A DIÁLOGUE-ANTHEM.

CHRISTIAN, DEATH.

Chr. ALAS, poor Death! where is thy glory?

Where is thy famous force, thy ancient sting?

Dea. Alas, poor mortal, void of story!

Go spell and read how I have killed thy King. Chr. Poor Death! and who was hurt thereby?

Thy curse being laid on Him makes thee accurst. Dea. Let losers talk, yet thou shalt die; These arms shall crush thee.

Chr.

Spare not, do thy worst.

I shall be one day better than before;
Thou so much worse, that thou shalt be no more.

THE WATER-COURSE.

THOU who dost dwell and linger here below,

Since the condition of this world is frail,
Where of all plants afflictions soonest grow,

If troubles overtake thee, do not wail;

For who can look for less that loveth

{

Life?

Strife?

But rather turn the pipe and water's course
To serve thy sins, and furnish thee with store

Of sovereign tears, springing from true remorse; That so in pureness thou mayest Him adore

Who gives to man, as He sees fit, {

(Salvation.

Damnation.

SELF-CONDEMNATION.

THOU who condemnest Jewish hate

For choosing Barabbas a murderer
Before the Lord of glory,

Look back upon thine own estate,
Call home thine eye (that busy wanderer),
That choice may be thy story.

He that doth love, and love amiss
This world's delights before true Christian joy,
Hath made a Jewish choice:

The world an ancient murderer is;
Thousands of souls it hath and doth destroy
With her enchanting voice.

He that hath made a sorry wedding Between his soul and gold, and hath preferred False gain before the true,

Hath done what he condemns in reading; For he hath sold for money his dear Lord, And is a Judas Jew.

*

Thus we prevent the last great day,

And judge ourselves. That light which sin and passion

* Go before; here, to forestall.

Did before dim and choke,

When once those snuffs are taken away, Shines bright and clear, e'en unto condemnation, Without excuse or cloak.

BITTER-SWEET.

AH, my dear angry Lord,
Since Thou dost love, yet strike;
Cast down, yet help afford;
Sure I will do the like.

I will complain, yet praise;
I will bewail, approve ;
And all my sour-sweet days
I will lament and love.

THE GLANCE.

WHEN first Thy sweet and gracious eye Vouchsafed e'en in the midst of youth and night To look upon me, who before did lie

Weltering in sin,

I felt a sugared strange delight, Passing all cordials made by any art, Bedew, embalm, and overrun my heart, And take it in.

Since that time many a bitter storm My soul hath felt, e'en able to destroy, Had the malicious and ill-meaning harm His swing and sway;

But still Thy sweet original joy

Sprung from Thine eye, did work within my soul, And surging griefs, when they grew bold, control, And got the day.

If Thy first glance so powerful be,
A mirth but opened and sealed up again,
What wonders shall we feel when we shall see
Thy full-eyed love!

When Thou shalt look us out of pain,
And one aspect of Thine spend in delight
More than a thousand suns disburse in light,
In heav'n above!

THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM.

THE God of love my Shepherd is,
And He that doth me feed:
While He is mine, and I am His,
What can I want or need?

He leads me to the tender grass,
Where I both feed and rest;
Then to the streams that gently pass:
In both I have the best.

Or if I stray, He doth convert
And bring my mind in frame:
And all this not for my desert,
But for His holy name.

Yea, in death's shady black abode
Well may I walk, not fear;

For Thou art with me, and Thy rod
To guide, Thy staff to bear.

Nay, Thou dost make me sit and dine,
E'en in my enemies' sight;

My head with oil, my cup with wine
Runs over day and night.

Surely Thy sweet and wondrous love
Shall measure all my days;

And as it never shall remove,

So neither shall my praise.

MARY MAGDALEN.

WHEN blessed Mary wiped her Saviour's feet
(Whose precepts she had trampled on before),
And wore them for a jewel on her head,
Showing His steps should be the street,
Wherein she thenceforth evermore

With pensive humbleness would live and tread :

She being stained herself, why did she strive
To make Him clean, who could not be defiled?
Why kept she not her tears for her own faults,
And not His feet? Though we could dive
In tears like seas, our sins are piled

Deeper than they, in words, and works, and thoughts.