SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.  Ephesians iii. 13.

Wish not, dear friends, my pain away —
   Wish me a wise and thankful heart,
With god, in all my griefs, to stay,
   Nor from His loved correction start.

The dearest offering He can crave
   His portion in our souls to prove,
What is it to the gift He gave,
   The only Son of His dear love?

But we, like vexed unquiet sprights,
   Will still be hovering o’er the tomb,
Where buried lie our vain delights,
   Nor sweetly take a sinner’s doom.

In Life’s long sickness evermore
   Our thoughts are tossing to and fro: 
We change our posture o’er and o’er,
   But cannot rest, nor cheat our woe.

Were it not better to lie still,
   Let Him strike home and bless the rod,
Never so safe as when our will
   Yields undiscerned by all but God?

Thy precious things, whate’er they be,
   That haunt and vex thee, heart and brain,
Look to the Cross and thou shalt see
   How thou mayst turn them all to gain.

Lovest thou praise? the Cross is shame: 
   Or ease? the Cross is bitter grief: 
More pangs than tongue or heart can frame
   Were suffered there without relief.

We of that Altar would partake,
   But cannot quit the cost—­no throne
Is ours, to leave for Thy dear sake —
   We cannot do as Thou hast done.

We cannot part with Heaven for Thee —
   Yet guide us in Thy track of love: 
Let us gaze on where light should be,
   Though not a beam the clouds remove.

So wanderers ever fond and true
   Look homeward through the evening sky,
Without a streak of heaven’s soft blue
   To aid Affection’s dreaming eye.

The wanderer seeks his native bower,
   And we will look and long for Thee,
And thank Thee for each trying hour,
   Wishing, not struggling, to be free.

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols.  Ezekiel xiv. 4.

Stately thy walls, and holy are the prayers
   Which day and night before thine altars rise: 
Not statelier, towering o’er her marble stairs,
   Flashed Sion’s gilded dome to summer skies,
Not holier, while around him angels bowed,
From Aaron’s censer steamed the spicy cloud,

Before the mercy-seat.  O Mother dear,
   Wilt thou forgive thy son one boding sigh? 
Forgive, if round thy towers he walk in fear,
   And tell thy jewels o’er with jealous eye? 
Mindful of that sad vision, which in thought
From Chebar’s plains the captive prophet brought.