Mine, mine, was the transgression, 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, Beside the cross expiring, What language shall I borrow To thank thee, dearest Friend, And when I am departing, Release me from mine anguish Be near me when I'm dying, Come, Lord, and set me free! For he, who dies believing, Paul Gerhardt. Tr. J. W. Alexander. 'T MOUNT CALVARY. WAS the day when God's Anointed Day of darkness! day of terror! Nature's fall and Eden's loss. Haste! prepare the bitter chalice! Like the serpent wonder-gifted, 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, And the sun his face doth hide. Trembled when the Just One died. "It is finished!" Man of sorrows! Strength to bear and conquer thus. Not in vain for us uplifted, May it guide us still to thee! Still to thee, whose love unbounded Honored be thy cross forever! Frederick Henry Hedge. BUT Capernaum. CAPERNAUM. UT near where Jordan, rippling, joins the lake, Dark groups of ruin draw the traveller's eye, Frieze, cornice, pillar, lie in mouldering heaps, Within those courts their tents wild Arabs spread, Nicholas Michell. MARY MAGDALEN. BLESSED, yet sinful one, and broken-hearted! The crowd are pointing at the thing forlorn, 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 |