MISCELLANEOUS. 75 ' 



And steeping the lone widow's coucli witli tears. 



So has the year been character'd with woe 



In Christian land, and mark'd with wrongs and crimes ; 



Yet 'twas not thus He taught— not thus He lived, 



Whose birth we this day celebrate with prayer 



And much thanksgiving. — He, a man of woes, 



Went on the way appointed, — path, though rude, 



Yet borne with patience still : — He came to cheer 



The broken-hearted, to raise up the sick, 



And on the wandering and benighted mind 



To pour the light of truth. — task divine ! 



more than angel teacher ! He had words 



To soothe the barking waves, and hush the winds ; 



And when the soul was toss'd in troubled seas, 



Wrapt in thick darkness and the howling storm, 



He, pointing to the star of peace on high, 



Arra'd it with holy fortitude, and bade it smile 



At the surrounding wreck. 



When with deep agony his heart was rack'd, 



Not for himself the tear-drop dew'd his cheek, 



For them He wept, for tliem to Heaven He prayed. 



His persecutors — " Father, pardon them, 



They know not what they do." 



Angels of Heaven, 

 Ye who beheld him fainting on the cross, 

 And did him homage, say, may mortal join 

 The halleluiahs of the risen God? 

 Will the faint voice and grovelling song be heard 

 Amid the seraphim in light divine ? 

 Yes, he will deign, the Prince of Peace will deign, 

 For mercy, to accept the hymn of faith, 

 Low though it be and humble. — Lord of life, 

 The Christ, the Comforter, thine advent now, 

 Fills my uprising soul. — I mount, I fly 

 Far o'er the skies, beyond the rolling orbs ; 

 The bonds of flesh dissolve, and earth recedes. 

 And care, and pain, and sorrow, are no more. 

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