Immanuel: Thoughts for Christmas and Other Seasons, Etc.
«. '- ''^' '*<r •,-^ ^<y ^^t^:' >-^-*f ^iiii ,• ?^A ^ ■-© >, :<*^> ^, 'if'^Zij ('^<>^ p^- ■^-^ ■ ^ -■. '>■! -t^ >v*. :^:^ ^ •«c <^^i. ^-^fc 7^. >-r u^-'i'>r /-< s ,?^V « »*~rN- '^ W fV-^f* :r» ' , \ .* , 'V^X.^ * r- ^^ •Pr^X t^:; r.J>. iV*" ^^' ^?p* '>. ^•: ^\\- :a:^<-^' .^' » i <-' j^,:-i A J ^v^ H ^^^ ^ h'^i > IMMANUEL /■. X  IMMANUEL 'W^msW for Cfin0tma0 ano otfier  • • •a -^ -"•••• Beholdt a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a SON, and shall call Hu Name lMMANUEL"—l^M.Kn viL 14. RIVINGTONS 3Lontion^ ®xforti, anH Cantibrfbse 1875. J p^"^ mmm THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 163325 ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. 1899. .WI^EM TQOU -PASS^ST^ TttTtDltGH THE WATERS, I WILL BE WJTp;i5l'kB>; AND ^HROUttH THE RIVERS, THEY SHALL NOT OVERFLOW^cTHEy..^ ^ ^ . ^ V w DEDICATION. This book is to the glory of God, and to the memory of two beloved brothers. One of these is the author of the ppems* »bx }• *Ff --^-y oWluch will be found at the end. ' ^hey were wrhteri, iife&rly all, before he had reached 5iis ji^aj^qrit)^.;? The im- partiality of a relative mayi^liQ*-qnestioii.ed; yet others may think them too' feV, and "may regret that, in after years, he should have forsaken poetry for "the severer muses." The ultra-conservatism of the little poem, " Old England," passed away ; not so his interest in antiquities; it bore valuable fruit in " England under the Norman Occupation" (Wil- liams and Norgate, 1858), and in other more ephe- meral treatises. He was engaged upon a series of * mediaeval biographies, two of which — "Girolamo VI DEDICATION. Miani" and "The ProvenQal Antiquary Peiresc** — appeared in the Monthly Packet^ when after three months' ilhiess, just before the Christmas of 1867, he departed to better things. In this sketch there are lines left out which the hearts of some will know how to read. If others think it inconsistent with the saying that literature should be a frape/yyov, let them take for answer that our brother could not make that his rule. From his fifteenth year he mQurn^ a^ deprivation,,. . ,^ •-•- » • •*• •••-• • !•••.. •• • • . : And ;w^isdoQi at »oqq entrance quite shut out. • •. • ••  ^stopped." Nearly three years later he was followed by his brother — drowned while attempting to cross on horseback the floods of the Burdekin, in Queensland. The horse succeeded in reaching the opposite bank; the rider was submerged ; the mortal-he was never found. This wound, with its balm, is in the poem which stands third in " The Victory of Immanuel.'* The comparison in that monody has been cen- « • • •. ^ DEDICATION. Vll sured; against that censure pleads the title of the book. If God in very deed became Innpanuel — vouchsafed to assume our nature and to live and die in our world — may there not have been inci- dents in His life parallel with incidents in later lives ? While we stand in spirit where, consciously, we can never stand in the body, near that resting- place somewhere in the heart of the Australian river, may we not recall the complaint, "I know not where they have laid Him"? They who call this irreverent are reverent indeed. For as, in a far-off measure, our cause of sorrow resembles Saint Mary Magdalen's, ours to the full are her cheer and joy. A. M. M. ^ PAGB I 73 lOI . 127 129 . 131 134 . 143 IMM ANUEL XL r :^ y ' r i THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. f UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN, UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN : AND THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDER : AND HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL, COUNSELLOR, THE MIGHTY GOD, THE EVERLASTING FATHER, THE PRINCE OF PEACE. THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. I. Will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth ? Behold, heaven and the heaven of hecwefu cannot contain Thee, — 2 Chronicles vi. i8. Immanuel ! Immanuel ! Of earth The Holy and the Mighty asks a home ; Emptied of all save pity He would come, The Father's Sole-begotten, to our dearth. Now should we cry among our fields. Woe worth, Where are white lilies in His path to wait? Will He, the Everlasting Orb, go forth. Orient and Occident in turn His gate? Now should the bird who sings so sweet at even Hush her to hearken " songs of night " more sweet ; But, when the Singer has gone back to heaven, Songful once more, to Him those songs repeat. While men stand raptured near, and list awhile. In far-off summer days, in . sunset-isle. 4 THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. II. Mary said^ Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto me according to Thy word, — Saint Luke i. 38. Immanuel ! Immanuel ! The word "Whom shall We send?" has echoed through all years ; Now m time's fullness the response appears, " Behold 1 I come to do Thy will, O Lord." " Whom shall We send ? " Like touch-vibrating chord The angel of the Presence seeks earth's shade, And there in Nazareth, of man abhorred, Our God asks dwelling of a mortal maid. " Through thee are one the twain whom sin would sever, Through thee comes back the gift whence Eva fell ; Ave Maria ! full of grace for ever, Thou art the Mother of Immanuel." Mother of God, swift answering, " Let it be," For thy meek faith we render, ** Hail !" to thee. THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. III. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass ; as showers that water the earth, — PSALM Ixxii. 6. Immanuel! Immanuel! Long erst The Love has been the Life of seraphim ; But now He finds the place too strait lor Him, He comes like rain upon man's mighty thirst. O happy night when on our darkness burst The Sun ! O shepherds watching on the lea ! Ye hear the everlasting Gospel first, Of all the world the only watchers ye. " Evangel ! O Evangel ! *' rings the story, •'Glad tidings of great joy to men I bring;" Then in full choir, "To God on high be glory, To favoured men goodwill," the angels sing. Cease not, O angels, sing through time to tell The house of living Bread, Immanuel. THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. IV. The shepherds came with haste and found Mary and Joseph^ and the Babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.— Sai'ST Luke ii. l6, 17. Shepherds of sheep, who went forth swift to fall At Bethlehem, before Love's Mystery, Shepherds of souls returning, O tell me Where found ye late the Christ, the Lord of all? Did ye not pass through doors magnifical? Does not Tyre's purple cincture His first smiles? Are not the vassals in that sovran hall Earth's mighty men and kings of the far isles ? "We saw a young Child in a manger lying. The ass and ox were near Him as He lay, The watchers listening and the shadows flying, We sang the song of angels, in the grey ; No throne of earth, yet nought could speak so well God with us in the flesh, Immanuel." THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. V. Mary kept all these things^ and pondered theni in her heart,' Saint Luke ii. 19. What dost thou ponder, Maty, full of grace. Thy visitants departed? Dost thou see, With the clear eyes of thy white purity,. Thy Baby's arms th€ mighty world embrace? An artist's gaze may at an easel trace In faint first lines the masterpiece's power ; Ev'n so, perchance, dilates thy dwelling-place, And breaks in perfect bloom thy Passion-flower. Thus with the soul it is as with the manger, In work and word the watchers twain are nigh; Again the foster-father guards from danger. Again the mother-maid sings lullaby; True Priest and spotless Bride, that birth they scan, Immanuel, Eternal God with man. 8 THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. VI. While Joseph thought on these things^ behold^ the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife ; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.— Saiht Matthew i. 20. There are who in the night lie down to slumber, And, waking, joy to know their grief a dream ; There are who wake and work beneath the gleam, Yet sleep — such phantasies their noonday cumber ! There is Who, coming in the midnight sombre. Tells men of heav'n beneath the clouds begun, And bids them sorrows with their dreams to number, Which fade, and fading, bring to them the sun. Sleep, sleep, O Joseph ; thou didst dream while waking, Thou in thy slumber things of day shalt hear ; The star of morning says the sun is breaking, The angel speaks the King of angels near. O foster-father, guard thy household well, The Ever-maiden, the Immanuel. THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. VII. / am the Light of the World: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life, - Saint John viii. 12. First Sun, arising good and ill to bless, (The weary sin-sad ages perfected, The angel-stany midnight after sped,) First Sun to light the Sun of Righteousness, Should not thy dawn a lovelier dawn confess, Cloudless thy sky and summer-sweet thy day? The heart of all the years shall answer, yes. For 'neath oin: cloud thy Fountain asks thy ray. Ah ! since time's dawn thy light has told His kindness ; We closed the eyes He gave and blind would be; Ah ! with desire He so desired our blindness. Himself took eyes that we again might see ; O wonder passing thought of seraphim ! The sun yields light, the Sun of suns is dim. 10 THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. VIII. Like sacrificial wine Poured on a victim^ s hecui. Are those few precious drops of Thint, Now first to offering led. Christian Year. Ancient of Days which know not morn and even ! This day, meseems, they smite the Rock of years ; He made our flesh, He never made our tears ; He takes them both to purge our evil leaven. Ancient of Days ! His days last night were seven ; This day His life-long passion is begun; As if sin-severed He is borne to Heaven, Though angels know that Thou and He are One. Ah me ! ah me ! the blood of God is flowing; It ebbs, but soon it will be all outpoured; God reaps the firstfruits of the sinner's sowing, And Mary's soul has foretaste of the sword. O bounteous Father ! O sweet eight-day Child ! Thine be our hearts, though scarred yet reconciled. THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. II IX. 2 am the root and the offspring of David^ and the bright and morning star, — Revelation xxii. i6. Among the lanes, one eve of August starry, One speaks his musings to fraternal ears : ** If there be dwellers in the sister-spheres. They count our world a pallid luminary." The word is spoke, the answer does not tarry — " Was path of any star by Jesus trod ? Lo, here, incarnate in the Child of Mary Once lived and died the universe's God. The heav'n of stars declares His far off splendour. The heav'n of angels sang His human birth ; With our own hearts for harps we men may render The mighty music of His course on earth. Fair are the stars, but fairest, first, of them, The mystic star which shone o'er Bethlehem." \ 12 THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. X. Where is He that is horn King of the Jews f for tve have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him, — Saint Matthew ii. 2. But twelve days back a kingly crown we wore, A crown declaring twofold empery; The sun-bathed east for earthly realm had we, The starry night had taught us all her lore. But now we cast earth by for evermore, And now the Wisdom from on high we own ; Our weary twelve-day pilgrimage past o*er. We cast our crowns before a manger-throne. This is the Might the cruel spoiler spoiling. This is the Christ, the Ever-royal bom; Sweet star who led'st us in oiu: twelve-day toiling, Stand still for ever o'er the Star of mom. Till men shall bring, where'er men's feet have trod. Not gold and spice and myrrh, but hearts, to God. THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. 13 XI. Behold^ the Lord rideth upon a swift cloudy and shall come into Egypt : and the idols of Egypt shcUl be moved at His presence 4 — Isaiah xix. i. Mother of Jesus, with thy sweet hand guiding Thy Little One along the Libyan plain, Dost mark how tottering falls each idol fane, Eternal God in Egypt's midst abiding? To human eyes from Herod's anger hiding, A puny train along the sands ye go ; Yet, conquering and to conquer, God is riding. With coronal of stars and horse of snow. Ye also, foster-father, mother-maiden, Attendants of His march, save you, seem none, But babes, just gone from Bethlehem to Eden, The martyrs' noble army, crowned, forerun; Their cross, as men count years. Love's Cross before. They bid the weeping mother weep no more. 14 THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. XII. When the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished^ they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord,— Saiht Luke ii. 22. Meseems the Church is as her heavenly Spouse ; No past and future in her time may be; The tender smile of her first infancy Still, after many ages, lights her brows. Come, pilgrims, hasten to the holy house, And bend and praise. Before the earth-set throne A lowly mother seals her travail-vows, Nor renders thanks and offers gifts, alone; For round her thanks are thankful voices ringing. The thankful voices of " the first Nowell," And aye her soul is " nunc dimittis " singing. Because her eyes have seen Immanuel; The Mother purified; who stain has none, Offering in earthly shrine th' Eternal Son. THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. 15 XIII. They found Him not, — Saint Luke ii. 45. The loss of Jesus ! O that loss to me Were loss transcending mortal speech or lay, Were loss of bread and light and sword and stay And joy and tears and yearning charity ; Of all I am, and all I ask to be, Of selfless thought and clear imconscious gaze, Sweet solitude and sweet society. And restful nights and restful-toilful days; Of earthly seasons with their changeful beauty. Nature's fair lesson-book from spring to fall, Of Chiurch-solemnities, the bride of duty,' Festal and fast and love and heaVn and all. If such in time the loss of Jesus be. What were such loss through all eternity ! ' What God hath joined let not man put asunder. 1 6 THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. XIV. 751^ found Him in the temple^ sitting in the midst of the doctors^ both hearing them and asking them questions, — Saint Luke ii. 46. Hast thou the pleasant path of Wisdom missed? O ! while the time is, seek Her sorrowing ; Men from the ocean pearls of price up bring, Men rive the earth for gold and amethyst; They who find Wisdom only bend and list; Once She was far away beyond all ken ; But Righteousness and Peace in Jesus kissed. And now the Wisdom sets Her chair with men. Not to the world She makes Her strange expansion, Not with thy fiiends and kinsfolk walks She One ; Mary and Joseph ! where is Wisdom's mansion ? ** Teaching the wise we found our twelve-year Son; Go to the Father's house as we of yore. And dwell with Wisdom — wise for evermore.** THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. 1 7 XV. He went daum with them^ and came to Nazareth^ and was subject unto them. — Saint Luke ii. 51. Hide me, O Father, till the hour of death, In lowly, silent, hamlet ministry; The rough and hard and homely task for me, Not angel-flights 'mid flattery's poison-breath. If Thou didst hide Thy Son in Nazareth Through silent years. His creature's toilful Boy \ So only purged the guilt and sealed the faith, Shall not Thy sinner work his way to joy? He deigned forget His own Eternal Being, Men scarce perceived the love-aroma nigh, He loved and served and toiled, the end foreseeing, — Say, were such lot too low for such as I ? But He is God, and I am dust and stain ; Live, God, in me the hidden life again. c 1 8 THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. XVI. Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?—SAiiiT Luke i. 43. It is the hour, the hour of offering The Evening Sacrifice. Shall I not tell To what once called a man the vesper-bell? Awhile he heard the holy Mother sing, Her own " Magnificat " still carolling ; Then 'twixt the altar and his eyes she stood, As if some perfect Raffaelle-pencilling For his soul's joy were Mary's flesh and blood. Then thought he sadly " Must I leave my Mother, My Mother, Child of this dear English land, For that Ausonian fold which, more than other, Boasts love of Mary — at this sign's command ? " " Nay," was his heart's swift answer, " Mary's love Not less than Rome and Greece may England prove." THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. 1 9 XVII. Take keed that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven. — Saint Matthew xviii. 10. " How still the place where God on earth would be !" Said Fida j " Cara ! thou hast called white flowers Angels; thou bringest from cold wintry bowers Their scanty gifts to God's Epiphany. ' Relics of Eden ! ' " ah, well called them he, Israel's sweet singer, while this earth he trode; Ah, white and sweet their lowly ministry In bow'r and field to man, in shrine to God. But heav'n is incensed by a heavenly censer, An€ man has mightier needs than bo\v'rs supply; No Presence on the Throne, intense, intenser, Waxes the stillness. Are there angels nigh, Come down to say how still the heav'nly shrine?" « Cara made answer, "There are thine and mine." ** Relids ye are of Eden's bowers." — Christian Year. 20 THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. XVIII. The maid is not dead but sleepeth, — Saint Matthew ix. 24. Engirt by Bethlehem-star and lily-bell, Its root the Lamb Who died its crown to be, A little Cross says, " Here, in mystery ^ Doth all which cannot die of Cara dwell." The carven marble speaks to pilgrims well ; But strangers' eyes weep best for their own woe ; The angels of the rising wait to tell How lovely was the life, sweet friends ! ye know. Ye have no young voice, "father," "mother,'* crying, Through snows and summer, night and pleasant day, But *neath your heavy Cross the Lamb is lying. And o'er its summit gleams the crown's faint ray. O loss and gain ! Christ took from you His own ; Christ is your daily Bread at Christ^s true Throne. 3 i i.e, in symbol. THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. 21 XIX. Verily I say unto you^ Except ye be converted and become as JUtle children^ ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. — Saint Matthew xviii. 3. Fair is the grace to be a little child. Our God has sanctified all ages ; He, Not for twelve years but those long thirty-three, Dwelt in our world, the Ever-undefiled; Loving, obedient, gentle, stainless, mild, Exemplar He alike to sire and boy. Yet, ere by death the world He reconciled. He told us childhood was the gate of joy. They brought yoimg children to His love-fired bosom, Sin, the divider, bade them go away. But Love, the Child-God, blessed each baby-blossom, "Now suffer ye," He said, "My own to stay; When heav'n to man shall ope, its portals fair. Only My little ones shall enter there." 22 THE CHILDHOOD OF IMMANUEL. XX. / am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. Revelation i. ii. Immanuel ! Immanuel ! My flowers, My little Children, now is  dark or sunny hours, be comfort far or nigh, in sweet or songless bowers, I carol till I die ; God with us in His meekness, God with us in His might, To bind our wounds, to gift with strength our weakness. To bring us, angels, to the home of light. Shiloh is come ; His feet our earth have trod ; Now thanks and glory to the Child our God. THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. n THE SON OF MAN CAME NOT TO BE MINISTERED UNTO, BUT TO MINISTER, AND TO GIVE HIS LIFE A RANSOM FOR MANY, THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. I. // came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee^ and was baptized of John in Jordan, — SaintMarkL 9. Immanuel ! Immanuel 1 O come ; Holy and True, to men be manifest; A time and times and half-a-time* make quest For Sion's sheep upon the wilds that roam. Though dear the stillness of Thy human home, And cold the wind which blows along the plain, Men shall not count of morning hours the sum Ere Thou shalt rise to bring them back again. Ah ! when they slake their thirst at living fountains And feed in emerald meadows, they shall say How beautiful Thy feet upon the mountains. How kind the hand that wiped their tears away, How soft the dews that on their being fell, How rich the mercies of Immanuel ! I Three years and a half. — Daniel vii. 25. 26 THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. II. Zacharias said unto the angel ^ Whereby shall I know this ? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. — Saint Luke i. i8. Why dost thou doubt, O grey-haired Zachary? Hast thou not heard how Sarah's barren womb Brought forth a people? how the clustering bloom Circled the rod as the green almond tree? O dost thou lift thy eyes but twain to see? Thy wife, thy father Abraham's wife, alone? A mother we^ps untold sterility; But now there comes a Son to still that moan. Mother of ills from her life's mom till even, For holy sons earth lifts the time-long cry; But now her children shall be heirs of heaven, The Son of God to be her Son comes nigh. Thou shalt be dumb till time this word shall tell; Aye thy dumb lips sball preach Immanuel. THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 2^ III. Behold^ I will send My messenger y and he shall prepare the way before Me. — Malachi iii. i. Their watch o'er unborn life six moons had kept When Mary sought my mother. While I lay In ante-natal darkness, Jesus* day I saw faint dawning, and for gladness leapt. Then I beheld the earthly sun; I slept And rose in Judah's wild for prayer till even ; Few there the clouds the beams to intercept; So might be none between my soul and heaven. Then I went forth to men, to cry with power, " Prepare the way along the heart's waste land ; Lie low, ye hills ; ye little valleys, tower ; Now is the kingdom sweet of heav'n at hand; By mightier Baptist soon this Jordan trod, This voice shall cry, * Behold the Lamb of God !'" 28 THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. IV. He must increase^ but I must decrease, — Saint John iii. 30. Darkness abroad and perilous precipices, And robber hordes which wait the caravan! How joys the traveller in such straits to scan But one star glistening ere the path he misses ! Blissful that starlight; yet of ampler blisses, Of light which lights all paths, its glistenings tell, And seem to say while dawn the orient kisses, " Farewell ! ye need me now no more ; farewell ! " Lo ! such a star in Sion's sky is shining ; How joys awhile each wanderer in its ray. Glistening through this world's darkest dark, declining Contented out of sight when breaks the day ! " Behold the Light ! behold Immanuel ! Ye need me now no more ; farewell ! farewell 1 " THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 29 V. Then conieth Jesus from Galilee to yordan to John to be baptized of him, — Saint Matthew iii. 13. Her hands a font of purest water shrining, A maiden journeys from the pine-crowned north;' Say, did she follow when the Christ went forth, All day and night to Him her ear inclining? Clear on her breast a mystic cross is shining, As winter berries on the virgin snow ; Now, heav'n and earth in human semblance twining, What is thy name and what thy work below? " Dark by my path the river-reeds are waving ; Jordan am I, the first of streams that roll ; The Holy Flesh my world-old stain is laving, And now all waters sanctify the soul ; Yes, all who pass the surface foul with sin Arise immaculate, without, within ! " » The river flows from the roots of Anti-Lebanon to the head of the Dead St?i.— Smithes Dictionary of the Bible, Kx'^Ovr. "Jordan. ff 30 THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. VI. yohn bare witness of Him and cried, sayings This ims He of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me. — Saint John i. 15. O Love, dost come to be baptized of me ? Thou art the Lamb of God whose victor-fray Shall take the sins of the whole world away ; O Love, not Thou of me, but I of Thee. Say, can a sinner wash the Purity? Shall Health ask healing of a tainted rill? " Nay, thus all righteousness accomplished be ; For thus I come to do My Father's will." Prophet of God ! O not in bowers of sadness Th* anointing olives of the true Christ spring ; Th' Eternal Spirit comes, the oil of gladness, Him Prophet sealing, and High Priest and King; Th' Eternal Father wakes the thunder-voice, /*This is My Son in Whom I All rejoice." M r. ^1" \ THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 3 1 VII. yesus being baptized^ and prayings the heaven was opened^ and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him. — Saint Luke iii. 21, 22. When scarce the rays of setting sun illume The orchard-meadows of mid-Albion, Why do I linger ere I wander on, The while a mystic murmur thrills the gloom? The Holy Ghost deigned creature-form assume j He left the heav'n of ninefold angelhood ; Yet for His path He chose an earthly plume. The gentle bird that mourns in summer wood. Now in my heart He makes His lowly dwelling, Mourn in my heart for ever, holiest Dove ; The sinner's anguish to the Father telling. Tell Thou the sinner of his Father's love ; So shall my brief day's fast approaching night Foreshade the dawn of beatific Light. 32 THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. VIII. yissus was in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan ; and was with the wild beasts, — Saint Mark L 13. O Rose of Sharon, Lily of the Valley, Flowers of heav'n's garden, rife, with love's perfume, What is this world wherein awhile ye bloom? Is it a bower where sense with sweets may dally? Is it a land where birds sing musically Of sunshine and of dews by brook and dell, And where, to ebb and ebb, the billows rally Against the rock-built towers of Israel ? Alas ! in vain her weary sons and daughters Ask love's oasis 'mid the burning sand; Alas ! her Elim wells are Marah waters And all her garden dry and barren land; Here is no bread, the fainting soul to stay; Here savage beasts, ill spirits, prowl for prey. THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 0>o IX. Wherefore do ye spend ftioney for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not f Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is goody and let your soul delight itself in fatness. — Isaiah Iv. 2. " Dost Thou, of choice, abide not comforted ? O Son of God, if Son of God Thou be, By mighty work attest Thy ancestry ; Command these stones that they be turned to bread. Full forty centuries of time have sped, The lions have not lacked on Judah's wild; Full forty days and nights no table spread. Thy Father cares not for His fainting Child. ''^ There's war on earth as there was war in hea\'en ; Michael and Lucifer for strife draw nigh; Satan the wolf who round the fold dares raven, Jesus our God Who for the sheep would die. O speak, new Adam ; end the opening strife ; "Not bread but God is man's immortal life." D 34 THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. X. The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship ever them ; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so; but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger ; and he that is chief as he that doth serve, —Saint Luke xxii. 25, 26. Whither, O man, from evil wilt thou flee? Wilt climb earth's dizzy moimtain-peaks, and dream Of deeds that sparkle like the momitain-stream, A spirit like the mountain breezes free ? Ah ! there with immemorial subtilty The foeman waits to leaguer fierce thy line, " If only thou fall down and worship me Earth's realms and all their glory shall be thine." Thou dost not rule the starry universe ; Thou art not He to Whom all creatures bend; One dared to the Great King these wiles rehearse, Shall not tAy trial be the drama's end? So walk this lower world with staff and rod, So serve with thy whole heart thy Lord and God. THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 35 XI. Jestis answering said unto Satan^ It is saidj Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, — Saint Luke iv. 12. SiON ! O Sion ! thy fane's pinnacle, say what c^o^vns its white aerial spire ? Why gleams it, circled all with glory-fire, As if the stars had thither come to dwell ? Lo ! there, in glory unapproachable. Is One, Etem, Serene, Erect, Alone ; Angels attendant, circling, ward Him well Who has thus made the precipice a throne. Where is He now, O Sion, O my mother? 1 saw Him late, but He has passed away; Ah ! to my side there comes a gentle Brother ; He looks into my face; I hear Him say, — " Child of My throes, where'er I set thee, stand ; No self-sought danger earns My angel's hand." 36 THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. XII. Whm the devil had ended all the temptation^ he departed from Him for a season, — Saint Luke iv. 13. So victor stands thy "glorious Eremite,"^ So fain is Satan to his place to flee, O singer of the Fall and Victory, seer in darkness of supernal light His hour come near, again the Infinite By lurid wings in battle shall be fanned; 1 ask not Milton's music for that fight, I ask but strength in my own hour to stand. Ah ! on my bed in night's dread silence lying, I hear my angel, " Thou, ere age shalt die ; " Between the first strife and the last strong crying, O Lord, in mercy-deeds, as Thou, so I ! So I as Thou accepted child may be When Satan comes at the last agony. 3 Paradise Regained, book i, line 8. THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 37 XIII. And Jesus returned tn the power of the Spirit into Galilee ; and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about. And He taught in their synagogues^ being glorified of all, — Saint Luke iv. 14, 15. How sweet from scenes the heart with terror daunting To pass to northern mountain, lake, and lay ! Thy inland waters, O fair Cumbria, A viewless sprite their tranquil shore is haunting, " O Paradise ! O Paradise ! " now chanting,* Now waking simple moorland minstrelsy,^ Now, hushed the mythic orient's wild descanting, Singing to Love, love's immortality/ Have ye come back from heaven, O sweet singers, Come back and taught the wild bird what ye simg? No, 'tis the angel of your verse who lingers Along the waters where your harps were strung, 'Tis nature's lakeland voice to music set, Breathed by the Love around Gennesaret * Faber. s Wordsworth. ^ Southey, Curse of Kehama, canto x.., sVacEOAs. \o ^si^ \\. 38 THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. XIV. And He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up ; and, as His custom was. Hi went into the synagogue on the Sabbath dayy and stood up for to read, — Saint Luke iv. i6. Did He not come from heav*n to earth for His? Far less the depth their city-ramparts crown; O say what hinders that they cast Him down, The Man Who claims to end all prophecies ? He would go down a deeper precipice, He will go forth anon to die for men, His own shall seize Him at the token-kiss,. He will not vanish from their midmost then. For An^el He, the Angel of the Holy, Before Isaiah spoke or Jordan rolled, To preach the Gospel to the meek and lowly. To break the chains, to bid the blind behold. To bind the broken heart, to preach for near The day of grace, the Lord s accepted year. THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 39 XV. He ordained twelve that they might be with Him. — Saint Mark iii. 14. He might have tarried o'er ihe starry skies, He might have broke, without the war, our chain. He might have washed, without the blood, our stain, And brought us, angel-pure, to Paradise; But since the Love would be Self-sacrifice, Will not a thousand be by One overthrown? No clarion-summons from His camp need rise, God in our manhood can make war alone. Hark ! on all winds the sound of many voices ; Deep answers deep; "we come," the "follow Me;* Vanguard the twelve, a mighty host rejoices. Arrayed in Love's own victor-panoply ; " From wealth, from trade, from sire, firom all," they cry, " To fish for men, to farm the wealth on high." 40 THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. XVI. At the junction of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire are the Roll- wright Stones, They are probably Druidical ; a local legend says they are petrified Danish invaders^ whence the central stone is called the King-stone, Ye who for labour or for rest have gone To midland meadows where two counties kiss, Linger a season where the wonder is, A king and all his courtiers turned to stone. There flits my muse and sings her monotone; No song of Druid or of Dane has she; Immanuel, our God among His own, Christ and the twelve her only song shall be. Have we not known our Joshua's, gentle guiding O'er the Red Sea and the waste howling wild? The desert past, the river -waves dividing, What glorious vision waits each ransomed child ! All on twelve stones her walls fair Sion rears. The Monarch in the midst, the Rock of years. THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 4I XVII. Seeing the multiiudes^ He went up into a mountain ; and when He was set His disciples came unto Him ; And He opened His mouth and taught them, — Saint Mat- thew V. I, 2. To keep through life the inner being pure, To feed the poor, to slay the life of sense By ceaseless prayer and alms and abstinence, In heart's intent from human praise secure; To ask, to seek, to knock at the one door, So day by day the yearning soul be fed, Of Heav'n's unintermitted largess sure As little children of their father's bread, Like birds and flowers for no morrow scheming; • To render peace for cursing, love for pain, Like God on high Who lists the world's blaspheming, Yet sends on good and ill His sun and rain; To build life's building on one Rock, the Rood; Thus on the Mount Love speaks beatitude. 42 TftE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. XVIII. And it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples, — Saint Luke xi. i. From John to Jesus ! The delightful way Trod first at Jordan, first in heart they trode,* Then their ears heard, " Behold the Lamb of God !" Then their feet followed Jesus day by day. Then the brave captive at Machserus lay; Then the clear Voice could lead to Christ no more ; Still they pray Jesus, " Teach us, Lord, to pray. To pray as John his children taught of yore." From John to Jesus ! Dost thou say men go not. Praying " Our Father," that blest path of old ? " Father, forgive them ; what they do they know not," This, this, they hearken who the Lamb behold; " Father in heaVn, forgive the mightier ill As we the less." From John to Jesus still ! THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 43 XIX. yestis went up into a mountain to pray. And as He prayed the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistering, — Saint Luke ix. 28, 29. As holy Isaac waiting his young bride In the sweet meadows at the set of sun, Far off in spirit saw the Holy One, The Lamb which God would on the Mount provide, So thou in this world's awful eventide. When twilight shadows deepen hour by hour, Look with thy spirit on the Crucified, So shall thy brethren know His conquering power. Wilt thou not hearken what the Love is saying, The lonely mountain-top His altar-floor? He prays the Father; at that mighty praying The Glory 'neath the Veil can hide no more. Not less, in these last times, He asks of thee. Through prayer and life, a new Theophany. 44 THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. XX. There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written, —Saint John xxl 25, What harp's high music rings accord with Christ? He spake as never man beneath the sun; He did the deeds which never man had done ; Men own the wonder who the end resist; The eagle, soaring o'er each earth-bom mist, Knew never shrine for all He wrought and said; Now should the Spirit speak while angels list And earth keeps silence and hell quakes with dread. Mine is no eyry built for heav'nward springing, Mine is a nest amid the wayside com. There let me wait and watch all night ere singing Nigh the Tme Sun in the etemal mom; There let my spirit speak th* unspeakable, The song which all may leam, which none may tell. THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 45 XXI. The blind recerve their sight, and the lame walkj the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear^ the dead are raised up, — Saint Matthew xi. 5. O Holy Voice I at Thy resistless crying, The dead man rises from his four-day tomb; The winds and waves are hushed, and to the gloom, From souls too long enslaved, ill sprites are fl)dng ; O Holy Touch ! through Thy blest purifying Outcast no more the leper walks the sod. Not less to men for the sweet sunshine sighing, Thou giv'st to look upon Incarnate God ; Not less, the five loaves of the young lad taking, Thou feed'st five thousand on the barren shore, The heavenward glance and Eucharistic breaking Foreshadowing Bread which feeds for evermore; The lame are leaping now, the dumb now sing. The deaf unto the Love are listening. 46 THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. XXI I. 7 his beginning of miracles did jfesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory, — Saint John ii. ii. Ye dewy clouds, above the vineyards sailing, At noon, when it is summer all below, Ye glancing brooks which by the vineyards flow. Your heart of hearts into the sun exhaling. Cry men around, the wine of earth is failing? « Cry men, earth's bridals crown no Cana-sign? Lo ! a still Voice o'er cloud and wave prevailing Fast from her ewers flows the new-bom wine. Not for lips only, not for time's carousals; From sign to Sign souls go, from flood to Flood; The heav'nly Bridegroom seals the new espousals, Th' Eternal Victim cries " Behold My Blood ! " And yields its witness each new Thursday even, First tear-brimmed chalice, then the Wine of Heaven. THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 47 XXIII. Wheft jfesus heard the centurion. He marvelled^ and said to tliem that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel, — Saint Matthew viii. lo. yesus answered and said unto the woman of Canaan, O woman, \ great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt, — Saint I Matthew xv. 28. SAY, blest strangers, are ye calmly sleeping Among the cedars in the Pleasant Land? Beside your resting-place in heart I stand, Of your rich harvest for my fallows reaping; 1 hear your voices thankful concord keeping, " Came I and told him all my mother-woe, It seemed awhile He would not heed my weeping, But mightier mercy He my soul would show." " The soldier I, I sent my friends to pray him ; My roof, myself, for Him I deemed unmeet; Cried I, the winds, the stars, the thrones, obey Him, Sure, af His word, my servant's plague will fleet." Then full, " not strangers now but children we. His mansion cherished in our hearts makes He." 48 THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. XXIV. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips ; but their heart is far from. me. — Saint Matthew xv. 7, 8. " O DOST Thou ask who touched Thy garment ? O ! Hast Thou not turned Thee back? hast Thou not viewed How round Thee throng and press the multitude? Then not from lips, from sight let answer flow." " Answer they, throng they, nought of these I know ! Look ! trembling, falling, one to Me draws near. To tell of garment touched and ended woe, Of things she has not sought nor heard to hear ; Things present, things to come, her deeds revealing, The fount of sin whose flowing none may stay, Till breaks on Calvary the Fount of Healing All wounds to stanch, all tears to wipe away. This Manhood, Godhead's Garment, faith's right hand Shall touch; round This unhealed the throng shall stand." THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 49 XXV. yarn saith unto the impotent man. Rise, take up thy bed and walk. — Saint John v. 8. Whene'er in contemplation rapt I view Bethesda's pool, that far off scene and time, My soul flies back to my own day and clime. And sees the holy font, Bethesda true. There comes from heav'n an Angel to imbue The wave with Jesus; there the impotent, The blmd, the halt, the withered, live anew, Though men behold but one poor innocent On earth are waters, which, though many crave them, But few can enter, nor thus healed are they; But all shall own the kindly dews that lave them, When first in holy hope they kneel and pray, When, early grace reviving, they hear said Of the scorned Cross, Arise and bear thy bed. E 50 THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. XXVI. Verily^ verily ^ I say untoyau^ The hour is comings and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live, — Saint John v. 25. Wilt Thou not say to my young daughter "Rise," Though those pale cheeks my father-sorrow flout? Wilt Thou not touch yon bier ? they carry out My only son, the light of these sad eyes. Wilt Thou not go to where our brother lies? Art Thou not He who quickening visited The sisters? Many suns have lit our skies; None bids from that dark cave come forth our dead. They are gone by, the days ye count for olden, The days when rose to die again those three ; The Sun is risen and a starlight golden (Says that first rising) shall hereafter be; Not, like time's stars, to light a sunless sky; That Sun shall set not, those stars shall not die. THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 5 1 XXVII. Cotne unto Me^ all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, — Saint Matthew xi. 28. Hark, in the hamlet church-tower chime the bells Their first-day chime I O'er cottage, homestead, hall, At daybreak rings that descant musical. And with the early breeze now sinks, now swells. More sweet at dawn those strains than Philomel's When hushed the woodland shades, and dark the west. They are not chimes; they are Immanuel's **Come unto Me, ye weary, and have rest. Now breaks My day with all its glad evangels ; Rise ye with Me before the east is red, Lay down the toil of men for toil of angels. The bread of earth for heav'n-descended Bread ; Thus earth in you th' invisible shall ken. And cry * Lo, angels ! where we saw but men ! ' " 52 THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. XXVIII. Doing thy pleasure on My holy day, — Isaiah Iviii. 13. " Friend," cried Mundanus, *^hast thou read aright The message of that music ? As they list Let men go forth to prayer and Eucharist At early dawn or at meridian bright. But time speeds on ; no more the bells invite ; Shall not the summer chime to youth her chime ? Let verse for angels fly with angels' flight; We who are men need mercies in the rhyme. He who once chode among the com the chiding, Who oped blind eyes on that austerer day, Who bade the withered hand own wilFs sure guiding Will He think other thoughts o*er youth at play? Will He be glad when dark streets crave in vain The starry wonders of the glass-built fane ? " THE MINISTRY OF IMMANUEL. 53 XXIX. More to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold ; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb, — PsALM xix. lo. Servus made answer — " They who leave the King's Fair palace, and go forth to fields or street, Should not His savour in their hearts be sweet. 