WAITING FOR CHRIST.

CLXXVII.

ISRAEL.

"And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted."

O specious sin and Satan's subtle snare,

That urges sore each gentlest meekest heart,

When its kind thoughts are crushed and its wounds

smart,

World-sick to turn within and image there

Some idol dream, to lull the throbbing care!
So felt reft Israel, when he fain would part
With living friends; and called on memory's art
To raise the dead and soothe him by despair.
Nor err they not, although that image be

God's own, nor to the dead their thoughts be given,-
Earth-hating sure, but yet of earth enthralled;
For who dare sit at home, and wait to see

High Heaven descend, when man from self is called
Up through this thwarting outward world to Heaven?

8.

CLXXVIII.

Do not their souls, who 'neath the Altar wait

Until their second-birth,

The gift of patience need, as separate

From their first friends of earth?

Not that earth's blessings are not all outshone
By Eden's Angel flame,

But that earth knows not yet, the Dead has won
That crown, which was his aim.

For when he left it, 'twas a twilight scene

About his silent bier,

A breathless struggle, faith and sight between,
And Hope and sacred Fear.

Fear startled at his pains and dreary end,
Hope raised her chalice high,

And the twin sisters still his shade attend,

Viewed in the mourner's eye.

So day by day for him from earth ascends,

As dew in summer-even,

The speechless intercession of his friends,
Toward the azure heaven.

Ah! dearest, with a word he could dispel
All questioning, and raise

Our hearts to rapture, whispering all was well,
And turning prayer to praise.

And other secrets too he could declare,
By patterns all divine,

His earthly creed retouching here and there,
And deepening every line.
Dearest! he longs to speak, as I to know,
And yet we both refrain:

It were not good; a little doubt below,

And all will soon be plain.

δ

CLXXIX.

THE NEW JERUSALEM. *

"And I saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband."

THE Holy Jerusalem

From highest heaven descending,

And crowned with a diadem

Of Angel bands attending,

The Living City built on high,

Bright with celestial jewelry !

She comes, the Bride, from heaven gate,

In nuptial new Adorning,

To meet the Immaculate,

Like coming of the morning.

Her streets of purest gold are made,

Her walls a diamond palisade.

(* From the Paris Breviary, in Festo Dedicationis.)

There with pearls the gates are dight Upon that Holy Mountain;

And thither come both day and night,

Who in the Living Fountain

Have washed their robes from earthly stain,
And borne below Christ's lowly chain.

By the hand of the Unknown
The Living Stones are moulded

To a glorious Shrine, ALL ONE,
Full soon to be unfolded;
The building wherein God doth dwell,

The Holy Church Invisible.

Glory be to God, who layed

In heaven the foundation;

And to the Spirit who hath made

The walls of our salvation;

To Christ Himself the Corner Stone,
Be glory! to the Three in One.

THE END.

نه