Of Christian unity, and won a meed Of praise from Heaven. To Thee, O saintly WHITE,

Patriarch of a wide-spreading family, Remotest lands and unborn times shall turn, Whether they would restore or build — to Thee,

As one who rightly taught how zeal should burn,

As one who drew from out Faith's holiest

urn

The purest stream of patient Energy.

Of roving tired or desultory war—
Such to this British Isle her christian
Fanes,

Each linked to each for kindred services; Her Spires, her Steeple-towers with glittering vanes

Far-kenned, her Chapels lurking among trees,

Where a few villagers on bended knees Find solace which a busy world disdains.

XVI

XVIII

PASTORAL CHARACTER

1821. 1822

A GENIAL hearth, a hospitable board,
And a refined rusticity, belong

To the neat mansion, where, his flock among,
The learned Pastor dwells, their watchful
Lord.

Though meek and patient as a sheathed sword;

Though pride's least lurking thought appear a wrong

To human kind; though peace be on his tongue,

Gentleness in his heart- can earth afford
Such genuine state, pre-eminence so free,
As when, arrayed in Christ's authority,
He from the pulpit lifts his awful hand;
Conjures, implores, and labours all he

XXII

CATECHISING 1821. 1832

FROM Little down to Least, in due degree,
Around the Pastor, each in new-wrought vest,
Each with a vernal posy at his breast,
We stood, a trembling, earnest Company!
With low soft murmur, like a distant bee,
Some spake, by thought-perplexing fears
betrayed;

And some a bold unerring answer made:
How fluttered then thy anxious heart for me,
Beloved Mother! Thou whose happy hand
Had bound the flowers I wore, with faithful
tie:

Sweet flowers! at whose inaudible command Her countenance, phantom-like, doth re-ap

In and for whom the pious Mother felt Things that we judge of by a light too faint:

Tell, if ye may, some star-crowned Muse, or Saint!

Tell what rushed in, from what she was relieved

Then, when her Child the hallowing touch received,

And such vibration through the Mother went

That tears burst forth amain. Did gleams appear ?

Opened a vision of that blissful place Where dwells a Sister-child? And was power given

Part of her lost One's glory back to trace Even to this Rite? For thus She knelt, and, ere

The summer-leaf had faded, passed to Heaven.

XXV SACRAMENT

1821. 1827

By chain yet stronger must the Soul be tied;

One duty more, last stage of this ascent, Brings to thy food, mysterious Sacrament! The Offspring, haply, at the Parent's side; But not till They, with all that do abide In Heaven, have lifted up their hearts to laud

And magnify the glorious name of God, Fountain of grace, whose Son for sinners died.

Ye, who have duly weighed the summons, pause

No longer; ye, whom to the saving rite The Altar calls, come early under laws That can secure for you a path of light Through gloomiest shade; put on (nor dread its weight)

Armour divine, and conquer in your cause!

XXVI

THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY

1821. 1845

THE Vested Priest before the Altar stands; Approach, come gladly, ye prepared, in

sight

Of God and chosen friends, your troth to plight

With the symbolic ring, and willing hands Solemnly joined. Now sanctify the bands O Father! to the Espoused thy blessing

give, That mutually assisted they may live Obedient, as here taught, to thy commands. So prays the Church, to consecrate a Vow "The which would endless matrimony make;"

Union that shadows forth and doth partake A mystery potent human love to endow With heavenly, each more prized for the other's sake;

Weep not, meek Bride! uplift thy timid brow.

Now, ruin, beauty, ancient stillness, all Dispose to judgments temperate as we lay

On our past selves in life's declining day:
For as, by discipline of Time made wise,
We learn to tolerate the infirmities
And faults of others - gently as he may,
So with our own the mild Instructor deals,
Teaching us to forget them or forgive.
Perversely curious, then, for hidden ill
Why should we break Time's charitable
seals?

Once ye were holy, ye are holy still;
Your spirit freely let me drink, and live!

XXXVI

EMIGRANT FRENCH CLERGY
1821. 1827

EVEN while I speak, the sacred roofs of
France

Are shattered into dust; and self-exiled
From altars threatened, levelled, or defiled,
Wander the Ministers of God, as chance
Opens a way for life, or consonance
Of faith invites. More welcome to no land
The fugitives than to the British strand,
Where priest and layman with the vigilance
Of true compassion greet them. Creed and

test

Vanish before the unreserved embrace
Of catholic humanity:- distrest
They came, — and, while the moral tempest

roars

Throughout the Country they have left, our shores

Give to their Faith a fearless resting

place.