XXXIV.

He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto Him.

"The Fathers are in dust, yet live to God :"-
So says the Truth; as if the motionless clay
Still held the seeds of life beneath the sod,
Smouldering and struggling till the judgment-day.

And hence we learn with reverence to esteem
Of these frail houses, though the grave confines;
Sophist may urge his cunning tests, and deem

That they are earth;-but they are heavenly shrines.

HOLINESS.

XXXV.

DANIEL.

Εἰσὶ γὰρ εὐνοῦχοι, οἵτινες ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς ἐγεννήθησαν οὕτω· καί εἰσιν εὐνοῦχοι, οἵτινες ευνουχίσθησαν ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων· καί εισιν εὐνοῦχοι οἵτινες εὐνούχισαν ἑαυτοὺς διὰ τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν.

Son of sorrow, doom'd by fate
To a lot most desolate,

To joyless youth and childless age,
Last of thy father's lineage,

Blighted being! whence hast thou

That lofty mien and cloudless brow?

Ask'st thou whence that cloudless brow
Bitter is the cup I trow;

A

cup of weary well-spent years,
A cup of sorrows, fasts, and tears,
That cup whose virtue can impart
Such calmness to the troubled heart.

Last of his father's lineage, he
Many a night on bended knee,
In hunger many a livelong day,
Hath striven to cast his slough away.
Yea, and that long prayer is granted;
Yea, his soul is disenchanted.

O blest above the sons of men!

For thou with more than prophet's ken,
Deep in the secrets of the tomb,

Hast read thine own, thine endless doom.
Thou by the hand of the Most High
Art sealed for immortality.

So may I read thy story right,
And in my flesh so tame my spright,
That when the mighty ones go forth,
And from the east and from the north
Unwilling ghosts shall gathered be,
I in my lot may stand with thee.

* Dan. xii. 13.

B.

XXXVI.

66

"Be strong, and He shall comfort thine heart."

LORD, I have fasted, I have prayed,
And sackcloth has my girdle been,
To purge my soul I have essayed
With hunger blank and vigil keen.
O God of mercy! why am I
Still haunted by the self I fly ?"

Sackcloth is a girdle good,

O bind it round thee still;

Fasting, it is Angels' food,

And Jesus loved the night-air chill;

Yet think not prayer and fast were given
To make one step 'twixt earth and heaven.*

* Eph. ii. 8.

B.

XXXVII.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

THERE is not on the earth a soul so base

But may obtain a place

In covenanted grace;

So that forthwith his prayer of faith obtains
Release of his guilt-stains,

And first-fruits of the second birth, which rise
From gift to gift, and reach at length the eternal prize.

All may save self;-but minds that heavenward tower Aim at a wider power,

Gifts on the world to shower.

And this is not at once;-by fastings gained,
And trials well sustained,

By pureness, righteous deeds, and toils of love,
Abidance in the Truth, and zeal for God above.

J.