Mine, mine, was the transgression,
But thine the deadly pain.
Lo! here I fall, my Saviour:
"T is I deserve thy place;
Look on me with thy favor,
Vouchsafe to me thy grace.

Hence will I ne'er be shaken,

Though thou to death be brought. If pain's last paleness hold thee,

In agony opprest,

Then, then, will I enfold thee

Within this arm and breast!

The joy can ne'er be spoken,
Above all joys beside,
When in thy body broken
I thus with safety hide.
My Lord of life, desiring
Thy glory now to see,

Beside the cross expiring,
I'd breathe my soul to thee.

What language shall I borrow

To thank thee, dearest Friend,
For this, thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end!
O, make me thine forever;
And should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
Outlive my love to thee.

And when I am departing,
O, part not thou from me!
When mortal pangs are darting,
Come, Lord, and set me free!
And when my heart must languish
Amidst the final throe,

Release me from mine anguish
By thine own pain and woe!

Be near me when I'm dying,
O, show thy cross to me;
And for my succor flying,

Come, Lord, and set me free!
These eyes new faith receiving
From Jesus shall not move;

For he, who dies believing,
Dies safely through thy love.

Paul Gerhardt. Tr. J. W. Alexander.

'T

MOUNT CALVARY.

WAS the day when God's Anointed
Died for us the death appointed,
Bleeding on the guilty cross.

Day of darkness! day of terror!
Deadly fruit of ancient error,

Nature's fall and Eden's loss.

Haste! prepare the bitter chalice!
Mortal hate and mortal malice
Lift the royal victim high!

Like the serpent wonder-gifted,
Which the prophet once uplifted,
For a sinful world to die.

Cruel hands with thorns have crowned him, Cruel tongues are raving round him,

Jew and Gentile fiercely lower.

Friends are false and foes are many:

Conscious of the deed unholy,
Nature's pulses beat more slowly,

And the sun his face doth hide.
Darkness wrapped the sacred city,
And the earth with fear and pity

Trembled when the Just One died.

"It is finished!" Man of sorrows!
From thy cross our frailty borrows

Strength to bear and conquer thus.
While, extended there, we view thee,
Mighty sufferer! draw us to thee,
Sufferer victorious!

Not in vain for us uplifted,
Man of sorrows wonder-gifted,
May that sacred symbol be;
High and hoar amid the ages,
Guide of heroes and of sages,

May it guide us still to thee!

Still to thee, whose love unbounded
Sorrow's depth for us hath sounded,
Perfected by conflicts sore.

Honored be thy cross forever!
Star that points our high endeavor
Whither thou hast gone before!

Frederick Henry Hedge.

BUT

Capernaum.

CAPERNAUM.

UT near where Jordan, rippling, joins the lake,
And towering hills a wilder aspect take,

Dark groups of ruin draw the traveller's eye,
And while they prompt reflection ask a sigh.

Frieze, cornice, pillar, lie in mouldering heaps,
Where in the sun the listless adder sleeps.
With ivies hung by Ruin's mocking hand,
A huge black pile o'erlooks the wave-kissed sand;
Here frowns a building, pierced with arches gray,
Temple or royal palace, who may say?

Within those courts their tents wild Arabs spread,
Or some fell robber hides his dastard head:
Bright pleasure's town, where sorrow shed no tear,
"T is proud Capernaum, all thou see'st here!

Nicholas Michell.

MARY MAGDALEN.

BLESSED, yet sinful one, and broken-hearted!

The crowd are pointing at the thing forlorn,
In wonder and in scorn!

Thou weepest days of innocence departed;

Thou weepest, and thy tears have power to move The Lord to pity and love.

The greatest of thy follies is forgiven,

Even for the least of all the tears that shine

On that pale cheek of thine.

Thou didst kneel down, to Him who came from heaven, Evil and ignorant, and thou shalt rise

Holy and pure and wise.

It is not much that to the fragrant blossom
The ragged brier should change, the bitter fir
Distil Arabian myrrh!