He loves and is belov'd again

Can his soul choose but be at rest? Sorrow hath fled away, and Pain Dares not invade the guarded nest,

He dearly loves, and not alone:

For his wing'd thoughts are soaring high
Where never yet frail heart was known
To breathe in vain affection's sigh.

He loves and weeps-but more than tears
Have seal'd thy welcome and his love-
One look lives in him, and endears

Crosses and wrongs where'er he rove:

That gracious chiding look,* Thy call
To win him to himself and Thee,
Sweetening the sorrow of his fall

Which else were rued too bitterly.

Even through the veil of sleep it shines,
The memory of that kindly glance ;-
The Angel watching by divines,
And spares awhile his blissful trance.

Or haply to his native laket

His vision wafts him back, to talk With JESUS, ere his flight he takes, As in that solemn evening walk,

When to the bosom of his friend,

The Shepherd, He whose name is Good,
Did His dear lambs and sheep commend,
Both bought and nourish'd with His blood:

* St. Luke xxii. 61.

[See the passage here so happily alluded to, John xxi.1517.]

Then laid on him th' inverted tree,*
Which firm embrac'd with heart and arm,
Might cast o'er hope and memory,

O'er life and death, its awful charm.

With brightening heart he bears it on,
His passport through the eternal gates,
To his sweet home-so nearly won,
He seems, as by the door he waits,

The unexpressive notes to heart
Of angel song and angel motion,
Rising and falling on the ear

Like waves in Joy's unbounded ocean.

His dream is chang'd-the Tyrant's voice
Calls to that last of glorious deeds-

But as he rises to rejoice,

Not Herod but an Angel leads.‡

He dreams he sees a lamp flash bright,§
Glancing around his prison room,—

But 'tis a gleam of heavenly light

That fills up all the ample gloom,

The flame, that in a few short years

Deep through the chambers of the dead
Shall pierce, and dry the fount of tears,
Is waving o'er his dungeon-bed.

* [He is said to have been crucified with his head downwards.] + [So Milton of his dead Lycidas,

"And hears the unexpressive nuptial song,

In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love."] [And behold the Angel of the Lord came upon him.] [And a light shined in the prison.]

Touch'd he upstarts-his chains unbind *.
Through darksome vault,. up massy stair,
His dizzy, doubting footsteps wind
To freedom and cool moonlight air.
Then all himself, all joy and calm,
Though for awhile his hand forego,
Just as it touch'd, the martyr's palm,
He turns him to his task below;
The pastoral staff, the keys of heaven,
To wield awhile in gray-hair'd might,
Then from his cross to spring forgiven,
And follow JESUS out of sight.

ST. JAMES' DAY.t

[JULY 25.]

Ye shail indeed drink of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. St. Matthew xx. 23. [Gospel for the Day.]

[Grant, O merciful God, that as thine holy Apostle Saint James, leaving his father and all that he had, without delay was obedient unto the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him; so we, forsaking all worldly and carnal affections, may be evermore ready to follow thy holy commandments, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.]

*

SIT down and take thy fill of joy

At God's right hand, a bidden guest,
Drink of the cup that cannot cloy,.

Eat of the bread that cannot waste.

[See the whole passage here so finely paraphrased, Acts xii. 6-19.]

[James the greater, the son of Zebedee, was a fisherman of Galilee. Called by Christ, both he and his brother John straight.

O great Apostle! rightly now

Thou readest all thy Saviour meant,
What time His grave yet gentle brow
In sweet reproof on thee was bent.

"Seek ye to sit enthron'd by me?
Alas! ye know not what ye ask,
The first in shame and agony,

The lowest in the meanest task-
This can ye be? and can ye drink
The cup that I in tears must steep,
Nor from the whelming waters shrink
That o'er me roll so dark and deep?"

"We can-thine are we, dearest Lord,
In glory and in agony,

To do and suffer all Thy word;
Only be Thou for ever nigh.'
"Then be it so-my cup receive,
And of my woes baptismal taste:
But for the crown, that angels weave
For those next me in glory plac'd,

I give it not by partial love;

But in my Father's book are writ
What names on earth shall lowliest prove,
That they in heaven may highest sit."
Take up the lesson, O my heart;

Thou Lord of meekness, write it there,
Thine own meek self to me impart,

Thy lofty hope, thy lowly prayer.

way followed him. They were named, by our Lord, Boanerges, or sons of thunder, expressive of their zeal and devotion to his cause; and with Peter enjoyed his chief confidence. He was the first of the twelve Apostles who suffered martyrdom, being slain, by command of Herod, with a sword.]

If ever on the mount with Thee
I seem to soar in vision bright,
With thoughts of coming agony *
Stay thou the too presumptuous flight:
Gently along the vale of tears

Lead me from Tabor's sunbright steep,
Let me not grudge a few short years

With Thee toward heaven to walk and weep:

Too happy, on my silent path,

If now and then allow'd with Thee
Watching some placid holy death,

Thy secret work of love to see;
But oh most happy, should thy call,

Thy welcome call, at last be given-
"Come where thou long hast stor❜d thy all,
Come see thy place prepar'd in heaven."

*St. Matthew xvii. 12. "Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them." This was just after the transfiguration.