401 



HYMN. 



It is I, be not afraid. — Matthew xiv. 27. 



When power divine in mortal form 

 Hush'd with a word the raging storm ; 

 In soothing accents Jesus said, 

 " Lo, it is I ! be not afraid." 



So, when in silence nature sleeps, 

 And his lone watch the mourner keeps, 

 One thought shall every pang remove ; — 

 Trust, feeble man, thy Maker's love. 



Blest be the voice that breathes from heaven 

 To every heart in sunder riven, 

 When love and joy and hope are fled ; 

 " Lo, it is I ! be not afraid." 



When men with fiend-like passions rage, 

 And foes yet fiercer foes engage ; 

 Blest be the voice, though still and small, 

 That whispers — " God is over all." 



God calms the tumult and the storm ; 

 He rules the seraph and the worm ; 

 No creature is by him forgot, 

 Of those who know, or know him not. 



And when the last dread hour shall come ; 

 While shuddering nature waits her doom ; 

 This voice shall call the pious dead ; 

 " Lo, it is I ! be not afraid." 



The next, written after the loss of a mother he 

 tenderly loved, and, in the course of a few weeks 

 after, that of another relative, no less dear to the 

 present writer, cannot be inappropriate in this 

 place. Filial affection was one of the strongest 

 which Sir James possessed, and it extended to them 

 both in no common degree. 



VOL. II. 2 D 



