Imatges de pàgina
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All love and glory be to Thee,
The Father, Spirit, Son;
Coequal, coeternal Three,
Thrice blessed, Holy One.

AT THE MATTINS.

I love them that love Me, and those that seek Me early shall find Me.-PROV. viii.

"Maria sacro saucia vulnere."

WHY for thy Lord dost thou thus weep and mourn, Like one half-broken-hearted and forlorn;

No need for Him that thou shouldst mourn and

weep,

No need with tears an empty shroud to steep.

He, whom thou seekest in the murky tomb,
Hath sprung bright and victorious from the gloom;
He lives, He greatly lives for evermore;

See wide the rocks ope the sepulchral door.

Why bringst thou myrrh and spices, offerings meet

For livid corpses in their winding sheet?
His body blooms with immortality,

Meet to return to His paternal sky.

Thy tears proclaim the greatness of thy love,
Nor doth thy Lord thy flowing tears reprove;
Hear'st thou? and know'st thou not that voice
adored?

'Tis thine own name! He speaks-thy God and Lord.

Now go, first witness and first messenger,
Throughout the city thy glad tidings bear,

And teach the Twelve that Christ Himself is nigh,
And, wheresoe'er thou speakest, standing by.

All love, and praise, and majesty be Thine,
Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit Divine;
Quicken'd by whom our bodies shall return,
And in immortal bloom for ever burn.

ST. PETER IN PRISON.

AT THE VESPERS.

I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee: but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.—JER. i.

"Qui Christiano gloriantur nomine."

No brazen fetters have the captive bound,
Who glories in the Name invincible;
Nor the dread sound

Of sentry watching by the bolted cell;

He in his chains hath truer freedom found.

'Mid purer heav'ns his unchain'd spirit doth stray, The ponderous iron is by love made light,

And the clear ray

Breaks in the prison-house of gloomy night
From the bright courts of ever-during day.

Blest chains, that prove no guilty criminal,

But one train'd in Christ's school, serenely bent
To suffer all,-

More precious they than golden ornament,
And glittering beads worn in the regal hall.

To Him all praise, all power, all majesty,
The Holy Son, who for His people died,
All glory be,-

All glory be to Christ the Crucified,
All glory to the Holy One and Three.

AT THE MATTINS.

Wisdom forsook not the righteous, but delivered him from sinners; she went down with him into the pit, and left him not in bonds.-WISDOM X.

Petrum, tyranne, quid catenis obruis."

WHERE the prison bars surround him,
In his chains shall Peter dwell;

Where the sentinel hath bound him,

Pacing by his gloomy cell?

What shall avail

Prison, chains, or sentinel?

Lo, a light, from Heav'n descending,
Glimmers, like a beauteous star,

An Angel o'er the Saint is bending,
And the wing'd night is fled afar.
His chains are burst,

Open is the massy bar.

Where the heav'nly guide is leading,
Peter follows, firm and bold;
All as in a dream proceeding

Through the portals dark and cold ;
And now, amazed,

Doth the Almighty's hand behold.

We in prison-chains are sleeping,
Chains of sin which Angels see;
Dunnest night our soul is steeping-
Christ, our light, our liberty,

Break Thou our chains,
Lighten us, and make us free.

Highest praise to Thee, the Highest,

Infinite, dread Trinity;

Who, awhile our spirits tryest,

Fitting them to dwell with Thee,

Thee adoring,
Everlasting, Holy Three.

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