CLXVII.

THE CHURCH IN PRAYER.

"Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember Thee in Thy ways."

WHY loiterest within Simon's walls,

Hard by the barren sea,

Thou Saint! when many a sinner calls
To preach and set him free?

Can this be he, who erst confessed
For CHRIST affection keen,
Now truant in untimely rest,
The mood of an Essene?

Yet he who at the sixth hour sought
The lone house-top to pray,

There gained a sight beyond his thought,
The dawn of Gentile day.

Then reckon not, when perils lour,
The time of prayer mis-spent ;

Nor meanest chance, nor place, nor hour,

Without its heavenward bent.

d.

CLXVIII.

THE CHURCH IN BONDAGE.

Remember my bonds.

O COMRADE bold of toil and pain !
Thy trial how severe,

When severed first by prisoner's chain
From thy loved labour-sphere.

Say, did impatience first impel

The heaven-sent bond to break?
Or couldst thou bear its hindrance well,
Loitering for Jesus' sake ?

O might we know! for sore we feel

The languor of delay,

When sickness lets our fainter zeal,
Or foes block up our way.

Lord! who Thy thousand years dost wait

To work the thousandth part

Of Thy vast plan, for us create
With zeal a patient heart!

d.

CLXIX.

THE PROSPECTS OF THE CHURCH.

"And He said, It is finished."

CHRIST only, of God's messengers to man,
Finished the work of grace, which He began ;
E'en Moses wearied upon Nebo's height,

Though loth to leave the fight

With the doomed foe, and yield the sun-bright land To Joshua's armed hand.

And David wrought in turn a strenuous part,
Zeal for God's house consuming him in heart;
And yet he might not build, but only bring
Gifts for the Heavenly King;

And these another reared, his peaceful Son,
Till the full work was done.

List, Christian warrior! thou, whose soul is fain To rid thy Mother of her present chain ;CHRIST will unloose His Church; yea, even now

Begins the work, and thou

*

Shalt spend in it thy strength, but, ere He save,
Thy lot shall be the grave.

CLXVIII.

THE CHURCH IN BONDAGE.

Remember my bonds.

O COMRADE bold of toil and pain!
Thy trial how severe,

When severed first by prisoner's chain
From thy loved labour-sphere.

Say, did impatience first impel

The heaven-sent bond to break?

Or couldst thou bear its hindrance well,
Loitering for Jesus' sake?

O might we know! for sore we feel

The languor of delay,

When sickness lets our fainter zeal,
Or foes block up our way.

Lord! who Thy thousand years dost wait
To work the thousandth part

Of Thy vast plan, for us create
With zeal a patient heart!

d.

CLXIX.

THE PROSPECTS OF THE CHURCH.

"And He said, It is finished."

CHRIST only, of God's messengers to man,
Finished the work of grace, which He began ;
E'en Moses wearied upon Nebo's height,

Though loth to leave the fight

With the doomed foe, and yield the sun-bright land To Joshua's armed hand.

And David wrought in turn a strenuous part,
Zeal for GOD's house consuming him in heart;
And yet he might not build, but only bring
Gifts for the Heavenly King;

And these another reared, his peaceful Son,
Till the full work was done.

List, Christian warrior! thou, whose soul is fain
To rid thy Mother of her present chain ;-
CHRIST will unloose His Church; yea, even now
Begins the work, and thou

Shalt spend in it thy strength, but, ere He save,
Thy lot shall be the grave.