FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D. 
 
 BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 \ XPORT BOOKSELLERS 
 32. GAY STREET 
 
 , L BAtHJ-V- 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 m 
 
 I y X* 
 
 
 
 *) 
 
WORDS OF LIFE'S LAST YEARS. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR. 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL 
 
aHrote of fife's fast fas : 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 jr 
 
 CHEISTIAN EMBLEMS; 
 
 METRICAL PEATEES AND SACEED POEMS, 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM FOREIGN WRITERS. 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF "THOUGHTS ON DEVOTION," Etc. Etc. 
 
 Qui non potest volitare ut aquila. volitet ut passer." 
 
 Ambros. de fugd seculi, c. 5. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JACKSON, WALFORD, AND HODDEIl, 
 
 18, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD; 
 JAMES NISBET AND CO. 21, BERNERS STREET 
 
 1862. 
 
TO 
 
 * A. 5. §L. 
 
 FOR WHOM THE LAST PRAYER OF AFFECTION 
 
 WILE BE OFFERED, 
 
 (These iages ar* litstrifceb. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/woslastOOshep 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The old Greek adage, "A great book a great evil," 
 was not much heeded — as their folios largely testify — 
 either by the " Fathers" of the Church, the schoolmen, 
 or the Puritan divines. Great books, however, besides 
 their heavy taxes on time, are very hard to lift, and 
 not less hard (especially for the short-sighted) to place 
 conveniently. Little books, on the other hand, have 
 the disadvantage of being very easily mislaid, and not 
 at all easily found. 
 
 Put, in our day, there is less complaint of the bulk, 
 or of the smallness, than of the unending multitude. 
 
 One does, indeed, wish, that all volumes which teach 
 nothing, or worse than nothing, could be made blank ; 
 a process which might decimate some libraries. 
 
 But as to the hugely and rapidly increasing remain- 
 der, it is fair to consider that readers have multiplied 
 also, perhaps as fast as books ; and, further, that the 
 readers of most books are, and will be, comparatively 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 few. Tims there arises the more need for various 
 supply, the great hosts of the reading public being 
 divided into unnumbered groups, and each group 
 selecting the set which, for various reasons, it prefers. 
 In different families or circles the class of books in 
 request will be often altogether unlike. 
 
 Still, it may be said, this is no sound reason for 
 adding to the vast numbers extant, and now procurable 
 even in the cheapest forms. 
 
 I reply, some persons have little opportunity or 
 power of attempting to profit others, except by writing 
 and publication ; in which method they may happen 
 to do some good. It may be well, too, that such 
 attempts be continued, partly for the turiters sake, since 
 long habits of composition make a measure of such 
 employ medicinal. It is true this object may by some 
 be well and gainfully attained by contributions to 
 serials ; but one may happen to contract a distaste of 
 these, from having been sometimes brought v into unwel- 
 come juxtaposition with sentiments and styles with 
 which one does not accord. This may serve to explain 
 the publication of " AVords of Life's last Years/' which 
 probably only some partial friends will care to read. 
 
 A few sheets at a time, like a small bird's short flights, 
 are best proportioned to the writer's range. If more 
 follow, they may differ a good deal from these, and 
 from each other, but will yet each have one aim. 
 Should none such appear, the present are so far com- 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 plete. If any be added, and it be thought fit to unite 
 them, an excuse for their diversity can be found in 
 other miscellanies. I would name especially the re- 
 cent "Horae Subsecivse" of Dr. Brown, with their 
 wide dissimilarities of topic ; a work totally unlike, 
 indeed, by its original and poignant character, to any- 
 thing which is here offered, but yet affording a favour- 
 able precedent for gathering into one such matters as 
 some would think too diverse to be associated. Had 
 it not been for a thought of such additions, it would 
 have been pedantic to preface this petty volume. 
 Having announced the purpose that it should be mis- 
 cellaneous, I need not, perhaps, apologize for combining 
 prose and verse. If, however, this were expected, 
 I might observe, that between " Christian Emblems " 
 and " Sacred Poetry " there is a near affinity. All 
 emblems are more or less poetic ; for one leading con- 
 stituent of poetry is metaphor, and metaphor is the 
 essential dress of an emblem. 
 
 The pieces which immediately follow the Emblems, 
 and are termed " Metrical Prayers," are translated from 
 a very popular old manual, Schmolck's " Andachten," 2 
 in which they begin a series of similar metrical devo- 
 tions. They are (as I judge) at once very simple and 
 very comprehensive ; apparently designed for use either 
 continuously, or separately, or in such partial combina- 
 tion as may be preferred. Although we possess in 
 1 Nurnberg, 1748, edit, xviii. 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 English very numerous and excellent hymns of sup- 
 plication (much to be valued as prayers), I know not 
 any English prayers — strictly so named and intended 
 — which are in metre. Indeed some devout persons 
 may object to such a form, forgetting perhaps that, 
 in the Hebrew, several psalms, both of petition and 
 of thanksgiving, if not, strictly speaking, metrical, have 
 that acrostical or alphabetical form which must be re- 
 garded as, in its artificial structure, equivalent either to 
 metre or rhyme ; besides which, not only those, but 
 many other parts of Scripture, are " undeniably poeti- 
 cal," their poetic character consisting chiefly in what 
 has been termed "parallelism." 1 This jDoetic form in 
 devotional composition has, at least, one great advan- 
 tage — that, for many persons, it much facilitates the 
 storing and retaining them in the memory. 
 
 I may here mention, that in the following trans- 
 lations it has been endeavoured to adopt, as nearly 
 as might be, the metres of the original. Two Ger- 
 man hymns (pp. 89 and 91) I find (since these sheets 
 were written) translated in the admirable " Lyra 
 Germanica " of Miss AVink worth ; but I do not with- 
 draw them, since it may interest some reader to observe 
 how differently, as to words, the same thoughts may be 
 presented. I shall mention also what appears at 
 least, for myself, worth remembering, in illustration of 
 
 1 See on these points Lowth, Prrcl. de Sac. Poes. Heb.' p. 2(5 
 et seq.; J ebb, .Sac. Lit. § I; and Home's Introd. v. II. 469, edit. 3. 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 the fact — well known but not perhaps enough con- 
 sidered — how little it can be foreseen what unlooked- 
 for circumstances may give a direction to our thoughts, 
 whether in pursuits of study or of active life. 
 
 ]STot only w r as one of the following papers occasioned 
 by what we term an accidental detention at the Giess- 
 bach Falls, but farther, I should not, without that 
 detention, have become acquainted with the " Palm- 
 blatter" of Gerok, a volume there lent to me by a 
 Swiss lady, from which several pieces are here offered. 
 They have interested me ; and I hope will be judged 
 not unworthy of being clothed in an English dress. 
 
 I have since learned that the author is a Protestant 
 clergyman in Stuttgart. I design to offer him this 
 little volume, and shall be happy if my versions have 
 not misrepresented the pieces here selected. 
 
 It may seem an affectation to annex contents and 
 an index to so slender a work. But (quoting the pre- 
 face to a former small volume) 1 " the writer judges it 
 a duty, in days when most books must be rather glanced 
 at than read, to supply all facilities for reference. He 
 wishes these might be secured by limiting the full pri- 
 vileges of copyright to such works only as shall have 
 an alphabetic index, and a full abstract of contents, 
 noting against each particular clause the page where 
 it is to be found. The benefit of preparing these before 
 even resolving to print would outweigh the labour. 
 1 On Trees. Jackson, Walford, and Hodder, 1848. 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 It would bring to view the number, weight, and order 
 of the statements and thoughts to be offered, and 
 might prompt a useful remodelling of what was ill- 
 arranged, and the pruning or compression of what 
 was redundant. 
 
 " If sometimes it should so disclose to the writer the 
 defects of his work, as to induce abstinence from the 
 press, this might prove good economy for all parties ; 
 but if parental attachment forbade that self-denial, a 
 faithful abstract and index might at least give the 
 reader some means of estimating what the book had to 
 promise." 
 
 The Cottage, Fkome, 
 1862. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS, pp. 1-64. 
 
 "the swiet ships," pp. 1 — 12. 
 
 Nature and art offer symbols of the spiritual, 1, 2 ; individual voyagers, 2 ; 
 maritime inventions, 3 ; two squadrons contrasted — pirate — privateer 
 — yacht — merchant-man, 3, 4 ; discovery ships, " Ancient Mariner," 5 ; 
 other squadron, what, 6, 7; Christian merchant — pilot-boat — Parry, 7; 
 brotherhood — sail against tide, 8 ; collisions — ballast, 9 : signals — 
 tempest — wreck, 10, 11 ; to loyal, no loss of real life — win the 
 mutineers. 11, 12. 
 
 II. 
 
 " EARTHEN VESSELS," pp. 13 — 22. 
 
 Fallen man, " a broken vessel," 13, 14 ; not unserviceable, 14. Psalm xxxi. 
 — its uses, 15, 1G. The figure sometimes awful, 1G, 17. " Pitchers," 17 ; 
 — china — Rabbi Joshua, 18. St. Paul — jars of Darius, 19 ; minerals 
 earthen — Cyrus —Etruscan vases, 20, 21. Great disinterment, 21, 22. 
 
XIV CONTEXTS. 
 
 III. 
 
 FALLS OF THE GIESSBACH, pp. 23 — 37- 
 
 Forest in Oberland, 23. Kehrli— falls, 24 ; " freuet rich,* 1 25, 26. 
 "What, if no spirits? 26, 27; fountain of life, 27. Holy Spirit— 
 Rephidirn, 28, 29 ; triflers, 30 x symbol of man's life, 31 ; pines 
 nourished, 32, 33 ; fallen pines — Christian's closing day, 34, 35 ; 
 illumination, 35, 36 ; objections to it, 36 ; yet symbolic, 37. 
 
 IV. 
 
 LAMPLIGHT OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 " Lamp" spoken of in Psalms, Job, &c. 38 — 40. Saying of Luther, 40 : 
 spiritual darkness, 40, 41 ; what without lamp, 4] , 42 ; the vast cave, 43 : 
 the Kentucky cave, 44, 45 ; lamplight best there, 46 ; stationary 
 lamps, 47 ; light secured — Chinese lamp of paper, 4S ; tapers of 
 tradition ; or, stained glass, 49 ; lamp to be used rightly ', 49, 50. 
 light within — lamp rejected, 50, 51. Peak cavern brook, 51, 52 ; 
 Hume, 52 ; some near brink, 52, 53 ; light of God's glory, 53. 54 ; 
 beatific light, 55. 
 
 " PEARLS." 
 
 Merchants, 56 ; pearls of wealth — honour — learning — pleasure, 57 ; 
 pearl divers, 57, 58. Julius Caesar, 58 ; merchant's toils, 59. Con- 
 datchy, 59, 60. "Tearlof groat price," 60; pearl, a fit emblem of 
 God's royal gift to the fallen— in its portableness — Dr. South, 60, 61 ; 
 cost of pearls and gems, 61, 62; priceless pearl a free gift, 62 ; yet 
 the Christian should be ready to give all for it, 63. Steward of all 
 else and of this also, 6 1. 
 
CONTEXTS. 
 
 XV 
 
 METRICAL PRATERS AND SACRED POEMS. 
 
 METRICAL PRAYERS, pp. 67 — 88." 
 
 PAGE3 
 
 I. Morning, Thanksgiving 67 — 70 
 
 II. Petition 71—73 
 
 ELT. Prayer 74—76 
 
 IV. Intercession 77 — 78 
 
 V. Evening, Thanksgiving 79- 82 
 
 VI. Petition 82—83 
 
 VII. Prayer 84—86 
 
 VIII. Intercession 86—88 
 
 SACRED POE5IS, pp. 89 — 132. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 IX. Morning Hymn 89— 90 
 
 X. Morning Hymn 91— 93 
 
 XI. The "Water of Life 94—97 
 
 XII. Mount Nebo 98—101 
 
 XIII. "Behold this Dreamer" 102—106 
 
 XIV. Marah 107—109 
 
 XV. « Lovest thou Me " 110—112 
 
 XVI. Mount Tabor 113—115 
 
 XVII. " It is the Lord" 5 116—119 
 
 XVIII. I would go Home 120—121 
 
 XIX. Morning Hymn 122 — 
 
 XX. Hymn 123—124 
 
 XXI. Hymn 125 — 
 
 XXII. « The Cities of the Plaiu " 126—132 
 
CHEISTIAN EMBLEMS, 
 
 "THE SWIFT SHIPS." 
 
 Coleridge has somewhere written thus, or with this 
 import : it is the poetry of human nature to read 
 the Creation in a figurative sense, and find there 
 correspondencies and symbols of the spiritual world. 
 
 We may say further, it is very observable, how the 
 successive works of art, as human inventiveness has 
 gone on to frame them, have in their turn supplied 
 new images or symbols for the moral and spiritual 
 teacher. The tent of nomadic tribes in the wilderness, 
 the house or hut of the tillers of the soil, the castle of 
 its lordly owner, the temples of heathen or of Hebrew 
 worship, have been themselves imitations or hints from 
 nature ; from the leafy bower and stony cave, from 
 the rock-piled fastness and the overarching grove ; and 
 both original and copy have furnished emblems for the 
 moralist and divine. Navigation, probably, was first 
 
 B 
 
2 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 suggested by the natural raft of drifted timber, and 
 by the floating shell of the nautilus ; and while the 
 river has always symbolised the lapse of time and life, 
 the vessels on its stream were introduced, in very early 
 ages, to give more distinctness and individuality to the 
 figure. Thus, a patriarch in one of the most ancient- 
 Scriptures (Job ix. 26) combines an emblematic use of 
 nature and art together : " My days — are passed away 
 as the swift ships ; as the eagle that hasteth to the 
 prey ; " and an apostle, in one of the latest, directs us 
 to the same emblem in a different application. " Be- 
 hold also the ships, which, though so great, and driven 
 of fierce winds, yet are brought about with a very small 
 helm ; thus, the tongue is a little member, yet worketh 
 mightily." L 
 
 As life and time are like an ever-rushing river, so 
 each individual or family may be viewed as voyagers in 
 a different vessel. u The ships " which the man of Uz 
 had followed with a meditative eye, were probably 
 little larger than the skiffs of modern navigation, and 
 so might the more appositely figure a single voyager's 
 progress on the wave of time. Our bodily frame, our 
 earthly belongings, our little scheme and occupancy of 
 the life that now is, may be well symbolised by the 
 small boat with its equipment 
 
 1 See Bishop Jebb, Sac. Lit. p. 274, and Schlousner, on James 
 
THE SWIFT SHIPS. O 
 
 'We have come for health and recreation to the sea- 
 shore. Even in this little port, we observe with 
 pleased curiosity many vessels of different kinds, and 
 still more in the offing. But we can transport ourselves 
 in fancy to some of the great and most frequented 
 estuaries, the Thames, the Clyde or the Gironde, the 
 ]S T ile or La Plata, the Ganges or Peiho ; or to the 
 Malayan or Polynesian seas. Thus w^e may bring into 
 mental view all diversities of maritime inventions and 
 habits, including the pirate bark, the Chinese junk, the 
 Taheitan canoe. The varieties of individual human life 
 are indeed vastly more numerous ; but we shall find, 
 on the many waters, some figurative hints to illustrate 
 man's history, and experience, and prospects ; and 
 an Anglo-Saxon may plead connexion with the old 
 Vikings, for licence so to allegorise. 
 
 There is one broad division of the human voyagers, 
 which indeed cannot always be fixed for individuals, 
 and still less should be censoriously determined ; but 
 which must, at least, secretly exist, even where unascer- 
 tained. Either they honour and obey the Sovereign of 
 all, or they do not ; either they own His supremacy 
 and are grateful for His benefits, or they are mutinous ; 
 at the least disaffected, unattached. 
 
 The pirate boat and the war canoe may be fittest 
 emblems of a class, too frequent on every shore, who 
 practise violence or predatory wrong. 
 b2 
 
4 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 The privateer, by its very name, but too aptly 
 typifies that spirit which has none but selfish ends, 
 and cares not under what colours its grasping aim 
 may be advanced. 
 
 These, openly or tacitly, discard allegiance ; and 
 sometimes contrive to be willingly ignorant or sceptical, 
 whether there be any sovereign rule. At least, they 
 affect to be irresponsible, and in so doing assume for a 
 time to be better and bolder mariners than we. 
 
 Again, pursuits, not so boldly culpable, may be 
 represented by the same sort of figure. The heavy 
 bark of commerce, laden (it may be with captives or 
 with slave-tilled cotton) to the water's edge, may figure 
 those minds which are absorbed in love of lucre, with 
 no desire above it or beyond ; those whom Cowper 
 indignantly depicted as — 
 
 " Merchants rich in cargoes of despair." 
 
 While on the same tide, but with quite another temper, 
 floats the gaudy yacht, or the slight, well-painted 
 wherry; her speed is great, her movement graceful, 
 her oars glancing in the sunny spray; yet here, too, 
 may be no recognition of rule, but rather an affectation 
 of giddy or sportive independence, which loves to 
 forget or make light of His power and majesty who 
 "sitteth on the floods." Here and there we see apilot- 
 boat, emblem of minds endowed with ability and desire 
 
THE SWIFT SHIPS. 
 
 of influence ; qualified, perhaps, to lead in this world's 
 counsels, but too prone to confide in their own power 
 and acuteness, and to forget Him " who hath measured 
 the waters in the hollow of His hand." 
 
 More rarely are seen vessels of discovery, exploring 
 and surveying the remotest coasts — types of the scien- 
 tific spirit, elaborately trained and prepared, enter- 
 prising and inventive, ready to sound the ocean and to 
 mete the skies, but too often, like Buffon, La Place, Hum- 
 boldt, not looking above the laws and phenomena, and 
 even by implication denying or ignoring that intelligence 
 which alike framed all material wonders, and the minds 
 that investigate these. Such is one great division, the 
 larger and the more conspicuous, of what one may 
 venture to call the spirit-fleet. Some stanzas from the 
 " Ancient Mariner " may, perhaps, best justify the 
 term and the idea. 
 
 " A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist ! 
 And still it near'd and near'd : 
 As if it dodged a water-sprite, 
 
 It plunged and tack'd and veer'd. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " See ! see ! (I cried) she tacks no more ! 
 Hither to work us weal ; 
 Without a breeze, without a tide, 
 
 She steadies with upright keel ! 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " Alas ! (thought I, and my heart beat loud) 
 How fast she nears and nears ! 
 Are those her sails that glance in the sun, 
 Like restless gossameres ? 
 
CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 " The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out : 
 At one stride comes the dark ; 
 With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea, 
 Off shot the spectre-bark ! " 
 
 But there is, if I may so speak, a different squadron 
 of the spirit-fleet, a convoy less in number and apparent 
 force, equally various in size and appointments, but 
 all having this great principle of order and discipline, 
 that they each profess adherence to their one Leader, 
 study his charts, await his signals, use his telescope 
 and sextant, and steer by his compass. "While they 
 diligently handle the cable, the rigging, the sail, the 
 rudder, they look in all emergencies for their great 
 Leader's prompt and efficient succour ; remembering 
 with grateful wonder the pledges of His power and 
 kindness, mindful that He braved of old the direst 
 storms, and stemmed the darkest floods on their 
 behalf. In Him, though He seem distant, they con- 
 tide, assured that, in all their exigencies, He will 
 steer the lifeboat, and command the rescue. 
 
 This less numerous fleet — increasing and rein- 
 forced, we trust, notwithstanding too many desertions, 
 — has in it great varieties also, from the rude barge to 
 the royal steam-yacht ; from the most primitive birch 
 canoe to the steel-clad ship of defence. True, we have 
 not all the classes. No pirates or privateers really 
 belong to us; though, unhappily, some such are among 
 
THE SWIFT SHIPS. 7 
 
 us sailing under false colours, who have prove d, that 
 however built and decorated, and whatever ensign they 
 may hoist, they are really in the service of the common 
 enemy. 
 
 But we have, in the department of commerce, en- 
 larged and elevated minds — such as was a Thornton, 
 who 
 
 (i Make gain a fountain, whence proceeds 
 A stream of liberal and heroic deeds." 
 
 They may he represented by their own noble ships ; 
 often so freighted, likewise, as to aid directly the efforts 
 of Christian philanthropy. Nor must we neglect or 
 undervalue the simple fishing-boats, emblems of that 
 lowly industry, where honest godliness may ply the oar 
 and cast the net, remembering the homely labours of 
 those who were made also " fishers of men." 
 
 We have our pilot-honis of different classes (would 
 that they were more numerous) in those of our legis- 
 lators and other official persons, who are governed by 
 right principles, and truly aiming at the public weal ; 
 and in those Christian ministers and teachers, who 
 would faithfully guide others in the wise, happy, 
 heavenward course. We have had some vessels of 
 discovery — the late Sir Edward Parry was a memorable 
 instance of it — where, while observing the remotest 
 stars, sounding the deepest seas, surveying tropical or 
 Arctic shores, still, all has been done with reverent and 
 
$ CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 filial thought of Him, who " alone spreadeth out the 
 heavens, and treadeth upon the waves." 
 
 It is obvious that the vessels of our Christian fleet 
 both widely differ and are widely dispersed. Many 
 coast in shallow waters. Some traverse the fathom- 
 less ocean. The forms, the equipments, are exceed- 
 ingly diverse, but all ought, in their several depart- 
 ments, to be vessels of help and brotherhood. The 
 greatest may protect or succour the least; the least 
 may sometimes supply or counsel the greatest. Let us 
 be ready to hail a neighbour vessel kindly and genially, 
 and even if the answer be in a foreign tongue, still 
 make what signs and practical tokens of friendliness 
 we may. 
 
 We all sail or steam, more or less, against wind and 
 tide. The pirate, the privateer, the pleasure-skiff, who 
 do not own our Commander, may drift away to 
 leeward \ but we must often face and breast opposing 
 gales, and sometimes resort to the labouring oar, when 
 a cheerless calm makes the sail droop uselessly. 
 
 Xor let the young mariner despise the hints of 
 experience. Be alert and watchful to profit by the 
 favouring breeze — 
 
 "As when a ship by skilful steersman wrought, 
 Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind 
 Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail." 
 
 Avoid, when it may be so, the headlands enveloped 
 
THE SWIFT SHIPS. 9 
 
 in mist. How many shocks upon the breakers, and 
 collisions with other voyagers, have arisen from not 
 clearly discerning one's own course, or misjudging 
 another's : and, what is worse, a disastrous collision 
 may be the result simply of greater speed and strength. 
 The writer was once off Flamborough Head in a very 
 powerful steamer ; the passengers were engaged in a 
 Sunday morning service on the deck ; the helmsman, 
 although at his post, had been somew r ay inattentive or 
 remiss ; and we discovered, suddenly, a small trading 
 vessel almost close under our bow ; by a few fathoms 
 more of our swift movement this bark would in the 
 contact have been inevitably sunk. Vigorous, rapid, 
 energetic minds should, in the name of equity and 
 charity, take heed, lest they alarm, and overbear, and 
 run down the feebler. 
 
 Be never afraid or ashamed to raise your leader's 
 standard in the face of the foe ; yet do not ostenta- 
 tiously parade it ; nor even imagine the ensign itself, 
 or the display of it, enough, without the loyalty and 
 love of which it is but the promise or token. 
 
 Be not tempted to carry too much sail. " Pride 
 goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before 
 a fall." 
 
 Lay in stores of the most useful and exchangeable 
 ballast you can collect. A valuable solid freight may 
 occupy no more room than mere sand or pebbles. 
 
10 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 Mark the signals with a vigilant eye and glass, and 
 respond to them with punctual fidelity. 
 
 Xever distrust your beloved and infallible Com- 
 mander, nor provoke His displeasure and rebuke. 
 
 Eemember that you must expect, in common with 
 all who navigate life's ocean, starless nights and fre- 
 quent tempests ; nay, that there may be more of these 
 allotted to you, than to those who own no commander 
 and no discipline. 
 
 Forget not also, for it is true in regard to each and 
 all, that on these voyages there is no anchorage. Each 
 vessel on life's great river still unceasingly moves 
 onward — 
 
 " Silent and slow it glides away, 
 Steady and strong the current flows." 
 
 The language quoted before, " they are passed away as 
 the swift ships," or "as ships with spread sail sweep 
 they on," 1 referred primarily to the days ; but how 
 truly may it be used also of the persons to whom those 
 days and hours momentarily belonged, as a precious 
 loan and trust, imperceptibly expended — too often 
 lavished — not to be renewed. 
 
 " Like the dews on the mountain, 
 Like the foam on the river, 
 Like the bubble on the fountain, 
 They are gone, and for ever." 
 
 It is a gloomy thought, that each and all, from the 
 1 Mason Good's version. 
 
THE SWIFT SHIPS. 11 
 
 stateliest ship to the frailest boat, must alike be disman- 
 tled and fall to pieces ere long, either in actual wreck, 
 or as being broken up because seaworthy no longer. 
 But. then, with this great distinction or contrast, that 
 the mutineers or disloyal will be fatally wrecked in the 
 course which they themselves, against all wise counsel, 
 hare chosen and persevered in. It leads them to the 
 terror and surprise of a dark, harbourless, and rock- 
 bound coast. Their voyage is powerfully described by 
 one of our lyric poets : 
 
 " Fair laughs the morn and soft the zephyr blows, 
 While proudly riding o'er the azure realm, 
 In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes, 
 
 Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm ; 
 Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway, 
 That, hush'd in grim repose, expects his evening prey." 
 
 But the convoy of our great Commander will be 
 stranded only where He shall choose and appoint. Be 
 they ever so little ships upon the lake, be they "vessels 
 of bulrushes " by the great river's brink, they shall be 
 grounded, as was the ark of the Hebrew infant, where 
 He has ordered them to be, and where His lifeboat 
 shall be close at hand. Or they shall be thrust into 
 " a certain creek with a shore," and " the prow remain 
 unmovable, though the stern be broken by the violence 
 of the waves." 
 
 The ship is wrecked, the boat is staved, but there 
 shall be no loss of life : of that life which is the true 
 
12 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 and everlasting. The voyagers may be rescued only on 
 planks, or on relics of the ship, yet they shall escape all 
 safe to land. Even the fragments shall be one day re- 
 united, to float upon the glassy deep, in " a place of 
 broad rivers and streams ;" and what is better, the ves- 
 sels which have long parted company, with mournful 
 farewells, shall be reunited too ; and those which never 
 could hail each other on the broad flood of time, shall 
 have fraternal greetings on the boundless ocean of 
 futurity. 
 
 Let us try to invite and win the revolted to the 
 voluntary service of our beloved Prince and Leader. 
 Their own service is hard and perilous, and without 
 recompense. If they have a commander, though they may 
 acknowledge none, it can be but the arch-pirate whose 
 rewards are destruction. They are involved in profitless 
 contentions and a wretched rivalry. Let us seek to win 
 them by cordial invitation, but, above all, by making it 
 apparent to them that ours is a cheerful, willing ser- 
 vice ; the only real freedom ; that we can trust impli- 
 citly our Divine leader ; and that, in our rudest storms, 
 we can call to mind George Herbert's dream — 
 
 " An earthly globe, 
 On whose meridian was engraven, 
 These seas are tears, and heaven the haven." 
 
13 
 
 II. 
 
 " EARTHEX VESSELS." 
 
 It seems a strange simile which was once used to 
 characterise himself by the poet-king, " I am like a 
 broken vessel." Yet we have but to remember that 
 man's mortal frame, so " fearfully and wonderfully 
 made," was formed by the Almighty " from the dust 
 of the ground," — and it will at least not surprise us, 
 that the work of the moulder in clay should be chosen 
 as a figure to describe him. 
 
 More than this, humanity, even in its best estate, 
 and with its finest qualities, may fitly be compared to 
 ; a broken vessel, inasmuch as it is fallen from its inte- 
 grity, and marred by the fall. How beautiful soever 
 the form and material, the vessel has a fracture run- 
 ning through it. 
 
 Be it of Bohemian glass, or Dresden china, or Italian 
 alabaster, and in each case moulded with consummate 
 skill, still will the shock and unsoundness be but too 
 discoverable. Although " curiously wrought " to the 
 highest polish and refinement, it cannot be concealed 
 that the vase is jiot as it was, and not as it ought to 
 
14 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 be — not unharmed and perfect. If, on the other hand, 
 it be of ruder, coarser make and material, then, let it be 
 ever so firm and solid, the fracture may but the more 
 clearly appear. The more ordinary and strong the 
 utensil, the more discernible those broken edges. 
 
 Yet man, though in every case but a broken vessel, 
 is not therefore unserviceable. He is preserved and 
 employed by God's providence in much important work, 
 still capable of receiving valuable gifts, and of minis- 
 tering to most useful ends. The vessel is cemented 
 by the all- wise Maker's hand. When fitly joined and 
 skilfully holden, it can convey the richest cordial, or 
 contain precious fruits, fragrant flowers, or gold of 
 Ophir. 
 
 The sacred writer, however, in his use of that phrase, 
 had reference rather to a state of calamity and discou- 
 ragement, in which he deemed himself, for the time, 
 and under certain pressures of feeling, to be, as it were, 
 a ruined vessel (vas perditum, as the Vulgate has it), 
 cast away as useless — disqualified for service. There 
 could not well be a greater mistake. How many a 
 healing medicine or reviving beverage has been handed 
 to the poor patient in a broken cup ! How many a 
 draught of the refreshing fountain has reached the 
 thirsty pilgrim's lips in a despised potsherd, which his 
 necessity had grasped, or which another's kindness 
 brought. The epic poet of Italy represents the knight 
 
EARTHEN VESSELS. 15 
 
 Tancred as carrying his dinted helmet, battered in 
 combats, and filling it from a murmuring rill, that 
 he might thus pour baptismal water on the dying 
 Clorinda. 
 
 The beautiful psalm, whose author describes himself 
 as like a broken vessel, expressed the alternations of pro- 
 found trouble and of confiding faith ; and itself supplied 
 those words, doubly hallowed by the utterance of the 
 expiring Saviour, " Into Thy hand I commit my spirit ; 
 Thou hast redeemed me, Lord God of truth." And 
 still does it yield words of comfort and encouragement 
 to the distressed, as fresh and efficacious now as when 
 first penned in the wilderness, or chanted on Mount 
 Zion, almost thirty centuries ago. Eut if the vessel 
 had not been so " broken," that particular treasure of 
 admonitions would not (humanly speaking) have been 
 collected or poured forth ; whereas, notwithstanding, 
 nay, as a fruit of the writer's adversities, it was so, and 
 has flowed down through so many ages, in many 
 tongues, to many and remotest nations. 
 
 Who can number the hearts that have been soothed 
 or animated by this very effusion, by the balm which 
 this "broken vessel" scattered through the world? 
 " In Thee, Jehovah, do I put my trust ; for Thou 
 art my rock and my fortress. Thou hast known my 
 soul in adversities. My times are in Thy hand. 
 how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for 
 
16 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 them that fear Thee ! Be of good courage, and He shall 
 strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in Jehovah. " 
 
 It should not be forgotten, however, that this figure 
 or symbol of the " earthen vessel " recalls to our view 
 unsearchable and awful truths, concerning the sove- 
 reignty of God's providence and grace. A Hebrew 
 prophet was instructed to procure and destroy one, as 
 a tangible symbol, representing the fearful result of 
 national sins. " Go, get a potter's earthen vessel, and 
 take of the ancients of the people and of the priests, 
 and break it in their sight ; and say, Thus saith Jehovah 
 of hosts — even so will I break this people and this city, 
 as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made 
 whole again. 7 ' The comparison had been so used be- 
 fore : " As the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in 
 mine hand, house of Israel ! " And another prophet 
 thus rebukes the impious : " Perverse as ye are, shall the 
 potter be esteemed as the clay ? shall the work say of 
 the workman, He hath not made me ? " And again : 
 "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker, the 
 potsherd with the moulder of the clay : shall the clay 
 say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou 1 " 1 
 AVe know how solemnly an apostle has referred to these 
 passages ; and it ought to be remembered with reverence 
 and awe, that the Maker of all so forms and moulds 
 and crushes His vessels, according to His holy will. 
 1 Isaiah xxix. and xlv. Lowth's version. 
 
EARTHEN VESSELS. 17 
 
 But then, He also " endures, with much long-suffering, 
 the vessels of dishonour, fitted to destruction." Nay, 
 let us rejoice in the intimation which may seem con- 
 veyed in this fact ; when " the vessel that he made of 
 clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it 
 again another vessel, as it seemed good to him." Few 
 could have more the aspect of a vessel of wrath or oi 
 destruction, than the stern persecutor, breathing out 
 threatenings on the road to Damascus ; who yet was 
 suddenly re-made a chosen vessel for his Lord, to bear 
 His name before nations and kings, and to suffer mar- 
 tyrdom in His cause. 
 
 Let it be our lowly earnest ambition to be made 
 vessels unto honour, prepared unto every good work. 
 Let us shun all false and worthless glaze and varnish. 
 Solomon reminds us, "As drossy silver laid upon a 
 potsherd, so are warm lips with a wicked heart.' 7 
 " Literally, silver of drosses ; by which is probably 
 meant, the lead separated from silver, with which 
 earthenwares are glazed." 1 — It is far better to be 
 thought homely earthen pitchers, 2 than to carry a 
 deceptive glaze, while really valueless and rejected. 
 One has heard of some (would that the temper were 
 unknown, even among so-called Christians !) who, in 
 
 1 Prov. xxvi. 23. Holden's Version and Comment. The 
 Vulgate renders it " argentum sordidum." 
 
 2 Lament, iv. 4. 
 
 C 
 
1 8 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 reference to distinctions and contrasts of the present 
 social state, have nsed the simile with self-complacent 
 arrogance, saying of the masses — they are the crockery, 
 we the china. Yes ; bnt remember, as the china is ever 
 the more delicately brittle, so likewise will its ornament 
 and polish occasion the more humiliation or reluctance, 
 when, ere long, it shall fall and be shattered. And 
 how shortsightedly does that view of it (pride ruling, 
 instead of grateful lowliness) ignore both the primaeval 
 sentence, " Dust thou — and to dust thou shalt return ;" 
 and also that symbolic act, by which are cast daily into 
 countless tombs " earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust 
 to dust." 
 
 There is a Jewish story, concerning the reply of Eabbi 
 Joshua to a daughter of the emperor, who, when she 
 taunted him with his mean appearance, referred her to 
 the earthenware vessels in which her father kept his 
 wines. And when, at her request, the wines were 
 shifted into silver vessels, and then turned sour, the 
 Eabbi fairly urged this as a new illustration of his 
 maxim, that the plainest and humblest may preserve 
 excellence the best. 
 
 Certainly, all thoughtful Christians will feel, even at 
 their best estate, as prophets and apostles would were 
 they still with us — I am like a broken vessel ; though 
 wondrously cemented and containing heavenly treasure, 
 yet not the less conscious of utter fragility. ]S"o wonder 
 
EARTHEN VESSELS. 19 
 
 that, Trith this consciousness, St. Paul should have 
 written, " We have this treasure in earthen vessels," 
 not vessels of gold or silver, but frailer than the 
 slightest shell, 1 which a mere touch may shatter. He 
 had, as we cannot but have, the sure and near anticipa- 
 tion of that final blow w]^ich overthrows the perishable 
 form ; and although he ever longed with ardour to 
 impart personally the treasure of God's truth, he was 
 ever, likewise, ready for, and even desirous of, the 
 stroke which should cast the frail vessel down, yet 
 leave that truth in its permanence and power. 
 
 We learn from the old Greek historian, when enu- 
 merating the great tributes of silver and gold paid to 
 Darius, that "this treasure was preserved by the king 
 in the following manner : the metal was melted down 
 and poured into earthen jars, which, when filled, w r ere 
 broken away;" 2 i. e., the jars were broken, leaving the 
 masses of silver and gold, to which they had given 
 shape. 
 
 So may we say, those " earthen vessels," the apostolic 
 men and martyrs who first conveyed the treasure of 
 redemption to mankind, were in succession removed, 
 many of them by violent hands "broken away;" but 
 in their testimony, in their writings, in the power of 
 their examples, has the massy gold remained; remained, 
 
 1 G(TTpaKlV07s <TK€V€(Tl. 
 
 2 Herodotus, Taylor's Translation, p. 237. 
 
 c2 
 
20 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 too, in the shapes which they had severally impressed, 
 and has been thus transmitted down, to enrich many 
 generations. 
 
 We may consider, also, that metals and minerals 
 drawn from the earth may, by no great latitude of 
 phrase, be spoken of as earthen. The gold is mingled 
 with other dust, though separable from it ; the crystal 
 is embedded in rock or clay ; even diamonds and other 
 precious gems are found in the earth or sand. Well 
 may we reckon on that promised transmutation, when 
 the frail vessels of mortality, so soon to fall to pieces, 
 shall be moulded all anew, and become vessels of gold 
 or crystal in God's holy temple above. 
 
 It is but a poor and feeble type of that futurity, 
 when we read, that " Cyrus the king brought forth the 
 vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar 
 had put in the house of his gods/' and Eelshazzar had dis- 
 played at his idolatrous banquet ; that this king also, by 
 the hand of his treasurer, numbered them to the prince 
 of Judah, who brought those thousands of golden 
 vessels to adorn the reconstructed temple. A fitter 
 emblem, in some respects, may be afforded by an inci- 
 dent of our own time, though connected with the works 
 of a remote antiquity. In the ruined cities of the 
 ancient Etruria, there have been discovered earthen 
 vases of most exquisite workmanship, buried in sepul- 
 cln-es lone before the Christian era. Of these a magni- 
 
EARTHEN VESSELS. 21 
 
 ficent collection was purchased by the late King of 
 Prussia, and conveyed to enrich, as admirable specimens 
 of antique art, his museum at Berlin. 
 
 How wonderful and glorious that great disinterment, 
 when the King of kings shall collect His costly relics, 
 His purchased trophies, for "our gathering together 
 unto Him ! " When each frail earthen vessel which 
 held and communicated, in its measure, the riches of 
 His grace — the herald of His love, whether in cottage 
 or cathedral, in privacy or publicly — the assiduous 
 teacher of the lambs of Christ's flock — the lowly com- 
 forter of the sick and dying — and that most " broken 
 vessel" of all, who has testified to His mercy on the 
 bed of weakness and anguish — shall be exhumed, each 
 as a vessel to honour, from the tombs of earth, or their 
 essential atoms gathered from the winds of heaven ! 
 When all which the One Oblation purchased and 
 redeemed from ruin, shall be beautified, perhaps by 
 angelic art, rescued from the dust of ages, borne 
 joyfully into the great house of God, the temple and 
 treasury on high ! 
 
 Nor shall they be only beautiful externally, as 
 adorned by Divine skill, and bearing the material re- 
 semblance and image of the Perfect, but " all glorious 
 within," " sanctified and meet for the Master's use," 
 not having merely an outward grace and decoration like 
 those brittle treasures of kings, but filled and illumined 
 
22 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 with a celestial flame, transparent to display the life- 
 inspiring brightness of the Lord who bought them, who 
 ransomed them from the earth's recesses and the ocean 
 depths, to be ranged as lamps of crystal in His sanc- 
 tuary,, and to go out no more. Neither can the chosen 
 vessels thus fashioned into perfectness be mute or 
 without sound, but like the tremulous chalices of 
 glass which are made to give forth sweet music, these, at 
 the touch of His animating love, shall pour out harmonies, 
 richer than the imagined music of the spheres, in adora- 
 tion of Him who formed them from the dust ; who, 
 when broken and marred, deigned yet to strengthen 
 and employ them for Himself ; who at length has dis- 
 entombed them from the silent darkness, fashioned 
 them anew in perfect beauty, uplifted them to shine 
 with His own radiance, and be fixed beside His 
 throne. 
 
23 
 
 III. 
 FALLS OF THE GIESSBACH. 
 
 In a forest of the Bernese Alps (where, however, 
 ample comforts are provided for the traveller) we w r ere 
 detained, by rains of the preceding evening, to pass the 
 Sunday ; and no public worship, in any language, was 
 within reach. The following thoughts were revolved 
 on the mountain footpath which borders the waterfalls 
 of the Giessbach. It were hard to imagine a more 
 picturesque commixture of the grand and the beautifal 
 than this scene exhibits. 
 
 A succession of leaps from the loftiest ravine of the 
 Faulhorn, the torrent everywhere fringed by tall dark 
 pine-trees, with smaller ones in their prime of growth, 
 and a wdiole underwood of tiny saplings budding in the 
 freshest light-green of early summer, glittering w T ith 
 moisture, ever bedewed with spray from the Falls — 
 the lake of Brientz in its blue calmness seen many 
 hundred feet below, and in new glimpses at each turn 
 in the ascent, with another cataract rushing down the 
 opposite mountains — altogether form one of the noblest 
 landscapes which even the Oberland can offer. The 
 successive waterfalls are closely approachable by a safe 
 footway running in zigzag up through the forest. It 
 
24: CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 was formed by Johannes Kehrli, who lately died, aged 
 eighty-three, and to whose memory a tablet is fixed on 
 one of the rocks "as having first made these falls 
 accessible (zuganglich) to the lovers of nature." Several 
 strong, rude bridges of wood are thrown across the tor- 
 rent. At one point the spectator, sheltered by an arch 
 of overhanging rock, has the whole cataract rushing 
 perpendicularly and closely in front of him, quite veil- 
 ing the lake, the mountains, and the foliage, yet fully 
 admitting all these on one step's change of position, by 
 which the veil is quite and suddenly withdrawn, yet 
 the rush and the precipitous flood still close at hand. 
 On the topmost bridge, where the spray is most profuse, 
 and where the fall has just issued from a dark gorge 
 between very lofty rocks, a brilliant fragment of rain- 
 bow (spray -how) wavered and glittered across the 
 chasm beneath. At certain points the sudden vertical 
 cataract, dashing down as into a huge cauldron, where 
 its pent waters foam and struggle toward their next 
 downward leap, has an almost terrific grandeur; and 
 yet in those showers of liquid pearl, sparkling in the 
 sunbeams, and gliding in bright waves over the rock, 
 beauty seems to reign over the turmoil. The whole 
 prospect has more magnificence than either pen or 
 pallet can express. 
 
 But then, — what of all this, — if it were the mere 
 result of some impersonal self-originated law 1 
 
FALLS OF THE GIESSBACH. 25 
 
 The language of a German whom I met near the 
 spot, who, in answer to some general phrase of admira- 
 tion, said, " Our Lord God rejoices in these regions/ 7 
 [unser Herr Gott freuet sick an diese gegenden,] al- 
 though it seemed at first hearing quaint, and almost 
 irreverent, yet conveys a solemn truth. " Our Lord 
 God," the all-perfect Spirit, must have all the highest 
 and most refined emotions which a glorious spirit can 
 possess. " "When He stretched out the heavens as a 
 curtain, and spread them out as a tent to dwell in ; 
 when He meted out heaven with a span, and compre- 
 hended the dust of the earth in a measure ; when He 
 weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a 
 balance ; when He renovated the earth which had 
 become desolate and void, ' God saw everything that He 
 had made, and behold, it was very good/ " We read, 
 "the Lord shall rejoice in His works," 1 and the eter- 
 nal "Wisdom is described as " rejoicing in the habitable 
 parts of the earth." Indeed, in scenes like these we 
 recognise irresistibly the fact, that the Creator and 
 Upholder of all things is not sovereign and omnipo- 
 tent only, but loves and rejoices over the sublime and 
 beautiful in His own works. The Divine architect and 
 sculptor who built the everlasting hills and carved the 
 towering peaks, is also the heavenly painter of the 
 vernal and autumnal forests, the harmonist of the rush- 
 1 Psalm civ. 31. 
 
26 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 ing torrent, the enchaser of its wreaths of ever-waving 
 jewellery; — and "the Lord shall rejoice in His works." 
 But further, He has made them and preserves them in 
 order that His intelligent creatures should likewise 
 admire and rejoice. The perfect and unchangeable 
 must have supremely rejoiced in His own perfection, 
 even " before His works of old ; when there were no 
 created depths, no fountains abounding with water ; 
 before the mountains were settled ; while as yet He had 
 not made the earth." But He hath since " prepared 
 the heavens/' and " appointed the foundations of the 
 earth," that creatures indued with conscious life and 
 reason might admire these works and adore their eter- 
 nal Author. Of what avail would be the unconscious 
 world of matter, however immense and multifarious its 
 beauty or grandeur, if there were no spirits made to 
 contemplate all these, and to ascend through them 
 toward the incomprehensible beauty and majesty of the 
 Supreme; that real immutable Being, of whose glory 
 they all are but faint effluxes and shadowy types '? Xor 
 are we the only, nor in all likelihood the most numerous 
 or most enthusiastic admirers. Who knows but that 
 hosts of heavenly visitants look upon these scenes of 
 our little orb as if on miniatures or photographs of the 
 wonders which they have surveyed in the greatest ] 
 
 Further, of how much less value would be this mag- 
 nificent display, if it were not designed and adapted to 
 
FALLS OF THE GIESSBACII. 27 
 
 offer emblems, to impart lessons of spiritual truths, 
 which essentially and deeply concern the conscious 
 minds that gaze on it I 
 
 True, it would still be an exquisite passing show, a 
 bright series of "dissolving views," a fleeting diorama of 
 magical loveliness and splendour \ but without profound 
 meanings, without the promise or intimation of trans- 
 cendent and durable good. 
 
 But surely it ought never for the Christian mind to 
 be thus visionary and profitless ; never thus destitute 
 of real significance, of spiritual instructiveness and 
 worth. Meditating on this cataract only, in its various 
 aspects, may we not find, for instance, in its ample out- 
 flowing from age to age, in its far-sounding, ceaseless 
 self-effusion, in its brilliant, unintermitting swiftness 
 (petty though the type in relation to the grand reality), 
 a beautiful symbol of Him with whom is the fountain 
 of life ; an emblem of that primal and endless emana- 
 tion of His vivifying energy, by which all sentient 
 beings live, and move, and are 1 1 
 
 Again, and in a more exalted and inestimable sense, 
 are we not taught and invited by the oracles of God to 
 look upon this pure and lucid element, especially when 
 
 1 " — Fount of all 
 Which below we fountains call ! 
 Unimagin'd beauty's well, 
 Deep of deeps unsearchable ! " 
 Syxesius, 
 
28 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 it takes the form of gushing and diffusive fountains, as 
 eminently typical of that Divine and spiritual boon 
 which our heavenly Father — through the beloved Son 
 — has promised to confer ? Thus writes the most 
 evangelic of the prophets : " every one that thirst eth, 
 come ye to the waters '" and " with joy shall ye draw 
 water from the wells of salvation." " In the wilderness 
 shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." " I 
 will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon 
 the dry ground. I will pour my spirit on thy progeny, 
 my blessing on thine offspring." So spoke our Saviour 
 to the Samaritan, " Whosoever drinketh of the water 
 that I shall give him, shall never thirst ; but the water 
 that I shall give him shall be in him a fountain of 
 water, springing up unto everlasting life." And still 
 from His throne of glory He proclaims, u Let him that 
 is athirst come ; and whosoever will, let him take of 
 the water of life freely." 
 
 It is true there are many displays of this element, in 
 its state of rapid and tumultuous movement, far more 
 gigantic and overpowering than that which suggests our 
 present thoughts ; such as the great Rhine-fall, the 
 stupendous Norwegian torrent of the Yoring-foss. the 
 mighty flood which thunders at Niagara, the terrible 
 cataracts of the Amoor in Eastern Asia. 
 
 Bui su<h vast displays seem adapted rather to be 
 images of Divine Omnipotence, as acting ever through 
 
FALLS OF THE GIESSBACH. 29 
 
 the material and intellectual universe; while falls, such 
 as this of the Giessbach, more aptly typify those springs 
 of grace, which renovate and refresh the spiritual 
 Israel ; resembling the torrent which burst from the 
 smitten rock in Horeb, which suddenly allayed at 
 Eephidim the thirst of a pilgrim nation, and was to 
 them a declared type of spiritual benediction; "for 
 they drank of that spiritual rock which followed them," 
 (followed them by the clear and abounding torrent, 
 which still outbursting from it, flowed with them in 
 their- onward journeying,) " and that rock was Christ." l 
 It symbolised those spiritual graces, which to the 
 devout among them, the "Israelites indeed/' were 
 already, in a measure, imparted, through the mediation 
 of Messiah to come. And this spiritual stream grew 
 ampler and more copious far, when the Saviour had 
 Himself appeared, had poured forth His atoning life- 
 blood on the holy mount ; and by those mystic drops 
 evoked, as it were, the full outflow of heavenly refresh- 
 ing, the healing flood which should suffice for all the 
 thirsty nations, and quench the spiritual need which His 
 grace alone can satisfy. "The Holy Ghost " (we read) 
 " had not yet been given " (so copiously and signally), 
 "because Jesus was not yet glorified ; w but when He had 
 accomplished the triumph of self-immolating love, then 
 did He send forth the promised Comforter ; then flowed 
 1 1 Cor. x. 4. 
 
30 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 forth, in unrestricted fulness, the waters of the sanctuary, 
 when " He had led captivity captive, and received gifts 
 for men, that the Lord God might dwell among them." 
 . How is it that we believe (it can he but with feeble 
 faith) in these grandest of objects — in the infinite and 
 unceasing agency of the Most High, in the special 
 influence of the Eternal Spirit, in the redeeming self- 
 abasement and victory of the Son of God — and yet 
 sometimes forget, or be almost indifferent to these : 
 absorbed in worldly cares or trifles, perplexed by 
 worldly annoyances ! It is much as if one ascending 
 toward the source of a majestic cataract, should occupy 
 himself merely with the wild flower or mountain 
 strawberry which invites his hand, or strive with the 
 bramble which entangles or checks his foot. That 
 traveller, we at once feel, is worthiest of the scene, who 
 fixes his eye and mind most devoutly on the noblest 
 objects ; nay, who sometimes goes apart under the 
 sheltering arch of moveless rock, behind the ever- 
 rushing fall, to exclude from view all earth for a 
 season, shutting out by that flowing veil, " dark with 
 excessive bright," the forest and the lake, the moun- 
 tains and the sky. 
 
 So should the Christian pilgrim endeavour, screened 
 as it were in the rock-clift, kneeling in the shadow of 
 the Rock of ages, to hide himself from the world for 
 a season, and seclude the world from him, behind the 
 
FALLS OF THE GIESSBACII. 31 
 
 plenitude and affluence of His perfections, who creates 
 and sustains, who redeems and glorifies. 
 
 Yet further, these magnificent falls may symbolise, 
 not only the perpetual Divine energy, and the more 
 special heavenly influences, but afford emblems also 
 (indeed, no image is more familiar) of the fleeting, 
 resMess, mutable life of man. 
 
 The great cataract has its minute diverging rills, 
 which part from the main torrent and How in separate- 
 ness over ledges of the rock, or between its crevices, in 
 little channels of their own. Such tiny rills are apt 
 figures of our little life, the brief individual course 
 which each fulfils below ; sometimes gliding onward 
 like a silvery thread, or winding smoothly between 
 the mossy stones ; sometimes repelled and scattered by 
 a granite barrier, forced into eddies, struggling in a 
 troublous current toward the goal. 
 
 But as the bow of promise, although wavering and 
 broken, gleamed with its brilliant hues over the huge 
 cascade while I gazed upon it, even where its tossed 
 waters threw their farthest clouds of spray, so, if God 
 grant us an increase of faith, shall the promises of 
 His better covenant gild the darkest moments of our 
 course, and the least as well as the broadest current be 
 shone upon with manifold and varying tints from the 
 "Brightness of His glory." 
 
 But we must revert for an instant to the wider 
 
32 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 scenery that borders these falls : the beautiful and 
 picturesque forest, chiefly of pines, though other trees 
 are intermingled, which richly clothes the surrounding 
 steeps, even close on the edge of the waterfall. Many, 
 as has been said, are in their full and lofty growth, 
 laden with cones ; many more in their greenest infancy; 
 but some have fallen in the winters' storms, and lie 
 prostrate and decaying. One recalls the psalmist's 
 image, " Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law 
 of the Lord : he shall be like a tree planted by the 
 rivers ; " and the prophet's similar strain, " Blessed the 
 man who trusteth in Jehovah ; he shall be as a tree 
 planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her 
 roots by the river ; " and the reviving promise which 
 another prophet utters, " I will be as the dew unto 
 Israel ; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his 
 roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his 
 beauty shall be as the olive tree." Indeed, the view of 
 these clusters of young pines, many of them small and 
 tender, while beautifully green and upshooting toward 
 the sky, may well remind us of the assurance, " They 
 that are planted in the house of Jehovah shall flourish 
 in the courts of our God ; " for more truly may one say 
 of these, than the patriarch of the stones which were 
 his pillow, This is none other but the House of God. 
 As our Divine teacher said of the lilies, " Solomon was 
 not arrayed like one of these," so we may affirm of this 
 
FALLS OF THE GIESSBACH . 33 
 
 vast fane amidst the mountains, whose walls are massy 
 rocks, whose roof the dark blue sky, whose choir the 
 far resounding waters — verily, the temple of Solomon 
 in all its splendour was not adorned like these monu- 
 ments of Him from whom all glory comes. The plants 
 which His creative hand has planted here, do not 
 depend on variable and flitting raindrops, but are ever- 
 watered from the spray of the unfailing torrent close to 
 which they spring, and whence they gather verdure ; 
 so that each may seem to say rejoicingly, "lama green 
 fir-tree," and the voice of the cataract to respond, 
 " From me is thy fruit found." 
 
 So should we ever and fervently implore, that we 
 and each of ours may be planted, and transplanted 
 spiritually, closer and yet closer to the Fountain of life ; 
 not dependent (so to speak) on the casual showers, or 
 empty shining vapours, or errant waterless clouds l of 
 worldly wisdom, but bedewed and fertilized by the 
 perennial source. He whose voice is " as the voice of 
 many waters," evermore reminds us, " From Me is thy 
 fruit found; " and, "Herein is my Father glorified, that 
 ye bear much fruit." May we in true and happy 
 humility acknowledge the claim, and seek, by growing 
 in every grace, to fulfil, according to our little strength, 
 the sacred obligation. 
 
 But yonder fallen and prostrate pines utter their 
 
 1 i/e<p4\aL duvdpoi. 
 D 
 
34 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 lessons also. This was a straight, bright, verdant 
 sapling once ; but slow decay mined at the root, or a 
 sudden flash smote and rent it, or it bent to the 
 tempest, and because not firmly enough rooted on the 
 rock, fell suddenly, even in its prime, and lies a hope- 
 less ruin. Others, too, of sounder strength and deeper 
 root, which withstood the Alpine blasts of centuries, 
 at length, from mere old age, have dropt under their 
 snowy burden ; and " if the tree fall toward the south, 
 or toward the north, in the place where the tree 
 falleth there it shall be." "Who, even in blooming 
 youth, or vigorous manhood, still more in drooping age, 
 ought not to read a pensive memento in those falls ? 
 
 But still, the overthrow of these giants of the forest- 
 is not the true image of the Christian's closing day ; 
 rather, in some sense, a contrast to it ; typifying much 
 more aptly the fall of those, who have rejected the 
 counsel and the promise of Jehovah. So, indeed, an 
 inspired pen has employed the figure. " I have seen the 
 wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a 
 green bay-tree ; yet he passed away, and lo, he was not : 
 yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." Let 
 us seek the emblem of the believer's departure in the 
 waterfall itself, descending to the unruffled lake, its 
 troubled waters still sparkling in the sunset, then ming- 
 ling with the calm expanse, there first and thenceforth 
 to reflect the glorious mountains and the roseate sky. 
 
FALLS OF THE GIESSBACH. 35 
 
 So be it our supplication and our trust that millions 
 of the petty rivulets of our brief mortality, purified 
 and illumined by the Sun of righteousness, as they 
 sink tremblingly into the glassy deep, may rise as 
 bright waves in that multitudinous ocean which 
 gladdens the immortal shore. 
 
 There is a circumstance connected with these falls 
 of the Giessbach, which though foreign to their natural 
 scenery — only superadded at certain times by art — 
 yet seems adapted to suggest Christian and instructive 
 thoughts. 
 
 It is the custom on stated evenings (or on others by 
 express request) to illuminate the waterfalls. Brightly 
 coloured lamps are conveyed to the different points of 
 close access, even those highest up in the forest, the 
 brilliant light of which is thus reflected in the several 
 cascades. Especially at that point already mentioned, 
 where, under a canopy of rock, the spectator stood 
 behind the torrent, powerful red lights are placed, to 
 illuminate that part of it with a crimson glow. These 
 coloured lights are also changed \ in order, by different 
 hues, to vary the effect ; which is no doubt singular 
 and beautiful. 
 
 It is, however, not only very transient, but, by its 
 
 artificial character, seems discordant with the scene. 
 
 One feels it almost an affront, or at the best a triviality, 
 
 to attempt the decoration of what is worthy only to be 
 
 d2 
 
36 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 illumined by the quivering moon-beams, or by the 
 flashes of the storm. 
 
 Such an employ of art brings to mind our great 
 poet's words — 
 
 r< To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, 
 To throw a perfume on the violet, 
 To smoothe the ice, or add another hue 
 Unto the rainbow." 
 
 It must impress also afresh on the thoughtful ob- 
 server that familiar truth — how petty and transitory 
 are the gaudy shows, and even most gorgeous pomps of 
 man's device, as compared with the perennial grandeur, 
 and sublime simplicity, of the works of God ! 
 
 It were well besides if it should more indirectly 
 suggest to some minds, how deceptive and dramatic are 
 the exhibitions of a costly religious ceremonial ; its 
 tapers and flambeaux ; its incense and orchestra ; its 
 intonings, vestments, and processions, as adornments 
 for the pure transparent majesty of heavenly truth and 
 heart-felt adoration. 
 
 While surprised and affected by the splendour of 
 such artificial displays, the most genuine taste in the 
 one case, the most genuine piety in the other, will 
 delight to return to the unembellished beauty which is 
 permanent and real. 
 
 I hazard .one other suggestion, in connexion with 
 that vanishing illumination. A great prophet, whose 
 
FALLS OF THE GIESSBACH. 37 
 
 words were austere and not imaginative, did not hesitate 
 to set forth the grand judicial act of God under a very 
 homely figure drawn from the rural arts of man. a His 
 fan is in His hand, and He will throughly cleanse His 
 floor, and will gather the wheat into the garner/' So 
 need not we scruple to let the crimson brightness which 
 art has shed across the cataract, be suggestive of that 
 wonder which so transcends both art and nature, the 
 outpouring of that priceless stream which flowed upon 
 the awful mount ; which tinges with its sacred glow 
 " the still waters " of Christian consolation, nay, the 
 most impetuous gush of Christian sorrows. That crim- 
 son stream, to the believer's eye, gleams like a bow of 
 promise over all the effluence of spiritual supplies • 
 and sometimes, if but transiently and fitfully, yet 
 gloriously, amidst the gloom and terror of the final 
 storm. Like the peaks of an Alpine range, it brightens 
 at the sunsetting, and sheds abroad its ruddy light 
 while heart and flesh are failing. It bids the worn 
 pilgrim, sinking to his rest, still whisper, if with 
 faltering accents, " at evening time it is light." " Lord, 
 now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine 
 eyes have seen Thy salvation : which Thou hast prepared 
 before the face of all people, a light to lighten the 
 Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel." 
 
38 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE LAMPLIGHT OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 When the Psalmist wrote, " Thy word is a lamp unto 
 my feet, and a light unto my path," * and when Solo- 
 mon penned his proverb, " The commandment is a lamp, 
 and the law is light/' 2 each writer seems to have em- 
 ployed, in both clauses, the one simile of lamplight One 
 might indeed devise and affix a different meaning ; 
 namely, that the word "light," in each second clause, 
 refers to szmlight, and thus intimates that clearer and 
 growing illumination which may be expected from the 
 continued earnest study of Holy Scripture. That hope 
 is, indeed, quite just, and highly valuable ; but it does 
 not appear to be, in those passages, suggested. There 
 is no ground to believe that sunlight was intended. 
 
 The word rendered " light " is applied in the Hebrew 
 (as in English) to that of a lamp or candle, as well as of 
 the sun. Thus we read, " I will take from them the 
 voice of mirth, and the light of the candle (lamp) ; " 3 
 and Job tells of " the days when God preserved me, 
 
 1 Ps. cxix. 105. 2 Prov. vi. 23. 
 
 3 Jereni. xxv. 10 (13 Wl). 
 
THE LAMPLIGHT OF SCRIPTURE. 39 
 
 when His candle (or lamp) shined upon my head, and 
 by His light I walked through darkness/' l It is well 
 known, also, that the poetical parts of the Old Testa- 
 ment abound in what Dr. Lowth has termed " synony- 
 mous parallels ; " i. e. passages in which a second clause 
 repeats, with some variation of phrase, the meaning of 
 the former. The 114th Psalm, throughout, affords a 
 complete specimen of this. So the commencement of 
 Isaiah lx. " Arise, shine," &c. 
 
 There is an instance of such synonymous parallelism, 
 or duplication, in Job xviii. 5, 6, where the phrases 
 also happen further to illustrate that sense of the word 
 light, which has been supposed in the passages first- 
 named. 
 
 u The light of the wicked shall be put out, 
 And the spark of his fire shall not shine. 
 The ligkt shall be dark in his tent, 
 And his lamp shall be put out with him." 
 
 Here, as in the former passages, we have synonymous 
 parallels ; one clause speaking of the lamp with its light. 
 the other, of the light ivithin the lamp ; and in the 
 
 1 Job xxix. 3, more literally, "when He caused His lamp (ru) 
 to shine upon my head, and by His light ("ni«b) I traversed the 
 darkness." Dr. Mason Good supposes a reference to the mode 
 by which palaces were anciently illuminated, and quotes Lu- 
 cretius — 
 
 " Si non aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per cedes, 
 Lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris," &c. 
 
40 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 texts cited at the beginning, 1 that figure of lamplight, 
 while it obviously presents the general lesson that 
 God's Word is given and adapted to enlighten and 
 to guide us, will be found to involve some more specific 
 aspects of such admonition. If reflection may unfold 
 to us latent appositeness and wealth in a brief and 
 simple passage, this both argues the Divine origin 
 of the Book, and encourages investigation in order 
 diligently to sift its treasures. It is well if (to use 
 Luther's homely figure in his " Table Talk ") we can 
 shake a branch in the forest of Scripture, and find some 
 fruits among the leaves, which had as yet, at least by 
 us, been unobserved. 
 
 The figure now adverted to fully implies, and ought 
 impressively to remind us, that, without revealed 
 truth, we are, as it respects whatever should interest 
 us most, both in past and future events, and all 
 spiritual concernments, in a state of unrelieved dark- 
 ness. "What need of lamplight if we dwelt in s*mshine, 
 or even in the light of a cloudy day, or of a full and 
 brilliant moon % In darkness only*is lamplight requi- 
 site and useful. 
 
 jSow, that we are in this state of darkness, mentally 
 and spiritually — little as the thoughtless or the busy 
 may realise it — is but too sure. 
 
 Although, within a certain range, we possess a small 
 1 Ps. cxix. 105, and Pro v. vi. 23. 
 
THE LAMPLIGHT OF SCRIPTURE. 41 
 
 measure of intellectual daylight (perhaps it would be 
 more fitly called twilight, or moonlight), — beyond those 
 limits, and in the whole region of the spiritual, we are 
 at once confronted by utter night. The records of 
 secular antiquity, our personal consciousness, and the 
 confessions or avowals of modern unbelievers, agree 
 and combine to show that it is thus : — except so far as 
 the Word of God may enlighten us. 
 
 What, for example, without that Word, could we 
 know of man s and of our own real origin ? Absolutely 
 nothing ; while daily liable to have palmed on us 
 fables and imaginations that are worse than nothing ; 
 the theories or chimeras of those who teach, that our 
 species — this aspiring humankind — is but a slow de- 
 velopment of transmutations, in the lapse of countless 
 ages, from the very meanest of organised forms ; and 
 that the highest intellect, instead of being "given by 
 the inspiration of the Almighty/' sprang merely from 
 subtle agencies of matter. 
 
 What, either, without the Lamp of God, do we 
 know concerning man's futurity % — whether he shall 
 have a conscious life after death, or whether his sorely 
 humiliating and repulsive dissolution shall be, like that 
 of the lowest forms of vitality from which they con- 
 jecture that his own arose, the entire destruction of 
 conscious existence. And if perchance he be to " live 
 again/' what know we, apart from the light of God's 
 
42 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 Word, as to whether that new life shall he better, more 
 exalted, more felicitous, than this — or whether it shall 
 not, on the contrary, involve degradation and suffering ] 
 
 Again, with respect to that weightiest of all inquiries, 
 the character and will of the First Cause, or Supreme 
 Intelligence ; let it be granted that we may learn, from 
 all in earth or heaven, much of unbounded power and 
 wisdom, and even of Divine goodness ; still, amidst so 
 many terrific marks and tokens of severity, such wide 
 and inflexible general laws, such aboundings of moral 
 and penal evil, what in nature could assure us that the 
 Deity would be favourable and gracious to ourselves ? 
 Taught by an inward witness, and sometimes by the 
 judgment and reproof of our fellow-men, that we have 
 often transgressed the laws written in the heart, how do 
 we ascertain that those laws will not necessarily have 
 their rigorous issues, their grievous irremediable results ] 
 
 Here is a spiritual " darkness that may be felt ; " 
 which no natural and external radiance, no inward 
 beam of genius, no lights of secular history nor ancient 
 wisdom of this world, no growth and splendour of 
 modern science, have at all dispelled. It is dense 
 alike between the tropics and at the poles ; in the 
 highest stages of refinement as in the lowest grades of 
 barbarism. 
 
 Have we no need then of the " lamplight" of God? — 
 
 The figure appears specially appropriate to remind 
 
THE LAMPLIGHT OF SCRIPTURE. 43 
 
 us, that while the light of Scriptural revelation is a 
 directive and sufficing light, it is yet very partial and 
 limited; and this aspect of the comparison may, Ave 
 think, be fairly illustrated, by supposing the lamp to 
 be used in that situation where lamps are above all 
 and at all hours requisite ; that is, in a cave or cavern. 
 And in truth, even as to bodily position — though we 
 are, through a great portion of our time, in .sunlight — 
 where are we in reality but in the cave of boundless 
 space, rolling with the little orb we dwell upon, through 
 a circuit comparatively narrow, amidst the illimitable 
 cave's mysterious immensity ? The sun, which makes 
 daylight in our portion of the cave and around our 
 horizon, what is it but what poets have named it, the 
 great lamp of day ] and what the moon but the lesser 
 lamp of night 1 Thns, indeed, we almost literally read 
 in the first book of Scripture, " God made two great 
 Ugltt-bearers or luminaries; 3 '' 1 which is the very office 
 and description of a lamp. And when both those 
 light-bearers or luminaries are hidden from our view, 
 then is the vast cave or concave wholly dark ; veiled 
 ofttimes by a canopy of vapour, adorned at other times 
 witli a display of twinkling stars, which indeed richly 
 decorate, yet most faintly illumine, its unmeasured 
 abysses. 
 
 1 Genesis i. 14 — 16. The same Hebrew word is used for a 
 lamp ("oil for the light/' or lamp), Exod. xxv. 6; Xumb. iv. 16. 
 
44 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 While thus our present earthly condition is really that 
 of travellers in an obscure immeasurable cavern, whose 
 heights and depths not even telescopic power can reach, 
 — so may our spiritual state be not less aptly described 
 as that of pilgrims through a dark and lofty cave, whose 
 far-reaching recesses no mental vision can explore. 
 But a cave which is within the earth, and which has 
 solid boundaries, is a more distinct and definite object 
 to our imagination than the unbounded concave of the 
 visible heavens. We have such caves, and some of no 
 small dimensions, in our own island. But one of far vaster 
 extent is found in Xorth America — the great Kentucky 
 cavern — where travellers with their guides, provided 
 with lamps or torches, advance for miles in a dark 
 hollow subterranean region. ISTo doubt in every such 
 case the lamp casts some beams upward toward the 
 highest elevations of the rocky roof, as well as down- 
 ward on the rugged path, with its windings, and 
 sideways also on the bordering hazards or obstructions. 
 But the upward beams have their chief utility as 
 showing certain marks, 1 traced or traceable on the 
 nearer walls or lower arches of the cave, to prevent 
 perilous errors or wanderings ; not so much, nay, 
 scarcely at all, in illuminating those remoter and 
 hidden distances in which a faint light must be wholly 
 
 1 Arrow marks were found everywhere (as indicators) in the 
 Catacombs of Paris; which are now closed. 
 
THE LAMPLIGHT OF SCRIPTURE. 45 
 
 ineffectual The traveller in such a scene does not 
 expect to discern clearly the concave above his path, 
 nor the course and depths of the torrents which may 
 rush on either hand. 
 
 So the spiritual pilgrim, though furnished with, the 
 invaluable lamp of God's Holy Word, can no way ex- 
 pect the whole sphere of truth, above and beneath and 
 around him, to be rendered by it discernible and lumi- 
 nous ) to discover and penetrate by this lamplight 
 "the secret things which belong unto God." The 
 questions of Zophar may suffice to rebuke such a desire, 
 " The height of heaven — how canst thou know 1 The 
 depth below the grave — how canst thou understand T 1 
 The explorer must be content to discern those promi- 
 nences or way -marks, above and around, which will best 
 help to direct and preserve him in the narrow but 
 more fully enlightened path before him, or to reclaim 
 him from erring steps when he has begun to go astray. 
 If the great transatlantic caverns, or even the much 
 lesser caves of our own land, have dark heights and 
 hollow nooks or chasms which no lamp can illuminate, 
 why should we wonder or despond because Scripture 
 casts no full light on the mysteries of God's spiritual 
 universe and sublime administration] It is not said, 
 " Thy Word is a lamp" to gratify prying or perplexed 
 
 1 Job xi. 8. Mason Good's version. 
 
46 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 or ambitious curiosity, but " Thy Word is a lamp to my 
 feet, and a light to my path/' 
 
 Further, — We may be reminded from the figure thus 
 employed, that scriptural light (made availing by Divine 
 influence, " enlightening the eyes ") is abundantly more 
 adapted, in hind, to our spiritual position and necessi- 
 ties, than any merely natural light of reason or con- 
 science alone. 
 
 This, indeed, may seem little more than to speak, in 
 another form, of that spiritual darkness never dispelled 
 by worldly wisdom, which was treated of before. But 
 still, the supposition lately dwelt on — that of darkness 
 within a cave — may render the need of a different kind 
 of light more evident. 
 
 Persons who are brought — by their fault, or their 
 calamity, or their calling — to sojourn in caves, mines, 
 or tunnels, have found that mere daylight cannot suffice 
 in the situation where they are. The scanty rays of 
 pale dim day, even at noon, which can descend through 
 the crevices and fissures of the roof, or at the chief 
 entrances, or by wdiat are called shafts in the tunnel, 
 are of the wrong sort to disperse or overcome the local 
 shade. 
 
 They want that concentrated /relight which we call 
 artificial, but which is as really Gods light as His sun- 
 beams are : created and sustained by Him, although 
 often instrumentally kindled or elicited by man ; that 
 
THE LAMPLIGHT OF SCRIPTURE. 47 
 
 light which is darted in the tempest flash, and stored 
 in the volcanic crater, but which is also treasured in 
 the flinty rock, and in the combustible relics of primeval 
 forests, whose products kindle our tapers, and enlighten 
 and warm our hearths. 
 
 So the spiritual pilgrim of the cave cannot be cheered 
 or guided by those cold beams of sunless day which 
 may find entrance there — the chill and wavering lights 
 of " the wise and disputers of this world ;" he needs 
 and he welcomes the sacred lamp of Scripture, with its 
 warm and vital flame, quickened by gracious inbreath- 
 ings from that Holy Spirit who wakened it at first, and 
 can reanimate it when it falters. 
 
 And we may add — for it seems right to accept and 
 use those developments and enhancements of the origi- 
 nal which our own age affords — that, in these latter 
 times, the fixed and uninterrupted ministration of 
 scriptural truth — the stated opportunities for its public 
 exposition and for peaceful meditation on it — may be 
 compared to stationary lamps set up at intervals in the 
 dark path, where, by many jets shedding forth their 
 united flame, the light and warmth of scriptural in- 
 struction are at once concentrated and diffused. May 
 we be grateful, both for the portable, and for the public 
 and stationary lamplight, of the word of grace. 
 
 Again, — it seems peculiarly important, in our day, 
 to consider that the light of revelation, like lamp- 
 
48 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 light, is only then secure when it is inclosed in its 
 proper vehicle. True, the lights sheltered within the 
 tabernacle or temple may have burned unchanged and 
 steadily, without such a preservative ; but the light 
 borne by the traveller requires to be screened and pre- 
 served by glass or horn, vellum or paper. We have 
 learned, probably from the ingenious Chinese, to use 
 sometimes the last-named substance. The play on words 
 here may seem quaint or childish ; but it at least serves 
 to suggest and recall the obvious but very weighty fact, 
 that only by parchments or papers could the light of 
 Divine truth be securely guarded, and transmitted from 
 age to age. These lamps for the light, these vehicles 
 and defences for the precious truth, have happily been 
 multiplied and cheapened exceedingly. If the sacred 
 light had not been thus guarded, but carried only in the 
 minds and lips of men, how certain are we from expe- 
 rience that it would have been tossed and blown about 
 by "every wind of doctrine," or so dimmed by the 
 damps and vapours of the cavern as to lose both its 
 steadfastness and lustre, thus becoming, if not wholly 
 extinct, at best a variable and smoky flame, unavailing 
 to save the pilgrim from false perilous steps 1 Yet we 
 have those around us who affirm that this lamplight of 
 Scripture cannot suffice to guide our feet without the 
 added tapers of tradition ; or, perhaps it should be 
 rather said, who pronounce it quite needful to inclose 
 
THE LAMPLIGHT OF SCRIPTURE. 49 
 
 the Scripture lamp itself, and make it safe by the encir- 
 cling stained glass of patristic and mediaeval learning. 
 But by this, however tasteful or venerable, or effective 
 and rich in tints, we have seen that the pure and 
 simple light of God's Word may be at once deceptively 
 coloured and hurtfully obscured. We see meanwhile 
 that the grand Papal lantern, with its far more gorgeous 
 envelopments and appendages, utterly scorns and strik- 
 ingly outglitters each partial imitation. 
 
 We decline those showy and competitive safeguards 
 for the light of God's truth, and hold fast the primitive 
 lamp of Scripture (which we deem the true spiritual 
 safety-lamp) as our surer and unchanging guide. 
 
 Yet let it be well pondered, — That this holy lamp 
 itself, in order to afford real guidance, must be rightly 
 held and used — applied, with a sincere and serious aim, 
 to our personal direction. If the pilgrim in a cavern 
 carelessly or proudly carry his lamp behind him, or be- 
 neath his cloak, or even, at certain dangerous passes or 
 doubtful turnings, omit to lift it up or move it from 
 side to side that he may descry what is around, or if 
 he do not very attentively point it to shine before his 
 feet and be a lamp to his path, it is manifest that the 
 light cannot be to him, then and so far, of practical use 
 and service. 
 
 The writer once visited, in an Irish town (Xenagh), 
 an aged Eoman Catholic, who produced to him a Bible ; 
 
 E 
 
50 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 but from so very high a shelf, and so encased in unshaken 
 dust, that, too obviously, the "lanip" had been treated 
 as though it had no light to yield. We fear the Bibles 
 of not a few Protestants might tell a similar tale. 
 
 It is true we have known happy Christians, often 
 lowly and distressed, who bore very much of God's 
 Word engraven in their memories and their hearts, and 
 might be thus said in some sense to carry the " lamp- 
 light" within them. This, however, implies much pre- 
 vious earnest study of the written * word ; and even 
 then, few comparatively can so hold its contents in 
 remembrance as to be greatly independent of its pre- 
 sent aid. Unless we revolve its real import, and with 
 close self-application, we neglect the light which God 
 has given ; and if it be presumptuous not to prize and 
 use, still more to cast away and reject it. 
 
 The holy " lamp" which scorners affect to despise, 
 refusing to look on the perfection and bliss which it 
 reveals, yet gives, in spite of them, some glimpses to 
 themselves of an " outer darkness" and a lurid flame ; 
 and the half-stifled whispers of conscience respond to 
 those funereal visions. If it was unhappy, even in the 
 ages before Christ's coming, to reject the fainter lamp- 
 light of revealed truth, as those did wlio asked, " How 
 doth God know ? and is there knowledge in the Most 
 High?" much more now, when the "light" has so 
 grown in brightness, when the "lamp" is so enlarged, 
 
THE LAMPLIGHT OF SCRIPTURE. 51 
 
 when the rejection involves contempt of that Divine 
 Enlightener who " was manifest in the flesh/' We are 
 to remember that the whole written word is but the 
 efflux and utterance of that eternal, living, and creative 
 Word, whose advent is its most marvellous and leading 
 topic, first as an event foretold, then as a fact recorded. 
 The lamplight of Scripture is but the reflected exhibi- 
 tion to our faith of this " great mystery of godliness ;" 
 while the manifestation of the Eternal Word is the 
 original and essential " Brightness. " If we give not 
 our allegiance and devotion to Him, we reject the All- 
 glorious and All-gracious, the Divine Forerunner, who 
 for our sakes traversed all the dark cave of mortality 
 and suffering. While if we are His, and abide in Him, 
 His spiritual presence, even feebly realised by faith, 
 casts a gleam of heaven's radiance through the dubious 
 and sometimes dreary way. 
 
 It is, however, an affecting and awful thought, — 
 That ere we can emerge and issue from the cave, a 
 solemn and lonely transit awaits us all. Caverns often 
 have in them dark-flowing rivers. In that of the Peak 
 in Derbyshire, the traveller is ferried over a narrow 
 brook. In the Speedwell mine, of the same county, 
 there is a lengthened stream to navigate, and a waterfall 
 beyond. 
 
 Well do we know, but often too faintly realise, that 
 at the end of our spirit's pilgrimage rolls the chill dark 
 e 2 
 
52 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 river, into which each must plunge alone — no fancied 
 bark of mythology can waft us over. The sceptic Hume 
 could, even in his last hours, jestingly allude to that 
 classic fable ; but while he put on smiles amidst the 
 negation of hope, the rude stern wave swept off the 
 doubter, his tongue grew mute, and the hand, whose 
 keen pen had laboured to blot or cancel the best hopes 
 of others, became cold and powerless. It could not 
 reveal one secret of the whelming torrent, or of the 
 eternal shore. 
 
 Some of us, too, are near the brink. Soon we must 
 be immersed in the chilling, lonely stream ; but if our 
 great Leader awaits us, we need not hopelessly shudder 
 at its touch, since He, the meek but heroic Cross-bearer, 
 faced all its waves for us, and meets us there as the 
 Lamp-bearer of immortality, holding " the seven stars 
 in His right hand." 
 
 He greets those who have been planted in the like- 
 ness of His death, and shall clothe them, after their 
 ascent from the gloomy stream, in the white raiment of 
 their risen Lord. 
 
 ( )r what if (as some devout men expect) this Lord 
 and Deliverer shall suddenly — even before some of us 
 cross the stream of death — appear in His new majestic 
 Advent ] What if the hour be at hand when He shall 
 shake the vast concave of these solar heavens with the 
 shout of His angelic retinue? What if some of the young 
 
THE LAMPLIGHT OF SCRIPTURE. 53 
 
 shall "not sleep," but, being miraculously "changed," 
 shall enter, without passing the dark flood, into His 
 immediate presence 1 
 
 The mere possibility of this forms but a further 
 argument for holding the lamp of heavenly truth with 
 firmer grasp ; for having " our loins girded and our 
 lamps burning;" for being always in posture and in 
 spirit as those who wait for their Lord. 
 
 In any case, even if we sometimes walk tremblingly, 
 or are " ready to halt," although clasping that lamp of 
 God's truth whose light is so precious, still let us 
 patiently and confidingly wait for a celestial sunlight ; 
 nay, for far more than sunlight, since prophecy has 
 taught us, " The sun shall be no more thy light by day, 
 but Jehovah shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and 
 thy God thy glory." And the concluding lines of the 
 latest revelation confirm that cheering prediction : "I 
 saw." writes the beloved disciple, "the city had no need 
 of the sun, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the 
 Lamb is the light thereof;" and "they shall see His 
 face " — " and there shall be no night there." 
 
 One sun, as was remarked before, is the great "Light- 
 bearer " in this expanse of heaven. But, as the devout 
 Ken sings in a midnight hymn — 
 
 " The sun at his meridian height, 
 Is very darkness in Thy sight ; " 
 
 and as Augustine said long before, " Compared with 
 
54 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 that supreme brightness, it must not be called light, but 
 night." 
 
 How infinitely superior the unchanging glory of that 
 Divine Enlightener, in whom "is no darkness at all ! " 
 Darknes8, and woe, and death, must shrink and fly 
 away before the uncreated effulgence ; and, awful 
 though it be, it can be no scorching, blinding, insuffer- 
 able light, for it is the smile of loving-kindness from 
 the Most Holy and Most High, who is love as well as 
 light, who " telleth the number of the stars, but who 
 healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their 
 wounds." 
 
 How can we, who are still treading the dangerous 
 road through this terrestrial cavern, conceive of that 
 ascending and unending path which the Saviour's glory 
 illuminates, beaming forth goodness, purity, and joy, on 
 the redeemed multitude, whom none can number ! 
 
 If we have thought of this, if we have expected this, 
 is it not with thoughts too languid, with faith too 
 wavering ? We have not, indeed, cast away, nor wholly 
 neglected, the lamp of God ; yet have Ave not too often 
 compassed ourselves with sparks of our own, or of some 
 frail fellow-mortal's kindling, and so almost forgotten 
 for a season the changeless lamp of truth which only 
 God can preserve in brightness to us ? 
 
 AVe should watch against preferences for the sparks 
 of earthly fancy, which may war with our supreme love 
 
THE LAMPLIGHT OF SCRIPTURE. 55 
 
 and reverence for the light from heaven. Meantime, 
 let us not despond at the defects of faith, or the 
 feebleness of hope. 
 
 He who causes the minute orb of the human eye to 
 reflect an immeasurable hemisphere, and discern worlds 
 whose distances no astronomer has measured, can as- 
 suredly cause one ray from His lamp of Scripture to 
 open visions of that beatific light which emanates from 
 His throne. He has power to bring the weak and 
 weary into more close Divine communion with "the 
 Lord God Almighty and the Lamb," so that we may 
 exult in having passed out of darkness into the glowing 
 lustre of the Infinite, and feel that while His Word was 
 " a lamp to our feet/' His paternal and immediate pre- 
 sence sheds a bright fervour which no created luminary 
 ever vied with, and bestows joys that transcend a 
 seraph's thought. 
 
56 
 
 V. 
 
 "PEARL S." 
 
 The figure used by our Divine Teacher, where human 
 passions and pursuits are typified by the merchant seek- 
 ing goodly pearls, has in it a more far-reaching aptness 
 than may at first be obvious. The phrases are more 
 widely allusive than they appear to be. The figure, no 
 doubt, is specially oriental ; yet it suits all places and 
 all time. All, even of the highest ranks, are in a 
 certain sense merchants, however some may resent the 
 application of the term to themselves. If there be 
 ground for the demarcation, conventional in our land, 
 that a merchant is only he who sells or barters things 
 material and tangible, even this line includes some who 
 would shrink from it. Some of our nobles sell their 
 own lead, copper, or coals. But besides this, it may be 
 affirmed that the soldier, the " wrangler,'' the law stu- 
 dent, the author, all exchange, as truly as the peasant, 
 their best possessions — health, time, strength, skill — 
 for advancement and honour, if not for emolument. 
 And they may be fairly said to be "in quest of pearls." 
 
 For pearls, like other jewels, are emblems and tokens 
 of wealth, honour, luxury. He, whose chief aim is to 
 
PEARLS. 57 
 
 be rich, would prefer to exchange his gold for fine 
 pearls, if the investment were as good for its safe and 
 negotiable character, as it is for its very small bulk. 
 The persecuted and itinerant Hebrew finds it, for him, 
 the most secure, as being most easy to hide and to 
 transport. He, on the other hand, who delights " to 
 covet honour," may be fairly said, in metaphor, to seek 
 "fine pearls ; " for the fine pearl is a chosen symbol of 
 rank, and even of royalty, decorating the coronet and 
 crown. And he who competes for learning and its 
 successes, seeks the finest pearl the world can give ; 
 not, perhaps, the largest or of the most golden tinge, 
 but like the "wondrous" one (belonging to the Prince 
 of Mascate); which old Tavernier describes as " the 
 most marvellous in the world, so clear and transparent 
 that you might almost see through it." 1 The classes 
 who are devoted to pleasures and display may be said, 
 also, to intend the quest of pearls, though with less 
 of toil, except so far as the Latin poet's adage may be 
 true — "pleasure itself is labour." Allurement and 
 glitter invite them, but their pearls are like those 
 which the same merchant calls — "fit for little else 
 than to powder." 2 
 
 In these pursuits, they who are eagerly zealous 
 may be likened to the pearl-divers of Ceylon, or of 
 the Persian Gulf \ resembling them by a sort of self- 
 1 Tavernier's Travels iu India, b. II. c. xvii. p. 145. 2 lb. p. 147. 
 
58 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 baptism in the sea of worldly life, diving for its gains, 
 some of accumulation, some of decoration, some of re- 
 search, some of sumptuousness ; and, sometimes, like 
 them in being quite breathless, amidst and after their 
 efforts. 
 
 Many, indeed, can hardly be said to seek pearls, but 
 dive more childishly — perhaps not less earnestly — for 
 coral, or shining pebble. But one passion, frequently, 
 does not exclude another. Some dive, with various 
 aims, together, or at different times. Even Julius 
 Caesar, whose ruling passion was the love of victory 
 and of sway, combined with this the strong desire of 
 wealth and of ornamental luxury ; for we read that "he 
 .sought Britain (as a conquest) in the hope of pearls, 
 which he was wont to examine in his hand, comparing 
 their size and weight." 1 And on his return to Borne he 
 dedicated a breastplate, inlaid with British pearls, in 
 the temple of Venus, as the first-fruits of his pearl- 
 harvest. The pearls were little idols of his own 
 covetousness, and baits to stimulate the cupidity of 
 Borne. The great idol, too, seemed rightly chosen by 
 one of the most licentious, as well as ambitious, of 
 rulers. The effects of such passions and efforts are 
 often more fatal than those which attend the labour 
 of the pearl-diver. This latter is, indeed, violently 
 exhausted for a time by his task ; but the votaries 
 1 Sue ton. 
 
PEARLS. 59 
 
 of ambition, covetousness, and dissipation, or even of 
 excess in study, are often more lastingly unnerved and 
 overthrown. 
 
 It may be said, your comparison, however, is faulty ; 
 for the merchant is not the diver. But, then, the 
 merchant's tasks, though they may not so exhaust bodily 
 strength, involve mental cares not less severe and 
 hurtful. So, they who seek the pearls of riches, 
 honours, fashion, luxury, engage their divers too. 
 Man}' are laboriously ministering, often with great 
 hardship, to their several acquisitions ; but it may well 
 be doubted whether any of these have toiled or been 
 harmed and worn out in the pursuit, more than some 
 of themselves. 
 
 It remains that we contemplate the case of him, who 
 having sought the " goodly pearls " of this world, 
 perhaps, as eagerly as any one, has unexpectedly found 
 (not on the same world-haunted sea or coast 1 ) "one pearl 
 of great price. " His steps were graciously directed and 
 
 1 The bay of Condatchy in the pearl-fishing season seems 
 a fit image of the world's conflict and hurry. " Thousands of 
 people of different colours, castes, occupations ; the tents ; the 
 bazaars; the multitude of boats; the anxiety of their owners; 
 the many jewellers and merchants; the unloading of oysters; 
 the oyster lotteries; the conjurers who attend the divers; the 
 penances inflicted; the jugglers, snake-catchers, and fakeers, 
 whose real by-work and aim is to pilfer the traders and filch 
 pearls " — altogether form a spectacle which is a miniature of the 
 
60 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 sustained, up steep and rugged heights ; and there, as 
 in a deep lake on the mountains, l the precious pearl 
 was discovered. The lover and slave of this world, if 
 his heart be touched, and his foot led upward, finds, 
 in the upper springs, the pearl of heavenly truth and 
 grace. 
 
 The pearl is specially and variously suitable as an 
 emblem of the Gospel treasure. It has a splendour 
 which, however rich and bright, is mild and serene. 
 
 It also is the customary possession and gift of 
 sovereigns, adorning the sceptre ; dropping, as it were, 
 from it to the favoured subject's hand. 
 
 At the risk of a quaintness or " concetto," I add, 
 the pearl is a singular emblem of God's grace to the 
 fallen, inasmuch as its beauty and costliness arise out 
 of a condition of disease. It is an instance how the 
 author of nature many ways brings or elicits the 
 beautiful and pure, from the very midst of disorder, 
 decay, and death. 2 
 
 grasping, fraudulent world ; while the sharks that often seize 
 the divers, are a type of the too frequently ruinous conclusion. 
 See Percival's Ceylon, pp. 59-70. 
 
 1 Such as are the lakes of the Pyrenees. 
 
 2 The pearl is held to arise from a malady of the oyster. And 
 afterwards, as to the repulsive heaps of decaying oysters at Con- 
 datchy, see ibid. " The shore (says Sir J. E. Tennent) is 
 raised many feet by enormous mounds of shells, the accumu- 
 lations of ages, the millions of oysters, robbed of their pearls, 
 
PEARLS. 61 
 
 It is an emblem likewise, by its portableness. The 
 divers sometimes swallow pearls in order to conceal- 
 ment ; the Egyptian queen is said to have dissolved 
 them in a luxurious beverage. 1 So the pearl of great 
 price (with a happy contrast of motives) is received 
 into the soul, and borne, as it were, from the shores of 
 time to be the aliment of heaven. Dr. South (among 
 not a few ignoble and bitter sayings) has said well 
 and nobly, " The pleasure of the religious is an easy 
 and portable pleasure, such an one as he carries in his 
 bosom, without alarming the eye or envy of the w 7 orld ; 
 a man putting all his pleasures into this one is like a 
 traveller's putting all his goods into one jewel." 
 
 When we reflect that pearls and gems are of no use 
 but as ornaments (differing thus from the costly metals 
 which serve to make commodious and durable utensils), 
 it seems strange that, amidst the advance of civilisation 
 and intelligence, their actual prices should continue so 
 vast. True, their peculiar beauty and durability are 
 undiminished, and besides being apparent to our eyes 
 and experience, seem fully recognised in that Apocalypse 
 which expatiates on them, in all their splendid variety, 
 
 having been year after year flung into heaps, that extend for 
 many miles." — Ceylon, vol. ii. p. 560. 
 
 1 " Diminutive pearls, from a lake in Coylon, are exported to 
 India, to be calcined for lime, which the natives affect to chew 
 with their betel." — Ibid. vol. ii. p. 492. 
 
02 christian emblems. 
 
 as ornaments of the heavenly city. Yet only the per- 
 manence of human pride and selfishness, — still seeking 
 that which, because so rare as well as beautiful, is pro- 
 curable but by a very few, — can fully explain their price. 
 If those feelings did not rule, the knowledge that pearls 
 come from creatures of a very low grade, 1 and that 
 diamonds under strong heat vanish into gas, one would 
 think must lower their value. If, indeed, jewels could 
 operate (in proportion to their size and brilliance) as 
 amulets were once thought to do, one might well 
 imagine their exorbitant prices ; but what wearer does 
 not feel that the richest pearl cannot soothe an aching 
 brow, and that the Koh-i-Xoor itself could not lull 
 the bosom wrung by injustice, wounded by regret, or 
 stung by self-reproach. 
 
 We may well speak of the worth of such things as 
 ideal ; — more truly as fantastic, or fallacious. But the 
 pearl of great price is at once sublimely ideal (ema- 
 nating from the Divine mind), and also real, because 
 spiritual ; giving peace and hope, and deep gladness, to 
 the spirit of man within him. 
 
 The "very costly pearl" is also an emblem, though 
 a very faint one, of God's grace in Christ Jesus, on 
 account of the immense actual cost of that unspeakable 
 
 i Not really oysters : the shell-fish producing pearls is habit- 
 ually so called, but is of another genus. See Tennent, vol. ii. 
 p. 5G0, note. 
 
PEARLS. 63 
 
 gift ; a free gift, yet purchased, not with silver or gold, 
 or any corruptible thing, but with the marvellous and 
 priceless oblation. 
 
 True, the "merchant" is spoken of as having 
 " bought " his pearl. So is the Christian, in the sense 
 of reckoning all things inconsiderable, compared with 
 its acquisition ; but, therefore, not as a price or equiva- 
 lent. Indeed, the pearl could not be Heaven, could 
 not be Christ, if a sinful and weak man could, in the 
 proper sense, buy it. But yet he may be, nay, must be, 
 ready to give all he has, in testimony of the value he 
 sets on this free gift of God. 
 
 It behoves every Christian to reflect deeply and 
 practically, with what temper and purpose this royal 
 and celestial gift should be received and appropriated. 
 There should be, as was said before, a readiness at 
 God's call to give up all else for it. The merchant is 
 represented as selling " all that he had," all his pearls 
 therefore — 
 
 " Nature must count her gold but dross, 
 If she would gain the heavenly land." 
 
 But we are prone — and I suppose conscious, more or 
 less, of the proneness — to have reservations. In 
 ordinary cases, it seems the Christian may rightly 
 retain possession of many comforts ; but let him 
 possess as though he possessed not, using them as 
 loans or trusts. All are merchants, but the Christian's 
 
64 CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS. 
 
 merchandise is that of a steward. The pearls, be they 
 ever so small, or only jxnvder of pearl, are for his Lord's 
 use ; the pearl of great price, while most precious for 
 himself, is for his Lord's court and crown. He will 
 never part with it, but he feels, adoringly, whence it 
 came, by whom it was lent ; and he rejoices to solicit 
 his fellow-men to share in it; for the pearl beyond all 
 price is as if a magic pearl, of which we may say, 
 
 "Tis mine, yet yours, and will be joy to thousands." 
 
 Both for himself and them, he will strive to have it 
 placed in a fair and valuable setting ; — earnest that the 
 inestimable pearl of God's pardoning renovating grace, 
 may be surrounded by the genuine gold of practical 
 graces. 
 
 Are we professedly seeking this u pearl of great 
 price " ? Let us beware lest we overlook it, or accept 
 in lieu of it, its polished casket. "Mother of pearl" 
 (conchologists, and our own eyes, tell us) is " glossy 
 and iridescent ; " as such we may justly be pleased 
 with it ; but we sadly trifle if we fail to consider that 
 it is but the vehicle, not the pearl. 
 
 — Forbid that we should let slip Heaven's treasure, 
 by caring chiefly for the eloquence of some who offer 
 it ; and so — while the single-hearted grasp the pearl — 
 should miss and lose it; too preoccupied, and charmed it 
 may be, with "the convolutions of a smooth-lipp'd shell." 
 
METRICAL PEAYEES, AND SAGEED POEMS, 
 
 CHIEFLY TRANSLATED OR IMITATED FROM 
 FOREIGN WRITERS 
 
METRICAL PRAYERS. 
 
 MORNING. 
 
 " Heilige Dreyfaltigkeit" &c. 
 
 I. 
 THANKSGIVING. 
 
 Holy Lord, Triune Jehovah, in Thy blessed name I 
 
 rise, 
 Father, Son, and Spirit, sanction, with Thy grace, my 
 
 lowly sighs ! 
 Now the scatter' d shades are flown, and the beams of 
 
 morn I see, 
 Let my soul, with cheerful fervour, muse on all I owe 
 
 to Thee ! 
 Great First Cause of time and nature, Thou, my God, 
 
 art great alone ; 
 Thee this earth, and yon bright heavens, as their 
 
 glorious Monarch own. 
 f2 
 
68 METRICAL PRAYERS. 
 
 Light and darkness, hours and moments, silent eve and 
 
 glittering dawn, 
 Hast Thou, for our use ordaining, through their heavenly 
 
 circuits drawn. 
 Yet how soon these senses, gently seaFd amidst the 
 
 shadowy hour, 
 Might have sunk in death's chill slumber, seal'd by 
 
 that mysterious power. 
 Or how suddenly some dear one might from earth and 
 
 time have past ; 
 Or the bands of wrong and rapine midnight terrors 
 
 round me cast. 
 But Thyself, my Guardian, deignedst, still defence and 
 
 help to give : 9 
 
 Thou hast watch' d my tranquil dwelling, and hast bid 
 
 my dearest live ! 
 Yes \ that I am yet existing, is but, Lord, a loan from 
 
 Thee ; 
 Thou my days of life inscribest in Thy book of 
 
 destiny. 
 Therefore to Thy sovereign goodness I my feeble strain 
 
 will raise, 
 Oh ! Allwise, Alltrue, Almighty ! let my spirit speak 
 
 Thy praise ! 
 Praise to Thee for every bounty which the vanish'd 
 
 night conferred — 
 For Thy blessings, so responsive, to the prayers Thy 
 
 mercy heard. 
 
MORNING. THANKSGIVING. 69 
 
 Thou hast quiet rest secur'd me, safe and undisturb'd 
 
 by foes ; 
 By Thy help in health awaking, from my tranquil couch 
 
 I rose, 
 To behold Thy cheering sunlight, and my friends anew 
 
 to greet ; 
 All, Lord, is of Thy mercy, let my soul her thanks 
 
 repeat ! 
 While the darkness o'er me brooded, still Thy Spirit's 
 
 light was here j 
 Ne'er did Thy compassions leave me, when no human 
 
 help was near. 
 While unconsciousness enwrapp'd me, Thou didst all 
 
 my being guide ; 
 While in death's still semblance lying, Thou didst in 
 
 my breast reside. 
 Graciously by Thee protected, Satan's wiles in vain were 
 
 spread, 
 And the mischief of the wicked fell with shame upon 
 
 their head. 
 Xow this morning hour, devoutly, shall Thy benefits 
 
 record,. 
 And a thankful heart's oblation for Thy constant grace 
 
 afford ; 
 How through all life's fleeting changes, from Thy father- 
 hand benign, 
 Midst my conscious undeservings, prompt and full 
 supplies were mine. 
 
70 METRICAL PRAYERS. 
 
 How Thy power creative, rais'd me out of nothing's 
 
 blank abyss, 
 How Thy rescuing love re deem' d me from despair and 
 
 wrath to bliss : 
 How Thy renovating Spirit mov'd my faH'n perverted 
 
 will, 
 And to this day hath upborne me, though so prone to 
 
 error still. 
 All, yes all, is from Thy fulness, every good hath flow'd 
 
 from Thee : 
 Since I find with this new morning, all Thy gifts 
 
 renew'd to me. 
 Yea, myself, like new found being, life and health again 
 
 partake : 
 Lord, my all, a scanty offering, to Thy sovereign love I 
 
 make ! 
 Let me now, Lord, and for ever, Thee confess, and Thee 
 
 adore, 
 Love and praise, and highest worship, from my lips 
 
 and heart outpour ; 
 Soul, and life, and all within me, to Thy service 
 
 hallowed be, 
 Still to celebrate Thy goodness, here and in eternity. 
 
71 
 
 II. 
 
 PETITION. 
 
 Yes, my Lord, Thy welcome daylight shines around me 
 
 once again, 
 But Thou knowest each day's circuit brings its destin'd 
 
 care or pain ; 
 Knowest that I still am sinful, weak, necessitous, and 
 
 frail, 
 And the allotted share of sorrow, daily must my heart 
 
 assail. 
 Therefore, this day permit not Thy own grace to 
 
 disappear, 
 Cast me not from Thy blest presence, leave me not to 
 
 sin and fear ! 
 let not the foe of goodness, with fell might my soul 
 
 appal, 
 And with arts infernal urge me to a dire and fatal 
 
 fall. 
 Pardon that my heart hath yielded to ill thought or 
 
 passion base ; 
 Yain desires and dreams unholy let Thy light and love 
 
 efface ; 
 
72 METRICAL PRAYERS. 
 
 permit not, sovereign Saviour, that this clay which 
 
 beams on me 
 Should become the hapless season of a dark apostasy ! 
 That Thy priceless grace contemning, with a hard and 
 
 blinded heart, 
 
 1 should choose in awful exile from that grace and 
 
 heaven to part. 
 Lord, my conscience quite awaken, Thou who art the 
 
 light of men, 
 That no death-like sleep may seal it, while Thy day- 
 spring beams again. 
 Let me meditate no evil, nor in word or act o fiend, 
 Lest Thy wrath and sore destruction on my wayward 
 
 course attend. 
 Let the hour and power of darkness vanish like the 
 
 midnight gloom, 
 Let me ne'er Thy bounties idly or in selfish sloth 
 
 consume. 
 Never like a child of darkness may my soul Thy light 
 
 misuse, 
 Nor Thy gracious sunbeams aid me an unhallowed path 
 
 to choose. 
 Keckless error and disorder, deeds unchristian, words 
 
 untrue, 
 Put far from me ; and whatever Thou, my Lord, wilt 
 
 have me do, 
 Let me so commence and finish, that the circle of 
 
 this day 
 
MORNING. — PETITION. < 6 
 
 May not in my right vocation slothful negligence 
 
 betray. 
 Help me to do nought remissly, nought forgetfully 
 
 postpone, 
 Nought attempt inopportunely, nor to vain delay.- be 
 
 prone ; 
 Towards seductive paths of ruin suffer not my steps to 
 
 bend ; 
 Against men and beasts malignant, o'er me, Lord, Thy 
 
 shield extend. 
 If I shall, this day surviving, still on earth a pil- 
 grim he, 
 Lord, at eventide discover still Thy grace and love 
 
 to me ! 
 Finally, remove whatever burdens or disturbs my 
 
 breast, 
 Graciously avert or shorten ills which this weak heart 
 
 molest ; 
 And if this day be my latest, let not, Lord, Thy mercies 
 
 cease, 
 But my closing hour make happy, and my death-bed 
 
 crown with peace ! 
 
74 
 
 III. 
 PRAYER. 
 
 Father, whose unfailing bounties with each daybreak 
 
 reappear, 
 To my lowly supplication now incline Thy gracious ear. 
 Oh ! impart the gifts most needed through this day's 
 
 revolving hours, 
 In its various tasks, to render, unto Thee, Lord, all my 
 
 powers. 
 If it please Thee, life protracting, health and strength 
 
 and sight preserve, 
 And this feeble mind enlighten, Thee with faithfulness 
 
 to serve. 
 Grant me, Lord, Thyself revealing, light in Thine own 
 
 light to see ; 
 Like the early dews distilling, kindly pour Thy grace 
 
 on me. 
 Let my thoughts, and words, and doings, filial fear 
 
 towards Thee express, 
 And towards all my fellow-beings, equity and gentleness. 
 Grant me to be faithful, upright, modest, temperate, 
 
 and wise, 
 Ever circumspect and earnest to secure the immortal prize. 
 
MORNING. PRAYER. 75 
 
 Heavenly Saviour, guide and guard me, that whatever 
 
 I shall pursue, 
 In Thy name and strength be purposed all I think, and 
 
 speak, and do. 
 Cheer me in the weak beginnings, through each hour 
 
 Thy succour lend ; 
 Let the means by Thee be prosper' d, and Thy blessing 
 
 crown the end. 
 Give me firmness, my vocation well and truly to 
 
 fulfil, 
 Aims, and hours, and toils dividing, in accordance with 
 
 Thy will. 
 Fit occasion, Lord, vouchsafe me, for whate'er shall 
 
 best increase 
 Thy own praise, the weal of others, and my own essen- 
 tial peace. 
 If for good, let morning's mercies be prolong'd to even- 
 ing's shade ; 
 Still my daily bread providing, this day's efforts bless 
 
 and aid. 
 Make the heaviest care more easy, fears and perils turn 
 
 • away ; 
 Let me with a patient calmness bear the burdens of 
 
 the day. 
 Lord Triune, myself I render, to Thy just and sovereign 
 
 claim, 
 All I am, possess, and hope for, spirit, soul, and earthly 
 
 frame, 
 
7G METRICAL PRAYERS. 
 
 Speech and silence, rest and action, take, I pray Thee, 
 
 Lord, as Thine ; 
 Life and death, my God, Thon rulest \ — unto Thee I 
 
 both resign. 
 How Thou rnayst my lot determine, to Thy will I 
 
 meekly leave ; 
 Let me, this day and for ever, from Thy grace my all 
 
 receive. 
 Angel, who redeem' st from evil, let Thine eye my spirit 
 
 shield ; 
 From the dawn to latest shadows, strength supply and 
 
 refuge yield. 
 God the Father, let Thy greatness evermore my way 
 
 protect ; 
 God the Son, let Thy wisdom every hour my steps 
 
 direct ; 
 Holy Spirit, still uphold me, by thy grace sustain, 
 
 defend, 
 Both in life and death my Guardian, Comforter, and 
 
 heavenly Friend. 
 Lord of glory, bless Thy servant; from all ill my 
 
 shelter be \ \ 
 
 Let Thy beams my heart illumine, and the powers of 
 
 darkness flee. 
 On Thy child, restor'd, adopted, cause Thy glorious face 
 
 to shine ; 
 Let Thy peace, Thy full redemption, Lord, eternally 
 
 be mine ! 
 
77 
 
 IV. 
 INTERCESSION. 
 
 Loving Father, who dost visit not alone Thy chosen 
 
 race, 
 But the thankless and the evil, with the beams of light 
 
 and grace, 
 let each partake Thy mercy, that no human heart 
 
 this day, 
 In the direful path of ruin, may continue, Lord, to stray ! 
 Let all Christendom obey Thee, with, new earnestness 
 
 and zeal, 
 And designs and deeds of kindness still advance the 
 
 public weal. 
 Let, within each several household, useful aims and 
 
 ends abound, 
 And the hours by none unhallow'd, to Thy rightful 
 
 praise redound. 
 Hear Thy suppliants, who, devoutly, lift to Thee their 
 
 early prayer, 
 Pity and convert the godless, who to slight Thy 
 
 mercies dare ; 
 Who the prayerless hours will lavish, without faith or 
 
 holy fear, 
 As if light and time were granted, only to be wasted here. 
 Those who journey guard from perils ; for the needy, 
 
 food provide ; 
 
/O METRICAL PRAYERS. 
 
 Be the Helper of tlie friendless, be the weary pilgrim's 
 
 Guide ! 
 Let the willing hands find labour, and their meet 
 
 requital gain ; 
 And affliction's rising torrent, for each sufferer, Lord, 
 
 restrain ! 
 Let each one, with faithful service, his appointed work 
 
 fulfil ; 
 With Thy blessing crown each effort to perform Thy 
 
 holy will. 
 Those whose tasks are fraught with danger, by Thy 
 
 mighty power defend ; 
 On each spirit sorely burden'd, let reviving grace 
 
 descend. 
 Father, to Thy sovereign goodness, I commend all human 
 
 kind ; 
 Those still more whom kindred, friendship, nearness, 
 
 to my spirit bind. 
 Yet, good Lord, the unknown, the stranger, e'en the 
 
 foe that seeks my harm, 
 Visit Thou with heavenly kindness, shield by Thy 
 
 protecting arm ! 
 Guide by Thy divine compassion all with whom this 
 
 day I meet ; 
 Lord, throughout the wide creation, be Thy work of 
 
 love complete ! 
 
 Schmolck. 
 
79 
 
 EVENING. 
 
 " Werde munter, mein Gemiith /" &c. 
 
 V. 
 
 THANKSGIVING. 
 
 Yes, arouse thee, my spirit, ere the body seeks 
 
 repose ! 
 Once again the day hath vanished — once again its 
 
 labours close. 
 Now returns the hallowing even, and the night its 
 
 respite brings ; 
 Thou, my soul, art one day nearer to the term of mortal 
 
 things. 
 Now put off thine earthly burdens, let thy toils till 
 
 morning cease ; 
 Banish care ; thy Lord all-seeing, shall defend and give 
 
 thee peace. 
 Summon here thy thoughts devoutly, ere upon thy 
 
 couch thou rest; 
 Homage pay to thy Creator, ever gracious, ever blest ! 
 Lord, in power and truth eternal, unto Thee is change 
 
 unknown ; 
 No alternate light or darkness gilds or shades Thy 
 
 glorious throne. 
 
80 METRICAL PRAYERS. 
 
 Thy all-present age is boundless; while both day and 
 
 night are Thine, 
 For Thou bidst sun, moon, and planets, in their won- 
 drous orbits shine. 
 Thou dost guard thy children hourly, to pass through 
 
 the fleeting day, 
 And dost help each hour's new labours one by one 
 
 aside to lay : 
 While from Thine ordaining goodness still the solace 
 
 we receive, 
 That Thy children from their toiling find a sacred pause 
 
 at eve ! 
 If this day in cheering progress aught my hand or 
 
 heart hath gain'd, 
 All, my Lord, from Thee proceedeth — help conferr'd, 
 
 and life sustain' d. 
 If in health or substance richer, to Thy blessing all I 
 
 owe : 
 Whence, but from the Eternal Fountain, can the 
 
 streams of comfort flow 1 
 Therefore, Saviour, I adore Thee at the peaceful even- 
 tide, 
 With my heart and lips extolling, Thee, my gracious, 
 
 faithful Guide. 
 For Thy mercies are unnumber'd, and unsearchable 
 
 Thy might, 
 Who hast formed the day for action, and for tranquil 
 
 sleep the night ! 
 
EVENING. THANKSGIVING. 81 
 
 What I pray'd for at the dawning, Thon didst in the 
 
 day fulfil, 
 Still my soul in life upholding, shielding this frail 
 
 fabric still. 
 Sight, and strength, and food, and shelter, all, my God, 
 
 from Thee descend ; 
 Health and reason, skill and welfare, on Thy power 
 
 and grace depend. 
 Xow when on the waning daybeam, night her gather- 
 ing shadow throws, 
 Thou wilt grant me, midst Thy blessings, soon these 
 
 wearied eyes to close. 
 That in peace I sink to slumber, safe from peril and 
 
 alarm, 
 Thanks I yield to Thy compassions, which my foes and 
 
 fears disarm. 
 Thou hast all o'errul'd in mercy. If some cross or woe 
 
 betide, 
 If affliction hath assail' d me, or success hath been 
 
 denied \ 
 Sin deserved yet heavier chastening, and more length - 
 
 en'd ills to' endure ; 
 But Thy hand the rod hath lighten'd; e'en hath deign d 
 
 the wound to cure. 
 my kind forbearing Saviour, still Thy kindness is the 
 
 same; 
 Though too oft my soul was thankless, yet unsought 
 
 Thy bounties came ; 
 
82 METRICAL PRAYERS. 
 
 Oft no heartfelt prayer was offer'd, oft the call of love 
 
 refused, 
 Oft I griev'd Thy Holy Spirit, oft Thy benefits mis- 
 
 ns'd. 
 Now for all Thy loving-kindness shall my grateful 
 
 ardours rise ; 
 Every ill Thou hast averted, every good Thy grace 
 
 supplies, 
 I will own with adoration, while I live ; and when I 
 
 die, 
 Be the grateful tribute render' d by my soul eternally ! 
 
 VI. 
 
 PETITION. 
 
 Father, in rich grace abounding, forgive, for Jesu's 
 sake, 
 
 Whatsoe'er against conviction, or in wilful blind mis- 
 take, 
 
 Openly or in concealment, I against Thy will have 
 done ; 
 
 Look upon Thy contrite servant, through the wounds 
 of Christ, Thy Son ! 
 
 Hide my trespass, Holy Saviour, whether good was 
 left unwrought, 
 
 Or, by more direct transgression, I have acted, spoken, 
 thought 
 
EVENING. PETITION. 83 
 
 Against Thee, against my neighbour, or my own inte- 
 rior weal ! 
 
 Ah, requite not those demerits ! Let Thy pardoning 
 mercies heal ! 
 
 Chase, this night, all powers of darkness, from my 
 lowly couch away ; 
 
 Leave me not in guilt to slumber, bound in evil's fatal 
 sway ! 
 
 Whether sleeping, Lord, or wakeful, let not sin my 
 soul molest, 
 
 Let not thoughts or dreams unholy, wound my con- 
 science while I rest. 
 
 Satan, with his dark devices, from our homes and 
 hearts exclude ; 
 
 Xever let that power malignant haunt our hallo wM 
 solitude ! 
 
 Save from violence and rapine, fearful storm, devouring 
 fire ; 
 
 Save from those whose night is sleepless till for mis- 
 chief they conspire ; 
 
 Suffer not distracting terrors to disturb the silent 
 hour ; 
 
 Lull me, my holy Saviour, in Thine arms of love and 
 power. 
 
 Let not, Lord, my spirit tremble, by tormenting visions 
 scar'd ; 
 
 And let not death arrest it, unconsenting, unpre- 
 pared ! 
 
 g2 
 
84 METRICAL PRAYERS. 
 
 VII. 
 PRAYER. 
 
 Holy Father, Son, and Spirit, be to me in mercy near ; 
 In Thy name, in Thine embraces, let me rest without 
 
 a fear ! 
 Take Thy creature, blest Creator, soul and body, and 
 
 whate'er 
 Thy all-bounteous hand hath lent me, into Thy pro- 
 tecting care ! 
 If I live, I live to Thee, Lord, for my real life Thou art ; 
 If I die, to Thee I die, Lord, who canst nobler life 
 
 impart ! 
 Thine I am when death assails me, Thine when truer 
 
 life succeeds ; 
 Be both life and death, Saviour, one with Him 
 
 whence life proceeds ! 
 Help me to review the mercies through this day from 
 
 Thee receiv'd, 
 And to mourn for every trespass which Thy Holy 
 
 Spirit griev'd ! 
 Has there, from my words or actions, aught of ill or 
 
 harm occurred ? 
 Let Thy providence prevent, Lord, evil issues where I 
 
 err'd ! 
 
EVENING. — PRAYER. 85 
 
 With the shield of Thy salvation, guard me through 
 
 the darkest hours ; 
 With Thine arm, almighty Guardian, or Thy blest 
 
 angelic powers. 
 Give me peaceful joyful musings, while to rest I lay 
 
 me down ; 
 Let unbroken sleep refresh me, and new health my 
 
 waking crown ! 
 Grant me then a gladsome spirit, this frail body's 
 
 strength renew ; 
 When I quit my couch to-morrow, let what these hands 
 
 find to do, 
 Be begun with prayer ! And lengthen, if it please 
 
 Thee, life's brief span, 
 For Thy honour, for my welfare, and to serve my 
 
 brother man. 
 Meantime, since this life is waning, nor one coming 
 
 hour is sure, 
 Tell me, tell me, that Thine angel, awful Death, is at 
 
 the door ; 
 Be the bier, in contemplation, at my bedside nightly 
 
 set; 
 Never let my soul, unwatchful, her impending change 
 
 forget ! 
 
 Kay, if this same night thy envoy, shall this brittle life- 
 thread break, 
 < >r my Saviour's startling advent shall the slumbering 
 
 world awake — 
 
86 METRICAL PRAYERS. 
 
 Cheer us with Thy smiles benignant, take us, bear us, 
 
 to be Thine ! 
 Let the last glimpse of all earthly — be the first of all 
 
 Divine ! 
 
 VIII. 
 INTERCESSION. 
 
 Holy Lord, Thine Israel's Keeper, whose kind eye 
 can never sleep, 
 
 Guard the dearest ! Through night's vigils, all their 
 souls in safety keep ! 
 
 Yea, the whole of mortal kindred watch through dark- 
 ness into dawn; 
 
 Never be Thy gaze omniscient, nor Thy sheltering arm 
 withdrawn ! 
 
 Father, in Thy mercy, listen, where ascends the sup- 
 pliant cry ! 
 
 Respite e'en the bold offenders who Thy sacred might 
 defy. 
 
 Lord, in Thy Divine forbearance, seal not yet their 
 fearful doom, 
 
 Who in crimes or wanton orgies shall the stilly night 
 consume. 
 
 Smite not yet the rash transgressor, though his madness 
 
 brave Thy frown ! 
 Let not wrathful hate still rankle, while Thy sun goes 
 mildly down ! 
 
EVENING. — INTERCESSION. S'i 
 
 Lord, compassionate the godless, who will sink in sleep 
 
 unbless'd, 
 AVith no sigh for grace or pardon to Thy mercy-seat 
 
 address'd. 
 Make the weary strength recover, future labours to 
 
 fulfil; 
 Solace those who at the midnight, must too oft be 
 
 toiling still ! 
 Grant that no one through the darkness may in helpless 
 
 misery roam ! 
 Guide the seaman, free the bondsman, lead the way- 
 worn traveller home ! 
 provide a timely refuge for the destitute and sad ; 
 Soothe and cheer the lonely widow, make the mourning 
 
 orphan glad ! 
 Deign to smooth the sick man's pillow, wrap the babe 
 
 in slumbers light ! 
 For the toss'd and restless sufferer, soften all the 
 
 weari'some night, 
 Lighten every grievous burden, ease and rear the 
 
 aching head, <? 
 And o'er gloomiest hours of anguish gleams of heavenly 
 
 mercy shed ! 
 
 Still our much-lov'd land environ ! Thy kind arm 
 can shield it well; 
 Plague, and dearth, and horrid warfare, from our 
 favour'd coasts repel ! 
 
©8 METRICAL PRAYERS. 
 
 Fraud and murder, hate and discord, from our borders 
 
 chase afar ; 
 Xor let fire or flood, wide-wasting, our abodes and 
 
 harvests mar ! 
 Give our Sovereign grace and wisdom; and the lowliest 
 
 subjects bless ; 
 Grant the poor man ampler comforts ; let the wicked 
 
 cease to' oppress ! 
 The glad news of free Eedemption cause all human 
 
 hearts to own ! 
 By Thy heralds let the Gospel soon subvert each idol's 
 
 throne ; 
 Till we rise from earthly darkness to yon blest eternal 
 
 shore — 
 Till Thy light and love o'er whelm us, while in rapture 
 
 we adore ! 
 
 Schmolck. 
 
s9 
 
 IX. 
 
 MORNING HYMN. 
 
 "Die goldne Sonne, roll Freud und Wornie" etc. 
 
 The golden sun, with his gladsome wings, 
 From the' orient hills forth dawning, brings 
 His spirit-enlivening, loveable light ; 
 My brow yet reposes, my limbs recline, 
 But now shall I rise, by Thy help divine, 
 And gaze on the firmament pure and bright. 
 
 Mine eye shall survey what God hath wrought, 
 That He be ador'd, and we be taught 
 His boundless, holy, and sovereign might ; 
 And whither the just, who in grace increase, 
 Shall come, when in peace, they hence decease 
 And quit the vain shadows of this world's night. 
 
 All here is fleeting, but He changeth never, 
 Free from all wavering, steadfast for ever * 
 His word and will through eternity last : 
 His loving-kindnesses ne'er can decay, 
 Yield the heart healing, its death-pangs allay, 
 Perfect its joy when the conflict is past. 
 
90 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 Father of mercies, pardon and spare ! 
 All the transgressions my sonl which ensnare, 
 Lord, from Thy record of justice efface \ 
 Then guide and rule me in pity most tender ; 
 All to my sovereign Lord I surrender, 
 All in Thy hand for eternity place. 
 
 Wilt Thou enrich me with comforts or wealth ? 
 Deepen this thought for my spirit's true health, 
 Thou only art greatest, and fairest, and best ; 
 Lord, my salvation, my refuge, my treasure, 
 Fountain of life and of joy without measure, 
 In Thee my soul must supremely he bless' cl 
 
 Wilt Thou chastise me with bitterest grief? 
 Do I drink the full cup unallay'd by relief? 
 Ah, Lord, ordain that which seemeth Thee good ! 
 Thou only know'st what shall heal or shall harm. 
 Thy strong consolation all ills can disarm, 
 "The bitter is sweet, the medicine is food." 
 
 Crosses and sorrows ere long shall be ended ; 
 As, when fierce tempests their rage have expended, 
 Bursts forth the sun with its heart- cheering glow, 
 Fulness of joys and unchangeable rest 
 Have I, laid up in the home of the blest : 
 Thither let hope and affection outflow ! 
 
 Faul Gerharut. 
 
X. 
 
 MORNING HYMN. 
 
 " Secle, du musst Munter werden" &c. 
 
 Soul, awake to glad emotion ! 
 
 Earth and ocean 
 
 Greet the beams of new-born day. 
 
 To the Fount of all creation 
 
 Adoration 
 
 Yield as best thy frailty may ! 
 
 Mark this heavenly truth unfolden 
 
 Where the golden 
 
 Light of stars in sunlight sinks. 
 
 So, to God's eternal splendour 
 
 All surrender 
 
 Which our darkness beauteous thinks ! 
 
 See whate'er hath breath and liveth, 
 
 Homage giveth 
 
 To the sun's enlivening aid. 
 
 How each flower and herb invited, 
 
 Turns delighted 
 
 To his gleam which breaks the shade. 
 
92 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 So be thou, my soul, upsoaring, 
 
 Fresh outpouring 
 
 Thy best incense ! for from night, 
 
 Through which brooded clouds of sadness, 
 
 God brings gladness 
 
 On the wings of morning light. 
 
 Pray thou mayst His potent blessing 
 
 Be possessing, 
 
 When thou wouldst some good fulfil ; 
 
 But that He may curb thee kindly, 
 
 When thou blindly 
 
 Wouldst decline to specious ill. 
 
 Think of Him, thy Judge for ever, 
 
 Absent never, 
 
 Heading all thy secret soul ; 
 
 Every stain of dark offending 
 
 Apprehending, 
 
 Cognisant of the latent whole. 
 
 To the rush of moments golden 
 
 Fast we're hoi den 
 
 Which sweep down our tent of clay, 
 
 And this fabric frail and mortal 
 
 To the portal 
 
 Of the cold grave bear away. 
 
MORNING HYMN. 93 
 
 So entreat that thy departure 
 
 Be not torture, 
 
 But a soft dismissal ; pray, 
 
 Till thou see beyond earth's confine 
 
 Heavenly sunshine, 
 
 When death's gloom is past for aye ! 
 
 Meanwhile God's kind glances on thee, 
 
 Put not from thee ! 
 
 Whosoe'er His Grace doth hail, 
 
 Round him rays of heavenly lustre 
 
 Still shall cluster, 
 
 Making earth's poor brightness pale. 
 
 This new morn do cares oppress thee ? 
 
 Let Him bless thee 
 
 Who is as the sunbeams here ; 
 
 Which from their life-giving fountains 
 
 Gild the mountains, 
 
 Yet the deepest valleys cheer. 
 
 Eound whatever His bounties lend thee, 
 
 To defend thee 
 
 Still His fiery watch are nigh : 
 
 Till thou rise, 'mid seraph legions, 
 
 To the regions 
 
 Whence affrighted fiends must fly. 
 
 Baron von Canitz. 
 
94 
 
 XT. 
 
 THE WATER OF LIFE. 
 
 "Wie der Hirsch nach frischen Quellen," <Scc. 
 
 As the hart for limpid waters, — 
 Pants for Thee my soul's desire : 
 Like the swelling sails, my ardours 
 Heavenward, homeward, still aspire ; 
 To the realm of hallow' d gladness, 
 To the Fount from Judah's Rock, 
 Where the true celestial Shepherd 
 Feeds and guides His happy flock. 
 
 Must it not, my soul, entrance thee, 
 Where no strife the stream impedes, 
 By the trees of life embosom' d, 
 Welling o'er heaven's verdant meads ; 
 When its crystal floods redundant, 
 Which unsullied joys afford, 
 Springing from Thy throne, my Saviour, 
 Through Thine Eden still are pour'd. 
 
 Yes, whatever of heavenly rapture 
 On my waiting heart hath rush'd, 
 Whatsoe'er, at blissful moments, 
 In bright drops hath softly gush'd ; 
 
THE WATER OF LIFE. • 95 
 
 Yonder shall flow forth overwhelming ; 
 Of true joy the unfathom'd sea, 
 Which, untroubled, pure, exhaustless, 
 Surging bears me up to Thee ! 
 
 What, if misery's direst hail-storm 
 Smote the soul with tyrant sway ! — 
 In yon full and living current 
 All is whelm' d and wash'd away ; 
 There is soothing for all sadness, 
 Cure for every dark distress ; 
 There, of all our earthly mourning, 
 Comes serene forgetfulness. 
 
 Heart, my heart, how will it fare thee, 
 When thou meet'st tint cooling wave, 
 From hot dust of worldly travail, 
 Toil-oppressed limbs to lave ; 
 When, like whitest swan, slow sailing, 
 Thou shalt dive in heavenly blue, 
 W~hen old things are pass'd and vanished, 
 And thy Lord " makes all things new " ] 
 
 Eye, mine eye, how bright thy sparkle, 
 Godlike-clear each hallow' d gleam, 
 When thine unseal' d lid shall glisten, 
 In that stainless wonder-stream ! 
 
96 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 In pure Siloa's deathless fountain, 
 Which for stars' remotest rays, 
 Xay, for glimpses of the Eternal, 
 Sharpens thine immortal gaze. 
 
 Wearied, worn, and sadden' d spirit, 
 Stain'd with guilt, and sin-sick still, 
 How, when with thy latest failing, 
 Shall be' extinct thy latest ill ! 
 When, all freed from Avant and wailing, 
 Spotless as God's angels now, 
 From the deep of grace thou risest, 
 There before thy Lord to bow. 
 
 In thy healing flood I plunge me 
 Ofttimes, like the Syrian chief, 
 Till all base desire is banish' d, 
 Till all anguish finds relief ; 
 . Till the soul, refin'd from drosses, 
 With rais'd brow and buoyant wing, 
 Angel-pure, in stainless beauty, 
 From her Jordan shall upspring. 
 
 As a sea-bird from the billow, 
 Swift replumes her winged car, 
 And, with sunward flight upsoaring, 
 Liquid pearl-dust scattereth far ; 
 
THE WATER OF LIFE. \) 
 
 So my soul, with lowly 'elation, 
 Purer raptures, conquests higher, 
 Learn to soar in loftier ardour, 
 And with kinglier sweep aspire ! 
 
 Lord, I pine, T pant, I languish, 
 Groaning for the unfetter' d life ; 
 Waft me, Prince of Peace and Glory, 
 To Thy rest, from earth's low strife. 
 Verily, weary of her sorrows, 
 Wearier of her empty glee, 
 Xow my longing soul imploreth, — 
 "When, Lord, wilt Thou call for me 1 
 
 Karl Gerok. 
 
98 
 
 XII. 
 NEBO. 
 
 " Auf des Nebd's Fehenriickeii" &c. 
 
 See, from' the stony ridge of Nebo, ! 
 On his staff an ancient bend, 
 With devoutest outlook, downward, 
 Where the vales and hill-side blend. 
 
 Rearward, in shadow, with arch of dense vapour. 
 Views he the rude rocky desert o'erspann'd ; 
 Onwards, with sunset's mild fervours illumin'd, 
 SI lines the broad promise — his God's holy land. 
 
 It is Moses, veteran hero, 
 Who hath trod his rugged course ; 
 Still his mien is bright and joyous, 
 Nor abated yet his force. 
 
 Militant years, e'en a hundred and twenty, 
 Have his cheeks graven and silver'd his brow \ 
 Yet could not dim the keen aquiline glances, 
 Nor make the steely frame falter or bow. 
 
NEBO. 99 
 
 Weary pilgrim, night is nigh thee ! 
 Now lay down the victor's staff, 
 Meekly fold the hands grown slender, 
 Here's thy tomb, thine epitaph. 
 
 But, at the goal, to the praise of Jehovah, 
 Trace once again all the path thou hast trod ; 
 Rich in His chastisements, rich in thy failures. 
 Richest of all in the grace of thy God. 
 
 Praise the high Redeemer's guidance, 
 Which thy wondrous warfare wrought ; 
 And from Xilus' sedgy margin, 
 Close to Jordan's brink hath brought. 
 
 Which, 'twixt the deep sra-waves' o'er-beetling billows, 
 Clave a dry path for the tribes of His choice, 
 Nourish' d thine host with miraculous manna, 
 Out of the rockclift drew rills at thy voice. 
 
 Now, with vale -ward earnest survey, 
 Look through fertile Canaan ; 
 See its plains outspread like Eden, 
 From Beersheba to Dan. 
 
 Mark how inviting yon fruit-bearing valleys, 
 Glittering homesteads and soft-flowing rills ; 
 See how, with serpentine current abounding, 
 Winds the fair Jordan mid Judah's ^reen hills. 
 
100 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 Breathes not from that land the presage 
 Of Jehovah's work divine ! 
 'Neath their fig-trees' ample leafage 
 Seest thou not thy tribes recline ? 
 
 Doth not on summits of holy Moriah 
 Yon gorgeous temple in vision arise % 
 Hear'st not from Zion the hallo w'd, the regal, 
 Harpchords and psalmodies swell to the skies ? 
 
 Know'st not, who, to that fair region, 
 "Will with boons celestial speed, 
 And His flock to founts of healing, 
 As their tender Shepherd lead ? 
 
 Ah ! have not His tidings of peace and of glory 
 Thy soul with departing presentiments cheer' d ; 
 Thou who lately the serpent of brass hast uplifted, 
 Seest thou not Love's banner on Golgotha rear'd ? 
 
 Faithful chief, lay down in calmness 
 Thy gray temples ; and be still : 
 What for thee was far too glorious, 
 Shall thy glorious Lord fulfil. 
 
 Bitter, to sink when the goal is so nigh thee, 
 Close by the victor's fresh garland, to fall ; 
 Yet sweet, in dying, thy blessed perspective, 
 One star, one sceptre, of mercy for all. 
 
NBBO. )UI 
 
 Must I — so to death resign me, 
 Ere the -tasks of earth quite close ; 
 And surrender life's brief remnant 
 To that sudden chill repose 1 
 
 Yet here, from Abarim's shadowy mountains, 
 Grateful the perilous past I recall ; 
 And with exultant hope, far above sunbeams, 
 Soar to the Highest, "the Holiest of all." 
 
 Now, my rod, which heaven made mighty, 
 Must a younger champion wield ; 
 In the impending day of battle, 
 God of Israel, be their shield ! 
 
 Me, though the cold shade of death shall environ, 
 Zion, thy bulwarks resplendently shine ; 
 List from His holy hill, far, far above me, 
 Harpings celestial, and hymnings divine ! 
 
 So, on' the sunlit steep of Pisgah, 
 Bows the seer s gray head to death ; 
 Lull'd by airs of purple evening, 
 Floats from earth his latest breath. 
 
 Lone and sublime, when of millions the leader — 
 Lone now, from mortals, at Jordan's dark brim ; 
 But the true Lord of life seal'd his eyes gently, 
 Hid the still corpse — took the spirit to Him. 
 
102 
 
 XIII. 
 "BEHOLD, THIS DREAMER." 
 
 lm Frohlich wallt auf Sichems triften" <fcc. 
 
 Jocund roams o'er Sichem's meadows, 
 
 Joseph, deck'd in colours rare \ 
 Gold-like, to the sunset breezes 
 
 Waves abroad his flowing hair. 
 But his envious brothers scorn him, 
 
 Gentle, good, to Israel dear ; 
 And with gibe and bitter scoffing, 
 
 Shout, " Behold this dreamer here ! " 
 
 Thus oft, when with child-like meekness, 
 
 Some young pilgrim heavenward tends ; 
 And from mire-dust up to' ward star-beams, 
 
 With presensive glance ascends ; 
 Ever scoffs the world in blindness, 
 
 All unapt his flight to share ; 
 Mocking his diviner impulse, 
 
 Whispers, " Mark the dreamer there." 
 
 < )ft too, when a heart all-loving, 
 Guileless, seeks its brother's weal \ 
 
"behold, this dreamer." 103 
 
 And midst worldlings' selfish hurry, 
 
 Treasur'd feelings dares reveal ; 
 Hirn the world gives up for buried ; 
 
 With, sarcastic pity dooms ; 
 Taunts his warm ingenuous spirit 
 
 With, "See, see, the dreamer comes !" 
 
 So, when evil's fatal fetters 
 
 Godliness hath bravely snapt, 
 And for spirit-liberation, 
 
 Torn the garb his limbs that wrapt, 
 Far from the fraternal banquet, 
 
 Shunn'd, in loneliness he walks, 
 While insensate jesters murmur, 
 
 " Yon the' enthusiast dreamer stalks ! " 
 
 But give heed, unkindly brethren, 
 
 Other scenes must soon be' unveil' d ; 
 One day, comes again the dreamer, 
 
 And his visions have not fail'd. 
 Lo, in anxious dread now kneeling, 
 
 Flutter your faint hearts with fear ; 
 Fain would 'scape this strange disclosure — 
 
 This unwelcome dreamer near. 
 
 For he comes in princely vesture, 
 
 Laden with a Pharaoh's gold ; 
 Richly clad in gorgeous raiment, 
 
 Mild, severe, yet self-controll'd. 
 
104 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 Trembling, ye forebode his vengeance, 
 
 Yet his eye betrays a tear ; 
 Softens too that brow so kingly, 
 
 'Tis e'en he — the dreamer here. 
 
 Have not now the sheaves submissive, 
 
 Joseph's envied sheaf obey'd ? 
 Know ye him to whose fair colours, 
 
 Sun, moon, stars, obeisance paid ? 
 Yet be cheer' d ; his gentle kindness 
 
 Speaks your joyous welcome near ; 
 Lovingly, with arms inviting, 
 
 Comes the injured dreamer here. 
 
 And ev'n so there comes in triumph, 
 
 Many a scorned seer again, 
 Whom the world in blinded stupor, 
 
 As a dreamer could disdain ; 
 Bravely, by his Lord fast-holden, 
 
 Hath he toil'd by sea and shore ; 
 Victor now, with banners streaming, 
 
 Comes the dreamer, scorn' d no more. 1 
 
 So, at last, the Mightiest cometh, 
 
 In the pomp of heaven array'd, 
 Whom, at His first advent, rebels 
 
 ( )utrag'd, vilified, betrayed : 
 
 1 This stanza seems specially applicable to the life of Co- 
 lumbus ; though possibly he was not thought of. — Tr. 
 
"behold, this dreamer.' 5 105 
 
 The base foe behind Him thronging, 
 
 Brought the scourge, the nails, the spear ; 
 
 Shouting with envenom'd malice, 
 " Lo — this glorious Dreamer here ! n 
 
 By the cruel cross o'erburden'd, 
 
 Conies He bleeding, hard bestead, 
 Mute, as the white lamb to slaughter, 
 
 Sinks His meek exalted head. 
 Toward the drear, deserted hill-top, 
 
 "Whence dismay' d, His followers flee, 
 Toils He lonesome, faint, forsaken ; — 
 
 See the Dreamer's victory ! 
 
 Dream'd He not of crowns and sceptres, 
 
 And dominion ne'er to fail ? 
 But the crown of thorns invests Him, 
 
 Weak, exhausted, death-like pale ! 
 Dream'd He not of love and concord, 
 
 And of paradise brought near? 
 But the frightful cross awaits Him, 
 
 Lo — the hapless Dreamer here ! 
 
 Yes — He comes, with glorious advent, 
 
 As the waning ages glide ; 
 Tremble then, guilty brethren, 
 
 All His dreams are verified ! 
 Shuddering, prostrate, ye shall meet Him, 
 
 And your hearts in dread sink down, 
 
L06 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 Shrinking with remediless terror, 
 From the awful Dreamer's frown. 
 
 Lo, He comes in sovereign splendour, 
 
 In His heavenly might moves on ; 
 With celestial light invested, 
 
 Greater far than Solomon ; 
 With His own angelic legions, 
 
 While the heavens His triumphs share ; 
 Comes to recompense and punish, 
 
 Lo — the prophet Dreamer there. 
 
 Will His mild, forgiving aspect, 
 
 Bless you from the judgment seat 1 
 Ah ! come now, in supplication, 
 
 Haste to clasp your Saviours feet. 
 Ere the' archangel's trump resounding, 
 
 O'er the rudely startled sphere, 
 Thunders thro' the graves' dark caverns, 
 
 Lo — the omniscient Dreamer here ! 
 
 Karl Gkrok. 
 
107 
 
 XIV. 
 
 MARAH. 
 " Mara, Mara, sprach das Volk," &c. 
 
 " Marah, Marah ! " (Israel murmur d) "who this bitter 
 
 spring can drink ? 
 E'en upon its brim — so longed for — must Thy people 
 
 pine and sink ] " 
 But, at Moses' prayer, their Saviour, show'd a tree, for 
 
 healing meet, 
 Which the bitter fount transmuted, and the charmed 
 
 stream grew sweet. 
 
 Marah, Marah ! this heart mutter' d — now the streams 
 
 of trouble now, 
 Turn from the distasteful fountain, and repel the cup 
 
 of woe ! 
 But I sought a Saviour's mercy, and He show'd the 
 
 sacred tree, 
 From w T hose wonder-working virtue, bitterest pains must 
 
 fade and llee. 
 
 Know'st thou, my soul, that holiest, wood, whose rich 
 immortal balm, 
 
108 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 Sweetens e'en the bitterest chalice, and the stormiest 
 wave can calm 1 
 
 Changeth into floods of promise, dark affliction's trou- 
 bled sea, 
 
 Softens all the soul's disquiet, stills e'en death's sharp 
 agony ! 
 
 Look to thy Lord's cross uplifted, His dire woes contrast 
 
 with thine, 
 Contemplate that awful burden ; dar'st thou at thy own 
 
 repine 1 
 Should the follower rest on roses, while the Chief was 
 
 crown'd with thorn ? 
 May I shrink from lighter crosses, while He bore the 
 
 scourge and scorn 1 
 
 On that cruel cross, the spotless and beloved Son 
 survey, 
 
 Smite thy contrite breast, the burden, of thy own trans- 
 gressions weigh ! 
 
 Say — my Lord was holy, harmless, — yet that measure- 
 less anguish bore, 
 
 Me, whate'er my soul endureth, ah ! my ill desert is 
 more ! 
 
 Soul, draw near that cross; behold Him, uncomplaining, 
 
 helpless, lone, 
 As the Lamb of God, in silence, for a ruin'd world 
 
 atone. 
 
MAR AH. 109 
 
 Learn thou there, in patient meekness, ne'er e'en 
 
 Kedron's brook to shun, 
 But, u O Father, not my pleasure, not my will, but 
 
 Thine be done ! " 
 
 Muse on thy Deliverer's cross, then, mark His crowns 
 
 of majesty, 
 He that calmly bow'd, expiring, sits supremely thron'd 
 
 on high ! 
 Say — my heart, thy way to glory, winds mid crosses, 
 
 conflicts, woes, 
 And who with his Lord o'ercometh, soon to share His 
 
 triumph goes ! t 
 
 Marah, Marah ! cries weak nature, and the bitter cup 
 
 pass by; 
 In the hour of battle, shuddering, would from wounds 
 
 and perils fly ; 
 But holy tree of healing, welcome, welcome, thy 
 
 perfume ! 
 
 Thou the crushing load canst lighten, and shed fragrance 
 
 round the tomb ! 
 
 Karl Gerok. 
 
110 
 
 XV. 
 
 "LOVEST THOU ME?" 
 
 "Hast du mich Lieb? Simon Johanna, Jidre,'' <iv. 
 
 Lovest thou Me ? Son of Iona, listen, 
 'Tis thy Lord's query by Tiberias' wave. 
 Lovest thou Me ? Before thy lips affirm it, 
 Ah, ponder*well His words who died to save. 
 Hark, as with kind fraternal voice He pleads, 
 Whose searching eye thine inmost spirit reads ! 
 Son of Iona, sadness broods on thee. 
 Say— lov'st thou Me ? 
 
 Lovest thou Me ] How ill those words thee measurd, 
 " If all men should deny Thee, yet not I ; " 
 Soon, how soon, the ardent vow forgotten, 
 Me thou denied' st, with fearful blasphemy ! 
 Is this the " Kock " whom I myself uprear'd, 
 The " Peter " late by burning zeal endear' d, 
 Who vow'd, with heart of flame, all mine to be ? 
 Ah— lov'st thou Me ! 
 
 Lov'st thou Me now ? Simon, but that desiring. 
 That only ask I— lov'st Me now anew ? 
 
"LOVEST thou me?" Ill 
 
 Come, sorrowing child, come, dry the tears repentant, 
 Give the faint hand, the contrite heart give too ! 
 Poor bruised reed, I will not break thee quite, 
 Weak smoking flax, I will not quench thy light, 
 Though but one dimly glimmering spark I see ; 
 lov'st thou Me % 
 
 Say, hast thou love to Me 1 I dearly won it ; 
 Light too my burden, soft my yoke hath been ; 
 Yea, did not greenest pastures smile before thee, 
 While on my rod and staff thy soul could lean ? 
 The Friend who snatch' d thee from dark ruin's shore, 
 And gently on His loving arm upbore, 
 Whom love constrain' d unto the cross for thee ; 
 Lovest thou Me ] 
 
 Lovest thou Me ] Then watch my ransom' d sheep ! 
 
 SaVd — now, to save, be thy Divine employ ! 
 
 ( ) happy task, these erring ones to keep, 
 
 With thee the rescued, grateful, full of joy ! 
 
 Thyself hast wander' d, fetch the lost that roam, 
 
 Thou know'st the Shepherd's voice : ah, lead them home ! 
 
 Keep the stray' d flock from Satan's inroads free 
 
 If thou love Me ! 
 
 Lov'st thou Me, Simon ? Go my lambs to feed ; 
 Those little ones I bind upon thy heart ; 
 Lead them to sunny vale and verdant mead, 
 From twilight wilds where now they roam apart ; 
 
112 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 Lovest thou Me 1 — then love Me e'en in them, 
 Grasp for my crown the smallest, simplest gem ; 
 Yearns not thy soul with parent's sympathy, 
 Tf thou love Me ? 
 
 Say, lov'st thou Me ? One day, their cruel might 
 Shall bear thee whence frail flesh would shrink again : 
 Hands which the Shepherd pierc'd, His flock will smite ; 
 Simon Iona, cleav'st thou to Him then ? 
 Love, e'en the wildly-rising waters quells ; 
 Love, e'en the fiercely wasting flame repels \ 
 Love, 'neath the axe, will bow the adoring knee ! 
 Lovest thou Me % 
 
 Say, lov'st thou Me % Lord, thou dost all things know. 
 
 Thou see'st my love too languid, cold, and weak ! 
 
 that Thy heaven-sent fire may newly glow, 
 
 Thy breathing love this heart dissolve or break ! 
 
 Thy sovereign quest more deeply here engrave, 
 
 And bid this humbled soul Thy mercy crave ! 
 
 Oft Thee I griev'd — Forgive, forgive, e'en me ! 
 
 Lord, I love Thee. 
 
 Karl Gj:rok. 
 
113 
 
 XVI. 
 
 MOUNT TABOR. 
 " Auf Tabors hohn, welch uberird 1 scher glanz" djc. 
 
 Ox Tabor's hill what supramnndane light 
 
 Streams at this hallow' d hour % 
 With purpling beams the oak-crown'd cone is (light, 
 
 While mists beneath it lour : 
 Are they soft evening's blushes 
 
 With which those summits glow % 
 Or see I the fresh roses 
 
 Of Paradise below % 
 
 And thou my Lord, how brightly radiant now ! 
 
 Such lustre ne'er we saw ! 
 As snow Thy vesture • as the sun Thy brow ! 
 
 I sink in prostrate awe ! 
 Hear ye from heaven's far concave 
 
 Angelic hymns begun : 
 List to the voice Almighty — 
 
 " 'Tis my Beloved Son." 
 
 On either hand, see yon majestic twain, 
 
 Jehovah's envoys here ; 
 He by fire chariot snatch' d from death's domain ; 
 
 And Sinai's awful seer \ 
 \ 
 
114 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 Here gentle whispers heavenly 
 
 My charmed ear surprise, 
 And voices once untuneable 
 
 With angels harmonize ! 
 
 My soul, too oft to sins and griefs a prey, 
 
 How soar'st thou joyously ! 
 E'en as an eagle up the ethereal way 
 
 Sweeps heavenward swift and free ! 
 Hast thou here quite forsaken 
 
 The dissoluble clod 1 
 Is the freed spirit wafted 
 
 Into the light of God ? 
 
 Beneath me far expands Judaea's plain, 
 
 Seen but through vapoury gleams ; 
 The world's low strife, each pageant and each pain, 
 
 Grown dim like vanishing dreams. 
 Hence, hence, with those dark sorrows 
 
 And those false joys of thine, 
 Vain world, I rest embosom' d 
 
 As in Heaven's blessed shrine ! 
 
 Here it is good to be ! Here let us build 
 
 Homes, and descend no more ! 
 Abide, with the celestial vision filTd, 
 
 And feast on love's own store ! 
 From the rude world transported, 
 
 Our Lord's selected three : 
 
MOUNT TABOR. ] ] 5 
 
 To gaze thus on His brightness, 
 Is in His heaven to he ! 
 
 Yet, woe is me, wak'd from the blissful trance 
 
 No ray the loss retrieves ; 
 Eve lours, — the fitful nightwind whirls askance 
 
 Those falling forest leaves ; 
 The shining guests have vanished, 
 
 The splendours all are flown — 
 Nay, One, our all, remaineth, 
 
 Jesus is found alone. 
 
 Here still art Thou, and I behold Thy smile ; 
 
 Enough ! my Lord, enough ! 
 Earth's toils and conflicts claim me yet awhile . 
 
 Back, though the way be rough ! 
 Hence to the' heart's cave of stillness 
 
 With treasur'd joys I fly, 
 And muse in darker moments 
 
 On Tabor's majesty ! 
 
 Haste from the mount, for mortal ills are rife ; 
 
 Go, use thy " little strength ! " 
 With patient firmness wage the war of life ; 
 
 Repose will come at length ! 
 Go, with thy Lord descending, 
 
 To dark Gethsemane ; 
 Then soar with seraph pinion 
 
 His face in heaven to see ! Karl Gerok, 
 
 i2 
 
116 
 
 XVII. 
 
 "IT IS THE LORD!" 
 
 " Es ist der Herr 1 hort ihr das Glaubenswort," d-c. 
 
 " It is the Lord ! " Hear ye that gladsome word, 
 
 O'er the Gennesareth sea ! 
 
 Re-echo it, — that it be ne'er unheard, 
 
 But farthest realms agree 
 
 To hail the risen Saviour's name ; 
 
 And the broad earth with joy proclaim, 
 
 " It is the Lord ! " 
 
 It is the Lord ! — without Him no success ; 
 
 Howe'er we work or wait ! 
 
 Our nets were cast, but vain our watchfulness 
 
 Through weary hours so late : 
 
 Toiling ; yet nought, for all our cares, 
 
 ^Nought, till a miracle declares 
 
 " It is the Lord ! * 
 
"it is the lord !" 117 
 
 It is the Lord ! How gracious and how true ! 
 
 His promise, how good ! 
 
 For now, astonished, to our bark we drew 
 
 The finny multitude ! 
 
 On earth so great, so bounteous none, 
 
 As He, our strength, our shield, our sun ! 
 
 " It is the Lord ! " 
 
 It is the Lord ! — for us He here hath stayed 
 
 Near, while we deem'd Him far ; 
 
 Eyes dimm'd by sorrow and with toil o'erweigh'd 
 
 Knew not our Morning Star ! 
 
 Now springs my grateful soul from prison, 
 
 Our hope revives, our sun hath risen ; 
 
 " It is the Lord ! " 
 
 It is the Lord, whom loving John discerns ; 
 
 hour of joyfulness ! 
 
 That meek soul for a closer nearness yearns 
 
 In the still heart's recess ! 
 
 Seek thou, too, Him in that deep cell ; 
 
 Thou, too, the homefelt joy shalt tell, 
 
 " It is the Lord ! M 
 
 It is the Lord. See, Peter breasts the wave ; 
 His dauntless love exclaims, 
 Away, whate'er can part us ! let me brave 
 Tempests, or floods, or flames ; 
 
118 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 With joy I plunge into the sea, 
 Conscious whose love constraineth me ! 
 " It is the Lord ! " 
 
 It is the Lord ! — the rest are following too ! 
 
 His magnet love they feel ! 
 
 In quiet troth, if with slow feet, pursue 
 
 The burst of Peter's zeal ; 
 
 Though many a blast and wave be near, 
 
 Courage ! we have our Pilot here, 
 
 " It is the Lord ! " 
 
 It is the Lord ! He bids us all draw nigh 
 
 At His own feast regales ! 
 
 He nurtures each with grace unfailingly ; 
 
 Hither, from hills and vales ! 
 
 Thrice happy are His festivals ; 
 
 Thrice blest the guests His mercy calls \ 
 
 " It is the Lord ! " 
 
 It is the Lord ! They ask Him now no more, 
 
 Who art — or what doest Thou % 
 
 Whate'er He doth, 'tis He] 'tis mercy's store ; 
 
 Let faith adoring bow ! 
 
 For — whether He chastise or cheer — 
 
 In sunshine or in clouds appear — 
 
 "It is the Lord!" 
 
"IT is the lord I" 119 
 
 It is the Lord ! ah, in how few bright hours 
 
 His glories shine on me ! 
 
 This mortal coil yet fetters all my powers ! 
 
 But— wait !— It still is He ! 
 
 One day my love shall see Thee as Thou art, 
 
 And shout with jubilant voice and raptur'd heart, 
 
 " It is the Lord ! ' ; 
 
 Karl Gerok. 
 
120 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 I WOULD GO HOME. 
 
 " Ich mochte Helm; mich ziehfs derm Vaterhause" dr. 
 
 1 would go home ! Fain to my Father's house, 
 
 Fain to my Father's heart ! 
 
 Far from the world's uproar, and hollow vows, 
 
 To silent peace, apart. 
 
 With thousand hopes in life's gay dawn I rang'd, 
 
 Now homeward wend with chasten' d heart, and chang'd : 
 
 Still to my soul one germ of hope is come, 
 
 I would go home ! 
 
 I would go home, vex'd with thy sharp annoy 
 
 Thou weary world and waste ; 
 
 I would go home, disrelishing thy poor joy \ 
 
 Let those that love Thee, taste ! 
 
 Since my God walls it, I my cross would bear, 
 
 Would bravely allthe appointed (i hardness " share ; 
 
 But still my bosom sighs, where'er I roam, 
 
 For home, sweet home. 
 
I WOULD GO HOME. 121 
 
 I would go home ! My happiest dreams have been 
 
 Of that dear fatherland ! 
 
 My lot be there ; in heaven's all cloudless scene ; 
 
 Here, flits mirage, or sand ! 
 
 Bright summer gone, the darting swallows spread 
 
 Their wings from all our vales revisited, 
 
 Soft twittering, as the fowler's wiles they flee, 
 
 Home, home for me ! 
 
 I would be home ! They gave my infancy 
 
 Gay pastime, luscious feast ; 
 
 One little hour I shar'd the childish glee, 
 
 But soon my mirth had ceas'd ; 
 
 While still my playmates' eyes with pleasure shone 
 
 And but more sparkled as the sport went on \ 
 
 Spite of sweet fruits and golden honey-comb, 
 
 I sigh'd for home ! 
 
 I would be home ! To shelter steers the vessel ; 
 
 The rivulet seeks the sea ; 
 
 The nursling in its mother's arms will nestle ; 
 
 Like them, I long to flee ! 
 
 In joy, in grief, have I tun'd many a lay, 
 
 Griefs, joys, like harp-notes, have now died away. 
 
 One hope yet lives ! To heaven's paternal dome, 
 
 Ah, take me home ! 
 
 Karl Gerok. 
 
122 
 
 XIX. 
 
 MORNING. 
 
 " Jam lucis orto sidere" &c. 
 
 Now with the day star's rising ray, 
 Our Saviour God we supplicate, 
 Do Thou the immortal radiancy, 
 Direct our devious way to Thee ! 
 
 Be lips and hands unblameable ! 
 Let vain desires molest no more ! 
 Our words sincere and guileless be, 
 Our hearts imbued with charity ! 
 
 As glide the flitting moments on, 
 Christ, our Guardian vigilant, 
 From the fierce Foe's new inroads still 
 The senses' portals fortify ! 
 
 grant that each day's labour now 
 To Thy own praise may minister ! 
 What owes to Thee its origin, 
 Aid us by Thee to consummate ! 
 
 Latin Hymn. 
 
123 
 
 XX. 
 
 H Y M N. 
 
 Thou, Lord, art the essential Life ! 
 All our being flows from Thee ! 
 Death must wield his fearful knife, 
 But all Thine must deathless be. 
 
 Grant us, Lord, that life Divine, 
 Earnest of the immortal, now, 
 Clasp our spirit into Thine, 
 Life and Eesurrection Thou ! 
 
 Bear us to Thy home on high, 
 Lift us from the gloomy grave, 
 Save to immortality, 
 Body, soul, and spirit save ! 
 
 Immortality with Thee, 
 
 With Thee, like Thee, in Thee one ! 
 
 Make us holy, blissful, free, 
 
 Be Thy joy in us begun ! 
 
124 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 Let us all Thy glory see, 
 Fill our joy up, in Thy home 
 Fit us to be thron'd with Thee, 
 Come, sovereign Saviour come ! 
 
 J. 
 
125 
 
 XXL 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 Immutable Saviour, my trust is in Thee ; 
 All earthly must vanish, all mortal must fall ; 
 But since Thou art the same, and for ever shalt be, 
 What losses, "what sorrows, our hearts should appal ! 
 
 Weak friendship may waver ; death breaks every tie ; 
 The mutable creature decays and expires ; 
 But Thou, Redeemer, the Holy, the High, 
 Canst fill to o'erflowing the soul's best desires ! 
 
 make us, great Saviour, unchanging like Thee ; 
 Unswerving in duties, unwavering in love ; 
 Unfailing in hope, from offences made free ! 
 Till in changeless delight we adore Thee above ! 
 
 Omnipotent Saviour, augment in each heart 
 The love which aspires to Thee, faith which adheres ; 
 Give patience to wait, and " desire to depart,' 7 
 Till Thy smile infuse all bliss, and banish all tears ! 
 
 J. S. 
 
126 
 
 XXIL 
 THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN. 
 
 " La voyez vous passer, la nuee an flanc noirT' 
 
 Mark'd ye yon cloud with sable Hank. 
 Now darkly wan, now fiercely red, 
 
 As if of hot and sterile summer bred I 
 How on the midnight wind it came, 
 As if its livid flash and vapours dank 
 
 Tower'd from cities wrapt in name ! 
 Comes it from heaven ? — the mountain ? — or the main I 
 Is it the tire-car which a demon train 
 
 To some near planet bears } 
 ( ) terror ! How from its chaotic heart 
 The forky lightnings dart. 
 
 Even as with glittering sting a mighty serpent glares j 
 
 The sea — the sea — on all side- wave on wave ! 
 
 The weary bird in vain seeks land and rest : 
 Broad billows, rolling through each ocean cave, 
 
 Whiten the surge with foamy crest. 
 
THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN. 127 
 
 Huge fishes near the azure surface float 
 
 In sunshine, with quick fins of silver hue ; 
 The deep might seem a flock, in fleecy coat ; 
 The pale horizon melts into the waters blue. 
 " Must these be dried up V 9 asks the fire-fraught cloud. 
 " No ! " — and God's awful breath rolls on its masses 
 proud. 
 
 Lakes, with many a verdant hill 
 Mirror* d in their glassy flood ; 
 Pastimes of the archer's skill, 
 
 Songs amid the vale or wood, 
 Tents where childhood roves at will, 
 Fishes by the sunny rill, 
 The free tribe whose sportive band 
 Dance upon the yellow strand. 
 For this errant, simple race, 
 Luxury's canker hath no place ; 
 Manly strength and infant glee 
 In their gladsome sports agree. 
 Virgins, dark as ebony, 
 
 Lave them in the lucid stream ; 
 While the cymbal's clash and gleam 
 Mingles with the melody 
 Of the far-resounding sea. 
 The cloud an instant wavers. "Are these lands 
 My goal?" "No. Onward yet!" the mystic voice 
 commands. 
 
128 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 Lo ! Egypt's rich and variegated plain, 
 
 Its mountains, rear'd by man, acutely steep ; 
 Its Sphinx and marble ruins, and the train 
 
 Of mighty Nilus, winding to the deep. 
 The kingly sun is setting, but still glows, 
 And on the calm, bright wave its doubled radiance 
 flows. 
 "Where stay we? " mutter'd hoarse the storm-fraught 
 
 cloud. 
 " Seek ! " cried the sov'reign voice — and trembling 
 Tabor bow'd. 
 
 Sand — and yet wider sand ! 
 
 The desert, arid, wild, and drear ; 
 Whose hills, like billows on the land, 
 
 Their shifting masses rear ! 
 A dark expanse of solitude. 
 
 Yet sometimes there the populous array 
 Of caravans from Ophir's golden mouth, 
 Or from the tropic south, 
 
 Far off in the lone wilderness 
 
 Winds, like a giant snake, along the scorching 
 
 way. 
 
 > 
 
 " Shall lakes these wastes o'erwhelm ? " the storm-clouds 
 
 ask. 
 
 " No !" from' heaven's depth the voice; "yet farther 
 
 off your task." 
 
THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN. 129 
 
 See Babel sunk in ruin's doom, 
 
 Like some huge rock amid the ocean tide, 
 A heap of fallen towers, the tomb 
 
 Of wild ambition and insanest pride. 
 The heaven-assailing spire no more could rise ; 
 Imprison' d storms moan'd through its desert 
 halls, 
 Where Babel erst essay'd to pierce the skies, 
 And restless myriads throng' d her massive walls. 
 " Sweep we this wreck ? " the wrathful cloud inquires. 
 " .March on ! " "Ah, Lord ' how far, how far we bear 
 Thy vengeful fires !" 
 
 Two cities in secluded pomp behold ! 
 Whose gorgeous turrets flitting clouds enfold. 
 They sleep in twilight with their gods profane, 
 Their crowds, their chariot-wheels — doom'd cities 
 
 of the plain. 
 The eye discerns amid their moonlit shade 
 The glistening column and the bright arcade ; 
 Suspended gardens, flowers of brilliant hue, 
 Cascades, on which the moon her scarf of silver 
 
 threw ; 
 Temples, where, throird within their sumptuous 
 
 home, 
 I luge jasper idols deck'd the gilded dome ; 
 Proud structures, now through towering vapours 
 
 seen, 
 
130 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 Xow thro' whose arches breaks the star-bright 
 
 heaven serene. 
 Ah ! hell-taught cities, mad with base desires, 
 Each heart some new excess of riot fires, 
 Each hearth some dark atrocious guilt defiles, 
 And their twin gangrene blights where nature 
 
 smiles. 
 But slumber reign'd. Scarce in those dissolute 
 
 walls 
 Gleam'd the pale lamps of latest festivals ; 
 And soft night breezes, sighing from the bowers 
 Of Sodom, breath.' d upon Gomorrah's flowers. 
 There brooded the dire cloud, more black, more near ; 
 And Heaven's loud mandate spake, " Thine errand's 
 here ! " 
 
 The cloud hath burst ; 
 
 The scarlet flame 
 In tempest nurs'd, 
 
 With hideous aim, 
 I is blazing sulphur, from the gulf new rent, 
 Flings on each marble arch and snow-white battlement. 
 The wretched throngs awake, 
 
 Who could so late from guilty mirth retire, 
 
 Reckless of Jehovah's ire. 
 Now the palace portals quake. 
 Now the jostling chariots break, 
 And pallid fugitives meet 
 
 
THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN. 131 
 
 In the long gorgeous street, 
 
 The frightful rivulet of fire. 
 It melts the precious tablets of the dead, 
 
 Where jasper, agate, pearl, and porphyry shine ; 
 Bends like a fallen oak the grim colossal head 
 
 Of odious Nabo, prostrate in his shrine. 
 Columns of lucid marble, fair and tall, 
 In calcinM fragments smoulder as they fall. 
 Vainly the priests, those horrors to arrest, 
 
 Their lifeless gods in pale procession bring ; 
 As vainly waves his glittering vest 
 
 Against that flood of fire their pontiff king. 
 Resistless still, the burning waves devour 
 Proud dome, voluptuous palace, martial tower. 
 Left by all that flying band, 
 The pontiff yet dares stand 
 
 On the red torrent's brink ; 
 When sudden on his brow 
 The dazzling mitre flames, and now 
 His quivering hand that grasps it, like a brand, 
 Flames too, till quick the godless head doth bow 
 
 And in the whirlpool sink. 
 
 pitiless fire ! of the condemn d not one 
 
 Eludes the righteous judgment of that hour. 
 Lifting polluted hands, as death rolls on, 
 
 Each asks what unknown God hath hurl'd the fiery 
 shower. 
 
 k2 
 
132 SACRED POEMS. 
 
 Just Heaven the sulphurous arrow wields, 
 
 And judgment shakes the spheres : 
 Not adamant the victim shields : 
 The all Holy One those fiery waves 
 Ordains, since hardened guilt His justice braves, 
 Invoking demons ; but the dire surprise 
 Smites each foul idol, and its stony eyes 
 
 Flow down in lava tears. 
 Thus was all whelm'd wdiich Heaven refus'd to save 
 
 Man and man's pomp, the harvest and the sod. 
 The teeming landscape grew a scorched grave ; 
 Unearthly blasts the quaking mountains clave ; 
 
 All nature wither' d at Jehovah's rod. 
 
 And still the palm-tree in Gomorrah's glade, 
 With sickening yellow leaf and root decay 'd, 
 
 Bows to the hot air's heavy breath ; 
 While o'er those doom'd abodes the still Dead Sea — 
 Chill, moveless pall of guilt and destiny — 
 
 Smokes like the gidf of death. 
 
 Hugo. 
 
I X D E X. 
 
 A. 
 
 Advent of Christ, first and second, pp. 104 — 106. 
 Augustine, quoted, 53. 
 
 B. 
 
 Brientz, waterfalls near, 23. 
 
 Brotherhood a duty, 8. 
 
 Brown, Dr. his "Hon.e Subsecivae," pref. ix. 
 
 C. 
 Canaan, from Mount Nebo, 99, 100. 
 Cave or cavern, typifies our position, 43 — 16. 
 Christ, the risen, manifested, ilo — 119. 
 Christians are stewards, 63. 
 " Cities of the plain,"' 126. 
 
 their doom, 132. 
 
 Coleridge on symbolism, 1. 
 
 Collision to be shunned, 9. 
 
 Columbus, alluded to, 104?. 
 
 Condatchy pearl fishery, 59, 60. 
 
 Contents should make reference easy, pref. xi. xii. 
 
 Cross, the, its healing, 107 — 109. 
 
 Cyrus restored the vessels, 20. 
 
 D. 
 Darius, his earthen jars, 19. 
 Desert described, 128. 
 Discovery, vessels of, 5. 
 Disinterment, 21 . 
 "Dreamer, the," variously applied, 102, 303. 
 
1 34 INDEX. 
 
 E. 
 Egypt, 128. 
 
 Emblems are poetic, pref. ix. 
 Estuaries, 3. 
 
 Etruria, its vases. 20, 21 . 
 Evening prayers, 79 — 88. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eire from heaven, 130, 131. 
 Eorest-trees, emblems, 32. 
 Erailty, human, 18. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gerok, Earl, pref. xi. 
 
 Giessbach,its falls, 24. 
 
 God " shall rejoice in His works," 25, 26. 
 
 Gray, quoted, 11. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hebrew Scriptures, poetic, pref. x. 
 
 Herbert, quoted, 12. 
 
 Hymn, morning (from Gerhardt), 89, 90. 
 
 Hymn, (from Canitz), 91—93. 
 
 Hymn, (fFom Latin), 123. 
 
 Hymns of supplication, 123 — 125. 
 
 I. 
 I would go home, 120, 121. 
 Illumination of Giessbach Ealls, 35, 36. 
 
 too artificial, but typical, 37. 
 
 Indexes, their utility, pref. xi. xii. 
 Intercessions (morning), 76 — 78. 
 
 (evening), 86—88. 
 
 Inventions, copied from nature, 1. 
 Iona — Bar-Iona, son of a dove, 110. 
 "It is the Lord/' 116—119. 
 
 J. 
 
 Joseph, 102— 1 04-. 
 
 Julius CtKsar, sought pearls, 58. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kehrli, his work at the Giessbach, 24. 
 Kentucky cavern, 44-. 
 
 L. 
 
 Lakes on mountains, 60. 
 
 Lamplight, references to in Scripture, 38, 39. 
 
 , mental, needed, 40 — 42. 
 
INDEX. 135 
 
 Lessons, spiritual, from material objects, 27. 
 
 Light of God, 54, 55. 
 
 Love to Christ, how to be shown, ] 11, 112. 
 
 "Lovest thou Me ?" 110—112. 
 
 Luther, on latent uses of Scripture, 40. 
 
 Lyra Germanica, referred to, pref. x. 
 
 M. 
 Marah, 107, 108. 
 
 " Mariner, The Amcient," quoted, 5. 
 Merchantman, 4. 
 
 Merchants, all men such in some sense, 56. 
 Minerals, earthen, 20. 
 Morning prayers, 68 — 78. 
 Moses on Mount Nebo, 93. 
 
 , his vision, 101. 
 
 Mother of pearl, 64. 
 Museum of Berlin, 21. 
 
 N. 
 Navigation, symbolical, 2. 
 Nebo, Mount" (Death of Moses), 98—101. 
 
 P. 
 
 Parry, Sir Edward, 7. 
 
 Peak cavern, 51. 
 
 Pearl, emblem of worldly good, 56, 57. 
 
 , emblematic of the Gospel, variously, 60, 61. 
 
 "Pearl of great price," 60. 
 
 ■ its true setting, 64. 
 
 Pearl-divers, 57, 58. 
 
 Peter, St., appeal to, 110—112. 
 
 Petition, morning, for spiritual aid, 71 — 73. 
 
 evening, for pardon and strength, 82, 83. 
 
 Pines, young, their lessons, 32, 33. 
 
 fallen, 34. 
 
 "Pitchers," 17. 
 
 '* Potter's vessels," their lessons, 17. 
 
 Prayer for grace, 73, 75. 
 
 Prayer, evening, for all good, 84 — 86. 
 
 Prayers, metrical, remarks on, pref. ix. x. 
 
 Privateer, 4. 
 
 Psalms, their value, 15, 16. 
 
 R. 
 
 Rabbi Joshua, story of, 18. 
 
 Readers, their increased numbers, pref. vii. viii. 
 
 River of death, 51, 53. 
 
136 INDEX. 
 
 S. 
 
 Schmolck's " Andachten," pref. ix. 
 Scripture truth, its stated ministration, 47- 
 
 --, its light must be used rightly, 49, 50, 
 
 Shell, not to be sought instead of pearl, 64. 
 South, Dr., quoted, 61. 
 Spirit-fleet, its divisions, 5, 6. 
 Spirits, matter made for, 26. 
 Steam, against wind and tide, 8. 
 Sunlight of heaven, 53 — 55. 
 
 T. 
 Tabor, Mount, 113—115. 
 Tavernier, quoted, 37. 
 Thanksgiving, morning, for life and safety, 68. 
 
 for sleep, 69. 
 
 for grace, 70. 
 
 ■ evening for all mercies, 80 — 83. 
 
 Thorntons in commerce, 7- 
 Transfiguration, its glory, 113, 114. 
 Triflers amidst grand scenery, 30. 
 Thought, its occasions unexpected, pref. xi. 
 
 V. 
 
 Vessels of earth, glass, &c. 13. 
 
 , broken, still useful, 14. 
 
 Voyagers, human, divided, 3. 
 Christian, rules for, 8 — 10. 
 
 W. 
 
 Waterfalls, types of spiritual grace, 27 — 28. 
 
 of divine power, 29. 
 
 of human life, 31. 
 
 of the Christian's departure, 35. 
 
 Water of life, 94—97. 
 
 World's pleasures unsatisfying, 121. 
 
 Wrecks, two kinds of, 11, 12. 
 
 TIIE END. 
 
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 THE DIVINE COVENANTS; 
 
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