HYMNS FOR THE SEASONS.

IN ADVENT.

AT MIDNIGHT.

Watch ye, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to stand before the Son of Man.-LUKE XXI.

"Instantis adventum Dei."

OUR God approaches from the skies;

Let us for Him prepare,

With dread prelusive symphonies,

And deep heart-glowing prayer.

Nor doth the everlasting Son

Abhor the Virgin's womb :
That we from bondage may be won,
He bears a servant's doom.

Gentle and meek He comes; arise,

Sion, behold thy King,

And haste to meet Him, nor despise The peace He deigns to bring.

He shall return the Judge e'en now
On clouds with light'ning riven,
And His own body left below
In triumph bear to Heaven.

Let crimes, the brood of night, depart
From the approaching morn;

And the old Adam of the heart
Before the newly-born.

All praise, while endless ages run,

To Father ever blest,

To Spirit, and eternal Son,

In flesh made manifest.

AT THE MATTINS.

Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is the Branch; and He shall grow up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of the Lord.-ZECH. vi.

"Jordanis oras prævia."

Lo, the Baptist's herald cry
Shakes the Jordan;

Let the wakening eye and ear
Welcome the great harbinger.

Earth, and sea, and listening sky,
Wait their Maker;

And throughout the mighty womb,

Feel the jubilee is come.

Let us cast the way on high,

For His coming;

Cleanse the heart, and make it mee
For His heav'n-descended feet.

Jesu, strength, and solace nigh,

And salvation!

Without Thee, like withering grass,
Man doth into nothing pass.

Unto us, who pine and die,

Stretch forth Thy hand;

Earth shall break her wintry trance

At Thy blissful countenance.

Praise to Him who comes from high,

Our Deliverer;

Praise to Father, Spirit, Son,
Never ending, neʼer begun.

AT THE VESPERS.

At the end it shall speak, and not lie; though ít tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come; it will not tarry.-HAB. ii.

"Statuta decreto Dei."

DEEP hidden, by divine decree,

In the dark womb of destiny,

The long delaying day appears,

And shines through clouds of rolling years

From the descending sky.

By crimes parental helpless made,

Were Adam's offspring wounded laid,

And far within yon gloomy vale
Sat lost, in sorrow's twilight pale,
And death's o'erhanging shade;

That second death of deathless shame;
The death of everlasting flame;
While on the brow, by Terror writ,
Did dismal Expectation sit

At Judgment's awful name.

Alas! for downfall so profound

Who shall bring help? whence shall abound Succour and hope? what hand shall be

Meet for the mighty remedy

Of that o'erwhelming wound?

O Christ, 'tis Thou, 'tis Thou alone,
Descending from Thy Godhead's throne,
The tarnish'd lineaments once more
To Thy lost image canst restore,
Thy children to Thy bosom own.

Rain down, ye overhanging skies!
Lost earth looks up with yearning eyes,
And when the Just One shall have come
Into her long-expectant womb,

From her Salvation shall arise.