THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES LAYS OF ION A AND OTHER POEMS LAYS OF lONA AND OTHER POEMS BY S. J. STONE, M.A. RECTOR OF ALL-HALLOWS'-ON-THE-WALL, E.C. AUTHOR OF 'the KNIGHT OF INTERCESSION,' ETC. ' Deum patreni ingeniturii coeli ac terrae donmium Ab codeiitquc filiuiii secula ante primogenituin Deuiiigue spiritum sanctutn vcruiii unnm altissiinuni I-nvoco ut atixiliuvi ntihi opportunissimuni Minitno praestet omnitim sibi deservienthiiii.' (From the Antipho'i of the Alius Prosator of St. Cohimba. See pp. 174, 175.) LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1897 DEDICATED TO MY DEAR SISTER SARAH HARRIETTE BOYD CONTENTS Preface, A Short Life of St. Columba, The Spirit of the Church from Iona, Lyric of Iona : Past, and To Be, Canto i. Introduction, . The Island, A Lay of Port-na-Churaich, Canto ii. The Names of the Island, Hymn of Iona and the Isles, Canto hi. Columba: his Birth, Names, Early Years, Farewell : A Song of Love and Duty, Canto iv. Columba: Transgression, Repentance, and Self-Exile, ...... Song : Columba and the Western Sea, Canto v. The Reilig Oran, The Church Planets: A Hymn of the Union of the Churches, Canto vi. Aidan, Lindisfarne, and the Northumbrian Church, ...... A iVIorning on Iona : A Song, PAGE XV xxvn 3 13 15 19 33 36 40 43 48 50 62 63 72 76 90 LA YS OF lONA PAGE Canto vii. On the Torr Abb, .... 91 Sonnets : The Bishop's House in lona, loi Farewell, ...... 103 Appendix English Translation of the ' Rule of Columcille,' . 106 St. Columba's Prediction, . . . . . 114 Derry : A Song of St. Columba, . . . . 115 St. Columba's Song of Trust, . . . . 116 ' Uchd Ailuin ' : A Song of St. Columba, . . 118 From Erin to Albyn : A Song of St. Columba, . 122 Paraphrase in English from the Latin of the (i) 'Altus Prosator,' and (2) 'In Te, Christe, credentium ' : Prefatory Notes, . . . . . 126 Altus Prosator, . . . . . 130 In Te, Christe,. . . . 176 St. Columk of Iona : A Lay of the ' Family of Hy,' . ■ 185 MLSCKLLANEOUS POEMS Koimeterion : An Ode, ...... 205 Ishmael's Song, . . . . . . . 211 A Night Storm on the Shropshire Hills, . . . 213 The Maiden at the Well, 214 CONTENTS Where the Shade is, . A Morning by the Sea, ..... The Reason why Florence was called ' The Duchess,' Four Poets : A Personal History, PAGE 216 218 224 229 EAST-END VERSES From Windermere to the Congregation of St. Paul's, Haggerston, 235 The Garden of the Lord, . 236 A Son of the Mission, 237 'Hire for all the Day,' 238 An East-End Schoolmaster, 239 Together, .... 240 Frederick Arnold, 241 F. M. A., . 242 A Fighter, .... 243 Holiday Ode to the North-West Wind » 245 ELEGIAC POEMS Lord of Death, 249 Before Gordon's Monument, 250 The Mother of a Saint, 257 Tennyson : In Memoriam, 260 Father Damien, • . 263 The Passing of the Archbishop, . 266 LA YS OF ION A William Hill, . The Duchesse d'AIenc^on, Sancho : An Old Friend, PAGE 267 268 HYMNS The Father, 273 The Son, 275 The Holy Ghost, 277 The Incarnation, ....••• 280 The Atonement, 282 The Resurrection of the Lord, 285 The Ascension, ......•• 287 The Judgment, 289 The Resurrection of the Body, 291 The Life Everlasting, • 293 A Christmas Carol, 295 Hymn for the Lord's Day, 297 Hymn of Unity, 3°° Hymn for Day and Sunday School Teachers, . . 303 Hymn for Church Workers, 305 Hymn of All Angels, 307 Four Hymns of St. Thomas a Kempis, . . ■ 309 Follow On : An Epiphany Carol, . . • • 3^9 Marriage Hymn, 323 The Proto-Martyr of Britain : A Hymn in Memory of St. Alban 32$ CONTENTS XI PAGE Rogation Hymn, 328 A Hymn of the Sea, 33^ Hymn after Holy Communion 334 Sudden Death, 336 The Beating Down of Satan, 339 Sent : A Hymn for Candidates for Ordination, . . 341 The Stream of Time : A New Year's Hymn, . . 344 Hymn of All Hallows, 34^ Hymn after Benediction, 348 The Three Homes, 35° God of Supreme Dominion, 35^ One Wide Majestic Temple, 355 O Lord of Lords, 357 All the Mountain Heights, 359 DR. JOHNSON'S JOURNEY TO lONA IN 1773 * We were now treading that illustrious Island which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions — whence savage clans and roaming barbarians derived the benefits of Knowledge and the blessings of Religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, — what- ever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me and from my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the Ruins of lonn.' PREFACE Bishop Ewing, in his Account of the Early Celtic Church and the Mission of Saint Columba, says that few things are finer (all hackneyed as they are) than the apostrophe of the Saxon pilgrim, Dr. Samuel Johnson, which he wrote on landing on the shores of lona : and he states his belief that these famous lines have done almost as much for lona, in modern times, as the writings of Sir Walter Scott for Scot- land. There is perhaps enough truth in this opinion to justify the insertion of the well-known passage on the preceding page. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that any real interest in lona did not generally exist until late in this nineteenth century. Even now, though popular knowledge of the Island and of the Celtic Church has so increased that the number of English people who have hazy notions as to the difference between Columba and Columbus, and who have never even xvi LA YS OF ION A heard of St. Aidan, has sensibly diminished, anything Hke thorough acquaintance with the subject is con- fined to a few. Such extension of knowledge as does obtain is to be traced, doubtless, not only to the increased interest in the history of the Church generally, but especially to the desire of the children of the Church of England to know more about their own spiritual ancestry. In that particular direction the interest has been chiefly the growth of the last thirty years. In the year 1872 the Author of this work pub- lished a volume entitled The Knight of Intercession, and other Poems. One of these poems was the ' Lay of St. Columb of lona,' which is reproduced now at page 185. When that volume came to a third edition, the Author, wishing to include some more recent poems and yet not to increase the size of the book, removed such pieces of the first edition as he thought had roused but little atten- tion. This ballad was one of those he omitted, as being least attractive in subject. He was at first greatly surprised to find that a number of his earlier readers expressed publicly or privately much regret at the removal of these PREFACE xvii lona verses : but the evident increase of interest in all the Church history of that period, which had been quietly growing, explained to him later on the principal cause of this regret, for the poem itself was but slight and not largely according to knowledge. This fact, and several subsequent visits to the Island (which he had not seen when the earlier verses were written), and a fuller personal acquaint- ance with the whole subject, have resulted in the writing and publication of these new poems, as well as in the re-insertion of the omitted ballad, with various necessary corrections and a few addi- tions. This late birth or revival of interest in the subject of the Celtic ancestry of the Anglican Church has not unnaturally led to some controversy, in which on one side the debt of that Church to the Gregorian Mission has been comparatively mini- mised, and on the other — by a reaction easily to be understood — the mighty claims of the Celtic Church on our filial reverence and gratitude have either been reduced to the smallest proportions, or grudg- ingly conceded. xviii LA YS OF ION A The convictions of the Author of this volume, derived from all the sources of historical knowledge and opinion upon both sides which have been within his reach, are in the direction of the views expressed, most notably perhaps, by the late Bishop of Durham, Dr. Lightfoot ; but they are qualified by a strong feeling that while on the one hand the comparative debt of England to the Mission from lona is far the highest and the deepest in a directly spiritual point of view, yet on the other she owes much, in particulars of great importance, to the benefits she has received from her connection with the Italian Mission. Apart from that connection, it is difficult to understand that the Anglican Church could now present, and could hope to present still more largely in future, the front of settled order and effective organisation, and the aspect of dignity, culture, and learning, which are as characteristic of her at her best as are her noble love of truth and her devout and pure enthusiasm. But all this being allowed, he thinks it cannot be doubted that those historical and critical authorities, such as Montalembert, Bishop Lightfoot, and many other moderns of the highest intellectual rank, are PREFACE XIX in the right, who maintain that — as regards the spirit and heart of rehgion and the noblest and purest principles of missionary work — however great and real is the debt to the Mission by St. Augustine, and however much is owing to earlier British sources of evangelisation — the chief debt of Anglo-Saxon Christianity is due to the Celtic Church and its Fathers. In the highest sense, therefore, the cradle of our branch of the Catholic Church is to be identified with the two holy Islands of lona and Lindisfarne, and with the names of St. Columba and St. Aidan and their spiritual sons, more than with those of St. Augustine and his followers — truly honoured and gratefully remembered as these Gregorian Missionaries ought to be. The pure Celtic blood in our spiritual ancestry explains and justifies many peculiarities of the Anglican Church in position and in opinion. It explains and justifies the fact that, by her CathoHc loyalty to primitive apostolical order and sacerdotal and sacramental doctrine, she is as dis- tinct from any form of Presbyterianism or English Nonconformity on the one hand, as on the other hand, by her stern purity in rejection of un-Catholic XX LA YS OF ION A accretions and corruptions, she is removed from later medigeval and modern Romanism. So, too, is to be understood the objection which the English Church has from time to time mani- fested to Papal domination, even when in those later mediseval times she was so much under its power : — the clerical chafing and lay impatience and general discomfort so frequently in evidence under the thrall of the ' later Roman.' Moreover, it explains and justifies her own Re- formation in principle, though not of course in every particular and as regards every agency. A strong conviction that all this is of manifest historical truth, and that it is of much importance that the sons and daughters of the Catholic Church of England generally should be helped in every possible way to realise intelligently what they owe to the pure parent spirit of the Celtic Church, and to look gratefully to the principal Rock from which they have been hewn, has led the Author of this volume to the writing of the greater part of its contents in the earnest hope that the poems may serve to this end, be it ever so slightly, and as the work of one who is himself a learner, A great PREFACE xxi attraction, especially, towards the characters of St. Columba and St. Aidan, and, too, a personal love for the Island of lona itself, increased by a close acquaintance with it — made easy to him by the most kind hospitality and encouragement of the Bishop of Argyll and the Isles — have had their strong influence over the writer : but he has had most at heart a devout and reverent regard for that spirit of the Celtic Church — the spirit of pure Catholic truth, of simple devotion, of holy peace, of self-denying power and zeal, of deep personal love for our Lord and the souls for whom He died — which he has endeavoured to represent in those verses entitled ' The Spirit of the Church from lona,' which precede this poem, and strike the keynote of the whole work. There are several points to which it seems desir- able, before the close of this Preface, to make some individual reference. (i) It will probably seem to some critics that the poem is overloaded with notes. The Author is not unaware of this disadvantage, and of the fact that to some readers many of these notes will be unneces- sary. But, out of thirty-four years of his work xjdi LA YS OF ION A as a priest, more than twenty were spent mainly amongst a people — the Church folk of the East End of London — who are, so far as he is able to weigh differences, among the noblest of the sons and daughters of the Church, not only as regards the much endurance and long patience of their lives, their sincerity, high-mindedness, and courage, their freedom from self-indulgence and indolence on the one hand and from narrowness and stolidity on the other — characteristics singularly like those of the Celtic Christians of the pre-mediasval sort — but also because of their keen and animated in- terest in all that concerns their Mother in Christ, and their consecrated zeal for His sake in her service. But they, and many like them, have not those op- portunities and facihties of others of their brethren, represented partly by libraries of their own, or easy access to those of others, and partly by travel and literary intercourse; and the Author — having their needs chiefly in his mind — as they themselves are nearest to his heart — and the needs, too, of the great and intelligent body, throughout the whole Church, of d^ay and Sunday school teachers, and other Churc\ workers, whose power and influence are :\ wo PREFACE xxiii far wider and deeper than some suppose — has thought it right to give full notes rather than only bare references to historical and other authorities. (2) He has termed his renderings of the reputed Gaelic or Latin poems of St. Columba Paraphrases rather than Translations^ because he is of opinion that no rendering in verse can do justice to an original if it is in any degree a bald and over-exact translation. The full meaning and intention of the writer should of course be given, but in really poeti- cal form, so far as the translator is capable of so rendering the original verses. On the other hand, he is as little in love with a method of paraphrase which is not as close to the original as may fairly be possible in another language. (3) Those who are not familiar with the old nomenclature which obtained in Columban times should be asked to note that Scotia was the name of Ireland, and Albyn (or Albainn) of Scotland; and also that where Scotic is occasionally used in the notes it is equivalent to Celtic or Irish. (4) It should be noted — in reference to the fact xxiv LA YS OF ION A that St. Columba and many other abbots of Celtic and later times were priests and not bishops — that to argue from the superiority of abbots in matters of jurisdiction, quoad civilia, to a non-recognition in Columban times of the exclusive Apostolical rights of the Episcopate is historically unreasonable. Columba, during his diaconate, was instructed by a priest, but he was sent to a bishop (Etchen of Clonfad) for ordination. Again, as being only a priest, he refused, during his rule as abbot, to consecrate the Eucharist in the presence of a bishop as his spiritual superior ; and moreover, his spiritual descendants in Northumbria — Aidan, Finan, and Colman — were all consecrated. The only marked difference as regards the Episco- pate in the early Celtic Church was that it was not exercised invariably after a territorial or diocesan fashion. The bishops often lived like hermits among the people. In matters of jurisdiction, quoad civilia, they were subject to the abbot (in the same way as the Master or Principal of a College at Oxford or Cambridge has collegiate jurisdiction over all the staff of the community, whether any be bishop or no), but, quoad spirtfualia, the Episcopal rights PREFACE XXV were unquestioned. As has been well said by the authors of a short Life of St. Columba (Mr. W. Muir and the Rev. J. C. Rendell) : 'It seemed to be considered that the bishop's sacred power of con- ferring Holy Orders parted him from ordinary men and made any other duty (except that of manual labour, shared by abbot and all) unworthy of him. Hence the bishop's position was singularly simple, noble, and humble, and was not usually coveted by men who had to lead in affairs. Sanctity was its characteristic then rather than splendour.' (5) It has s'eemed advisable to insert after the Preface a short 'Life of St. Columba,' in prose, to facilitate, in some cases at all events, the reading of the poem, and to include some particulars not dealt with in the Cantos. (6) How great is the debt of this book to Bishop Lightfoot's volume of sermons entitled Leaders in the Northern Church (Macmillan) the notes will show. The reader is asked to observe that, after some of the extracts, only the Bishop's name is, for brevity's xxvi LA YS OF ZONA sake, given in the notes, with a reference to the page in the edition of 1890. (7) A few of the miscellaneous poems which close this volume are new. The rest are collected from a variety of Magazines to which the Author has contributed from time to time since the issue of his former volume. The Knight of Intercession. Vestry, All-Hallows'-on-the-Wall, London Wall, E.G., Feast of St. Mattheiv, Sept. 21, 1897. A SHORT LIFE OF ST. COLUMBA Saint Columba was born at Gartan, in the county of Donegal, Ireland, on December 7th, a.d. 521. His father, Fedlimidh (or Fedilmith), was a member of the reigning family of Ireland and British Dalriada. Eithne, his mother, was descended from a King of Leinster. A vision of Eithne, previous to her son's birth, is described on pp. 45, 46. He was baptized by a priest named Cruithnechan, who was his foster-father. His two names (if the tradition as to the double name is true), Columba (dove) and Crimthan (wolf), are very significant of opposite sides of his character (see pp. 44, 45). In his early years ' Cille ' {i.e. ' of the Church ' or ' the holy place ') was added to his name Columb because of the religious earnestness and Church loyalty which he showed in his boyhood. He passed XXVlll LA YS OF ION A the years of his early youth at Moville under Bishop Finnian, and was ordained deacon. He studied later on in Leinster under a noted bard named Gemman, and then entered a monastic seminary at Clonard under another St. Finnian ; but as this St. Finnian was only a priest, he went for his second ordination to Bishop Etchen of Clonfad. In 553 he founded the monastery of Durrow, of which Bede makes mention ; and, before and after this, a number of other religious houses— said to be more than thirty— owed their origin to his energy and influence. The earliest of these was one in his beloved Derry (see p. 115). His life up to 561 was one of intense activity and wide usefulness. Then came what may be called the catastrophe of his history, in an act of rebellion and blood-shedding, in the first instance because of his sense of the injustice of a decision of King Diarmid, who refused to enforce the restoration of an illuminated Psalter belonging to Columba and retained by the owner of the book from which it had been copied ; and, in the second instance, because of the slaughter by the same king of a youth named Curnan, who had fled to Columba for protection. A SHORT LIFE OF ST. COLUMBA xxix Columba, in uttermost indignation, and in the belief that his quarrel was just, after threatening the king, hurried by night from Tara, over the mountains of Tyrconnell, and on his perilous journey he is said to have composed the 'Hymn of Trust,' a paraphrase of which is given at page ii6. After the fashion of those days, he made the matter the subject of a clan quarrel, and eventually a battle was fought in which many men were slain. According to one account he was, on the instance of the king, excommunicated for bloodguiltiness by a synod of clergy, and only restored on the inter- cession of St. Brendan. It is said, too, that a priest whom he consulted told him that he was bound, because of his sin, to win to Christ as many pagan souls as he had caused Christian men to be slain in this quarrel. But Columba, according to one version of the story, knew no peace until another priest named Abban, whom he consulted, told him, after long fasting and prayer, that his ' slain men had the eternal rest.' Eventually, says a further tradition, under the influence of a hermit named St. Molais of Devenish, XXX LA YS OF ION A he was led to become a voluntary exile from the Erin he so deeply loved, and an evangelist beyond the sight and reach of home and home associations and earthly happiness. Adamnan's words in the Preface to his Life of St. Columba^ 'Pro Christo peregrinari volens enavigavit,' do not seem so in- consistent with this story as some seem inclined to suppose. Hence, in his forty-second year, his voyage from Erin in a coracle — a wicker boat, sixty feet long, covered with oxhide and thwarted with oakbeams — accompanied (after the manner of the missionary expeditions of those times) by twelve followers or disciples, and their landing on lona, at what is now called Port-na-Churaich, on Whitsun Eve, May 12, a.d. 563. (See note 3, p. 35.) So began the practical history of a great Repent- ance, the ' fruits meet ' for which were vast indeed. Whether the island was conceded to him by his royal kinsman Conall, Lord of Dalriada, or after- wards bestowed upon him by his convert Brude, the Pictish king, is a point of controversy which is not of moment. His first and chief work was among the heathen Picts of the North of Scotland and of the adjacent A SHORT LIFE OF ST. COLUMBA xxxi islands of the Hebrides ; and in the conversion of those who were at first his chief opponents, the Druidic bards. But eventually the evangelising work which he originated in lona extended not only to the South of Scotland in the resuscitation of the earlier Christian work of St. Ninian, nor only (in his later years) back to Ireland, and in the next century, through St. Aidan and others, on to Eng- land from Northumbria throughout the greater part of the Heptarchy ; but it reached many parts of the Continent also, in the same way that his Celtic contemporary, St. Columbanus, had evangelised so much of France, Switzerland, and Italy. (See Monta- lembert, Alonks of the West, ii. p. 387.) In the words of Bishop Ewing, ' The history of Columba and lona does not confine itself to the limits of those solitary shores, but, from the necessities of the object with which it is conversant — the evangelisa- tion of Western and Northern Europe — carries us from Iceland in the north to Tarentum in the south, and from the Arctic Seas to the Medi- terranean.' — {lona, pp. I, 2.) The circumstances of St, Columba's death on June 9, A.D. 597, thirteen hundred years ago this xxxii LA YS OF ION A year (1897), are dealt with on pages 197 and 198 of this volume; and those of his burial on pages 69, 70. The following is the conclusion of the Preface of Abbot Adamnan's great Life of Sf. Co/umba, written within a hundred years of his death (see Reeves' translation of Adamnan) : — ' He was angelic in appearance, graceful in speech, holy in work, with talents of the highest order, and consummate prudence ; he lived a soldier of Christ during thirty-four years on an island. He never could spend the space of even one hour without study, or prayer, or writing, or some other holy occupation. So incessantly was he en- gaged night and day in the unwearied exercise of fasting and watching, that the burden of each of these austerities would seem beyond the power of human endurance. And still in all these he was beloved by all, for a holy joy ever beaming on his face revealed the joy and gladness with which the Holy Spirit filled his inmost soul.' LAYS O'F lONA AND OTHER POEMS INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO 'THE SPIRIT OF THE CHURCH FROM lONA' The far-reaching work begun by Columba from Zona, and extended in the next century over Northumbria and through the greater part of the Heptarchy by Aidan and his followers, was in the year 664 repre- sented in chief by Colman, Bishop of Lindisfarne. It was at this time that matters came to a crisis as regards the difference between the Celtic and Roman uses in the calculation of the Easter date and the mode of the tonsure of priests. By a quibble, as it would seem, the king decided in favour of the Roman view, and Colman resigned his Bishopric. It is the contention of the following poem that nevertheless the spirit which specially animated the Celtic Church remained, and still abides in that English Church which it did so much to found and to influence. The following quotations seem to justify the title and the argument of these verses : — ' While all else changes, the sphit is unchanged. The sim- plicity, the self-devotion, the prayerfulness, the burning love for Christ which shone forth in those Celtic Missionaries of old must be your spiritual equipment now.' — (Bishop Lightfoot, Leaders in the Northern Church, p. 17.) ' A larger and freer spirit (from lona) must be stamped on the English Church in her infancy never to be obliterated in maturerage.' — (Ibid,, p. 41.) See also Note 3, page 10, from Lecture of the Bishop of Albany, U.S.A. THE SPIRIT OF THE CHURCH FROM lONA OR THE UNION OF THE CELTIC, BRITISH, AND GREGORIAN CHURCHES IN THE ANGLICAN CHURCH ' The Whitby Conference was over : Wilfrid had triumphed : the Paschal Rcckoiiijig and the mode of Tonsure were to be Romanised : Colman resigned his Bishopric at Lindisfarne, and retired to lona : and the Celtic Church was gone.' (Popular Statement.) Say ye the Celtic Church is gone, As fancies change or friends forget ? The Celtic Church lives on, ^ lives on ! The Celtic Church is with us yet. 1 See the notes on preceding page. LA YS OF ION A Columba's bare lona lies, As he foresaw, a cattle barn -} Lie stark beneath Northumbrian skies The bones of Aidan's Lindisfarne. Our cradle^ Isles of West and East — They are not as in Aidan's youth ; What matter ? — if we ' keep the Feast ' With his ' sincerity and truth.' Easter is Easter, change who will The Calendar that dates the Morn ; The Priesthood is the Priesthood still, Shorn here or there, or all unshorn. Were Paschal date or Tonsure's plan^ All and be-all of Celtic power ? Gauge ye the spirit of a man By regulated hair or hour ? 1 The following is a prose rendering from the Gaelic of a prophecy attributed to Columba : — ' In lona of my heart, lona of my love, Instead of monk's voice shall be lowing of kine ; But ere the world come to an end Shall be lona as it was.' The Gaelic and a paraphrase in English verse will be found on p. 114 of this volume. ^ ' Is not this an opportune time to revert to the cradle of its history and thus link together the last days with the first in the bonds of a natural piety?' — (Bishop Lightfoot, p. 4.) 3 See Introductory Note, p. 2. THE SPIRIT OF THE CHURCH These things are gone ; their graves above lona's hving sons may smile ; Columba's force and Aidan's love Died not with Colman in his Isle.^ Such things may be, such things may fade Like tints upon lona's seas : Columba's men of war were made Of larger elements than these. These things are gone : let them be gone ; These be no tests of calm or storm ; It is the spirit that lives on — The pure, great heart beneath the form : The heart unchanged 'neath any skies : ^ The giant's heart within the child. Patient in zeal, in fervour wise, The sternly sweet, the gravely mild ; 1 Colman, after his retirement to lona, died in the island of Innisboffin, oflF the Irish coast. ' What heart,' writes Montalembert, ' is so cold as not to understand, to sympathise, and to journey with him along the North- umbrian coast and over the Scottish mountains, where, bearing home- ward the bones of his father (Aidan), the proud but vanquished spirit returned to his northern mists, and buried in the sacred isle of lona his defeat and his unconquerable fidelity to the traditions of his race?' - See preliminary notes on p. 2. LA YS OF lONA That is not gone. It lives anew In sons more countless than of eld ; O'er islands wider than they knew It holds the rod of charm it held. Say not the Celtic Church is gone, Like sunset beam from mountain brow ; The Celtic soul lives on, lives on, The old pure heart is beating now 1 Nor say the British Church is gone} As dies some legendary lay ; The British Church lives on, lives on, Saint David's Church is here to-day 1 It is the Roman who is gone : I mean not Austin ^ — he is here ! He and his nobles still live on : He and his Gregory still are dear. 1 'If any one asks, "Where is the old British Church of what is now England?" the answer is, the old Church is living still. The Bishops of the four Dioceses of Wales rule it still.' . . . 'St. David's probably is the most direct representative of the old British Church of what is now Wales.' — (Bishop of Stepney, The Chwch in These Islands Before Aug-ustijie, pp. 146, 147.) " ' The claims of Rome in this early age were modest indeed compared with her later assumptions. It is an enormous stride from the supremacy of Gregory the Great to the practical despotism claimed by Hildebrand and Innocent ill. in the eleventh and succeeding centuries, as it is again a still vaster stride from the latter to the absolute infallibility of Pius i.\'. in the nineteenth century.'— (Bishop Lightfoot, p. 51.) THE SPIRIT OF THE CHURCH The later Roman — (on whose claim Our Austin's Gregory ^ set his ban) — Who drew the wide Paternal name Within his own too meagre span — The later Roman — with the sword, And secular arm, Caesarean-wise, Sole, self-elected overlord, With hard unspiritual eyes — 'Tis he that from our Isle is gone ! ^ Peace to him on his Tiber shore ! Where'er his claim and he live on, His place will know him here no more. Long time — too long — we knew his spell Of mystic toils and sensuous thrills : The rule that from lona fell Passed to the proud Italian hills. 1 ' Gregory denounces the title of "Universal Bishop" as a proud and pestilent assumption, an act of contempt and wrong to the whole priest- hood, an imitation of Satan, who exalted himself above his fellow-angels, a token of the speedy coming of Antichrist.' — (Bishop Lightfoot, p. i6.) - Cp. Bishop Lightfoot, p. 52: — 'Through the long ages of Roman domination the English Church was the least enslaved of all the Churches. Her statute-book is a continued protest against this foreign aggression. Her ablest kings were the resolute opponents of Roman usurpation. When the yoke was finally thrown off, though the strong will of the reigning sove- reign was the active agent, yet it was the independent spirit of the clergy and people which rendered the change possible. LA YS OF ION A ^ No more the spell/' — with seismic throes,^ From agonies as of travail pain, Once more the purer School arose, lona's doctors taught again. We learned, 'tis true, to 'organise' i^ We learned from Rome her grace and skill, Art-lore, art-love, a statelier guise, A prouder port, a sterner will : And owe for these fair thanks. ^ Not vain Is all that is of beauty's mind ; Let beauty, order, culture, reign In all perfection of their kind ; Yet heart is more and soul of love ;^ And this in prime we owe not there ; — 1 The Reformation. ~ ' While we are thankful that the foundations of the Northumbrian Church were laid in the simplicity and devotion, the free spirit, the tender- ness and love, the apostolic zeal of the missionaries of lona, we need not shrink from acknowledging that she learnt much from the more complete organisation and the higher culture of which Rome was the schoolmistress." — (Bishop Lightfoot, p. 51.) 'The whole (Scotic) system had a rude and homely simplicity. It took no heed of sacred art, was untouched by the influence of the Continental Church atmosphere, and kept its followers aloof from what might be called ecclesiastical civilisation.' — (Canon Bright, Chapters of Early Church History, p. 16S.) 3 'Without the assistance of Rome there could never have been built up in England a great, organised, and cultured Church.' — (Wakeman.) 4 ' Without the help of the saints of lona that Church would have been THE SPIRIT OF THE CHURCH / Who says the glory of the dove Is in the iris it may bear ? Its glory is the rapture pure That makes in peace, not power, its goal : The Homeward speeding, swift and sure. The Heavenward flight of heart and soul. Columba's this and Aidan's this, Oswald's and Hilda's and their kind — That 'goodliest fellowship'^ I wis ! — To them we owe the heart and mind Which made our Past of chill and thrall'^ No waste lethargic winter time, But, though the brumal bond might gall. Kept it in true touch with the Prime : — Which wrought our Change^ through stormy strife That brake the dead limbs from the tree, Back to that Prime of purer life And spring-tide carols of the free : — but a mechanism of bones and flesh wanting the life-giving soul.'— (Wake- man, History of Church of England, p. 26.) 1 See Bishop Lightfoot (p. 16), quoting Tennyson's line. 2 The period under the Papacy. 3 The Reformation. 10 LA YS OF ION A Which marks our Present} hour by hour, With new buds breaking, leaves uncurled, Beyond the pale of olden power, In all the gardens of the world : — Last : that will make our Future rise,^ From seeds of Motherland and Home, To bear for us 'neath other skies ^ Rich fruit in ages yet to come. Say not londs Church is gone, As memories die and names decay, But sing : The British Church lives on With Hers and Austins here to-day. 1 During the sixty years of the reign of Victoria the progress of the Anglican Church is best represented by the extraordinary increase of the Colonial and American as well as of the Home Episcopate. 2 Predictions of the wonderful future of English-speaking peoples are prophecies too in a measure of the vast extension of the Anglo-Catholic Church. 3 'There is a likeness, which proves a lineal descent, between the Church of England of the last three centuries and the Celtic Church of the olden days. . . . Over the seas to us, and over all seas, as the Church of England goes with English commerce and English colonisation to the ends of the earth, it is the old life, autonomous, independent, needing and knowing no fountain-head but Christ, and charged alike with the spirit and the power, the privilege and the responsibility, of bearing the sound of the Gospel in all lands, and Its words unto the ends of the world.' — (Bishop DoANE, of Albany, U.S.A., in Lecture, 'The Celtic Church,' to Church Club of New York, 1889.) LYRI C OF ION A PAST, AND TO BE NOTES TO THE 'LYRIC OF lONA' 1 Pott-na-Churaich (the Haven of the Coracle) is at the south-west end of the island. Here St. Columba landed with his twelve followers on the eve of Whitsunday, May 12, a.d. 563, and having ascended to the point near it, now called ' Cairn cul ri Erin ' (or ' Cairn of Farewell to Ireland '), and seeing that his native land was not visible (as it had been from Colon- say, the island on which he first landed), he decided to make lona the cradle of his Mission. It is in this bay that the brilliantly coloured stones, white and porphyry-coloured and (most beautiful of all) translucent green serpentine and the reddest felspar, are found. 2 Eala is the grassy mound above ' Martyr's Bay ' on which the bodies brought by the galleys from distant places for burial in the Reilig Oran were laid, after disembarkation, previously to their passage along the ' Street of the Dead ' to the Reilig. The word is sometimes derived from the Gaelic for a S7van. The real derivation is from calatrom, a bier. 3 The Reilig Oran (or Odhrain) on the east side of the island, near the Sound which separates lona from Mull, is the famous place of sepulture near St. Oran's Chapel. The position of the ruin of this chapel is con- sidered the most probable site of the church in which Columba worshipped. In the Reilig Oran, the most hallowed burial-place in Scotland, lie buried sixty-one kings — forty-eight of Scotland, eight of Norway, four of Ireland, and one of France, besides many bishops, abbots, priests, and chieftains. (See later note, p. 63.) 4 ' Close beyond the Reilig Odhrain, a little to the nonh-east, there is a natural hillock of rock, but covered on most sides by turf, which is perhaps the most interesting spot upon lona. From its isolated position — from its close proximity to St. Odhrain's Chapel, and to the ancient place of sepul- ture . . . from the splendid view it commands over the sacred objects close at hand, over the sloping fields, the Sound, the opposite coast, and the distant mountains — this knoll must have been a favourite resort of all the generations of men who lived and worshipped on lona. Tradition, too, has faithfully preserved in its Gaelic name the identity of the spot. It is called the " Torr-Abb," or the " Abbot's Knoll." I cannot doubt that it is "the little hill" respecting which Adamnan gives perhaps the most re- markable anecdote in his account of Columba's life. On the last day of that life, Columba, we are told, being now very infirm, ascended a "little hill" (Monticellulum) . . . and lifting up both his hands, he blessed his now long-adopted home, and pronounced this prophecy of its fame: "Unto this place, albeit so small and poor, great homage shall yet be paid, not only by the Kings and people of the Scots, but by the rulers of barbarous and distant nations, with their people also. In great veneration, too, shall it be held by the holy nien of other Churches." '—(Duke of Argyll's lona, p. 89, etc.) %^vit of Jona: pa0t, anti ^o Be. I A HERMIT spirit holds the isle ; Ever, by night, by day, His eyes are in its matin smile, And in its vesper ray ; But most he loves the haunted ground From Columb's bay^ To Eala's mound,- And where St. Oran's dead sleep by the rolling Sound. ^ II A spirit he of hope and love, Free as the wind and wave. Nor more is he as brooding dove, Than as a prophet brave ; An he must mourn, 'tis not with moan. For each rough grave. Each ruin lone. Is in his far-off look a new foundation-stone. 14 LA YS OF ION A III He holds for all the Isle in spell Who from Torr Abb'* can hear The old immortal oracle Still wed the far and near : There ever, for the impassioned eye And wistful ear, He summons nigh The deeds that live like song, the Creeds that cannot die. IV Haunt me, sweet spirit of the Isle ! Thou tender soul and strong ! From Duni's steep to yon grey pile, And each wild strand along, Back to the amethystine shore, Thine undersong Be evermore Love's brooding on the wind, Hope's music in the roar. CANTO THE FIRST 15 CANTO THE FIRST Jntrotiuction I If, pilgrim-poet, thou would'st soothe thine eyes Long time aweary of thy prison walls, Seek not the ever-azure seas and skies Where nought of change upon thy vision falls, Where fairest scene no fairer deed recalls ; Though there tired head and languid limb may rest, Thy heart, like hungry wight in barren halls, Or spirit fair displumed and dispossessed. Will roam the lovely land unsated and unblest. 11 Go, rather, where, as on lona's shore, Soft vales, or breeze-impassioned pines, or streams That woo the summer, or, from mountains frore, Roll winter, are not — but a silence seems The reverent guardian of a land of dreams : l6 LA YS OF I ON A Silence all deepened by th' Atlantic surge, And loud or crooning winds and seafowl screams — Silence that is a memory, not a dirge ; Dreams from whose pregnant depths right-royal forms emerge. Ill Rapt silence : like a memory in a song So sacred it is sung beneath the breath, Wherein a host of saints and heroes throng, Yet never fear or folly entereth With alien step or strident note ; but Death Stands starry-crowned, as Hope, and like a friend Greets each mute presence there as one who saith : ' Your old highway of triumph still ye wend ; Not yours, ye Great, but mine, mine is the gloom and End ! ' IV Dreams of no heights or depths of spectral air: — No idle fancy's unsubstantial food Feeble for use, albeit to vision fair — But dreams that nerve the heart, and fire the blood, And brace the laggard limbs of purpose crude, CANTO THE FIRST 17 With longings for ripe action — dreams that breed Stern impulses of such a fortitude As dares, amid a world of pomp and greed, To live that life of use which must be life of deed. But one, nor greatest, of a hundred Isles ^ 'Tis first in fame, if deepest in the gloom ; Authentic still above her ghostly piles A living Voice denies the seeming doom, And still the stately Crosses o'er her tomb—' To faithful hearts in every land a lure — The grey sepulchral solitudes illume ; Long as the Church lives and its Creeds endure. Shall be their lonely light a Christian cynosure. 1 Sir Donald Munro, in his Description of the Wtstern Isles, called the Hebrides (1549), gives the names of two hundred and nine islands. 2 The popular tradition is that there were more than three hundred crosses on lona before their general destruction was ordered by the Presby- terian Synod. The crosses here specially alluded to are those well known by the names of (i) Macleans Cross, in the Street of the Dead, a monolith about eleven feet high, hewn out of mica schist, said to have been erected on the spot where St. Columba sat to rest on the afternoon before he died : and is pro- bably therefore the oldest Christian monument in Britain ; and (2) St. Mar- tin's Cross, a solid column of hard rock, fourteen feet high, in the grounds of the Cathedral ruins. Both are probably of much more ancient date than that of the ruins, and are therefore to be associated with the Celtic not the Cluniac monks, B 1 8 LAYS OF lONA VI Here was new-born to God the northern West.^ Here for the West 'gan beat that pastoral heart, A child's heart yet a giant's, in the breast Of simple men, that with no other art Or wile, save Love's, could front each devil's dart Of fear, or worse self-favour, with the pride In Cause or Captain where self played no part — That warrior-heart unchecked — as ocean's tide Resistless, swift or slow, o'er rock or dune can ride. VII Not for thine earthly beauty dearest thou, lona, of the Isles. Chief beauty stands By heart and life, by unforgotten vow, By acted penitence, by holy hands Of prayer and service at the dear demands Of Him Who adds to ' I forgive thee ' ' Go ! ' ^ Then in the oblation of love-conquered lands, Of peace and gladness for revenge and woe. Of brethren of one heart for yon vindictive foe. 1 An old title of lona, 'The Western Morning Star,' was given to it in allusion to the conversion of Pictland by St. Columba and his monks. 2 There is a close analogy between the question of the penitent Saul of Tarsus, ' Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?' and his obedience to the bidding that he should go to the Gentiles, with its results, and Columba's ' fruits meet for repentance ' brought forth after absolution had followed on his acknowledged transgression. THE ISLAND 19 CANTO THE FIRST Yet thou art beautiful,^ above, below, Wild or serene ; in rock, in heav'n, in wave. Now all the immense Atlantic, in its flow Of furious storm thy warder headlands brave ; Noiv not more still and holy is a grave That flowers look down to and the tender skies, And water-kisses as for worship lave \ While breezes soft as slumber fall and rise, And rise and fall again in reverential sighs. 1 ' There are not many places in the world where those three great voices — "each a mighty voice" — the sky, the sea, the mountains — can be heard sounding in finer harmony than round Columba's Isle.' — (Duke of Argyll.) 20 LA YS OF I ON A II Hues of lona's waters and her heaven ! ^ When winds are up or when they sink to rest, To what fair daughter of the seas is given To be with more variety invest ? Scarce may the Indian islands of the West With eyes of Hght intenser plead with fame To be for sure the Islands of the Blest. O eyes of morn, O sunset eyes aflame, And ye translucent floods, ye seal her sovereign claim ! Ill O not forlorn, though Solitude be queen ! As the Divine Election, if it chose A spot so faint in all the vast Terrene,^ Would choose it where the freest sea-wind blows 1 ' It is true that the climate of the Hebrides is a wet one. Hence the wonderful beauty of the skies. "Cloudland, gorgeous cloudland," is a truthful exclamation of the poet. For nowhere is the face of heaven more various in expression than along that line of coast where the vapours of the Atlantic are first caught by the Highland hills. . . . It is true the colouring is darker, but it is also deeper, richer — more intense. Nothing can exceed its splendour. And so of the sea : its aspects around lona are singularly various and beautiful.' — (Duke of Argyll, lona, pp. 69-71.) - Zona is in length not more than three miles and less than a mile and a half in breadth. In a map of Europe it is of course only represented by a nameless dot. THE ISLAND 21 With tales of the great deep;^ where Beauty glows r th' arms of ocean sunsets, or in light Of changeful hues that ever interpose 'Twixt shade and shine from inorn to midday height : Or broods, like love in heaven, thro' the long norland night. IV Dark based, dark lined, thy rocks are ashen grey, Stark as a skeleton : as they had been. In dateless ages of the far-away, The monstrous relics of some astral queen Doomed and flung down as on a grave obscene. Lashed by the spray, mocked by the gales a while, Till — lo, came Pity, clad in tenderest green,"- Where winds and waves forbade her not, to smile, And from these bones of death to form the living Isle. 1 On the western side of the island there is 'nothing to break the fetch of the ocean from the shores of the New World.' ■- ' It is true lona is a rocky island, the bones protruding at frequent intervals through the skin of turf. Even there, however, Columba must have seen that the pasture was close and good ; and not far from the spot on which he first swept the southern sky, he must have found that the heathy and rocky hills subsidecffllto a lower tract, green with that delicious turf which, full of thyme and wild clovers, gathers upon soils of shelly sand.' — (Duke OF Argyll.) 22 LA YS OF ION A And most she bade the soft green grasses grow On one fair mound that fronts th' Atlantic main — ^ Whose roar, as of the ages, flings below — As she would clothe it thus, in meek disdain Of salt sea wrath. — Mark it by Machar's plain, Where spread she soil for many a fruitful field, A stiller sea to roll in golden grain ; — 'Tis hight, 'The Angels' Hill.' There Columb kneeled, And o'er him spirits of grace in choral blessing wheeled. VI Thus did she robe that ruin with her spring. Here with tall grasses : there with elfin lawn : To blanched crushed homes of life ^ made mosses cling As green as hope, or golden as the dawn : 1 'There is a story of one of his monks having followed him secretly to the round grassy hill near the western shore of the island, looking over the Atlantic, and beheld him surrounded with white-robed companies of Angels who stood around him as he prayed. This hill is still called the Angels' Hill in lona in the language St. Columba spoke.'— (^rt^/y lilissions, etc., Mrs. RuNDLE Charles, S.P.C.K., p. 146.) This little hill is the coUicuhis angelorum of Adamnan. 2 The 'silver sand' at the north and east of tHWsland, and in other parts of it, is composed of the pulverised shells of an infinity of small land snails. Here and there the grasses and clovers flourish on it. THE ISLAND 23 And many a modest flower, from sight withdrawn, Set in the heath and fern. Yet there and here Are rocks all robe, save lichen, have forgone ; Some spire the knolls, some through the mosses peer: Some huge, might scare a maid or charm a moun- taineer. VII One like a crouching lion is on guard : One like an old-world monster Hes asleep : Here a tall sentinel keeps rigid ward Fronting a weird and wave-worn castle keep : One sphinx-like gazes calmly o'er the deep : While 'twixt the mightier masses wide and far Vast fragments lie alone in rugged heap — Her bones who lost the Queendom of a star ! — Or missiles hurled from heaven in some Titanic war! VIII There mark yon solan hovering o'er the sound ; Like a doomed life, it plunges in the wave : Silverly leaps the spray in sudden bound ! Then sudden sinks — like tears upon a grave 24 LAYS OF lONA When piteous sorrow sighs that none can save, And green seas like green grasses hide beneath Their rippUng pall the beautiful and brave — Ah ! for a moment dost thou hold thy breath To see the great bird spring out from its seeming death ? Like its own ghost it crowns its former tomb : Refreshed and fed by seeming loss it soars : So springs a spirit from the fancied doom Of some deep purpose : depth to height restores Its troth-trust : — so the Patriarch of these shores Sprang from his exile into use and fame. He prays i' the depth who last i' the height adores : Who loses life itself in toil or shame Finds more than that he lost and wins the elect new name. X Hast marked yon scattered rocks red-veined and vast^ MtilPs children alien here ? Alone they lie, As each had been some Titan'' s ivrathful cast From the Great Isle in times too long gone by 1 lona is entirely composed, says the Duke of Argyll, of strata which he THE ISLAND 25 For record! Canst not hear the stillen cry 0/ jealous wrath with each red bolt impelled^ Wrath that the less the greater should outvie ? ' — No Titan's bolts are these, but ice-drift held In some frore torrent's grasp that vexed the shores of eld ! XI Yet have I caught thy fancy, pilgrim ! Lo, Thine aged Isle that is more great by age, First daughter of the mystic long ago, Did reck so lightly of yon Titan's rage Who dared profane her lonely hermitage. And thinking scorn of childish blow for blow, Moved only to lift up one bolt for gage On yon three mocking fingers to her foe, And all these myriad years disdained to let it go. believes to belong to the oldest sedimentary rock yet known as existing in the world — the Laurentian gneiss. Mull, on the contrary, is of red granite. But Mull strangely has its representatives in lona in several huge masses of its granite brought over by ice in the glacial period : notably a gigantic boulder of about two hundred tons to the north of the Cathedral, and a smaller one, but of vast weight, beyond Martyr's Bay. This boulder is, as if contemptuously (see Stanza xi.), balanced on small points of the harder and more ancient rock of lona. 26 LA YS OF ION A XII Peace to these idle fancies ! 'Tis enough That children shelter 'neath it in the shade, Or when the winds on rainy seas are rough, Or the last games on the white sand are played. Come with more human fancies to mine aid ! Hard by is Eala's holy mound of death, And Martyr's Bay. No thought may here invade Save love's or fear's. Here slowly entereth Reverence with far-off mien and musings 'neath her breath. XIII A thousand years, from lands the far away, Or from familiar clans on isles anear. To sleep till these earth-shadows flee at day. They brought their greatest and their saintliest here ; ^ 1 ' Nor can we fail to remember, with the Reilig Odhrain at our feet, how often the beautiful galleys of that olden time came up the Sound Laden with the Dead — " their dark freight a vanished life." . . . The tombstones of the Reilig represent the lasting reverence which Columba's n.ame has inspired during so many generations, and the desire of a long succession of kings and chiefs to be buried in the soil he trod.'— (Duke of Argyll, pp. 97, 98. See also note on p. 63.) The following extract from Adamnan's Life of St. Coluihba (Book in. ch. xxiv.) tells us of this usage: ' Honcste ternis diebus et totidcm noctihus honoralnles rite explentur cxeynitr,' ' His obsequies were celebrated with all due honour and reverence for three d.ays and as many nights.' THE ISLAND 27 O'er the white sands upborne the sacred bier Sank to first rest on Eala's breast-like mound ; Then priest's low prayer and choral chanting clear, Like incense of the spring from April ground, Mingled with break of wave and wind that swept the Sound. XIV Three days, three nights that vigil's swell and fall Of song and prayer the waiting galleys heard ; Death-still they joined the stately funeral, Slow-rocking on the Bay. The wild sea-bird. As stayed by spell, with wings that only stirred In rhythmic wise, wraith-like, did overhang ; Then at the close — the last absolving word — Began the sad slow tread and armoured clang : And still the surges plunged and still the sea-wind sang. XV Climb, with the morn, yon slopes about Duni ; ^ Look from the height on all St. Columb saw, 1 Duni, or Dunii, is the small mountain of lona, 330 feet high. The view from it on a clear day is unsurpassable in beauty and interest. To the south are the Paps of Jura, to the north in the near distance the natural Cathedral of Staffa, in the far distance the Cuchulin mountains of Skye, and all are visible though the distance between Jura and Skye is ninety- six miles. To the south-west is the vast Atlantic stretching out to the 28 LA YS OF ION A On nature all unchanged.^ Less wilt thou see On many a mightier mountain — less for awe, Or the delight of free-far gaze ; no flaw Or bar on amplest vision lets thee now ! Thine eye to all the winds makes its own law, Leagues long three-score the seas its range allow, From southern Jura's breasts to CooUn's awful brow. XVI The Isles, three-score, like monsters of the deep. From farthest Islay on to frowning Skye, Rest on the dark-blue waters as in sleep. Or as huge kine on sea-like prairies lie. Ruminant at the noon. A soft-breathed sigh O' the mother of many moods now croons along From cove to scaur — a kiss, a lullaby O' the wind, who may ere night, a fury strong, Scream against reef and cliff her threats of scathe and wrong. New World ; eastward are Mull and its mountains ; and below and be- tween, the most sacred part of the island is in clear view beside the Sound. 1 ' When we look on lona, or when we range the wide horizon visible from its shores, we are tracing the very outlines which Columba's eye has often traced, we follow the same winding coasts, the same stormy head- lands, the same sheltered creeks, the same archipelago of curious islands, and the same treacherous reefs by which Columba has often sailed. . . . All the great aspects of nature upon and around lona must be the same as they were thirteen hundred years ago.' — (Duke of Argyll.) THE ISLAND 29 XVII But now — the centre of a hundred miles, Thou feel'st no breath but that of the sea balm That braces while it soothes. The waves, the isles. Lie like a vision of peace in stately calm — Less stately were the coco and the palm Than yon rock piles ! Below, the Minster tower Is silence eloquent — a lofty Psalm — That lifts thee ' to the Timeless from the Hour ' : On all this earthly show God's seal of heavenly power. XVIIl Most beauteous scene! thrice hallowed by one Hand : Here by His Cross-sign on His holiest Isle : TJiere by His mightiest Church on sea or land, Great Staffa's fane — the lone stupendous pile Whose far-encircling Close, and long-drawn Aisle, And Organ — is the sea ! and last, above, The Over-soul in sight, the Father's smile, The Dome where broods in light th' Eternal Dove — O'er-watching tenderness, o'er-arching visible love. 30 LA YS OF ION A XIX Rise : thou hast drunk thy fill of this delight. But soon thy beaker shall be brimmed again With other wine o' the Isle in sound and sight. Change stirs in the still air, and from the main Westward a warning moans, like his whom pain Has waked from quiet sleep. Westward go down. As he from Carmel sped before the rain, Past Machar's fringe of mosses golden brown. Where by the Spectral Cave the great Rock-warders frown.^ XX See how the storm rides up ! This western shore Awaits the inset of its noon-day tide As of a horde of foes. The water-roar. The fierce wind-blare, herald the hosts allied 'Gainst yon rock-chiefs set there in sombre pride, Like scarred grey-headed warriors, sternly grave, Who all the years all onsets have defied. 1 This cave, called the Spouting Cave, is one of several among the rugged cliffs on the south-west part of the island. When the wind is high and the waves large, the water, in a columnar form, spouts to the height of about two hundred feet, descending like a cataract.— (See Dr. Gordon's lonat p. 51.) THE ISLAND 31 See how they tear the cartel ocean gave ! Leap, thou torn surge, and fall — weird column of the cave ! XXI 'Tis eve, and ebb of tide : the winds are falling, An army sullen in retreat ; the seas Rage on like veterans careless of the calling To end a noble strife in craven ease. Yet must they fall too ; scarcely now a breeze Sighs its despair. Yet fails there not a sign Of martial end in fitting obsequies ; A sunset glory makes their waters wine : Surges and rocks alike its beams incarnadine. XXII Now midnight sleeps: but murmurs while slie dreams As still awake to love. The waters sleep, Save where the autumn queen her wealth of beams Pours in such royal largesse that the deep. Else dark and silent, seems to start and leap With myriad elfin hands to grasp the boon, And myriad elfin eyes that wake and peep 32 LAYS OF ION A In merry wise, to find again so soon That sweet light lately lost i' the maelstrom of the noon. XXIII ' Immense the conversation of the sea,' One says who loves the Isle.^ In power or rest : In sound or voiceful silence : bound or free : Moon-drawn and subject, or as one possessed With more of might and passion, or of zest For dance and laughter, than all else God-wrought ; Now eagle-pinioned, now upon its nest Creation's dove of sad or solemn thought : — Where more than round these shores with various beauty fraught ? 1 The Duke of Argyll, lona, p. 68. A LAY OF PORT-NA-CHURAICH 33 ^ ?lap of i9ort^na=Cl)uraiclj I Rock and roar, Wind and wave, of a west-rolling sea. Of a sunset of sea : The deep slope of a diamond shore,^ A mosaic of shore : And a moss-hidden skeleton lea, Lying inward afar From sea-gates of precipitous scaur : — Like their spell tvas none other to me, Is nojie other to me I II Face and form. Port and power, of a ruler of men Of a Saul among men : - Voice like song at the heart of a storm, A deep organ of storm : C 34 LA YS OF ION A Kingly eye as an eagle's in ken, Yet an angel might own Looking love by the steps of the Throne ; Their old glamour is now as was then : Even now as was then t III Long ago ? And ye hear but the roll of the wind, Of the wave and the wind. But the ebb, or the plunge of the flow, Sough of ebb, thunder-flow ? And ye see not these wraiths of the mind ? And that old Pentecost ^ Is a thing of the Far-away lost ? And I sing to the deaf and the blind, Spirit-deaf, spirit-blind ? IV Ah, no, no ! By the winds would a challenge be hurled, From the West ^ would be hurled \ By the seas, by their many-hued Bow, By their opaline Bow — A LAY OF PORT-NA-CHURAICH 35 That the Banner of Love is unfurled Over space without bound : That this glamour of vision and sound Has won through the gates of the world, Of yon world and your world ! 1 See note on page 12. " The following is translated from the Latin of Adamnan's Life 0/ S, CohoubaiBodk i. ch. i.): — ' King Oswald, after pitching his camp in readiness for the battle, was sleeping one day in his tent, and he saw St. Columba in a vision beaming with angelic brightness, and of a figure so majestic that his head seemed to touch the clouds.' (Also see note on page 57 of this volume.) 3 Those who have access to Mrs. Rundle Charles' Tria ju7icia in Uno ; Early Christian Missions in Scotland, S.P.C.K., would do well to read the admirable description of Eve of Whitsunday and the next days' Festival on May 12, 13, A.D. 563 (pages 113-117). 4 The expanse of sea westward from Port-na-Churaich is unbroken to that New World, the present Christian obedience of which is so largely due in its Anglo-Saxon population to the Missionary work originated in lona, and where the Episcopal Succession was first received through the Catholic Church of Scotland. 36 LA YS OF ION A CANTO THE SECOND %\t il5ame0 of i\z 3l0lanti I Truth and true love, in one, to their elect Have many voices. Stately first the tone And unimpassioned, when their mood's respect Looks far away ; but, last, when they have grown By nearness tender-hearted, and have known The thrills of contact, they with softer grace And more of music sweetly name their own, Like souls love-rapt from common Time and Place Who wander hand in hand, or murmur face to face. II ' Isle of the Druids ' ^ wast thou named of yore ; Ere from the Orient to thine Occident Brake the new Light — ere, hallowing thy shore. Stood Columb and his Twelve, and o'er thee bent 1 Whatever may be said against some of their practices and their com- parative ignorance, the Druids should have the credit due to them of having reached and encouraged a civilisation generally in advance of their time. THE NAMES OF THE ISLAND 37 New Pentecostal skies. More excellent Than that high ^ path thy Druid fathers trod Emmanuel's way ! The Great Bard to thee sent Sang the new Song, bare the true ' Fire of God ' ! So fell before His Sign the old Druidic Rod. Ill Thou wert '■louan Isle ' ^ of Adamnan — Columba's son and leal Evangelist, Who limned so well the marvel of the man That his great form through the millennial mist Shows clear as 'gainst clear sky o'er waters whist ; ' Ishona ' ^ hight, as Gaelic legends tell, The Island ever ' Holy ' to The Christ : And ' Icolmkill^ ^ the sea-girt citadel Of Columb of the Church, or Columb of the Cell. 1 See note on preceding page. '- loua Insula is the invariable form of name in all ancient mss. of Adamnan (see Reeves' Life o/Coluinba, pp. c.vxviii.-cxx,\.). ^ Ishona : from the two Gaelic words for Holy Island. It is a mistake to derive lona from this name. 4 Icolmkill: otherwise Icolumkill or IcolmcilU : in each case meening ' The Island of Columb of the Church ' or ' of the holy place.' 38 LA YS OF ION A IV By one thou art imperially alone ; ^ HY^^ by the eld yclept, as if it knew — Knew, yet not knew — that there could be but one, One ' Island ' only in the reverent view Of Christian eyes — one by election true Of the Divine fore-knowledge — one by grace Set o'er the mightiest to claim thy due. Though ' least,' like her of Ephratah,^ in space, Mother-in-God to be of a most royal race. V A second Bethlehem, second Nazareth, So mean of style, or title, or repute : Yet so life-gifted by the Lord of Death To be the 'House of Bread,' where David's root, The stately Tree of Life, should spring and shoot, And for far nations of the saved should bear Its healing leaves and amaranthine fruit, Albeit in such dry ground and desert air. Eternal Solitude seemed fittest sovereign there. 1 Hy, or /, simply means Island. - Micah V. 2. THE NAMES OF THE ISLAND 39 VI ' lona ' last. There 's music in thy name, lona ! and, to souls with ears to hear. True music and sweet meaning are the same. Filling with dulcet thought the grateful ear — Fair poesie to all singing is so near ! — lona, dear lona, evermore, Let flout that name who will with test austere, May the sweet error ^ on th' enchanted shore Rule in thy rainbow heaven, swell in thine ocean's roar. I There can be little doubt that this musical name, now, we hope, never to be changed, came originally from the error, accidental or other, of the substitution of « for u. No scholar seems to agree with Colgan, who, being impressed with the notion, ' mendose loua pro lona," printed lona in all the shorter lives of his Collection, as also in his abridgment of O'Donnell, although the reading was probably different in the originals.— (Reeves, cxxix.) 40 LA YS OF ION A I^pmn of ioiia aiiD tlje 3]0le0 ' Son of man, can these bones live ? ' — Ez. xxxvii. 3. I Bleak o'er the Isle the bones of death To all the winds lie bare : Not yet has blown the new wind's breath, No throb of life is there : The sapphire sky, the rainbow sea Alone forecast the things to be. Ill The cormorant's ^ and the raven's wing Sweep over surge and shore ; As 'gainst a dead or dying thing The sullen breakers roar : Lord God of life, the Isle is Thine, O bid Thy dead arise and shine ! 1 The cormorant is one of the most familiar birds of the Hebrides ; and Albyn (Scotland) was known specially as the ' Land of the Raven.' HYMN OF ION A AND THE ISLES 41 III Jesus, lona waits Thy will ! Till light upon her smiles ; Waits, too, in silence dark and chill The multitude ^ of Isles : Till she may wake their choral throng To join her own adoring song. IV Hark, o'er the waters far away Is heard the Christ's command ! See now on yonder gleaming Bay A new Ezekiel stand : Great seer, thy Master's message give, Bid these dry bones awake and live ! V From Whitsun ^ to Ascension morn, As each year lives and dies, 'Gainst Pagan ^ threat and poet scorn Saint Columb prophesies : ^ See note on page 17. ^ See Note 3 on page 35. •5 The chief early opponents of the Celtic Mission were tlie Pictish Pagans and the Druidic Hards. 42 LA YS OF ION A See from the wide West's charnel sod A white-robed army lives to God. VI O Father, Thine eternal choice, O Son, Thy love divine, O Holy Ghost, Thy quickening voice, Made every isle a shrine ! Their lauds of love, O One in Three, lona's children lift to Thee. Amen. COLUMBA 43 CANTO THE THIRD I Of ancient line and royal ^ wast thou born, Thou king of men. Two crowns in promise throwing Their glow upon thy cradle at the morn Foretold the day. Yet men stood by unknowing What Will ordained, or whose the Hand bestowing Thy chrism and regalia. Who was 'ware The things eternal in that light were glowing ? Not Donegal nor Leinster crowned thee there ! Thee for Anointed King a hundred realms must share. II ' Columba ' ^ named. Willed the eternal Dove To be in His own sign thus honoured most, 1 His father, Feidlimbh, was of the royal blood of Donegal ; his mother, Eithne, of that of Leinster. 2 Columba, in Latin, a Dove. It may be noted here that because the word lona in Hebrew signifies Dove, some have therefore fancied that 44 LA YS OF ION A Since for new miracle of power and love, Wrought for the heavy-laden or the lost, Renewal blest of primal Pentecost, He sealed thee such great mission to fulfil — Thee and thy twelve from one small Island's post — As twelve from one small room on Zion's Hill Sped with the Christ to win the whole wide world from ill. Ill Yet ' Crimthan ' ^ too. Didst suck the breast of kings That blood of warriors rather than the stream Of gentle mother's milk — (what time she sings Lullaby to her babe) — a while would seem Flood of thy veins, and th' impassioned gleam, Men call ' the light of battle,' in thine eyes Would steel that winning smile, or break the dream Of that exalted soul whose phantasies ^ Rapt commune loved to hold with spirit-peopled skies ? this fact was the origin of that name for the Island. This, no doubt, is not correct. But the Latin word easily lends itself to a Pentecostal suggestion. 1 Crimthan, that is Wolf. It would appear that both names were given him at the same time, before or at his baptism. - From before St. Columba's birth, and afterwards from his boyhood COLUMBA 45 IV Nay : mother's son was he, that lordly Celt; Eithne, thy hands were not more woman-smooth For churl or child ! his clear grey eyes could melt At every call of tenderness or ruth With love like thine : — like thine, for age or youth, In all extreme of need, th' impulsive heart. As pity were its sovran law in sooth. Beat with full pulse, spent each most patient art Sorrow's deep wound to heal or sin's more venomed smart. v Eithne ! to mother's hope how proudly bright — To mother's memory, in its patience strong, How blest — the dream ^ of that prophetic night, That stately Presence from th' angelic throng, on throughout his life, many instances are characteristically given by Adamnan, on a variety of testimony, of angelic visitations and manifesta- tions in his behalf. (See Book iii. on the Visions of Angels.) 1 The following is a shortened translation from the Latin of Adamnan's account of Eithne's vision : — ' Between his conception and his birth, an angel of the Lord appeared to his mother in dreams, bringing to her a robe of extraordinary beauty, in which the most beautiful colours, as of all the flowers, seemed to be portrayed. After a short time he took it out of her hands, and spreading it out let it fly through the air. But she being sad at the loss of it, said : " Why dost thou take this so lovely robe from me so soon ? " He replied ; 46 LA YS OF ION A The robe of myriad hues — for which did long Thy woman's eye — rapt, ere possessed, away, Yet still possessed, like a remembered song, Stored for delight — that infinite array Of flowers thick-strewn as stars, and beauteous as the day. VI ' Stored for delight,' for more than won thine eye. For noble promise to thy soul. It sped Far o'er the plains, out to the northern sky. Past mount and forest ever more dispread, Enfolding all with beauty. Then he said : ' Rather give thanks : ere long to thee shall come A prophet-son who, in his Master's stead, Shall lead from wastes where lost sheep sadly roam Souls countless as these flowers, safe to their Heavenly Home.' " Because this robe is of such exceeding honour that thou canst not longer retain it." Then she saw the robe recede in flight and expand until its width exceeded the plains, the mountains, and the forests. Then she heard these words : " Woman, grieve not, for thou shalt bring forth a son of so beautiful a character, that he shall be reckoned as one of the prophets of God, and hath been predestined by God to be the leader of countless souls to the heavenly country." ' (Book in. chap, ii.) COL UMBA 47 VII Thus, as upon his Lord's in Holy Land, Upon his birth an angel blessing fell, Blessing his after-growth. We see him stand, Fulfilment meet for such an oracle. Himself angelic, — seraph-tongued to tell His Master's message, and with Stephen's face Twice holy, stern and tender, like a spell. Now a strong warrior's, now a woman's, grace. The surest to o'erthrow, the readiest to embrace. 48 LA YS OF ION A ifaretoell: )a »>on0; of itote anti 2Dutp (for music) I Farewell — so soon, so late — Farewell, Farewell : So soon, with chirp of dawn, the Passing Bell : Farewell, Farewell. So late : it lingers, throbbing down the wind : It thrills, with touch of death, thro' heart and mind : Farewell, Farewell. It lives to haunt the glow and heat of day : It dies not when the eve is cold and grey : Farewell, Farewell. The lone night-watchers hear the toll forlorn, Till once again it antedates the morn : Farewell, Farewell. FAREWELL 49 II Yet 'neath and o'er Farewell, or soon or late, A spirit moves — secure of time and fate : Lord of Farewell. Toll, toll Farewell, from the drear sunrise on, Yet shall not Will be quenched, nor Work fore- gone Beneath Farewell. Till at some dawn far off, with glad surprise To all Farewell itself out of new skies Is pealed Farewell. D 50 LA YS OF ION A CANTO THE FOURTH Columba: ^ran0e;ce00ion, Eepentance, I Bright was the sunrise, bright the morning sky That glowed and deepened as the splendid flower Brake from the bud of boyhood, towering high Over its garden fellows. Such a power Was in him linked with sweetness and the dower Of grace, the dew of Hermon, on his soul. Few might foresee and fear the cloudlet lower That gloomed erelong the clear meridian pole, Big with devouring flame and voiced with thunder roll. II Woe worth it that a Spring of youth so rare. Summer of fullest flower of bent and aim, And Autumn that such early fruitage bare — Fruitage of love that fairer is than fame, COLUMBA 51 And with a holier halo orbed his name — That such a life should seem to lose its crown ; Albeit on righteous anger rests no shame, Albeit on crime e'en Love herself may frown, Yet she on such stern mood lets not the sun go down. Ill He let the sun go down upon his wrath, And gave his enemy place — and it was night. False lures of passion played about his path : — How great the darkness, when the dark seems light ! The anger born of Sorrow and of Right Was fed by vengeful fury till it grew A changeling monster of disease and blight ; He that was Abel stands a Cain to view. Whom for fair foe or friend nor man nor angel knew, IV So on that Abel fell the curse of Cain, The Church her ' Columb of the Church ' of yore In Crimthan of the slaughter seeks in vain ; The aureole that ringed his brows before 52 LA YS OF ION A Is all out-blotted by his brothers' gore ; Christians have Christians slain at his command, And, stainless priest and angel-like no more, Joy might there be in Hell to see him stand Thrust from the Altar-steps, an alien in the land. V Yet more condemned is he in his own soul. That ravished Psalter and his murdered friend,^ When cloud-like still these thoughts about him roll. May blot not out his sin, nor serve to fend His spirit from that fear which most can rend A heart that loves — the Master's silent Face ! Forgiven, restored, still must he fear that end — The Eyes that looked on Peter fall'n from grace, Which in their still reproach could more than sound abase. VI The Eyes that looked on Peter in the hall, The deep sad Eyes of wordless agony, The Eyes of Love that love can most appal. Looked on him once again - beside the sea, 1 See A Short Life, p. xxviii. 2 St. John xxi. 15. COLUMBA S3 All changed save in their love's intensity : And the long silence of that week's despair Brake then — to set the thrice-bound prisoner free ; ' Behold My sheep. My lambs, once more thy care : Thou lov^st, then live again. My life, My death to share I" VII So when the time was full, meted in Heaven, And God had put that passionate heart to test, And, as by fire, had purged its fiery leaven, Columba saw and heard. The warrior crest Dust-humbled, shame-fast brow, and beaten breast Felt the life-chrism of an angel's hand ; ' Rest thoii, thy slai?i have the eternal rest,^ ' From Abban's lips came as from Holy Land, And with absolving power brake the last spirit-band. VIII Free he arose, and yet the more was bound : ' Christ's man ' the more : Christ's bondsman deeplier sworn For farthest serving. To th' absolving sound — In those sad ears the music of the morn — 1 See Short Life p. xxix. 54 LA YS OF ZONA Sprang the old longing cry of one new born, ' O Lord, my God^ what wilt Thou have me do ? ' A cry self-answered in his soul's self-scorn : ' Make dead thy life if thoti would' st life renew ; Exile and slave art thou, if thou be free^nan true.' IX Life : it was Erin ! field and flower and tree : Erin the beautiful, the emerald Set on the right hand of the sovran sea : Erin the oak-groved and the mountain-walled : Mother august whose love her sons enthralled As Zion hers ! where, earthly or divine, Sweet voices ever to sweet voices called : — Life : it was Erin ! clan and throne and shrine ; Of whom all thought and prayer ran in his veins like wine. X ' Not here my penance ! ' Met that inner cry The Hermit's 2 words, 'Men call thee here their own, Here all things meet thine hand and court thine eye, And thou, beneath the shadow of a throne, 1 Acts ix. 6. 2 S. Molaisi (see SAori Life, p. xxix.). COLUMBA 55 Ever art safe and never art alone ; Not here the harvest-field of souls for thee : Thou may'st not gather where thou hast not sown ; Far from this love-encircled shore and sea, For life repentance meet thy way and work must be.' XI He faltered not before the word of doom ; Nor turned his gaze from the far-pointing Hand Of One Who stood before the gates of gloom ; And though the gesture was of stern command, ' Follow thou Me,' yet, as when first they scanned Him He had named ' The Rock,' His regal eyes Were brimmed with love, so now the alien land Became at once an altar and a prize : Blest was that call in sooth that bade him agonise. XII Hard by an ocean towered a rock enthroned Crested with plumes that wantoned in the breeze. And clad with flowers, the fairest summer owned ; Then fell the ruining plunge of sudden seas, And all that floral robe and crown of trees S6 LA YS OF ION A Passed into wreck ; yet, statelier for the shock, In some new Spring, 'mid hum of homing bees And bloom-bells ringing perfume, stood the rock. While on its sunnier slopes fed a more beauteous flock. XIIT So stood Columba's will — reft of its pride, Nobler for loss : renewed and consecrate : Its outer self untameable had died. To be new-born in pangs, a worthier mate For form so fair. Th' expanse of love and hate Re-lived, not less : but 'twas a healthier sod, To be — by ruin's self regenerate — Beneath the sunshine and the rains of God For hoHer use and praise by men and angels trod. XIV Mark how Adamnan drew him in the light. Fronting the clear meridian of his quest, — His limner leal as cunning — kingly height Of head and brows that towered o'er warrior breast, Crowned with such locks as sunshine loves for crest. COLUMBA 57 Yet more than monarch's was the angel mien Which spake a spirit by that Spirit blest Who works by ' peace and love '—the Power unseen— Neath passion's stormiest flood an ocean depth serene. XV Like ocean's too his voice ^ — deep as its roll Through Staffa's organ caves when winds are free, A diapason wont to thrill the soul As charm the ear — yet soft as evening's sea When winds are bound or wandering dreamily Adown the funeral highway of the sun ; Voice like a poet's personahty, The power that wins the heart and holds it won, That absent keeps its spell nor fails of work begun. XVI A Poet 2 he, by right divine of birth I' th' order rare, the dynasty of song — 1 ' When singing in church with the brethren he raised his voice so wonderfully that it was sometimes heard four furlongs off: — yet to those who were with him in the church, his voice did not seem louder than that of others— it sounded the same far or near. . . . When, near the fortress of King Brudius, he chanted the evening hymns, some Druids did all they could to prevent . . . then he began to sing the 44th Psalm so wonderfully loud like pealing thunder . . . that king and people were struck with terror and amazement.' — Adamnan's Life, Book I. ch. xxi.x. 2 The allusion here is not only to his merits as a poet— illustrated in a 58 LA YS OF ION A A seer elect of mystic heaven and earth To whom the secrets of each shrine belong : — Yet with no poet-curse of bale or wrong : — A joyous prophet with the regal smile And heartening glance, and sympathetic tongue That, with all potent witchery but no guile, Sad men with sorrow's self could sweetly reconcile. XVII The mood of noble natures, pessimist, Blinded to hope by the world-glare of ill : Deaf to resultant good because they list The harsh remorseless grinding of that mill Whose grist is human lives set to fulfil One fate of anguish or of failure ; — This, With all its inward agony, or the chill Of sad or stoical silence, was not his : He saw the Things to be now in the world that is. XVIII The mood of nobler natures, optimist. Whose will, the whole mazed world's uncounted woes measure by the translations in this volume in the Appendix- from pages ri4 to i8i— but to the fact that his powers of attraction were so great that he may be called a 'king of men' by his wonderful winningiiess of manner and the masterful influence of his personality. COLUMBA 59 And inexpressive shames — antagonist To hope not less than joy — cannot enclose From the high warrior purpose to oppose, And the Saint's trust to win, was his : all wrong. And all the hordes of blatant fears and foes Drowned not to him creation's undersong. Prelude of final good, in hearts serene and strong. XIX Within no sternly narrowed course comprised, In stream of such clear mood ran Columb's thought To issues broad and deep. A world despised. Or rated by despair, shuns to be taught. The clay beneath the craftsman is not wrought Frost-hardened : but if he be sun and rain, Forceful and tender, and his end be sought With courage fed of faith, he shall attain And mould to beauty's self his long-enduring pain. XX No marvel that men said the way he trod Calm as commanding, masterful as kind. Was the old path of one who walked with God And with God's angels. Crystal clear the mind : 6o LA YS OF ION A Not for its tenderness of vision blind To fault or failure : not by love enticed From justice, though to love still most inclined, And for his joy men knew one Fount sufificed : A life thus cheerly lived was hid from self in Christ. XXI Careless of comfort : toiling hour by hour, Or with a ruler's brain, or artist's hand : This in some miracle of penman's power,^ The later scribe's despair — that in command Working his prophet-will o'er many a land, As in his ' Family of Hy ' : - now lone In cell, or inland nook, or by sea-strand Wrestling in prayer : — or now, the angel flown. Like the great Patriarch still, his rest one hallowed stone.^ 1 One of the duties of the monks of lona and Lindisfarne was the copy- ing and illuminating of books. ' The book of Kells now in Dublin, and the Gospels of Lindisfarne now in the British Museum, still exist as bewildering witnesses to their skill with the pen. Nothing else comparable with these mss. is known. How some parts of them were done without a microscope passes modern understanding.'— (Mr. William Muir's Life of St. Cobimba, page 30.) In this art the Abbot himself was a master. 2 Family of lona: the community of the Island. 3 The reputed stone pillow of St. Columba may still be seen in the Cathedral of lona. COLUMBA 6l XXII Thus souls innumerous rose to call him blest, And those who wrought with him as feudal lord. Time fails to tell the reckoning of their quest — To count the captives of each knightly sword Brought to the feet of Him their soul adored. Dark Albyn,^ Isle and Highland, Scotia, Gaul, Northland, Saxon ia — on. With one accord They heard and flowed together at the call, As he and his^ for Christ did realm on realm enthrall. 1 See Note 3 in Preface, page xxiii. - ' Such was the energ>- of the Celtic Missionaries that between the fifth and eighth centuries they had entered Gaul, Italy, Switzerland, and Ger- many ; and even reached the Faroe Isles and Iceland ; so that the Celtic Church extended from Iceland to Spain, from the Atlantic to the Danube, from Ireland to Italy.' — (Bishop Doane, U.S.A.) 62 LA YS OF ION A ^onff: Columba and tijc (Iflle^terii ^ea I Thou and thy sea are one For ban or benison, Lords of your hour. Slow will, sure end of tide : Law one with power, Yet in its passion free — A throned immensity Of calm or pride : — Thou and thy sea are one. II Thou and thy sea are one : Peers have ye princes none Of spirit change ! Can poet's eye and ear Find lordlier range. Marking each mien and mood Of your infinitude, For love and fear ? Thou and thy sea are one. THE REILIG ORAN 63 CANTO THE FIFTH I Winds from St. Ronan's Bay ^ the Street of Death, Where in each ReiHg^ ridge rest by the Sound Kings, Priests, and Chieftains. Each, of old, beneath The shade of its own Chantry wall, was crowned With its own Cross. How, still, the sacred ground Breathes Peace which, in the visionary mind, Blends with the ocean's and the sky's Profound ! And o'er these calm graves and mute hills behind Hovers on dove-like wings soft on the sleeping wind ! 1 The bay beneath the village of lona. 2 The Reilig Oran (or Odhrain), which, as a place of sepulture, has been called the Westminster Abbey ground of Scotland, is described by the Dean of the Isles (i68S), and from him by Buchanan, as originally consist- ing of three long ridges, each with its own chantry. One was inscribed : ' Tumulus Regu)n Scotice,' where lie 48 Scottish monarchs beginning with Fergus 11. and ending with Macbeth. (Cp. Shakespeare: Macbeth, Act u. Scene iv. : ' RossE. — Where is Duncans body ? Macduff. — Carried to Colmskill, The sacred storehouse of his predecessors And guardian of their bones.') Another: ' Tumulus Regu)n Hibernits,' where lie four Irish kings. And the third : ' Tumulus Regum Norwegia,' containing eight kings of ' Norroway. ' 64 LA YS OF ION A II Wait here a while. Here, sooth, Hfe's riddle seems Less hard to solve. A stern reality Shows clear, albeit this is a land of dreams ; Strong Purpose and meek Patience here agree And Awfulness and Peace. The sapphire sea, The changeful heav'n, the wind-swept rocks, the tide, In calm or passionate monotony, Are with all memory of these hearts allied, And what God so hath joined let no vain thought divide. Ill Vain here to moan or moralise on death, Where tombs of kings and priests tell of a life Of force or use ; and the strong ocean's breath Upon the brow or to the ear is rife With bracing memories of splendid strife, Or of adoring praise and ceaseless prayer. Here Power the husband mates with Peace the wife, And all high commune, and all earthly care Make music mingling well on the twice-haunted air. THE REILIG ORAN 65 IV Vain here the cynic's flout at place and power, The pomp of wealth, the pride of ancestry. The brief distinctions of an earthly hour, The common fate of each inane degree. One end for all in one oblivion's sea ; The silence like a sealed tomb of scorn ; Without it nature's careless revelry ; Or round it cries of new contentions borne : Once more the same fool's course, once more this close forlorn ; — V For these were kings,^ and sure the King of kings Hath in His canon given their state His claim : 1 The noble lines of Tennyson in the ISIortc d Arthur are so apposite that they might well have been written on this spot : — ' From the mined shrine he siept And in the tnoon athiuart the place of tombs, Where lay the mighty bones of ancient men. Old knigiits, and over them the sea-wind sang Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam.' And the preceding lines— ' He bore him to a chapel nigh the field, A broken chancel with a broken cross, That stood on a dark strait of barren land. On one side lay the ocean, and on one Lay a great water, and the moon was full,' are closely descriptive of the scene, if by ' the great water ' the Sound is for the moment understood instead of the Lake. E 66 LA YS OF ION A 'Twas great to be at least His underlings, To bear the pale reflection of His name, Borne by them to more honour or more shame As wielded each one well or ill his Rod — If passionate hearts were round them once aflame, Who, as a cynic, treads this burial sod, More base is he as man, more infidel to God. VI Baser as man : if whilom here the heart Of myriads pulsed with sea-like love or hate, As each strong king or chief had borne his part For weal or woe — their blest or blighting fate, — If here such passions were articulate To earth and heaven — a traitor, sure, is he, To all that makes our grovelling nature great, With eyes too gross to mark, ascending free. Incense of souls that burned on shrined humanity. VII Faithless to God yet more : no stoled priest, Or mitred Bishop, here has fall'n on sleep, But still his chant lives of the mystic East — Of God's descent upon the formless deep, THE REILIG ORAN 67 The void of souls — of Day-spring's upward leap — Of Bethlehem, Calvary and Olivet, And that high Chamber where the downward sweep Of that great Wind did for the Christ beget That stately most sweet Bride who waits His coming yet. VIII Twice 'awful ground';^ if awe makes consecrate This Isle of the Evangel to the West, Beyond all Isles, yet more importunate Is she, for reverence, here above this Rest, ' Till the Day dawn,' of those her holiest. Who wrought and prayed, and toiling still adored : Who stinted not of all their first and best To make, as angels use, in heart accord. By work to worship wed, meet offering to their Lord. IX Come thou not here, weak heart ! Muse, Poet, here : Here listen with thy soul. Almost the roar Of wind and wave is hushed upon thine ear, Now tuned to the low throbbing on the shore ; 1 The expression of Dr. Johnson in loco. 68 LA YS OF ION A Faint, first, and far listen a clianting soar 'Tvvixt Martyr's Bay and where the Holy Sign i Crowns the drear Road. It swells the Sad Street o'er, The bleak rocks and green hills and western brine, As sorrow linked with death moves singing to the shrine. X Dull on the causeway sounds that measured tread Of warriors armed for pageant, not for fight : — Sad pageant, closing a long glory, led By one prone form, pale as a norland night ; Yet see, within the shrine, the Altar's light Touches with chrismal hope the sunken head, Until, re-issuing, after holiest Rite, And the church-mother's latest Blessing said, The old king sleeps at last sound in his Island bed ; XI Sleeps with his peers, the stateliest of their time, Of Albyn, Scotia, Norroway the far. How dear soe'er, to each, ancestral clime. And claims of kin and clan, and scenes of war, 1 That now known as Maclean's Cross. THE REILIG ORAN 69 Each old familiar vale or beetling scaur, No Sleeping-place save this could serve him well ; lona was his long life's pilot star, Winning him home from native flood and fell To make by Columb's side his safe monastic cell. XII Or, Poet, it may be thy musing hour May chance when all the firmament of air. And sky and wave, are maddened by the power Of the weird Prince of fury and despair, And every violent spirit from its lair Springs at his will, and screams across the sound With eyes of levin-flash, and flame-like hair. And the torn seas like blasts of hail rebound From each grey chantry wall and each sepulchral mound. XIII Well to thy musing fits this hour ^ of strife, If fancy to thy memory recall ' The allusion is to the conditions of weather at and after the death of St. Columba. Adamnan relates (Book in. ch. ,\.\iv.) that he had predicted that not a mixed multitude, but only his monks, should ' perform his funeral rites and grace the last offices bestowed upon him.' Accordingly, immediately upon his death ' arose a storm of wind without 70 LA YS OF lONA The seal of death set on a greater life, A more august and kinglier funeral : When the great Abbot lay beneath the pall ; And all the seventy hours their lauds uprose — Well might his monks at every rise and fall Deem that the spirits of the lost, in throes Of anguish and despair, their cries did interpose. XIV Didst mark the instant^ peace when all was done? The strong winds bound, the deep sea still, the sky A very smile of God, His benison On His elect ? They seem to fail and die, And the loud world raves round them angrily ; But heaven was open unto Stephen's gaze ! For all the gnashing of their teeth, his eye Was upon Jesus and those glory-rays : — Then followed sleep and peace and soft amens of praise. XV ' The saints bore Stephen to his burial : Then rose great persecution^^ thus we read : rain, which blew so violently during those three days and nights of his obsequies that it entirely prevented any one from crossing the Sound. . . .' 1 ' And immediately after the interment of the Saint the wind ceased and the whole sea became calm.' THE REILIG OR AN 7i Then read ^ we on how followed festival Of bliss and peace : the doomed of Satan freed, Sweet news of hope to souls in bitter need, And joy in Heaven for such a gracious rain As woke on the waste lands the sleeping seed For Harvest-Home. So wrought the Dead amain : — So died lona's chief, so lived his deeds again. XVI Where lies he now ? It is enough to know Though — as seven cities for their Poet's ^ birth — Three kingdoms for this Prophet's bones may show High claim : though Albyn's,^ Erin's, England's earth For his last sleep would fain so shrine his worth, lona * keeps his dust. There Columb lies Near all those Great within her Reilig's girth. Thence when Eternal Spring makes open skies Columb and Columb's men together shall arise ! 1 Acts vHi. I, 2, and 4, 5 to end. 2 Homer. ^ Saul, or Down, in Ireland, Dunkeld in Scotland, and Durham in England (see Reeves' Life of St. Colninba, Ixxxi. to Ixxxiv.). 4 ' The Orave of St. Columba is in Hy, where his remains were suffered to lie till a century had passed. Meanwhile his dust had mingled with the earth: and dust with dust continues there to this day.'— (Reeves, ibid.) 72 LA YS OF lONA tljc (ITnion OF THE Ancient Churches of Great Britain AND the Churches Colonial and American The historic litie of light here indicatea is that xvhich— following the scattered lights that came from the East and the West to ancient Britain — came from Scotland to Ireland by St. Patrick, from Ireland to Scotland by St. Columba, thence to Northumbria by St, Aidan, and thence, by his successors, throiighout the Heptarchy of England, and was imited with the light from Italy and Gaul by St. Augusti?ie, and is now extended, in Catholic unity, over the Asian, African, American, and Australasian world. I As to some lordly mountain Which o'er a broad land reigns, Or some full river's fountain Which feeds the far-off plains, When — praising GOD the Giver — Thy children's lauds arise, Northumbria ! mount and river, To thee they lift their eyes. THE CHURCH PLANETS 73 II Nigh lostji lona won thee — Isle of Saint Columb's cell — Thence like new dawn upon thee His prophet ^ Blessing fell : Thence came his saintly Aidan, As with the full day's smile, With Western treasure laden Eastward to Holy Isle.^ Ill Kings made thy good their glory : They gave thee of their best ; All time shall tell the story Of Oswald and his quest \ ^ 1 After the death of Edwin and the flight of Paulinus. On the other hand, it is fair to note in this connection the opinion of Canon Bright {Early Church History, ch. v. page i6o). Commenting on Bishop Lightfoot's asser- tion that ' Aidan, not Augustine, was the Apostle of England,' he says : 'Aidan's relation to English Christianity as a whole has been somewhat seriously overrated ... he cannot with anything like historical exactness be called the "Apostle of England." ' See also note on p. 82. - Columba's dying prediction from the Torr Abb of lona. 3 Lindisfarne, off the Northumbrian coast. * King Oswald sent to lona for a Bishop to revive Christianity in Northumbria, where only James, the Deacon of Akeburg, remained. Aidan was finally sent. 74 LA YS OF ION A Of Hilda, in Christ's honour Won from her royal place, Yet crowned with power upon her Of more than royal grace. IV How sing of each light-bearer Along the radiant line ? Each of one Sun the sharer, All from one centre shine ; With Austin's constellation, And old Saint David's flame ; ^ They showed the One Salvation, So name them by one name ! V O Sun of Truth and Glory, With these who shone by Thee, Shine other spheres ^ before Thee Past many a severing sea : Each in his own course blessing Some far long-hidden land, 1 The light of the ancient British Church in Wales was never quenched. 2 Asian, African, Australasian, American. See Note 3, p. 10. THE CHURCH PLANETS 75 One Christ, one Creed confessing, Star-brethren of one band. VI Praise to our God for ever ! Who these did call and send Each to his own endeavour For one immortal end — One Spiritual Nation 'Neath one Eternal Sun, The Church of our Salvation One in the Three in One. Amen. 76 LAYS OF lONA CANTO THE SIXTH ^iDan, ?liatii0faune, and tljc Jlioctljumfacian Cijurctj I Ah, Blessed Dead, from labour resting well, How followed thee ^ thy works a thousand years, And follow still, let old Northumbria tell And many a farther ^ region ! Cares and fears Sat not beside thy Celtic charioteers ! Meek Aidan, royal Oswald, how they rode Love-armoured through the phalanxes of spears That stayed the fearful ; how their onset trode Northumbria's darkness down in its elect abode ! 1 ' The Scotic Church may fairly claim that its work in the conversion of almost the whole of England was primary, not secondary ; was direct, not indirect ; came of its own impulse ; was not created by the stimulus of any of the three foreign missionaries, Augustine, Felix, Birinus.' — (Bishop OF Stepney, Conversion of the Heptarchy, pp. 178, 179, iSi.) 2 In relation to the fact that a large part of the Continent was Christian- ised by Celtic Missionaries, Bishop Lightfoot says : — ' On the influence also of St. Columban, a Celtic contemporary of St. Columba (543-615), and his Celtic followers upon the evangelisation of Europe, see Montalembert's Monks of the West, ii. p. 387 sq., Neander's Church History, v. p. 39 sq. He preached in France, Switzerland, and THE NORTHUMBRIAN CHURCH 77 II ' Blindness, heart-hardness, ignorance, drear array Of callous heathendom,' a doubter ^ cried, ' They yield not ! ' yet how soon the foemen lay In happy thrall to Christ ! Their king, their guide To his own King ; meek Aidan at his side : True sons of thunder with those eyes of peace And tones of love that only conquer pride \ Within whose only presence rancours cease. And blind, imprisoned souls find vision and release. Ill So they proclaimed the ' Acceptable Year ' ! While 'vengeance' fell alone on chosen sin, Bright spirits chased to hell the ghosts of fear, ' Beauty for ashes ' clothed the soul within ; And, as on angel wings, love entered in Italy. His principal monasteries were Luxeuil in the Vosges, and Bobbio near Milan. St. Gall, on Lake Constance, was founded and named after his companion Gallus. St. Columban first gave the impulse to the mis- sionary enterprise in England and Ireland, which produced Cilian, Wilfrid, Willibrord, Willibald, Winfrid (Boniface), and many others.' — (^Leaders in the Northern Church, p. 177.) 1 The first Missionary brought back to lona a report of this sort. It was Aidan who suggested in the conclave that by beginning with the use of ' the milk of more gentle doctrine, strength might follow for the reception and practice of God's more perfected and exalted counsel.' 78 LA YS OF ION A Where misery and mourning ruled before ; Our larger England saw that Reign begin Which the long years see widening evermore O'er the immense new worlds and the far Austral shore. IV Greet we lona's daughter, Lindisfarne,i The Holy Isle of the far Eastern sea, Lone as a linden by a mountain tarn, Where rocks are drear and the storm winds blow free : Yet — as the sunshine seeks the silver tree — I ' From the cloisters of Lindisfarne,' writes Montalembert. 'and from the heart of those districts in which the popularity of ascetic pontiffs such as Aidan, and martyr kings such as Oswald and Oswyn, took day by day a deeper root, Northumbrian Christianity spread over the southern king- doms. . . . What is distinctly visible is the influence of Celtic priests and missionaries everj'where replacing and seconding Roman missionaries, and reaching districts which their predecessors had never been able to enter. The stream of the Divine Word thus extended itself from north to south, and its slow but certain course reached in succession all the people of the Heptarchy." And again, at the close of the chapters of which these are the opening words, he writes : ' Of the eight kingdoms of the Anglo-Sa.xon Confederation, that of Kent alone was exclusively won and retained by the Roman monks, whose first attempts among the East Saxons and North- umbrians ended in failure. In Wessex and in East Anglia the Saxons of the West and the Angles of the East were converted by the combined action of continental missionaries and Celtic monks. As to the two North- umbrian kingdoms, and those of Essex and Mercia, which comprehended in themselves more than two-thirds of the territory occupied by the German conquerors, these four countries owed their final conversion exclusively to the peaceful invasion of the Celtic monks.' THE NORTHUMBRIAN CHURCH 79 To her the grace of God drew softly down, Glad angels came and went unwearyingly, And wove for it a spiritual crown Which, next lona's own, shines foremost in renown. Isle of Saint Aidan,^ where new toil begun — Which with his abbot's spanned the East and West— And where^ hard by, when the great work was done. His tired head, laid as on a mother's breast, Fell on sweet sleep — a happy warrior's rest — If 'neath lona's thou thy fame wouldst hide, As one but of another's right possessed. Yet thou dost share her glory ! Celtic pride Ranks sainted son with sire, like-statured, side by side. 1 'There, too, is Aidan' (says Bishop Lightfoot), ' the gentlest, simplest, most sympathetic, most loving, most devoted of missionaries— the rock whence we (Northumbrians) were hewn — the evangelist to whom before all others the English-speaking peoples owe not this or that benefit, but owe their very selves.' " Twelve days after the news of King Oswj-n's death was brought to him, he breathed out his soul, leaning against a buttress of the Church of Bamborough, a few miles south of Lindisfarne, August 31, 651. In the Calendar they called the day ' Quies Aidani," Aidan's Rest: a 'tranquil close to a tranquil life : tranquil within, but most laborious without." 8o LAYS OF ION A VI Yea, if to choose of sire or son the man The likeliest^ framed to serve his fellows' weal, Formed for his God upon the noblest plan. Were duty — there are those would set their seal On son, not sire : not for more glowing zeal, A princelier purpose, or a heart more true : But for calm spirit that could deeplier feel. Eyes clearer to discern each tone and hue, A patience finelier wrought to suffer and to do. VII A race new fall'n from faith how hard to move ! As for the potter from dry clay to mould Some vessel to the likeness of his love ; Seemed there the stream of heart-blood all too cold 1 ' Measuring him side by side with other great missionaries of those days— Augustine of Canterbury, or Wilfred of York, or Cuthbert of his own Lindisfarne — we are struck with the singular sweetness, and breadth, and sympathy of his character. He had all the virtues of his Celtic race without any of its faults. A comparison with his own spiritual forefather — the eager, headstrong, irascible, affectionate, penitent, patriotic, self- devoted Columba, the most romantic and attractive of all mediaeval saints — will justify this sentiment. He was tender, sympathetic, adventurous, self-sacrificing ; but he was patient, steadfast, calm, appreciative, discreet before all things. "This grace of discretion," writes Bede, "marked him out for the Northumbrian mission ; but when the time came he was found to be adorned with every other excellence." This ancient historian never tires of his theme when he is praising Aidan. " He was a man," he writes, "of surpassing gentleness and pietyandself-restraint."' — (BiSHOr Lightfoot.) THE NORTHUMBRIAN CHURCH 8i For fresh warm life, its rocky channel old Now sought at will once more, albeit the new Led to the fields of light and sands of gold; — Yet his this miracle ! ^ Apostle true, Northumbria knows the fount where her heart-praise is due. VIII lona sent, and Lindisfarne received, And on forlorn Bernicia spent the grace Whereby for Christ the lost realm was retrieved, Fall'n, with her Edwin slain, from its high place When sad Paulinus passed and left no trace. Save his great Deacon's ^ warrior work alone. Thee, nor thy Cross, Time's ravages efface, 1 ' Not even the misconceptions of a controversial spirit can really ques- tion the fact that the Christian Church in Northumbria was built up by the steady painstaking wurk of the Scotic Church. James, the Deacon of Akeburg, had quietly stuck to his work near Catterick — but he was one man. . . . The feet of them that published the Gospel of Peace at large were Scotic feet. . . . The great bulk of England was brought to the Christian faith mainly through the inlluence of those who had learned all they knew from the Scotic Church.'— (Bishop of Stehnev, Conversion of the Hept- archy, page 38.) - In a chapter of great interest at the close of his Conversion 0/ the Heptarchy, the Bishop of Stepney goes far to prove that the shaft of a cross in the churchyard of Hawkswell, five miles from Catterick, is an Anglo-.Saxon one to the memory of Holy James, and that Akeburg was originally Jacob-burg, and that Hawkswell is from Yak's well, that is, Jacob's well: James's well. — (Pp. 215-219.) F 82 LA YS OF ION A Immortal James ! and now, by Akeburg's stone, Thee, the one faithful found, with loving praise we own. IX But save for thee,^ remained nor Holy Sign, Nor Church, nor Altar, betwixt Forth and Tees : So where heart-sickened Rome had ceased to shine Shone Scotia from lona. ' Hoarse the seas,' 1 The story of Paulinus, in relation to Northumbria, begins as beautifully as it ends sadly. It is, shortl}', this : — He was one of the four monks sent by Gregory from Rome in 6oi in aid of Augustine. At the court of Edwin he was chaplain to his Christian wife Ethelburga. An escape of the king and the birth of a daughter influenced the king, under Paulinus, towards Christianity, and after the Witan in the next winter— when the remarkable scenes occurred, first, of the comparison, by one of his warriors, of human life to the flight of a sparrow into and out of a banquet hall at winter-tide ; and next, of Coifi, the heathen priest, taking the lead in the desecration of the heathen temple — the king and his nobles were baptized, and, subse- quently, multitudes of the people. But the work must have been super- ficial or ill-organised. The present Bishop of London, Dr. Creighton, thus comments on it in a Lecture this year (1897) at Salisbury : ' The people were baptized in masses, the consequence being that when another king arose (after the slaying of Edwin) Christianity entirely disappeared, and Paulinus had to run away, ending his days as Bishop of Rochester.' Then, to quote from the words of the Bishop of Stepney (Church Bells, June 3, 1897) : ' Oswald and his brothers of the Bernician branch of the royal family of Northumbria, who had been converted by the Scotic Church of lona, drove out the Britons who had conquered Edwin, and made the land English and Christian again ; and by their friendships and alliance with other sovereigns they introduced Christianity to almost the whole of the remaining parts of "England" other than Kent and East Anglia, and the whole of their Christianising work was done by those who brought them to Christ, the Scotic school of Columba. ' Bade says: ' Nullum Jidei Chris- tiattiE signutn, nulla ccclesia, nullum aliare erectum est, priusquam hoc sacrce crucis vexillum novus militia ductor contra hosteni immanissimmn THE NORTHUMBRIAN CHURCH 83 The poet ^ sings, that gird the ' Hebrides,' But sweet the sound that from the barren Isle Bore the great Name along the Northern leas, And soft the light on England, dimmed a while, That shone with love reborn in Aidan's saintly smile. A song and smile that grew and never died : Oh, beautiful upon our English hills The feet of those isle heralds ! They abide Yet on our paths of peace. Our England thrills Yet with the Celtic tread, and yet she fills Her holy vessels at the wells of light. Themselves full filled of old from Eastern rills That westward flowed through the primeeval night From Siloah's healing fount 'neath Salem's^ mountain height. pugnatttrus statueret. — {Hist. Eccl. iii. 2.) On the other hand, Canon Bright {Early Church History, p. 149, 1897) writes: 'It has been too much the fashion to speak of the work of Paulinus as utterly ruined by the catastrophe of Hatfield. . . . The Northumbrian Christians were " cast down but not destroyed." ' 1 Longfellow. 2 The source of Celtic Christianity was most probably not from Rome of the West, but from the Church of Jerusalem. (See note, p. 100.) 84 LA YS OF ION A XI Was ever galaxy of nobler names Than stars the expanse of old Northumbrian skies? No comet-mists or passing meteor flames, Like burst of song that quickly soars and dies ; Slowly, serenely, steadfastly they rise : Immortal music with their orbit swells : Each calmly gazes as with angel eyes : Each in his sphere his heavenly tidings tells ; Deep as true love their sound, and sweet as evening bells. XII His Twelve ^ with Aidan — sons of love and war, — Lovers of souls, they led the wars of God ; — His Oswald, more than monarch evermore, With whom the Heavenfield Cross ^ was kingly rod, 1 One of S. Aidan's beginnings of work was the gathering about him and training a body of twelve young men, many of them afterwards famous. One of these was Eata, who followed him in the Bishopric of Lindisfarne ; and the two brothers Cedd and Chad, and Wilfrid, ' the most famous of Northern Churchmen in a succeeding age. ' 2 ' Heavenfield, a spot not far from Hexham, was the place where Oswald's few met the vast host of Cadwalla — "the hero of a hundred fights "—and defeated them and slew Cadwalla. With his own hands before the battle he planted a Cross in the ground, holding it as the soldiers filled in the earth. Then he and his army went to prayer. It was '■^ Hoc signo vinces" over again, but in the case of a nobler Christian and a manlier king. THE NORTHUMBRIAN CHURCH 85 Who sang his Alleluia till he trod The warrior's highway to a throne more blest, Leaving his martyr seed upon the sod ; Then Oswyn, with the Cross too on his breast, Whose sleep on stricken field won his true Aidan ^ 'rest.' XIII And thou, imperial Hilda,^ dove-like soul. Yet eagle-winged : men's counsellor and guide, Strength to the strong, as ivy round the bole, Or as the enchaining of the flood of tide Holds the long shore. — Caedmon is at thy side ; O Morning Star^ o' the morning stars of song. From thee our poet ages are allied These more than thousand years — that choric throng Whose music rolls in light our English heavens along ! 1 See Note 2 on p. 79. 2 Hilda was a princess of the Northumbrian royal family. She became, under Aidan, one of the chief educators of the Northumbrian Church. Her monastic house became a great training-school for clergy, and she herself was often consulted by princes and bishops, and she was specially called ' Mother,' from her piety and grace. None more than she have been true ' Mothers' in Israel. s It was Hilda who encouraged Caedmon the cowherd to become the earliest English p jet. It is in connection with this fact that Bishop Lightfoot im^\y 'iz.ysi.Lca.ders in the Northern Church, p. 67) : ' Here English litera- ture was cradled. The earliest of English poets, Caedmon, the forerunner of Chaucer and of Shakespeare, of Spencer and of Milton, of Wordsworth and Tennyson and Browning, received under Hilda the training and the 86 LA YS OF ION A XIV Cedd, Chad and Cuthbert, Wilfrid, Biscop, Bede, Egbert and Albert, cultured Alcuin ^ — For Church and country chieftains good at need, Northumbria's sons and saints, your memories win Deathless heart-praise ! — But, as ye pass, begin More than the ruin and fire that from the foam With the fierce Dane upon your shrines poured in : So slowly, surely the free Island Home Lies like a thing in trance, in charm of ' later Rome.' XV The body, not the spirit ! 'Neath the spell Of outer bondage struggled the free soul : ^ And many a sign and many a word would tell The chafing 'neath the never loved control ; inspiration which transformed him, like Amos of old, from a simple cowherd into a prophet and teacher of men. If English poetry, in its power, its variety, its richness, surpasses the poetry of any other nation of the modern, perhaps even of the ancient world, if it be one of God's most magnificent literary gifts to mankind, then we must contemplate with something like reverential awe the house where it was nursed in its infancy.' 1 For an admirable account of these workers, see a short work published by the S.P.C.K., Norihutnbrian Saints, by the Rev. E. C S. Gibson. See also the great work of Canon Bright, Chapters of Early Church His- tory, third edition, 1897. 2 'Through the long ages of Roman domination the English Church was the least enslaved of all the Churches. Her statute-book is a con- THE NORTHUMBRIAN CHURCH 87 Still could it faintly hear the ocean-roll ! Still dimly see the far-off cradle Isle : Still mark the raised hands on the 'Abbot's Knoll'; At Columb's living voice or Aldan's smile, Glamours of that new claim would lose their powers a while ! XVI Slowly and surely as the spell begun, Slowly and surely passed its charm away ; Then — sudden shock before the break of sun ! Before — as rise the mists at matin ray — Each looked on each as in the old clear day ; And though the lands with many a wreck were strewn, And many a frenzied soul went far astray, Yet most, like men who wake at last from swoon. Looked to that rock at last from which they had been hewn. tinued protest against this foreign aggression. Her ablest kings were the resolute opponents of Roman usurpation. When the yoke was finally thrown off, though the strong will of the reigning sovereign was the active agent, yet it was the independent spirit of the clergy and people which rendered the change possible. Hence there was no break in the continuity of the English Church. Of this independent spirit, which culminated in the Reformation, Aidan, our spiritual forefather, as we have seen, was the earliest embodiment.' — (Bishop Lightfoot.) 88 LA YS OF ION A XVII lona the recluse, not lordly Rome, lona of the primal purity, Was nursing mother,^ England, in thine home : Was most about thee in thine infancy — Isle of the open sky and crystal sea ; — If she of the stern hills and turbid wave Sent of her best and stateliest to thee By Gregory, the loving and the brave, Yet largelier e'en than they thine Island mother gave. XVIII Thou art not Rome's, my England. As I stand Fronting lona's waters, and the wind Blows free upon my face, and the rock-land Is firm beneath my feet, and all my mind Is joyous with the great things set behind And the great hope before, well do I know In deep of heart that he were fool and blind Who sees not whence thy faith and freedom flow, And where by grace of God thy royal banners go. I ' I will show you the cradle of your race. The time is the middle of the sixth century. The scene is a lonely island off the western coast, beaten by the Atlantic surge. This lona— this bleak, barren patch of land— is the spiritual and intellectual metropolis of Western Christendom. Here is the centre of civilisation, of learning, of light and truth for the nations." — (Bishop Lightfoot, p. 109.) THE NORTHUMBRIAN CHURCH 89 XIX O great Church-Mother, forward, o'er the world Of farthest seas and continents, they go ! And, as to all the blasts they fling unfurled, lona's legend ever bid them show. Bright in the matin gleam or vesper-glow. Truth, Peace, and Love : — the old simplicity August in beauty the divinest ! Lo, The wide earth beckons and th' ' inviolate sea ' : ' Forward, lona's child, Church-Mother of the free ! ' 96 LA YS OF ION A Si a^ormne: on Jona A SONG A tender mist of amber lawn, Aurora's vesture ere the dawn, A robe already half-withdrawn O'erhung the heaving bay ; Just might be seen beneath its pall Her bosom's restful rise and fall : Just heard from far the breezy call That summoned up the day. The amber deepened into gold : Then softly, slowly, fold by fold, The lingering robe away she rolled : Then, smiling sleep to scorn, To sound of wings the waste along That woke the ripples into song, A goddess, beautiful and strong, Up leapt the living Morn ! ON THE TORR ABB 91 CANTO THE SEVENTH a)n t^c ^orc abb A Paraphrase of the Prophecy of St. Columba on the 'httle Hill' on the last evening of his life, June 8th, 597 A.D. ' Albeit, lona, thou art small and poor, In all the mighty world so mean a thing, The spirit that is of thee shall allure The love of many a people, matiy a king. Not Scotia only shall her homage bring. But the barbarians of a world tmknown Shall make to thee their reverent offeritig, And Saints of Churches far away shall own The small become so great, this mean Isle made a throne.^ II Come, Poet, this still hour, past evensong, Noon's rainy passion charmed away. A while 92 LA YS OF ION A Stand here upon Torr Abb. Before thee throng, Like archangelic warders of the isle, White, columned clouds, ascending, pile on pile, From sea and mountain bases to such height As shuts the world away, yet wins the smile, Behind Duni, of the last lingering light. Day's norland benison to fade not through the night. Ill They stand, these misty spires, as, for the hour, Recalling by high symbol to the mind, In their august array, the mystic power. Which in a circle of sure truth enshrined The vaunt wherewith the passing Saint divined — (This Monticellulus the pulpit stone For this, his dying oracle, assigned) — That the mean Isle should be a future throne For homage paid by lands the far-off and unknown. IV This is lona's heart. Here as we muse The grey Cathedral ruins ^ melt away ; 1 All the ruins in lona are of buildings 500 years later than the Columban time. ON THE TORE ABB 93 All relics of a thousand years we lose 'Twixt this Torr Abb and ghostly Martyrs' Bay. Nought meets our eyes save of her earlier day — Her Abbot's church, its own cross sentinel, The plain monastic huts in quaint array, And as to worship calls the evening bell We see the brethren pass each from his lowly cell. V The bell has ceased. The hush is yet more still, A deep-voiced tremor on th' adoring air Floats slowly to our ears upon the hill — Listening as if th' o'erwatching angels there With folded plumes themselves were bowed in prayer — Until it swells and heightens into song, A laud exultant over sin and care. Sonorous as an ocean-voice and strong, Adown the shoreward lea, the island wastes along. VI We see not now yon Nunnery.^ Our heart, Behind it fifty decades, visions there. As here, low cells and shrine of simpler art, And monks of thew and sinew as of prayer, ^ See note on preceding page. 94 LA YS OF ION A Who make the world's lost sheep as much their care As their own souls : bondsmen, yet free, and fain In shepherding right soldierly to fare O'er field and mount, o'er flood and frozen main ; On such crusaders strong what captive calls in vain ? VII With laud and orison thus to wake the night And greet the morn, and keep each sacred hour, Is rule that sweetens with unearthly light The hard long day, and makes each cell a bower Of spiritual vine and amaranth flower ; — Yet are they built, too, on a warrior's plan. They stand their height, complete in all their power, As if round each one's life this legend ran : Christ's thrall in noblest wise since every inch a man. VIII Mark thou the vigorous life of every day : No hanging hands are here, or feeble knees. They know to reap the harvest of the bay. As of the plough — to chmb the breaking seas. ON THE TORR ABB 95 Or stem the tide against the northern breeze ; Their fasts but curb the flesh, not bow the form ; Firm set are they as their own Hebrides : Cool in the solstice, in the ice-blast warm : At home in deep or height, strong children of the storm. IX A wholesome life 'twixt constant prayer and toil ! And when from far the fuller calling came. And the monk-missioner for larger spoil Followed the summons of some beacon flame, Signalling ghostly need in the great name, He passed as some tried athlete, or as knight At all points armoured against fear or shame : High couraged, strong of limb and keen of sight, As he was pure of heart and dweller in the Light. X Ruled over each — as charity^ clothes all — The sweet stern spirit of a love so tender. So simple-strong — since ever musical To one high note of truth — that all the splendour, 1 Coloss. iii. 14. 96 LA YS OF lONA Which art or culture or proud claim can render To their elect, with it can never vie As mover, or inspirer, or defender, — And was to each his shining panoply, Wherein he went his way to do and dare and die. XI Such were Saint Columb's sons on whom that eve From the Torr Abb he gazed, as work or prayer Held them beneath him. Could he but beUeve That the great heart that beat before him there Had for high quest a path whereon to fare Beyond all thought or vision, only known By Him Who willed lona should prepare A way among the nations for His own, Where He would plant His Cross and rear His Altar-Throne ? XII What saw the Dying, as he prophesied Here with uplifted hands — one towards the East, Whence flowed of light and grace the fontal tide — One Westward ? Haply, to the visioned Priest, O'er that enormous water-world there ceased ON THE TORR ABB 97 (Gave God such guerdon to his soul ?) the spell Sundering so long earth's vastest from its least — Those vastest shores from which the surges swell, From this small speck on sea, this poor Saint Columb's cell. XIII Mark, pilgrim, four ^ who stand beside thee here, From those far lands beyond the desert seas, With more than the bland tourist's eye and ear ^ Of vapid, or of vainly-acted, ease, The mask of ignorance or languor : these — Owning a contrast of true voice and mien — With what crown'd hope and solemn sympathies They look with fervour on the reverent scene. Not less for what shall be than what has greatly been ! XIV They bow as 'ncath a Blessing. Inward sight O'erflies yon mighty waters rolling Home, And sees their brethren standing in the light 'Neath the one Church's vast Cathedral dome : They hear those voices overleap the foam, 1 Visitors from America. 2 See Wordsworth's sonnet, 'Cave of Staffa.' G 98 LA YS OF ION A Crying, ' We are lona's — Columb's men ! Ye stand beside our cradle, ye who roam ; Keep us, O brothers, keep us in your ken, Blest now beneath Torr Abb, as in our fathers then ! ' XV Poet, bow too beneath it : — Unto Faith These fifty generations are a day : Those who believe not, see here but a wraith. Catch but faint echoes of a long lost lay ; For them the Church grows like the old world grey: But not to Faith. The Word, the Creeds, the Line Were, and will be,— nor Time's nor Schism's prey,— To Her ' the gifts and calling ' are Divine ; Here still Saint Columb stands and blesses still his shrine. XVI Not less with Her lives Hope than Memory, What sundering tides between may seem to roll ; Ever her forward gaze is rapt and free ; Ruin and wreck may grieve, not daunt her soul, Nor death ring there a never-ceasing toll ; ON THE TORR ABB 99 Far on in vision, let who will despair, Ever her chariot rounds a further goal ; Brave prisoner in hold ! her ears are 'ware, And catch, past dungeon-grate, free voices on the air. XVII She sees at Port-na-Churaich a new sail ; Again commissioned feet spring on the shore, ^ The old liturgic antiphons prevail Over the sea-wind and th' Atlantic roar. And blend with either as they sink or soar ; Again a Bishop at his Altar stands : Th' Eternal Offering is shown once more ; Above the old grey rocks and silver sands A cynosure reborn lona fronts the lands. XVII 1 Come, Day, that will'st come ! Tarry not, but come ! All holy sound and solemn scene attending ! Thine Albyn's children once again at home : To their first Pentecostal Altar wending : Old Gaelic praise from Gaelic heart ascending 1 See Sonnets, 'Bishop's House,' pp. loi, 102. lOO LA YS OF ION A Tuned to the Celtic rite and Catholic Creed ; Child-West^ once more i' th' ancient worship blending With Mother-East which first her spirit freed : — That first Faith hers once more, she shall be free indeed. 1 ' At the Synod of Whitby the Celtic Church claimed to follow the prac- tice of the East and of the Apostle St. John, from whom they said their forefathers had derived their customs. . . . This is a corroborative proof that the origin of their Church was Oriental. . . . We think that now the question of origin may be set at rest, and that the verdict is in favour of their Eastern descent.'— {Bishop Ewing, lona and the Early Celtic Church, chap. xiii. pp. 38, 39.) i THE 'BISHOP'S HOUSE' IN lONA loi SONNETS Cte '2Bi0ljop'0 i^ou0e* in 3Iona TO ALEXANDER LORD BISHOP OF ARGYLL AND THE ISLES (From The Guardian, June 1896) ' The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.' — Rom. xi. 29. I Father in God, of that unchanging line Varying, mayhap, in station or in case. But not in rule or creed, or in that grace Of hands that seal or send by right Divine : Lo, here for visible authentic sign Of that which man may but a while displace, And ruining time can never all deface, Thy House of peace and consecrated Shrine ! Once more an altar by Saint Columb's cell — The old ' Vexillum Regis ' on its tower — Once more the ordering hands that send with power. And keys that ope and keep the citadel, And voices to proclaim by changeless Creed, ' Without repentance ' are God's gifts indeed 1 102 LA YS OF lONA II Witness, ye old unchanging seas and skies That vary, yet are evermore the same — Skies, now serene, now rent by levin flame, Seas, like the sun, that ever fall and rise. Yet in all case secure and in all guise : — And ye, eternal hills, whose antique claim Puts things that pass, vaunting their hour, to shame — By all that doth your state immortalise, Witness — Ye saw Columba's Pentecost, Ye heard his chanted Gloria, and his Creed, And Eucharist with his twelve. Oh, by this rede, Witness, God's gifts and calling are not lost ! By these fair firstfruits point the promise plain That Christ's One Church shall have her own again. FAREWELL 103 jfarctocll OFF STAFFA : lONA IN THE DISTANCE : A RAINY SUNSET, SEPT. 29, 1 896 Poet a peregrinus loquitur I Yonder the Church's fane : here Nature's shrine : And Both of God. Here in yon awful cave-— The more, because of no man's art, divine — Like some vast concourse through Cathedral nave, Past the weird columns to their architrave, Rolls the Atlantic's multitudinous tread In Prime and Vesper worship, wave on wave : Till Reverence here might kneel with lowliest head. While Fancy feigned within some antique Altar dread. II Yonder lona ; — If my heart a while On Staffa's waters, at this parting hour, Greets fixedly this weird mysterious isle Whereon th' Unknown and Immemorial lower 104 ^^ y^S OF lONA Most in this world, — 'tis but a while. — The power, That makes our GoD-indwelt humanity Time's Sovereign, wins me back to yonder tower, To yonder shore slow sinking on our lee, lona's holier fane and more immortal sea. Ill lona, dear lona ! Lingeringly The Isle to sight dies with the sun. Appears Yet one faint glory far upon Duni, While all this Staffa sea is drowned in tears. Albeit ' Farewell ' be sealed by all the years Of this fast-fading life, yet, O my soul ! Sure art thou that on dying eyes and ears, For all high hope, for true love's passing toll, lona's heavens shall smile, lona's waters roll. APPENDIX io6 APPENDIX (Enffli^^ ^co0e translation of x\i (reputcD) %x\\z of ColumciUe ^ 7%^ ;'2//f l)cop0l)ice l!iiU0 A SEPTEMBER DREAM I HEAR the sea roar in the land of dreams. No wonted murmur of the water world Beneath the moon — but, all ' confusedly hurled,' Its billows like Niagara's torrent-streams War with each other, while the shingle screams 'Neath hollow cliffs, and the Deep calls the Deep — The Air the Ocean, — with the whirlwind sweep, And thunders crashing close on levin gleams. I wake : and lo, the storm is of the land ! The rush of mountain blast, the shrieking trees, The chimney roar — these are my visioned seas. Not less sufficing, not less fiercely grand. O wild wind-onset on this mountain shore ! Night for enchanted memory evermore. 214 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS %\)z Sl^aiDen at tlje (Ifllell I At the Well's heart serene and deep Sweet waters lie : But from their sleep The maid will stir them by and by. II The plunging pail their peace shall break And at the sound They shall awake, Meeting the summons with a bound : III Then from the darkness to the light Shall be new-born ; While in their sight Is spread the beauty of the morn. IV Was their repose a blessed thing? For bliss or bane Shall they up-spring ? Is such emotion joy or pain ? THE MAIDEN AT THE WELL 215 V Deep in the maiden's heart serene Sweet waters he, Silent, unseen — But one shaU stir them by and by ! VI Love, that has lain in sleepy night, Aroused shall sing And leap to light, As from still Winter leaps the Spring. VII But was the slumber good or ill ? Will joy or pain The future fill ? Is such new knowledge true or vain? VIII True be the knowledge that shall crown Her waiting eyes ! Cast her not down, Saying, ' 'Tis folly to be wise ! ' 2i6 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS ' He stands brightly where the shade is, With the keys of Death and Hades.' Mrs. Barrett Browning's Fourfold Aspect. I Where the shade is stands the Lord — When the sun of youth has set, When each spell is fading fast, And the dreamer wakes at last. And surprise and pain have met — Where the shade is stands the Lord. 11 Where the shade is stands the Lord — When again and yet again Phantom forms of fear or ill Crowd against the tottering will, And the struggle seems in vain — Where the shade is stands the Lord. HI Where the shade is stands the Lord — When within the broken home All life's bread seems turned to stone : Death has come to one alone, WHERE THE SHADE IS 217 To the other will not come — Where the shade is stands the Lord. IV Where the shade is stands the Lord — When the faint or fighting breath, When the drooped or glazing eye, Shows the gates of gloom are nigh, Opening to the Vale of Death — Where that shade is stands the Lord. V Where the shade was stood the Lord — Then life's light won by Life's loss — Light that burned the dark away, Soft and sweet and strong as day — Streamed from His all-conquering Cross- Where the shade was stood the Lord. VI Where our shade is, stand, O Lord ! Make us see Thee in our night, Hear Thy promise through the gloom : ' Lo, I have the keys of doom, O My children of the light ! Where your shade is stands your Lord.' 2i8 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS ON HAYLING ISLAND (From Good Words) 'TwAS Hayling Island and a summer day : One out of few, although the month was June ; But this one lay a calm between the storms, And prized the more : so wild a memory Of that which had been, and so great a fear Of that which surely follow'd — roaring winds And ceaseless rain — possessed us, that we said, ' This is the crown of summer,' and rejoiced, Alien so long from light and liberty, As only prisoners can, set free for once From dismal durance. Down the shore we ranged. Five elders and of children three times three. The elders, wives and husbands, two and two, And I, a solitary, come, they said. To look and learn in view of wedded bliss — A MORNING BY THE SEA 219 To look and learn and mend my lonely ways. The children, lads and lasses fresh and fair — One they called * May,' but sweeter than that May The poets sing ; and, ever up and down, A ' Will o' the Wisp ' ; and one ' Sir Percy ' hight, And one yclept ' the Duchess,' stately maid Three summers old ; and others nameless here — Were four and four, and eke a nondescript, A slumb'rous thing, long-robed, expressionless, Without the power of language, yet withal A mine of vocal possibilities, Whereon I gazed in fear lest cruel chance Should rouse this Etna in its mother's arms To burst in wrath upon the day's repose, With cries imperious. Last, but not the least (0 larger thou than any nondescript !), A curly-coated champion of the boys. Who, plunging ever in the plunging wave, Or chasing conies down the sandy ridge. Did all their pleasure with a ready will, One Sancho Panza — such his name — esquire To four Don Quixotes. Yet is he himself Worthy of knighthood. Thou of simple soul, 220 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS High courage, loyal will, and loving heart ! O good at need, when need is of the strong, The true, the patient ! Paragon of dogs, Lo, here I knight thee with my grey goose quill ! Wont ever at a bidding to ' lie down,' Take this poetic pat on thy broad brows And rise ' Sir Sancho ' ! Immortality (It is the poet's guerdon, little else Has he, forsooth, to give) henceforth be thine ! And yet, O single-minded, as I look And jest of fame to thee, thine eyes declare ' Fame 's but a foolish guerdon, master mine ! ' Careless art thou of all the blatant world. And wiser than thy master, whom alone Thou watchest with those trustful anxious eyes For all the meed of praise that thy great heart Holds ever precious. Let him learn of thee, He has his Master. Down the shore we ranged, And drank the rushing river of the air. Fresh, fragrant, sunny-clear ; and with the expanse Of the two oceans of the seas and heavens Fed heart and mind. Profound as Love the one, A tideless depth of blue — with floating clouds, A MORNING BY THE SEA 221 The changeful Polynesia of the skies — Tender in tone as it is fathomless To vision ; and the other bright as Life, When youth is strong and pure and beautiful, And makes its own all lights of love and hope That sparkle o'er it, and to every breath, That blows a brave blast or inspires a dream, Bounds in the joyous confidence of strength And consciousness of beauty. Tired at last, Among the sand-hills sloping from the shore, We lay at length and watch'd the sea and sky, And, far away, the lovely garden-isle, And, near at hand, the lowly fort that frown'd And sentinelled the bay. More still the breeze And fuller was the sunshine, and our tongues Grew stiller also, and our hearts more full With sense of peace : heaven seemed to join the world. So pure the peace. Peace ? Heaven was far away. And this was earth ; or there was war in heaven ! Peace ! — as we mused and dreamed, on our repose Broke such a thunder ! O'er the fort a cloud 222 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS White, ghastly, rising scared our alien eyes. Then — ere our minds were sentient — a roar Shook earth and air. We started as men start To meet a peril ; and the sleeping child Awoke and wailed ; and o'er our heads a lark, That had been making music all that hour, Ceased singing ; and the hound sped to the hills Baying, to find some quarry of his dreams Dead in the hollows. So that mighty Gun Did ' murder sleep.' But dreader than its roar The shudder of the agonising air, Wherethrough the great shot tore its pitiless way. A shriek, a groan, a tremor as of a soul In torture — so the live reluctant air Made known its passion, as the death-bolt sped And five times smote the seas that, stricken, raved And hurled in angry witness up to heaven A hundred feet of foam, or ere at last It plunged to sullen rest four miles away. Awe-struck we look'd and listen'd ; and again, And yet again ; then, with the wonted end Of things familiar, awe to wonder shrunk, And wonder to a careless interest That watch'd the target and ere long grew tired. A MORNING BY THE SEA 223 Then home we went by the familiar sea That never tires ; but ere we left the shore, Between the foamy limit of the tide And the deep golden splendour and dark green Of the thick gorse behind, again we sat And the boys sang — while the sea-organ rolled — A song I made for them a year ago. 224 THE REASON WHY FLORENCE f^tjc Eea0on toljp f lorcnce Voa^ callcD DEDICATED TO F. C. B. AND K. L. B. (From Good Words) ' Not her name, but Florence,' such is Katie's comment on ' the Duchess,' When she hears your grace's title Given you in due requital Of an aspect most serenely Soft and placid, yet so queenly, From your little three-years' stature, That one cannot doubt that nature Has decreed by certain touches To design at least a Duchess ! ' When and why ? ' does Katie ask me, Quite resolved to take to task me, WAS CALLED 'THE DUCHESS' 225 And to make me give a reason For this nominal high treason, Ere she will acknowledge duly That you are ' the Duchess ' truly ! Listen, Katie, listen other, Each and every, sister, brother, While I tell you all the history. This aristocratic mystery ! On a day you should remember In a holiday December, While the gale without blew madly, And the hearth-side firelight gladly Smiled to scorn the winter wailing. While we sat around it stilly — Elders all but May and Willie — On a sudden in came sailing (Like a white swan on the waters With two dingy cygnet daughters, Or like queen through fabled gateway Closed in fear behind her straightway, 'Twixt two griffins, by some charming Kept in durance from all harming), 226 THE REASON WHY FLORENCE You, my Florence — a white figure, 'Twixt two cats, and not much bigger Than the beasties you were bearing With a baby's easy daring. Little fingers could not hold them, So the whole arm must enfold them (Arms and fingers minus mittens). These two taloned tabby kittens ! Big as cats, of savage feature, Each a grim and gruesome creature. Had / touched them, they 'd have scratched me, Or, in will at least, despatched me ; Or, if fearful more than frightening. Have despatched themselves like lightning From my arms' unlovely prison. Mewing wild, ' I isn't his'n ! ' But, your Grace ! by all the Graces ! There they hung with charmed faces. From your wee white arms depending. Heads and tails together blending. Troubled, doubtless, if not tortured. But, as apples hang in orchard. IVAS CALLED 'THE DUCHESS' 227 There they hung, nor scratched nor bit you, Spit nor swore, nor hurt a whit you ! Scratched ji?;*?, bit you ? Just as soon a Lion would have bitten Una ! Spit or swore at 7nnrrh'«; hiVhwnv. Down our Monarch's highway. 244 EAST END VERSES IV Within are the sophistries, subtleties, lies : The false guides of the blind : Devil-lures for the flesh in a fair disguise : The doubt-ghosts of the mind. On, Fighter ! on. Churchman ! on, Patriot, on ! Marching orders for you : ' Wherever sin-sadness is under the sun There is fighting to do.' HOLIDAY ODE TO THE NORTH-WEST WIND 245 ^olitiap •X'tie to tl)c iRortl)-2Illc0t mxw^ BY AN EAST-ENDER I Blow, breeze, from the north and the west, Through the clear afternoon ; To all that gives solitude zest, To the zeal, not the languor, of rest Our tired spirits attune. II Blow, breeze, in the deep of the night. Solemn-sweet in our ears, God's organ of full-toned delight. With thine ebbings and flowings of might. Charm our souls from their fears, III Blow again, potent breeze, with the morn, Till, refreshed with thy wine, Eyes dim, spirits harassed and worn Looking now on past pains with sweet scorn, May arise and may shine ! ELEGIAC POEMS f ILorti of 2Deatt) I In the cold caverns of the deep of night Cleaves the still air a kingly clarion's breath, With voice as vivid as a meteor light : 'Our lord is Lord of Death.' II Then lay His dead to rest high-heartedly And purely, 'neath green grasses or blue waves Faith, Hope, and Love their sentinels hard by On guard above their graves. 2SO ELEGIAC POEMS Before (I5ortion*0 a^onument ' Have we forgotten Gordon ? ' — (Tennyson) I Look on this man who never feared a man Or multitude of men, whose regal life Was such a calm amid perpetual strife, That inly like an Eden stream it ran : Because he feared God, and because that fear Was a child's reverence for a Father dear. II An Eden stream : its source behind the bars Of that strong gate kept by the flaming brand. Within the limits of the lovely land Where God walks in the noon, and 'neath the stars. And all about Him moves a mystic throng In light and strength, and in repose and song. Ill An Eden stream which mossy margins laved. Or fed the fairest flowers that ever grew, Of all sweet fragrance and of every hue ; While, underneath, the lithe weed-tresses waved BEFORE GORDON'S MONUMENT 251 Long coils of grace, and in its coves of calm The great pure lilies floated, breathing balm. IV A stream that met the cheerful kiss of morn ; Flashed back, responsive, all the smiles of noon ; That dreamed its mystic dream beneath the moon, And knew the charm on the last breezes borne. And mixed its murmurs down the darksome vale With the lone music of the nightingale. V This was his soul : a soul that flowed apart From common sight — far ofl" from eye and ear Of common men ; so deep, so pure, so clear. So sentient of the beating of God's heart In this the world once made so good — a soul That from the little could conceive the whole, VI ' God's will ' ; and seeing, could be satisfied, And flow serenely. Sure that all was well. From the world's matin-chime to evening bell, In all that breathed and grew, or failed and died : And, so, receptive of all signs of love. Here in the depth, there in the height above. 252 ELEGIAC POEMS VII A soul that knew not self : that loved the sky, But not earth less, and all things intervene : Because he loved that Heart and Hand unseen That planned, and framed, and unto all were nigh, And which he knew were Love ; and in the range Of wildest circumstance could never change. VIII But out of Eden all the wide world through That strong stream ran; no limit barred its course. Through frost and fire, through light or dark, its force Sped, gathering volume, until all men knew — All that could hear and see — that once again A Warrior-Prophet had been given to men. IX A Warrior : the strong hand, the set square chin, The high, broad helm of brow, the forward gaze That spake unconsciously the scorn of praise, Spiritual light telling of fire within ; Withal, the simple manner, plain and mild — This Warrior- Prophet, who was yet a child, BEFORE GORDON'S M0NUMEN7 253 How did he shake the time, and shame the crew Of lounging idlers and self-serving slaves ! And, where the Banner of the Cross still waves For spirits pure and high — the knightly few — How did he hearten hope, spur and inspire, Kindling new purpose at his own soul's fire ! XI A Prophet-Warrior. Though his words were deeds They preached God's truth, from England to Cathay, And last in Egypt — whence he went his way — Against our selfish aims, our gauds, our greeds. Our vulgar pleasures, and our vulgar fears, Our empty glorying, or our cynic sneers. XII And, ' last in Egypt ' — where he was not found Because God took him. Warrior's work was done, Prophet's word spoken. And yet both go on — Nothing of GoD can pass, of sight or sound ! Flashes the sword still of Christ's knight ! His word Still, like a trumpet, in the land is heard. 254 ELEGIAC POEMS XIII O waste Soudan, through him thou art not waste ! Never in all the ages can be hid Thy claim to have him for thy pyramid ! Thine, for thou hold'st him ! We, in all our haste Of word or work, see how amidst thy sands His ghostly figure, like a Pharos, stands. XIV ' Have we forgotten Gordon ? ' asks the seer — Best voice of England, ay, of Christendom ; — ' Have we forgotten Gordon ? ' Well, if some (He knows who asks) no longer see and hear. Now let this question, with its living breath. Stir the dry bones within the vale of death. XV O Gordon, England's honour, yet her shame ! Her honour — thou didst love as well as serve, And myriad loyal souls in heart and nerve Beat quicklier, thrill noblier, at thy name — And yet her shame : since shorn of chivalry Her statecraft left thee in the waste, to die. BEFORE GORDON'S MONUMENT 255 XVI Martyr ! confessing, may we be forgiven ? Thy love would straight absolve us, and thy smile (Sweet-hearted hero !) free from selfish guile. Free from self-pity, may look down from Eden And say, ' My noble England, do God's will ! Be of good cheer, thou art His soldier still.' XVII I think that it is best — so, of God's will. That in that desert of the lone Soudan Should lie the relics of that knightly man ; Where, none can tell, nor can be told until All things of heaven and earth, the far and nigh, Shall have, one morning, their Epiphany. XVIII Best : for his life was hid with Christ in God — Therefore more eloquent to the hearing ear — (O power of such a life !) So he 's more near Than if we had him under churchyard sod : More near : imagination is more rife ; Which means more high thought, more uplifted life. 2S6 ELEGIAC POEMS XIX \ Dead, hidden Gordon ! Thou art 'hve and seen. That spiritual stream, in Eden born, ! After long day flowed back by night to morn — \ Its orb of course complete ; — with fuller green ] On margin, flowers more fair, and sweeter song, \ Its waters wind those mystic lands along. THE MOTHER OF A SAINT 257 %\z 9!^otl)cc of a ^ciint I She said, ' I am the Mother of a Saint, Not of an angel — angels seem too far ; We love a flower we touch as well as see More than the furthest star. II ' My saint was first washed white from taint of birth By Word, in wave of the Atoning Spring : And then went home ere she of sinful life Knew any thought or thing. Ill ' A saint also by heritage of love : By meed of many a sacrificial prayer Offered to God ere yet she sweetened sight And breathed this earthly air. IV ' My Father took my little flower away In all its vernal, softly-scented bloom. That it of falling, fading earthly days Might never know the doom. R 258 ELEGIAC POEMS V ' No, no, He did not take it all from me ; My Father would not rob me of my own ; Had I no other dear one left to love I could not be alone. VI ' She is not far — my saint — in very sooth No distance parts the spiritually dear ; With those who love as we, the far-away Is never less the near. VII ' My memory keeps all that my baby was ; My faith has visions fair of that she is ; My love, I dare to think, is sweet to her, Part of her life in bliss. VIII ' Thinks she not of me ? Prays she not for me ? Is she not almost always at my side ? My husband's love is here ; my saint's is there ; So am I satisfied. THE MOTHER OF A SAINT 259 IX ' Was not the sacrifice my Father asked — This parting — for her good and so for mine ? Father, 'twas surely for my greater good She should be safely Thine. ' " My good." O fathers, mothers of the saints, A saint's life, all more saintly, ours must be ! Draw me, my baby, with the cords of love Closer to Love and thee. XI ' So can no bitter ill-content be mine ; Some consecrated tears, but no complaint ; Elect to be, by Easter grace of God, The Mother of a Saint.' I 26o ELEGIAC POEMS 'Z[rcnn^0on: 3|n Sl^emoriam Four Sonnets (From ZAe Church Times) I ^ Our Master taken from our head to-day.' Henceforth to some life cannot be the same, Less lofty and less lovely. Poor and tame Is that which loses the absorbing ray Which drew or swept the common mists away : Which glowed with love, or flashed like angry flame, Made good more dear, and dealt with sin and shame Like Arthur's keen Excalibur in fray. And no Elisha ! Light and sound agree ; The birds are mute, the skies are ashen grey ; The wet wind sobs along the stricken lea. What is the world without a Poet ? Say At least to England here, and over sea, O caput mortuum sine anima ! TENNYSON 261 II O English Singer, loving England so That in thy loss thine England lies forlorn : Where now ' the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, The love of love ' ? We falter as we go Like children orphaned. Or for joy or woe Is there a voice authentic ? Morn to morn Succeeds : but nowhere, nowhere is there born A King to say ' I love, I rule, I know.' He knew our England, loved, and ruled it well — (What ruler like a poet ?) — Ah, that hand Has dropped both sword and sceptre. Funeral bell For the great prophet is for all his land ; Till some Elisha be God's oracle. Like him to curse, to comfort, to command. Ill What good things meet in thee ! the sweet, the strong. The stately and the tender : paean, psalm. Surge-thunder, bottomless ocean-depths of calm : Harp-music : clarion peals of battle-song : Anguish that thrills and wails for shame or wrong : The small home-daisy, the sea-circled palm : 262 ELEGIAC POEMS Flute-notes of Spring, and Summer's scented balm- All equally to thy great Muse belong. Like Spenser, Poet of the Poets, thine Is a lyre exquisite of such melody As proves thee peer amid the most divine O' the sacred guild ; yet thou art more than he. More strong, more stern — less water in thy wine — Yet as serene in thy tranquillity. IV Gone : and no Singer near th' imperial height On which thy prophet feet were beautiful ; And heart is deadly sick, and brain is dull, And eyes, expectant, with a blur on sight Peer vaguely, doubtfully, into the night. God, Whose compassions fail not, in this lull Of song, have pity ! put us 'neath the rule Of some true Poet singing in Thy light ! — For him who sang of reverence — Reverence : Of life-long duty — Following shall not fail : Of patriot passion — Empire's firm defence Shall seal his teaching, let who will assail. Of Christ — O stainless, selfless Innocence, Write, that he sang, sought, found the Holy Grail ! FATHER DA MIEN 263 ifatljcr HDanu'cu I Full is the world of contrasts, and 'tis well. So is the mind's eye caught, and so the heart Finds its pulse quickened. So we bear our part In scenes where thought, uncharmed, would never dwell. Here is a contrast wide as Heaven and Hell ; Here God in Nature, and the Devil's art At worst in dire disease ; here the fell smart Of typical sin 'mid beauty's miracle. Here, too, a tortured body, foul to sight. And a great soul exalted above men, Beautiful in the test of saintliest light ! Here Pain and Peace beyond all common ken ; Here from an Isle of Death sounds through the night A Name of life and morning, Damien. 264 ELEGIAC POEMS II Blow, Breeze of such a morning, on the vale Where the dry bones of self-indulgence lie : And, trumpet-tongued, let such a prophet-cry Wake the self-loving from their sleep, nor fail To spur our athletes to o'erleap the pale Of common duties and lift far and high The standard of that love which least can die When calmly bidding ghastliest death ' All hail.' Brave Priest, true Martyr, Preacher of thy Lord By mightiest example ! May thy name, May the devotion of thy soul that soared Beyond all point of wonted noble aim, For all high purpose in our hearts be stored. That our true following may be thy true fame. Ill So, Damien, thence — where horror reigns a while- From thy sad cell amid the summer seas, Where living death taints the Elysian breeze. And hideous forms a Paradise defile — Shall a diviner grace and beauty smile Than ever Nature gave to cheer or please, FATHER DA MIEN 265 And crown it midst the Oceanides A new lona — a new Holy Isle. O beauty of a great pure life ! O power Of Christ-like love that never counts the cost ; That works not for repute or for the hour ; That for the unloved, the exiled, the storm-tossed, Whom life's most woful waves would fain devour, If only it may save, wills to be lost ! IV Lost : as men reckon loss whose aims are pent Within the limit of the paltry span Of brute life — as if time were one with man — Who feel naught of the noble discontent Of an immortal, to whom time is lent For endless issues, by the eternal plan. And to whose soul there seems no greater ban Than not to know that he for these was sent. Lost ? Damien, oh, to lose with thee, and gain, Far in the one true Island of the blest. In that Pacific where ' is no more pain,' Fruition of the end of that great quest With Christ, for Christ, to which His own attain, To which they were elected — the?i to rest ! 266 ELEGIAC POEMS %\)i ^agfiSinn; of tlje ^ccljlii^ljop (From The Guardian, 14th October 1896) • He died on the Sunday morning after his return from Ireland. He had received the Holy Communion in Hawarden Church at eight, and, at eleven o'clock Matins, he fell from his knees during the saying of the Absolution. ' I So late the saintly herald over seas Of all high courage and all sweet accord : Now lowly, by the altar, on his knees He passes to his Lord. II He passes over seas again : but now Who followed, goes to find the Holy Grail : Before that Presence of his Lord to bow Which is beyond the veil. Ill Where shall be laid his dust? In yonder hold Where England lifts her stateliest towers on high ; Hard by the altar of his peers of old Let the great Churchman lie. WILLIAM HILL 267 Ob. September ^fh, 1885 ' He scorned delights and lived laborious days' ; No common pleasures won his mind or will ; No joys of self so large a heart could fill, Nor stooped he ever to the lust of praise. Yet was his toil a joy to him always ! And so, like some broad river strong and still, His life flowed sweetly, but with power, until It found the ocean depth beyond our gaze. Yet we who year by year beheld it flow Do trust that somewhat of its strength and calm Has passed into our souls, and that we know How life may be a sermon and a Psalm. O simple stately soul ! childlike and wise. What genius shone serenely in thine eyes ! 268 ELEGIAC POEMS (From Church Bells) A young lady, who was assisting the Duchesse d'Alen9on at her stall, says : — ' I grasped the Duchess by the waist and repeated, dragging her along, "Come, Madame! You must really come"; but she shook me off, saying, "No, no! I stay." Half-suffocated, and already attacked by the flames, I was forced to leave the Duchess, and she remained motionless scarcely two steps from her stall, her eyes raised to Heaven as if she beheld a vision.' Mile. d'Andlau, who was likewise close by the Duchess, and exclaimed to her, ' Let us escape ! ' says : — 'The Duchess, whose whole anxiety was to save the girls around her, calmly replied, "Go fast before us ; go out fast. Do not trouble about me; I shall leave last." These were certainly the Princess's last words.' See Times' 'Own Correspondent,' Paris, May 7th, 1897. ^ I shall leave lasf Calmly and nobly said : Calmly, in saintly trust and courtly grace ; Nobly, as best became her knightly race, Her living Great and her immortal Dead. So can sweet Peace and stately Courage wed. Heaven shone more surely on that upward face. Now that the last dread Foe drew on apace. With all that hissing Hell about him spread. THE DUC HESSE D'ALENgON 269 Did ever earthly greatness farther go, While earthly life was at its last and worst ? We know the elect of both worlds, for we know Who said — Himself of all this world accurst — ' Here lose thyself; thine the last place below : Then come up higher, for My last is first.' 270 ELEGIAC POEMS A large brown Irish retriever : buried in the Vicarage Garden of St. Paul's, Haggerston : a stone to his memory is on tlie school wall, with this inscription : — ' In the centre of this lawn lies SANCHO a gentleman in all but humanity ; thorough-bred, single in mind, true of heart ; for seventeen years the faithful and affectionate friend of his master, who loved him, and now for him "faintly trusts the larger Hope" contained, it may be, in Romans viii. 19-21. He died, April 26, 1883.' Not sparse of friends the world has been to me By grace of God ; sweetness and Hght to life Their love has given ; many a stormy strife, Many a pulseless torpor, on my sea, Through them — their presence or their memory — Have been or stilled or quickened ; and to thee My Dog, the tribute, as the term^ is due, My Friend! not least of all dear, near, and true These seventeen years — and through the years to be Sure in my heart of immortality. Must this be all ? I' the great Day of the Lord, Shall aught that is of good and beauty now Be missing ? Shall not each gift be restored ? Paul says ' the whole creation ' — why not thou ? HYMNS ^Ije f atljcr ' I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. I None else but Thee for evermore, One, All, we dread, believe, adore : Great earth and heaven shall have their day And, worn and old, shall pass away, But Thou remainest on Thy throne. Eternal, changeless, and alone ! II None else we praise ! in every form, In peace of calm, and power of storm, In simple flower, and mystic star, In all around, and all afar, In grandeur, beauty, truth, but Thee None else we hear, none else we see. Ill None else we love ! for sweeter grace That made anew a ruined race : S 274 HYMNS The heirs of life, the lords of death, With earliest voice and latest breath, When days begin, when days are done, Bless we the Father for the Son ! IV None else we trust ! though flesh may fail. Or heart may sink when foes assail. Thou, by Thy Spirit, art our stay, And peace that shall not pass away : None else in life and death have we, But we have all in all with Thee ! V Yea, none but Thee all worlds confess, And those redeemed ones numberless : Father, with Son and Spirit, One, And evermore beside Thee none. Of all that is, has been, shall be, We praise, love, trust none else but Thee ! Amen. THE SON 275 ' And in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord. I God the Father's only Son, And with Him in glory One, One in wisdom, One in might, Absolute and Infinite : Jesu ! I believe in Thee, Thou art Lord and God to me. 11 Preacher of eternal peace, Christ, anointed to release, Setting wide the dungeon door Unto sinners chained before : Jesu ! I believe in Thee, Prophet sent from God to me. Ill Low in sad Gethsemane, High on dreadful Calvary, In the garden, on the Cross, Making good our utter loss : 276 HYMNS Jesu ! I believe in Thee, Priest and Sacrifice for me. IV Ruler of Thy ransomed race, And Protector by Thy grace, Leader in the way we wend, And Rewarder at the end : Jesu ! I believe in Thee, Christ, the King of kings to me. V Light revealed through clouds of pain, That the blind might see again ; Love, content in death to lie, That the dead might never die : Jesu ! I believe in Thee, Light, and Love, and Life to me. VI All my longing heart would know While I watch and wait below ; All that I would find above. All of everlasting love : Jesu ! I believe in Thee, Thou art All in all to me. Amen. THE HOLY GHOST 277 I God the Spirit, we adore Thee, In the trinal Godhead One, One in love, and power, and glory. With the Father and the Son ; Prayer and praise to Thee we bring. Our devotion's offering. II Once the desolate world-ocean. Quickened from its long death-sleep, Woke to light and life's emotion. At Thy brooding o'er its deep ; Spirit, ever may Thy breath Quicken us from sleep and death. Ill Holy fount of inspiration, By Whose gift the great of old Spake the word of revelation, Marvellous and manifold. 278 HYMNS Grant to us who see and hear Reverence of eye and ear. IV Priceless Gift of Christ for ever, Righteousness and peace and joy, Which the evil world, that never Can receive, cannot destroy, Shall the Church or faint or fear While the Comforter is near? V Author of our new creation. Giver of the second birth. May Thy ceaseless renovation Cleanse our souls from stains of earth And our bodies ever be Holy temples meet for Thee. VI When we wander. Lord, direct us, Keep us in the Master's way. Let Thy strong, swift sword protect us, Warring in the evil day ; THE HOLY GHOST 279 Paraclete for every need, Come to strengthen and to lead ! VII Come, Thy glorious gifts providing, Foretaste of the future, now, Bring that sweet sense of abiding Thou canst give, and only Thou : One in Thee, we shall be one, In the Father and the Son. Amen. 28o HYMNS Clje incarnation ' He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.' I The Son forsook the Father's home For mercy to lost man, And did not scorn the Virgin's womb To bear the sinner's ban. II Meekly the Maiden pure believed The great Archangel's word, And by the Holy Ghost conceived The Saviour, Christ the Lord. Ill The word made flesh creation sees : Its mighty God in man : The mystery of mysteries Since time on earth began ! IV That we might gain a second birth The Holy Son was given : 'Twas God Himself came down to earth To win us back to heaven. THE INC A RNA TION 28 1 V Lord ! we believe with love and praise This wondrous truth of Thee : Thereby in all our troublous days How strong henceforth are we ! VI So near art Thou, so strong are we, For now, if we are Thine, Our Brother in humanity, Thou makest us divine ! VII We see with peace in times of fear Thy human Face and Form ; Thy human Voice with joy we hear Sweet-toned above the storm, VIII So dread we not the deathly strife Knowing that Thou hast died. It can but bear us into life, Since nearer to Thy side ! Amen. 282 HYMNS %\t Atonement ' He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. My Saviour ! I behold Thy Hfe Of scarce one smile and many tears ; I mark the spiritual strife, Thy human woes, Thy human fears, And cry, ' Was ever grief like Thine, Or debt of sin so vast as mine ? ' II I watch thine agonising hour, I see Thee by Thine own betrayed, Alone in Pilate's craven power, And scourged and scornfully arrayed, And cry, ' Was ever grief like Thine, Or debt of sin so vast as mine ? ' THE ATONEMENT 283 III I see Thee fainting on Thy way, Reviled and mocked of all the throng, I hear the bitter words they say, The abject's curse, the drunkard's song, And cry, ' Was ever grief like Thine, Or debt of sin so vast as mine ? ' IV That sin in every taunt I hear, And see in every look of scorn ; It is the Cross which Thou dost bear. The sharpness of Thy crown of thorn ; Dear Lord, ' Was ever grief like Thine, Or debt of sin so vast as mine ? ' v My Saviour, I behold Thy death, I hear Thy cries. Thy last words seven, I see the scowling gaze beneath. Above, the darkened face of Heaven, And cry, ' Was ever grief like Thine, Or debt of sin so vast as mine ? ' 284 HYMNS VI My Saviour, I behold Thy grave In that still garden's awful gloom, I see Thee lying there to save My soul from an eternal tomb, And cry, ' Was ever grief like Thine, Or debt of sin so vast as mine ? ' VII And yet with all I hear and see Of Death, or Passion of Thy life, Sweet hopes are ministered to me And voices fall with comfort rife, That say, ' Because He lived and died, From sin thou canst be purified ! ' Amen. \ THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD 285 ^Ije Ee0urrectioit of tlje ^octi ' He descended into hell ; the third day He rose again from the dead.' All the sacrifice is ended, Breathed His Body's latest breath, And His human Soul hath wended Where the weary rest beneath ; Christ as Man hath comprehended All the human law of death. II Yet not there His Soul remaineth Nor His body in the tomb : Lo ! what sudden glory gaineth Quick dominion o'er the gloom ! Lo ! o'er death and hell He reigneth Bursting back the gates of doom ! 286 HYMNS III Manifold the attestation : Brethren tell the marvel o'er, And the soldiers from their station, And the angels at the door, And His Own Word's revelation, ' Lo ! I live for evermore.' IV Now He lives and reigns for ever That we too may enter in Where eternal life shall never Taste of sorrow or of sin, Where from Him no death shall sever Those He vanquished death to win. V Saviour ! in our night of weeping Tell us of the joyful morn, Guard our souls, their vigil keeping, In the hours of hate and scorn ; Raise us falling, wake us sleeping, Till our Easter Day be born. Amen. I THE ASCENSION 287 He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.' I On Olivet a little band Around their risen Master stand : And, after charge and blessing given, He passeth from them into Heaven. II Wistful their eyes, but angels twain Cheer them with glorious words : ' Again One day shall Jesus even so Return, as ye have seen Him go.' Ill Till then in Heaven He doth remain, True God, at God's right hand to reign, True Man, at human woes to grieve. True God, Almighty to relieve. 288 HYMNS IV For every soul in every need He ever lives to intercede, Presenting there within the veil The Sacrifice that cannot fail. V Our heavenly great High Priest He stands : By pierced Feet, and piercbd Hands, By thorn-scarr'd Brow and riven Side, He pleads for those for whom He died ! VI Whom have we, Lord, in heaven but thee ? Like ships safe moored on stormy sea Our souls, in peril, with Thee there Find anchorage of hope and prayer. VII Set loose from earth, and evermore Fast bound to that eternal shore. So all our life and love shall be, Ascended Master, hid with Thee ! Amen, THE JUDGMENT 289 ^tje Jutigment ' He shall come to judge the quick and the dead." I Wistful are our waiting eyes, As of them who saw Him rise From that mountain to the skies. II Then the holy angels near Gave them tidings of good cheer : 'Jesus shall again appear.' Ill And tve wait an angel's cry, Piercing earthward from the sky : ' Now, behold, your Lord is nigh ! ' IV Yet who shall abide that day. When the Judge with dread array Comes for universal sway ? V Dreadful shall His summons sweep, Heard by those who wake or sleep. On the height or in the deep : 290 HYMNS VI Heard by life 'mid all its bloom, Heard by death in every tomb — Terrible decree of doom. VII As the fisher parts his prey, Casting these from those away, So it shall be on that day, VIII For the gathered souls who stand. Waiting that supreme command. He shall part on either hand. IX To those souls of quick and dead, ' Come,' shall be the blessing said, ' Go,' shall be the cursing dread. X Lord, dwell in us now, we pray. That, in the dividing day. We be not the cast away ! XI So shall we till Thou appear Blend, in longing eye and ear. Holy joy with holy fear ! Amen. THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY 291 ^Ije EegfuiTcction of tljc BoDp I Winter in his heart of gloom Sings the songs of coming bloom : So o'er death our souls shall sing Lays of the eternal spring. II Then decay shall be no more, And the weary seed-time o'er, All the dead in Christ shall rise For the harvest of the skies. Ill Wheresoe'er the faithful sleep Angels shall go forth to reap, From the dust and 'neath the foam They shall bring the harvest home. 292 HYMNS IV Bodies of the saints, whose bones Rest beneath sepulchral stones, Or are lost on every wind — All, those messengers shall find. V All from earth to heaven shall soar In that flesh which once they wore, Deathless now and glorified. Like their Lord and at His side. VI This is life's eternal spring ! This the coming joy we sing ! Look we ever towards this day, Be it near or far away ! VII 'Mid the sorrow and the strife 'Tis the music of our life. And the song hath this refrain — Our Redeemer comes again ! Ameii. THE LIFE EVERLASTING 293 I The world is sad with hopes that die, With joys that gleam and then go by, And dim the mortal eyes that gaze On setting suns of parting days. II Better the hope, the joy, the light, For spiritual heart and sight ! For they whose life is hid on high Shall never part and never die. Ill They never part ! that saintly band. Heirs of the heavenly, holy land ; Whom God the Spirit hath made one With God the Father and the Son. 294 HYMNS IV They never die ! the deathly strife But ushers them to happier life : From their last enemy they gain Their birth to bliss, their end to pain. V Lord Jesu, teach our hearts to soar And grasp those things which are before, That after death our life may be The immortality with Thee ! Amen. Note.—\t will be seen that the preceding ten Hymns are on the several Articles of the Apostles' Creed. The two omitted here—' The ChiircKs One Foundation; on ' The Holy Catholic Church,' and ' Weary of Earth and laden -with my Sin,' on ' The Forgiveness of Sins '—are printed in the Author's former volume, The Knight of httercession. CHRISTMAS CAROL 295 Cljricftmasf Carol I While the shepherds kept their vigil, And the world in darkness lay, Came the holy Advent Angel ; Shone the sudden glory ray ; Then, ten thousand times ten thousand Radiant heralds of the day. II Then they sang the first sweet carol, ' Glory be to God on high, And on earth be peace and blessing To the nations far and nigh ! ' So our God made good His promise. And the old prophetic cry. Ill Fuller, farther o'er the wide world. Year by year that music swells ; Year by year to some new people Christmastide the story tells — With the chanting of the children, And the pealing of the bells. 296 HYMNS IV Louder over hill and valley Let the towers and steeples ring ! In the hamlet and the city Sweeter carols let us sing — Louder peals of holy pleasure, Sweeter carols to our King. V Hear Thy children, blessed Jesus, Once for us on earth a Child ; Keep us in Thy great compassion, Holy, harmless, undefiled; Blest through Thee by God the Spirit, To the Father reconciled. VI Still we look for thine appearing, O Thou Bright and Morning Star ! Still we wait to hear the rolling Of Thy great triumphal car ; — We who sing Thy first glad Advent, Know Thy second is not far. Amen. HYMN FOR THE LORD'S DAY 297 il^pmn foe tljc ?loct>*0 2Dti|^ I Eastward, ever eastward, Dark or light the way, Pressing towards the promise, We salute the day. O'er the mountains yonder Shines the orient gleam, Yonder sweetest voices Call across the stream. Eastward, ever eastward, Dark or light the way. Pressing towards the promise, We salute the day. II To those border mountains Lift we then our eyes : Thence our help smiles on us. There is set our Prize — 298 HYMNS There, like sound of trumpet, Clear, and loud, and long, Easter splendour streaming Greets our Easter song. Ill Flow life's river cheerly — Flow it dark and chill — O'er its changeful waters Constant look we still. Clear across them beckons The unchanging shore, Where the life and beauty Are for evermore. IV Saints and angels call us — Angels of the height. Who at Incarnation Sang the new-born light : Saints gone on before us, Past our life forlorn, Who in Eden's Vigil Wait the greater Morn. HYMN FOR THE LORD'S DA Y 299 V Death of woful winter ! Dawn of happy spring ! Listen, all the woodlands Of the wide world ring ! Look, the waste lands blossom 'Neath the gracious rain, And all beauty buried Takes its life again ! VI Oh, the end of patience, And the close of strife ! Oh, the joy of morning. And the gift of life ! Oh, the grace, the glory. Of the great Reward ! Oh, the blessed Vision, Jesus Christ our Lord ! Eastward, ever eastward. Dark or light the way. Pressing towards the promise. We salute the day. Amen. ;oo HYMNS ll^pmit of tlnitp PART I (Eph. iv. 6 and 13) I God the Father, All, and One, With the Spirit, and the Son, Make and keep us one in Thee, O Eternal Unity ! II Over all, through all, in all, Father-God, to Thee we call : By Thine all-embracing plan Bring us to the perfect man. HI To the perfect man of truth Wise as age and sweet as youth ; To the perfect man of love One with Him, our Head above. Amen. HYMN OF UNITY 301 PART II I Of true union only Power For the age or for the hour, Spirit, with Thee make us one In the Father and the Son. II In one Body one on earth, By one spiritual Birth \ One in sevenfold gifts from heaven E'en as Thou, the One, art Seven. Ill One in mind and word and will, One at war with all of ill, One in peace amid the strife, One in sweetest hope of life. IV One in patience of to-day, One in future bliss for aye : In the Father, Son, and Thee One to all eternity. Amen. 302 HYMNS PART III I Only Saviour, Prince of Peace, Bid our long dissensions cease : Show us in our own self-will Deeper danger, surest ill. II Jesus, lowly may we be, Strong in gentleness like Thee ; Nobly meek as sternly pure : Strong to do and to endure. Ill Teach us of the cross we bear — Of the crown that we shall wear — Of our will for Thee laid low — Of the glory we shall know. IV Of the waiting and the pain, Of the more exceeding gain — Pain, our loyal hearts to prove, Gain, the triumph of our Love. Amen. HYMN FOR TEACHERS ll^pmn for 3Dap anti »>untitip »>cl)ool '(Eeactjecjs^ I Thou who hast charged Thine elder sons, In Thy great Church's school To teach and tend Thy little ones, And in wise love to rule : Here may they loyal witness bear, As those whom Thou hast sent. By Love inspired, kept pure by Prayer, Made strong by Sacrament. II And ever here, Lord Christ, be seen Standing beneath Thy Rood, Stoled in Thy raiment, white and clean, A priestly sisterhood ; Which in Thy Church's order sure May in the dark world shine Like her, the wise, the brave, the pure, Their own Saint Katharine. 1 Adapted from a Hymn written by the Author for the Church Training College of St. Katharine, Tottenham. 304 HYMNS III Teacher of teachers, only Guide, True learning's only spring, O Holy Ghost, with each abide. All truth interpreting ; From light to light of mind and soul, And pure, devoted will. Lead on Thy learners to the goal Of wisdom's holy hill. IV Lead on, O Lord — Love, Grace, and Might- Lead on through toil and prayer ; So worship shall make labour light, And hope ennoble care ; So they adoring while they toil, Their guerdon may foresee. When at Thy feet they lay the spoil Of souls they trained for Thee. Amen. HYMN FOR CHURCH WORKERS 305 i^pmu for Cljurclj ^lor^xcr0 ' I magnify mine office.' — (Rom. xi. 13) I Lord Christ, my Master dear, Nought have I that is mine ; Body and mind and soul, All that I am is Thine. II Mine ofifice is from Thee : Not only for mine hour, But for Thine own great day, And by Thy mighty power. HI Through Thine own Church it comes. From Thine Ascension Day, By Thine ordaining word Which cannot pass away. IV So do I love Thy call ! So great and sweet to me U 3o6 HYMNS That word which makes me sure That I may speak for Thee. V How poor am I in love, In patience, and in power, Yet more than I can be Is, by that word, my dower ! VI Power, patience, love, are mine. From Thee, my Priest on high, If I in faith and prayer Mine office magnify. VII For, then, I lose myself! I know it is not mine ; Thereon I see the mark Which makes it wholly Thine : VIII Thy Cross, Incarnate Lord ! The measure of Thy love, Of Thy great power below, Of Thy full bliss above. Amen. HYMN OF ALL ANGELS 307 !^pmn of ^11 ^npl0 I Lo, they were, and they are, and shall be, Ere the world, in the world, to the end ! For their Lord, for His Church, and for me, Each a minister, guardian, and friend. II They were all of the covenants twain ; Both before and from Sinai, the host Serving God in their courses, the train Of Jehovah, the One Holy Ghost. Ill And throughout the more excellent way. Both before and from Zion, they wrought : Poets, prophets, and ministers they Of the grace the unpriced, the unbought. IV For they sang of Emmanuel's birth, As they sang at the morning of time. Of the peace for this woe-stricken earth Coming down from the glory sublime. 3o8 HYMNS V They were His in His pain and His power, In Gethsemane's uttermost gloom, E'en as in the all-conquering hour When He shattered the gates of His doom. They were theirs whom He sent to His war To o'erthrow and recover His world ; And so still they are flying afar With the flag that His saints have unfurled. VII They are with us in vigil alway, All above us, beneath, at our side. And our souls they shall reap at the day Of the Master's supreme Harvest-tide. VIII Then, O Father of Angels, shall we Sing to Thee with that infinite host ; And, O Covenant Angel, to Thee, And to Thee, O Thou One Holy Ghost. Amen. FOUR HYMNS OF ST. THOMAS A KEMPIS 309 ifour li^^mn0 of »)t tlTljoma^ ci "EempisS (^Paraphrased from the Latin) Hymn I Dc Trinitate I Most true, most High : O Trinity, Equal and undivided Three ! Our lauds of honour, power and praise And victory, unto Thee we raise. II With mind and heart on Thee we call : Our knees before Thy footstool fall : Our hands we lift in fervent prayer : Our voices all Thy praise declare. ni Creator ! Who to us hast given The earth, the ocean, and the heaven : From Thee too comes our joy of heart : Our way, and truth, and life Tliou art. 3IO HYMNS IV Thee all things praise ; in Thee they move, All things below and all above : The secret things of deepest Hell, Not hid to Thee, Thine honour tell. V O Father, Thine the glory be, Such glory, only Son, to Thee : And unto Thee, Whom we adore, The Paraclete, for evermore. Amen. Hymn II De Dulcedine Jesu ' Unto you which believe He is precious.'— (i Pet. ii. 7.) I Jesu, to my heart most precious, Who didst leave Thy Heaven above, To the lost world the Life-giver ! O that I my love may prove. Read, and sing, and tell Thy story. Theme of sweetness, song of Love ! FOUR HYMNS OF ST. THOMAS A KEMPIS 311 II He who leaves Thee — Oh, the sorrow ! He who finds Thee — Oh, the bhss ! For the Lord of Earth and Heaven Shall for evermore be His : Who (O marvel !) chose the manger. And gave up that world for this ! Ill These delights — the best and sweetest To the faithful soul must be — To recall Thee, O my Saviour, In Thy great Humility ! In Thine absence these the relics, Holiest, dearest unto me ! IV I am glad — one time in anguish : I, one time so blind, can see : Unto me in darksome prison Jesus came, and I am free ! Naked, foolish, languid, dying — Heaven's Physician came to me ! 312 HYMNS V Father of all light and goodness, Thou hast loved me in His grace : For in Him Thou hast provided From the storms a hiding-place. Jesu, every cure of sadness Is reflected in Thy Face. VI Praise to Thee, my kindest Saviour, Thee, my Lord and God for aye ; I am Thine, to my rejoicing, Till the world shall pass away : By Thy Love, O make me love Thee More and more as day by day. Amen. FOUR HYMNS OF ST. THOMAS A KEMPIS 31; Hymn III E VENING O qualis, quantaque Lcetitia PART I 'Angels and men in a wonderful order.' I O JOY, the purest, noblest. That fills the heavenly land, Of Jesus and His chosen And all th' angelic band : Glad faces and sweet voices Round the Creator's throne, Adore Him, give Him glory. Their love and homage own. II There with the peal of trumpets And thrilling harp-notes clear, In raiment white and glistering, The Angel hosts appear. There on swift wing of service, Or waiting His command. In the Thrice Holy Presence, They ever speed or stand. 314 HYMNS III There ' Holy, Holy, Holy ' — The better country's song — Quells every sound of sorrow, Of weeping and of wrong : There every voice in concord. There every heart in tune. Intent in rapture, worships The Blessed Three in One. IV The Cherubs and the Seraphs In love and praise adore ; Praise that is never-ceasing, Love that is more and more : Thrones, virtues, and dominions, Powers, principalities. Heaven's highest good enjoying In love that never dies. V The Angels and Archangels, Rejoicing in the height, For all— the high or lowly — In watchful care delight ; FOUR HYMNS OF ST. THOMAS A KF.MPIS 315 To God they bear our praises, From God His gifts they bring ; They comfort, guide us, guard us, And while they serve they sing. VI These are we fain to honour. These are we fain to love j With heart and life and utterance Fixed on these things above : There in the blissful regions Of that all-beauteous land Where men elect with Angels Shall make one glorious band. Amen. PART II I State of divinest splendour ! Home of all perfect rest ! With peace in all Thy borders, With light of beauty blest ; The citizens within thee In purest raiment shine. And keep, in union closest. The law of love Divine. 3i6 HYMNS II Nought is there that they know not Their service is not toil : There never comes temptation, Nor earthly care or moil ; There they are ever happy : There they are ever wise : There is their lot o'erflowing With all that satisfies. Ill O sweet and blest communion ; Love, Holiness, Truth, Light ! Where reigns the Triune Godhead In blessing infinite. To Him be praise and honour From Angels and from men. Whose grace this glory gave us : Blessed be God ! Amen. FOUR HYMNS OF ST. THOMAS A KEMPIS 317 Hymn IV PA TIENCE De Patient ia Servanda I Bear the troubles of thy life In the name of Christ thy Lord : Less the harm of stormy strife Than the easy world's award. II Many a foe means many a friend ; Earthly losing is not loss ; Patience has her perfect end, And all good flows from the Cross. Ill .Small thy toil is : short thy life : Grand and endless thy reward ! Through the sorrow and the strife, The confession of thy Lord ! 3i8 HYMNS IV Purer gold and clearer glass ! By thy pains a nobler man, Through the furnace thou wilt pass, Bearing all a martyr can. V So thou wilt be sterner foe. So thou wilt be dearer friend ; So the Saints thy name will know, And Christ own thee at the end. VI Call on Jesus evermore. Be His Cross thy sign alway, Love the saints gone on before ; Ever strive and watch and pray. VII Do the right : the truth declare ! Live in hopes that never cease : Humbly make thy God thy care, So thou shalt find perfect peace. Amen. FOLLOW ON 319 foUolD Cn: an (Epipljanp Carol ' Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord." (HosEA vi. 3.) I The Epiphany Star, the Christ's ensign afar, Shone clear o'er the cradle of morn ; And a musical wind, from the darkness behind, Breathed soft o'er the desert forlorn, Breathed soft o'er the desert forlorn ; Like the song that is sung by a glad mother's tongue When her child of travail is born. Refrain : Follow on, follow on, till the night is gone : Till the long hard quest has its end in rest. And the vision of Christ is won. II Now arise thou and shine ! for this signal is thine, O world sitting sad in the gloom ! 320 HYMNS On thy longing and prayer, on thine utter despair, Gross darkness has lain like a doom, Gross darkness has lain like a doom ; But thy mourning is done, and an unsetting sun Thy life shall for ever illume. Ill Take your garments of praise, and your carols upraise, O Continent, City, and Isle ! Flow together and sing — with the subject the king — Together ye waited long while. Together ye waited long while ; With a wonderful bloom, like a soul from the tomb. The universe desert shall smile ! IV O'er the dreary sand sea, sped the King Sages three As they listened that mystic lay ; And serene on their sight fell the marvellous light, Christ's sign set in Heaven, alway, Christ's sign set in Heaven, alway ; Never star, never moon, never splendour of noon, Shone like the Epiphany ray. FOLLOW ON 321 So in trust did they fare, thro' long peril and care, O'er that great and terrible wild ; Till, enrapt on the face of Christ's infinite grace On the breast of His Mother mild, On the breast of His Mother mild ; Upon them from His eyes, deeper depths than the skies. The One Light of the whole world smiled. VI Kneeling low they outpoured their trine gifts to the Lord, As he royally blest them there ; Gold and Myrrh at His feet, and the Frankincense sweet, Their Charity, Penitence, Prayer, Their Charity, Penitence, Prayer ; To the Monarch Most High, to the Man who must die, To their God was this tribute rare. VII Follow ! so follow on, Christians every one, Hold the hope of your patience fast 322 HYMNS Till the Day-star arise, and your happy eyes See the King in Beauty at last, See the King in Beauty at last ; And the Love, Work, and Praise of your pilgrimage days At the feet of your Lord are cast. Refrain : Follow on, follow on, till the night is gone : Till the long hard quest has its end in rest, And the vision of Christ is won. MARRIAGE HYMN 323 ' God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, bless, preserve, and keep you.' {Office of Holy Matrhnony.) I O Thou, Whose love paternal, Ere yet had entered in On Eden's beauty vernal The wintry curse of sin. In bonds of blessing golden Did join the primal twain, That benediction olden, O Father, grant again ! II O Christ, Whose love for ever. Strong as eternity, Hath willed that nought should sever Thy holy Church and Thee ; Oh, by that great Communion That none shall e'er divide. Be here to bless this union. This Bridegroom and this Bride ! 324 HYMNS III Spirit of peace and gladness, Whose holy presence given Can make this world of sadness The border-land of Heaven ; O Leader and Defender ! Be theirs — to guard and guide, Now in life's mid-day splendour. On to the even-tide ! IV O Trinal Power and Glory ! O Undivided Three ! Grant that these twain before Thee Be ever one in Thee ! One noiv in ways of Duty Made bright by holy love, One then in Bliss and Beauty Eternally above ! Amen. THE PROTO-MARTYR OF BRITAIN 325 '^Ije pcoto=9l^actj)r of Britain: ^ li^mn in DEDICATED TO A. C. S. AND M. S. S. 'Egregium Albanum faecunda Britannia profert.' ( Venaiitius Portunatus. Fifth Centur}'. ) ' Thus was Alban tried, England's first Martyr, whom no threats could shake ; Self-offered victim ; for his friend he died, And for the Faith.' (WoRDSVVORTH. ) The story of the Saint as we have it from Bede and other sources is shortly this :— He was the wealthy and cultured heir of a Roman house, and lived at Verulam, in Hertfordshire, about the year 280 A.d. A hunted Christian priest sought refuge in his house. His intercourse with this fugitive led to his conversion and baptism. The author of Martyrs and Saints of the First Twelve Centuries (S.P.C.K) says admirably that the priest 'attracted him by no seductive promises : it was the old trumpet-call to believe and follow, to sacrifice and suffer, which penetrates so much deeper, and leads so much higher.' This has suggested the refrain of this hymn. Alban after his baptism saved the life of this priest at the sacrifice of his own. He was brought before the Roman judge, and, after having been tortured, he was beheaded on June 22nd, a.d. 283. I England, by thine own Saint Alban, Put thy Christian heart to school : Learn to sacrifice and suffer By thy Proto-Martyr's rule. Life in Christ is stern and selfless, Gentle though it be and bright : 326 HYMNS Life in Christ is dying with Him, Though in sweet and living hght. England, by thine own Saint Alban, Put thy Christian heart to school : Learn to sacrifice and suffer By thy Proto-Martyr's rule. II Meteor-like athwart the darkness Flashes still the Signal Cross ; Still like trumpet on the night-wind Sounds the summons unto loss ; Yet how blessed is the losing, And how stately is the war : And how beautiful the ending In the bliss for evermore ! Ill See ! thy hero, prudence scorning. All for noble pity dares : Finds the priest he saved his prophet, Meets ' an angel unawares ' : Sits as at the feet of Jesus, Soon is to His Laver led : Then himself as on an altar Offers in his Teacher's stead. THE PROTO-MARTYR OF BRITAIN 327 IV ' I am Christ's : I therefore suffer : I am Christ's : I therefore die : I am Christ's : so I am happy, And my life is His on high ' ; — Thus he faced the Roman's torture, Youth, wealth, honour sacrificed. Losing thankfully the whole world That he might be found in Christ. V Primal Hero-Saint and Soldier ! Still thy story speeds us on : Though, since thou did'st bravely witness. Twice eight hundred years have gone. Lord, Who gavest him to England, Grace, like his, to England give — Grace to bear Thy cross with gladness, Grace to die that we may live. England, by thine own Saint Alban, Put thy Christian heart to school : Learn to sacrifice and suffer By thy Proto-Martyr's rule. Amen. 328 HYMNS Eoption ^?nm I Father, we pray through Him Who went by pain To bliss, nor won His glory ere He died ; We pray, as seeing the High-priestly reign Of Him, th' Ascended, once the Crucified : — So ever for all help in all our need The Offering, thus made perfect, now we plead. II We pray 'midst the convulsions of a life Of sad necessities, of pains, of fears, 'Midst the long hours of spiritual strife Which make the wild or melancholy years ; But 'midst all stress or storm one Hope we own, Faith's Beacon, our High Priest before Thy Throne ! ni Oh, we have sinned ! ill deed, unholy thought, Abuse of speech Thou gavest us for praise, Kind words unsaid, sweet charities unwrought. Unheeded grace, unconsecrated days : ROGATION HYMN 329 Self-love, and selfish mood, and wayward will, — These haunt our souls with memories of ill. IV Oh, we have sinned ! but since He loved so well The souls Thy love predestined Him to gain, Help us to front our fears of death and hell, And by the Blood which was not spilt in vain, And by the open Tomb, and opened Sky, Assure our hearts that Thou wilt hear their cry. v The inward cry for mercy, grace, and peace. From hearts that know the secret plague within ; Longings for Purity, for Faith's increase, More love of Truth, a truer hate of sin ; More Patience and more power to persevere ; To be more like our Lord — to be more near. VI Nor less, O Lord, through Him Who intercedes. We bear upon our hearts before Thee those Bent low by this world's miseries or needs. The martyrs of its sins or of its woes ; And all whose lives are hidden — the unknown, Except for Thee forgotten and alone. 330 HYMNS VII Father, we plead, too, for our own dear land, Its threefold Motherhood, its triple Home, Hearth, Country, Church : from which Thy great command With promise bids our true faith never roam : To each Thy peace, to each Thy power impart — Pure love, clear sight, strong hand, and loyal heart. VIII And last, we humbly claim Thy power and grace For those who lead Thy wars in all the world : Thy toilers in all climes, of every race, Warring till sin and death he overhurled. By Him Who died, but lives to plead on high, For these, for all, Our Father, hear our cry. Amen. A HYMN OF THE SEA 33 » ^ ^j?mii of tlje »)ea The inroad of the sea upon the Norfolk coast, near Cromer, made it necessary some two years ago to remove the Church of Sidestrand and to rebuild it further inland. This hymn was written for use at the first service after this change. In the hymn the Sea represents Time, by which God speaks ; the removal of the Fabric inland represents the passing of the Spiritual Church in the course of Time to the Peace of Paradise ; until it shall pass by another change to the final Glory of Heaven, where 'there will be no more Sea,' for 'there shall be Time no longer.' I Lord of all, beside Thy Sea Lift we prayer and praise to Thee ; Thine we were, and Thine we are, By Thy waters near or far. II Near Thy Sea our Church-bell tolled And, beneath, the breakers rolled ; And the toll became a dirge, Chiming with the solemn surge. 332 HYMNS III Long the billows moaned in fear, ' Church of God, the time is near ' : Then, full-toned, like voice of doom, ' Rise and go, the End is come.' IV So Thy near Sea sang its knell ; Yet Thou workest all things well ; Inland at Thy will we move, Knowing that Thy will is love. v So we pass away in peace, Where our fears and perils cease ; Where the voice of praise and prayer Rises in serener air. VI Yet Thy far Sea still is heard : From its great deep rolls the word, ' Church in vigil, wait and pray, Thou again shalt pass away.' A HYMN OF THE SEA 333 VII Voice of Time, prophetic Sea ! Speaking, Lord of all, for Thee ; So its message shoreward rolls — Poet-Preacher unto souls. VIII Give us grace to hear and heed, That we may be Thine indeed — That to us in turn be given Earth and Paradise and Heaven. IX Earth : till from Time's roaring strand We must seek the Quiet Land, Till the farther waters say, ' Lo, the kingdom ! come away.' X Jesu, Thine we were and are, By Thy waters near and far ; Oh, may we be still in Thee When there shall be no more Sea! Amen. 334 HYMNS ^l\\\\\ af«r !^olg Communion 'Ye do show the Lord's Death.' — (i COR. xi. 26.) ''Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me ; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me.' — (St. Luke viii. 46.) I Now hath been shown, O Lord, Thine Act of Love : Shown at Thine Altar here, and shown above. II Here hath been pleaded, and beyond the skies, The perfect yet perpetual Sacrifice. Ill Thou hast been with us, and in very deed From Thee hath virtue gone for all our need : IV Pardon and Peace and Joy : the making whole. The making glad, of every faithful soul. V How dared we come so close despite our fear ? Because we knew the Lord of Love was near. VI Thou camest — through the midst of many a care. The mind's depression or the soul's despair — HYMN AFTER HOLY COMMUNION 335 VII A Presence calm — in awful silence — known, By healing touch, to those in need alone. VIII Then Thou didst bless us ! Now, O Lord, we pray May this Thy Grace grow in us day by day : • IX Thy Grace of Meekness, learned beneath Thy Feet, Where all things strong with all things lowly meet ; X Thy Grace of Faith, serene and open-eyed, Far-gazing, till it shall be satisfied ; XI Thy Grace of Zeal, in toil or patience sure. Keen to press on, or happy to endure ; XII Thy Grace of Love, the purest, noblest, best. With eyes on Thee and trustful heart at rest. XIII Thy Grace of Joy, for ever fain to sing The Praise of Thine Eternal Offering. Amen. 336 HYMNS ' From sudden death, Good Lord, deliver us." ( The Litany.) I When our last soul-calling Comes, Lord, at Thy will, Grant there be no falling 'Neath the lord of ill- No swift, subtle capture By our ghostly foe E'en if sudden rapture Wing us from our woe. II Should he find us sleeping In or sloth or pride, No stern vigil keeping Staunch at every tide ; Should the city's taking Be its warriors' blame, O the wild up-waking To eternal shame ! SUDDEN DBA TH 337 III Jesu, save, in pity, From such dread surprise Each soul of that city Precious in Thine eyes. Swiftly then, or slowly — Comes no end amiss — May Thine angel holy Call us into bliss. IV Death will be that angel, Saviour, of Thy will, With the same evangel, Jubilant or still ; Crowning toilsome duty And long years of pain, Or youth's joy and beauty, With exceeding gain : V Death, all slowly brightening Some gloom-haunted way ; 338 HYMNS Death, as instant lightning On meridian day — Welcome ! — if Thou meet us, Lord, when he shall come, And Thy dear saints greet us To our Father's Home. Amen. THE BEATING DOWN OF SATAN 339 ^Ije Beating: 2Doton of »)attm ' We beseech Thee . . . finally to beat down Satan under our feet. ' — ( The Litany. ) ' For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.' (i Cor. XV. 25.) I Watching early, late, and long. Sworn to crown his work of wrong, Satan would our doom complete, Tread us down beneath his feet. II Christ against him aid us well ! — When fair lures lead on to hell ; While the Spring blows free and fresh, — Lord, beat down the lust of flesh. in When our life in Summer noon, Reigning through its roseate June, Seems an age that cannot die, — Lord, beat down the lust of eye. 340 HYMNS IV When the golden Autumn throws Glory on a proud repose, Or adorns a splendid strife, — Lord, beat down the pride of life. V When, with Death, at Winter's night, He shall come in Hope's despite, And all powers and passions fleet, — Beat him down beneath our feet. VI Thou, Whose love hath made us free, When he claims us finally At the dread tribunal seat, — Beat him down beneath our feet. Amen. SENT 341 ^ent: ^ i^pmn for Cant)itiate0 for ^ruination ' Who is sufficient for these things.' ' Even so send I you. ' I O MY Lord, most Holy, Summonest Thou me, Lowliest 'mid the lowly. As Thyself to be ? ' Yea, because I call thee. Take thy priestly place. Front ivhat may befall thee — Hast thou not My grace ? ' II Can I in my weakness Stand as in Thy stead ? I, in might or meekness, Needing to be led? ^Yes, for I have sent thee. Laid on thee My power ; Be, by what is lent thee, Equal to thine hour. ' 342 HYMNS III How may I be leader, Doubting mine own way? Of Thy flock the feeder, Oft myself astray ? * Canst not trust thy Master His elect to keep ? Think, 'tis thine own Pastor Set thee o'er His sheep.' IV Lord, who can awaken Israel cold and dead, Now that Thou art taken From Thy Church's head ? 'Z(?, My matitle folds thee From My car of fire I Mine Ascejision holds thee With Me to aspire. V ' Cajist thou fear or falter Clothed with such a claim ? Standing at Mine Altar, Blessing in My Naf?ie ? SENT 343 When Life's path grows steeper, Pointing out the Height, 'Mid the darkness deeper Holding out the light' VI O my Master, truly Thou hast met my need ! They who follow duly Duly Thine may lead ; Following Thee for ever, As Thou wilt and where, I, in Thee, will never Falter or despair. VII Father, Son, and Spirit, 'Tis Thy call of grace. Thine election's merit Seals to me my place : Lowest 'mid the lowly. Yet I call Thee mine : Holy, Holy, Holy, Thine, and sent to Thine. Amen. 344 HYMNS ^Ije »>trcam of ^ime: ^ ipeto icar'0 I Out of silence, fateful, Flows the Stream of years ; In its mystery hateful. Brooded o'er by fears, ' O faint hearty above it See tK d'erwafching sky ; For life's mystery love it. On its hope rely ! ' II But this sky of morning Dark may be ere noon ; All my fond hope scorning, Be it late or soon. ' Nay, that Heaveji re77iaineth, Co7ne the clouds or go ; Ever?nore it reigneth O'er the River's flow.' Ill Say, what room for gladness, While these waters moan ? THE STREAM OF TIME 345 Infinite in sadness Is this river's tone. ' All emotions blending To its course belong ; But of joy unenditig Is its undersong! IV ' Fear not I He Who made it Is thine own true Friend ; For thy sake He bade it Flow from source to end. His own Heaven its fountain, To His deep it flows ; Springing fro77i love's Mountain, Love is its repose. V ' Yea ; and He before thee, On this river's breast. Passed from pain to glory. Passed from toil to rest. Folloiv, till He meet thee — Dow7i this narrow tide — Till His S7nile shall greet thee On His Oceafi wide.' A7nen. 346 HYMNS %mix of m. l5allotD0 ' O love the Lord, all ye His saints.' — (Ps. xxxi. 23.) ' Lo, a great multitude.' — (Rev. vii. 9.) I All Hallows : by that voice Deep calls to Deep : Altar to Altar : Word replies to Word ; They throng the plain, and vale, and crown the steep — Earth, Hades, Heaven — in each their sound is heard. All tones therein of grace and glory blend, God's love in purpose, and God's love in end. II All Hallows : evermore from age to age The meek, majestic, loyal line goes on ; Their pictures front us on each holy page — From primal Genesis to mystic John ; With myriads more on those blank leaves between By reverent angels marked, by men unseen. HYMN OF ALL HALLOWS 347 III All Hallows : Abel at his altar stands ; Noah, and Abraham, and Aaron, there ; Each dimly gazing, Crosswards, to those Hands Which all men's sins and all men's sorrows bear ; And to that Precious Stream, from Calvary's height. Wherein All Hallows wash their raiment white. IV All Hallows : these are they redeemed by love : Elect by God the Father to be won By Him He gave : sealed by the mystic Dove Who lit on them, as on th' Incarnate Son, To make them His — the pure, the kind, the true. The brave to suffer and the strong to do. V Lord of All Hallows, — of that multitude, The stoled in white who sing before Thy throne. Where never pain may dull, nor pride delude Those happy spirits evermore thine own ; Grant us their faith and patience — and their love. Their power below, in Thee, their bliss above. Amen. 348 HYMNS l^pmn after BeneDictioii Homeward we pass, in Peace : Our Master's message given : He sends us on our earthly way With words from Heaven. II The Church's words are His : This ' Peace ' is said with power ; His Blood-bought Blessing is her charge, Her children's dower. Ill To every faithful soul There at the Altar stand The Love, Grace, Might, of God Triune, With lifted hand. HYMN AFTER BENEDICTION 349 IV Hear tender Mercy's words, Ye souls that inly mourn ! Receive your Saviour's Sympathy, Ye hearts forlorn ! Hear Wisdom's word of light. All ye who long to find The knowledge that can free and fill The troubled mind. VI So blest in mind and heart Homeward we pass to-day : Dear Lord, so may we wend at last Our Heavenward way. Amen. 3SO HYMNS {For Very Young Children) I God is so good : He gives us Home, And all in Home so dear : And till we to His kingdom come, He makes us happy here. II Another Home He gives us too : That Home the Church we call ; To her we will be ever true, The Mother of us all. Ill And still another does He give ! Wherever we may roam. Wherever British children live, Their country is their Home. THE THREE HOMES 351 IV And in that Home a great Queen dwells In royal motherhood — Ring out her name, ye merry bells, Victoria the Good ! V We praise God for our Mother-Queen, Tender and true is she ; A greater there has never been — A kinder could not be. VI So while the bells ring out her fame, Our song of praise to Thee We children chant, in Jesus' name. Most Holy Trinity. Amen. 352 HYMNS (Boti of »)upLTme 2Dommion HYMN OF THE DIAMOND WEDDING OF THE QUEEN WITH HER PEOPLE ' The Diamond Wedding of the Queen with her people. ' — ( Times Leader, Nov. lo, 1896.) ' It is a full song that will greet the Diamond Marriage Year of the Queen with her people; going up from the "silver-coasted" Islands of Britain ; from the golden Australasian Islands : from the sunny Islands of the Tropics : from the Indian Empire, from Africa, from the darker Canadian North, and from many another land.' I God of supreme dominion, From Whom all power has birth, Whose Praise on eagle pinion O'ersweeps Thine Heav'n and earth : We lift one voice before Thee From many a land and race, And with one heart adore Thee For threescore years of grace. II Here, by the barriers olden With front of silver sheen — GOD OF SUPREME DOMINION 353 There, from the Islands golden — From Orient lands between — From isles of beauty sparkling The summer seas among — From tracts with winter darkling — Goes up the choral song. HI These years, in tale excelling All years of olden reign, Their twofold story telling Of blended joy and pain — With equal grace upon her, Like twain wings of Thy Dove — Have crowned the Head we honour : Have blessed the Heart we love. IV Comes with prophetic morning. With Peace afar and near. With Hope our hills adorning, This Diamond Marriage Year ! And hearts with praise o'erflowing, And souls that inly pray, 354 HYMNS Greet Queen and Nation going Still on their stately way. V Praise for Thy long sustaining, That held her firm in aim Ever to keep unwaning Our fair ancestral fame ; Praise for the sweet compassion Which makes the wide world own That Love's divinest fashion Is set from England's throne. VI Lord, as her realm lies truly 'Neath an unsetting sun, As earthly meed all duly Her stainless life hath won : So when at last before Thee She lays her kingdom down, Christ's One Light be her glory, Christ's Merit be her crown. Amen. ONE WIDE MAJESTIC TEMPLE 355 ®\\z ^iDc Majestic 'Hciiiplc I One wide majestic temple, Our Realm, from sea to sea, Spreads 'neath the dome of Heaven, And there, O God, do we — One heart in myriad voices — Our lauds uplift to Thee. II Hear Thy great congregation, O Lord of all, we pray ! There in the deepening sunset — Here in the opening day — Where norland tempests hurtle — Where tropic breezes play. Ill We praise Thee for a Monarch, The stateliest under sun ; Yet for the tenderest Woman The Throne has ever won ; For sympathy the truest ; For duty grandly done. 356 HYMNS IV Queen-maiden — Wife — and Mother, She nobly filled her place : And, when one awful shadow Had veiled a while her face. Thy saintly patience crowned her With holier, sweeter grace. V We praise Thee for Thy Worker, The true, the wise, the strong — Thy Guardian of our freedom, — Thy Warder against wrong, — Thy Sufferer, singing softly Life's solemn undersong. VI Through all her sacred service Her Father, Saviour, Friend — Through threescore years beside her To guide, console, defend — Lord, bless Thine own Anointed On to the glorious end. Amen. LORD OF LORDS 357