Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;
All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not see;
All Discord, Harmony not understood;
All partial Evil, universal Good:
And spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,
One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.
THERE'S a fancy some lean to and others hate— That, when this life is ended begins
New work for the soul in another state,
Where it strives and gets weary, loses and wins : Where the strong and the weak, this world's congeries,
Repeat in large what they practised in small,
Through life after life in unlimited series;
Only the scale's to be changed, that's all.
Yet I hardly know. When a soul has seen
By the means of Evil that Good is best,
And, through earth and its noise, what is heaven's
When our faith in the same has stood the testWhy, the child grown man, you burn the rod, The uses of labour are surely done; There remaineth a rest for the people of God: And I have had troubles enough, for one.
THE Poets, in their elegies and songs
Lamenting the departed, call the groves,
They call upon the hills and streams to mourn,
And senseless rocks; nor idly; for they speak,
In these their invocations, with a voice
Obedient to the strong creative power
Of human passion. Sympathies there are
More tranquil, yet perhaps of kindred birth,
That steal upon the meditative mind,
And grow with thought. Beside yon spring I stood,
And eyed its waters till we seemed to feel
One sadness, they and I. For them a bond
Of brotherhood is broken time has been
When, every day, the touch of human hand
Dislodged the natural sleep that binds them up
In mortal stillness; and they ministered
To human comfort. Stooping down to drink,
Upon the slimy foot-stone I espied
The useless fragment of a wooden bowl,
Green with the moss of years, and subject only
To the soft handling of the elements !
There let the relic lie-fond thought-vain words!
Forgive them ;-never-never did my steps
Approach this door but she who dwelt within
A daughter's welcome gave me, and I loved her
As my own child. O Sir! the good die first,
And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust
Burn to the socket.
WORDSWORTH, The Excursion.
BE strong to hope, O heart!
Though day is bright,
The stars can only shine
In the dark night.
Be strong, O heart!
Look to the Light.
Be strong to bear, O heart!
Nothing is vain;
Strive not, though life is care,
And God sends pain.
Heaven is above, and there
Rest will remain.
Be strong to love, O heart! Love knows not wrong; Didst thou love creatures even, Life were not long.
Didst thou love God in heaven
Thou wouldst be strong.
BE merciful, be gracious, spare him, Lord!
Be merciful, be gracious, Lord, deliver him,
From the sins that are past;
From Thy frown and Thine ire ;
From the perils of dying;
From any complying
With sin, or denying
His God, or relying
On self at the last;
From the nethermost fire ;
From all that is evil;
From the power of the devil;
Thy servant deliver,
For once and for ever.
By Thy birth and by Thy Cross,
Rescue him from endless loss;
By Thy death and burial,
Save him from a final fall;
By Thy rising from the tomb,
By Thy mounting up above,
By the Spirit's gracious love,
Save him in the day of doom.
"Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus,
De profundis oro Te,
Miserere, Judex meus,
Parce mihi, Domine.
Firmly I believe and truly
God is Three, and God is one;
And I next acknowledge duly
Manhood taken by the Son.
And I trust and hope most fully
In that Manhood crucified;
And each thought and deed unruly
Do to death, as He has died.
Simply to His grace and wholly
Light and life and strength belong,
And I love, supremely, solely,
Him the Holy, Him the Strong.
Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus,
De profundis oro Te,
Miserere, Judex meus,
Parce mihi, Domine.
And I hold in veneration,
For the love of Him alone,
Holy Church, as His creation,
And her teachings, as His own;
And I take with joy whatever
Now besets me, pain or fear,
And with a strong will I sever
All the ties which bind me here,
Adoration aye be given,
With and through the angelic host,
To the God of earth and heaven,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus,
De profundis oro Te,
Miserere, Judex meus,
Mortis in discrimine."
J. H. NEWMAN, Gerontius.
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