XI. DREAMS. OH! miserable power To dreams allowed, to raise the guilty past, In mockery guiling it to act again The revel or the scoff in Satan's frantic train! Nay, hush thee, angry heart! An Angel's grief ill fits a penitent; And with its wholesome smart Shall pierce thee in thy virtue's home serene, And warn thee what thou art, and whence thy wealth has been. d. * XII. CONFESSION. My smile is bright, my glance is free, Of holy love and fear. But I am scanned by eyes unseen, Erst my good Angel shrank to see And now he scarce dare gaze on me, Scar-seamed and crippled still. d. XIII. AWE. I BOW at Jesus' Name, for 'tis the Sign And upwards from a child Full of unlovely thoughts and rebel aims As hastening judgment flames, How can I lightly view my Means of life?— The Just assailing sin, and death-strained in the strife! And so, albeit His woe is our release, Thought of that woe aye dims our earthly peace; And this is tidings good, But in the Angels' reckoning, and to those Who Angel-wise have chose And kept, like Paul, a virgin course, content To go where Jesus went; But for the many, laden with the spot And earthly taint of sin, 'tis written, "Touch Me not." d. * XIV. THE CROSS OF CHRIST. "Ad omnem progressum atque promotum, ad omnem aditum et exitum, ad vestitum, ad calciatum, ad lavacra, ad mensas, ad lumina, ad cubilia, ad sedilia, quacunque nos conversatio exercet, frontem Crucis signaculo terimus." Tertull. de Corona, § 3. WHENE'ER across this sinful flesh of mine I draw the Holy Sign, All good thoughts stir within me, and collect Till there springs up that hope of God's elect And who shall say, but hateful spirits around, Shudder to see, and wail their overthrow? While on far heathen ground Some lonely Saint hails the fresh odour, though d. FORGIVENESS. XV. THE THREE ABSOLUTIONS.* "And there shall in nowise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." EACH morn and eve, the Golden Keys Are lifted in the sacred hand, To show the sinner on his knees Where heaven's bright doors wide open stand. On the dread Altar duly laid The Golden Keys their witness bear, That He, the Life of Souls, is there. 1. In the Daily Service. 2. In the Communion. 3. In the Visitation of the Sick. |