D O fountains of true life! O streams divine! O hallowed thresholds of that pitying breast! Shrines of that sacred heart, O sheltering mine Op'd in the smitten rock, where we, that pine O'ercome with sinful shame, may hide and rest. Again that Cross we plead, to Him we fly— O Father, when our crimes provoke Thee, when And for His sake spare Thou us once again. 'Mid wounds alone and crosses here we know Thee with the Son and Spirit praise above. ON PASSION SUNDAY, OR, THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT. AT THE FIRST VESPERS. Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared.-HEB. V. "Fando quis audivit, Dei." WHO hath believed our report? to whom And Faith silent and mute. O holy Lamb, slain ere the world was made, And hast Thou from Thy Father's bosom come, Thyself the sacrifice Dimly shadow'd of old! But why thus laid upon the cold dank ground, Oh, why that look of fearful agony, While on Thy wan worn frame Thy blood stands, drop by drop? It is the mighty anguish of Thy soul, And horror at the weight of others' crimes, And terrors of the lost. It is the proffered cup Thy soul affrights : Must drink, and suck the dregs! But Love doth master terror's agony : To darkness and to death. And now unto the scourge, the twined thorn, The rough rude mockery, and torturing tree, A lamb-like victim meek, He bows His holy head. Glory to God, His only Son who gave, The Son who died, a living sacrifice, And Spirit who came down To light the altar flame. AT MIDNIGHT. I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible One.-JEREM. XX. "Opprobriis, Jesu, satur." Up that dark hill funereal, faint with ill, True Isaac, sinking 'neath that tree of pain, Thou climbest to be slain. Thy tender hands were torn unpityingly, Oh, sight for earth and heav'n! 'Thy will, Eternal Father, Thine be done," O, inconceived charity, That gave the guiltless Son For guilty foes to die. From that Thy bleeding side, those bleeding hands, Must the foul world be cleans'd-it needs must be ; For Justice so demands, And Mercy grants the plea. M Else that dread bond must aye on us remain ; The earth and Heavens in one. Glory to Him, who gave His Son to die, Who fired the sacrifice. AT THE MATTINS. They had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit therof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.JEREM. XI. "Dum, Christe, confixus cruci." O THOU, that nail'd upon the bleeding tree, To look on Thee in Thy sore agony Shall heal that Serpent's wounds that long hath strove, And fill'd our veins with death. While Thou dost die, |