Had fixed its bound of slender sand.

And freshly risen from out the deep
The land lay tranquil now,
Like a new-christened child asleep,
With the dew upon its brow:

As when in after time the Earth
Rose from her second watery birth,
In pure baptismal garments drest,
And calmly waiting to be blest.

Again Thou spakest, Lord of power,
And straight the land was seen

All clad with tree, and herb, and flower,
A robe of lustrous green :

Like souls wherein the hidden strength
Of their new-birth is waked at length,
When, robed in holiness, they tell
What might did in those waters dwell.

Lord, o'er the waters of my soul
The word of power be said;
Its thoughts and passions bid Thou roll
Each in its channell❜d bed;
Till that in peaceful order flowing,
They time their glad obedient going
To Thy commands, whose voice to-day
Bade the tumultuous floods obey.

For restless as the moaning sea,
The wild and wayward will
From side to side is wearily
Changing and tossing still;

But sway'd by Thee, 'tis like the river
That down its green banks flows for ever,
And, calm and constant, tells to all
The blessedness of such sweet thrall.

Then in my heart, Spirit of Might,
Awake the life within,

And bid a spring-tide, calm and bright,

Of holiness begin :

So let it lie with Heaven's grace

Full shining on its quiet face,

Like the young Earth in peace profound,

Amid th' assuagèd waters round.

H

To correct and amend in you whatsoever doth offend the eyes of your Heavenly Father.

AFFLICTION.

Henry Vaughan.

EACE, peace; It is not so.

Thou dost mis

call

Thy Physick; Pills that change

Thy sick Accessions into settled health; This is the great Elixir that turns gall

To wine and sweetness, Poverty to wealth,

And brings man home, when he doth range.
Did not He, who ordain'd the day,

Ordain night too?

And in the greater world display

What in the lesser He would do?

All flesh is Clay, thou know'st; and but that God
Doth use His rod,

And by a fruitful Change of frosts and showres
Cherish and bind thy pow'rs,

Thou wouldst to weeds and thistles quite disperse,
And be more wild than is thy verse.
Sickness is wholesome, Crosses are but curbs
To check the mule, unruly man;

They are heaven's husbandry, the famous fan,
Purging the floor which Chaff disturbs.
Were all the year one constant Sun-shine, wee
Should have no flowres ;

All would be drought and leanness; not a tree
Would make us bowres.

Beauty consists in colours; and that's best
Which is not fixt, but flies and flowes.
The settled Red is dull, and whites that rest
Something of sickness would disclose.
Vicissitude plaies all the game ;
Nothing that stirrs,

Or hath a name,

But waits upon this wheel; Kingdomes too have their Physick, and for steel Exchange their peace and furrs.

Thus doth God Key disorder'd man,

which none else can,

Tuning his brest to rise or fall;
And by a sacred, needfull art,
Like strings, stretch ev'ry part,
Making the whole most Musicall.

Render unto Him humble thanks for His fatherly visitation, submitting yourself wholly unto His Will.

THE LENT JEWELS.

A JEWISH TALE.

Elegiac Poems.

N schools of wisdom all the day was spent:

IN

His steps at eve the Rabbi homeward bent, With homeward thoughts which dwelt upon the

wife

And two fair children who consoled his life.