Halloween, a Romaunt; with Lays Meditative and Devotional

    THE FIRST PSALM.

        Beatus vir.

            1.

Oh the blessings of him who hath turned from the path,

Where wander bewildered the children of wrath:

Who stands not with scorners, nor sits in the seat,

Where triumph the godless, and atheists meet!

            2.

The Lord is his pleasure, his song, and delight:

He dwells with Jehovah from morning to night:

His leaf shall not wither, his fruit never fall;

And look! what he doeth shall prosper withal!

            3.

He shall stand like a tree in the garden of God,

His boughs high in heaven, his root in the sod,

All goodly and green as the olives that bend,

Where rills of the desert through oases wend.

            4.

And this, while the godless up-torn by the root,

Shall blast in the blossom and blight in the fruit!

Oh dreadful their lot! Like the chaff they shall fly,

Or the sands of the waste when the whirlwind is high.

 OUR GOD IN GLORY.

    Dominus regnavit.

          1.

Our God in glory reigneth

  Majestical, on high,

The Lord, whose hand sustaineth,

  The earth and starry sky.

And glorious there his throne, of old,

  That shall for aye endure,

Was fixt ere yonder planets rolled,

  Or this round world was sure!

          2.

The waves, the seas, the waters

  Have lifted up their voice,

But God’s unfearing daughters,

  Above the storm rejoice;

Their father’s word can still the roar,

  For, mightier far than they,

The floods, the winds, the sounding shore,

  Shall hear him, and obey.

          3.

Oh yes, though loudly raging,

  Old Ocean mocks the sky,

His word is heard assuaging,

  And down the billows die!

And glory, Lord, thy saints shall sing,

  To thee their God alone,

For holiness, Almighty King,

  Becomes thy glorious throne!

WHEN ISRAEL FROM THE LAND OF NILE.

           In exitu.

              1.

When Israel, from the land of Nile,

  Went up in triumph o’er the sea,

And left, beneath that cloudy pile,

  The shores where heathen altars be,

In Juda was Jehovah known,

And there the mighty God was shown!

              2.

The rolling waters saw and fled,

  The mountains leaped like Nebo’s rams,

And Jordan trembled in its bed,

  And skipped the little hills like lambs.

Oh Jordan then what ailed thee!

Why fleddest thou eternal sea!

              3.

Why fled ye so, ye little rills,

  Or what, old Ocean, broke thy calm!

Why leaped ye so, ye high, high hills,

  Why skipped ye like the mountain lamb?

The tribes went up across the sea;

Say, ye big waves, why trembled ye!

              4.

Tremble, oh earth—it was the Lord!

  The pillar of His presence led;

The God of Jacob bared His sword,

  The startled waters saw and fled!

Gushed into tears the flinty stone;

Tremble, oh earth; ’twas God alone!

  RIGHT GLAD WAS I.

      Lætatus sum.

          1.

Right glad was I when unto me,

  They said with one accord,

Oh let us up to Zion-hill,

  The city of our Lord!

Our feet shall stand within thy gates,

  Jerusalem, our home,

And to thy temples beauty-built,

  Our wearied steps shall come.

          2.

Oh thither all the tribes go up,

  The people of our God!

And there the golden censers smoke,

  And music sounds abroad!

There incense-wreaths forever rise,

  And there the Lord is known,

And there is set his judgment seat,

  His glory, and his throne!

          3.

Oh pray ye for Jerusalem,

  Who blesseth her is blest;

Peace be within thy palaces,

  And in thy temples rest!

And on her golden shrines be light,

  And sunshine ever fair,

For there my father’s children dwell;

  Our fathers’ God is there.

      ORISONS.

          1.

Jesu, in the manger born,

Mid the stabled herd, forlorn;

Jesu, once a babe at rest,

On thy virgin mother’s breast;

Jesu, with thy sacred head,

Pillowed where the oxen fed;

Jesu Saviour, look on me,

Born in dreary earth like thee!

            Miserere Domine.

          2.

Jesu, in the temple shewn,

By thy mother poor and lone;

Jesu, child of fears and loves,

With the bleeding turtle-doves;

Jesu, in a father’s arms,

Borne from Herod’s vain alarms;

Jesu, Saviour, look on me,

By thine early misery.

            Miserere Domine.

          3.

Jesu, with the shelly bowl

Sprinkling o’er thy stainless soul;

Jesu, Lamb of God, for aye

Bearing all our sins away;

Jesu, up the mountain led,

Where the howling beasts are bred;

Jesu, tempted once like me,

Give me, too, thy victory.

            Miserere Domine.

          4.

Jesu, by thy power divine,

Changing water into wine;

Jesu, giving life again,

To the widow’s son of Nain;

Jesu, man’s own brother proved,

Weeping for thy friend beloved;

Jesu, let my worship be

Mary’s spikenard box to thee!

            Miserere Domine.

          5.

Jesu, in that solemn hall,

Holding love’s last festival;

Jesu, in the garden lone,

Where the paschal moon-beam shone;

Jesu, pouring out thy breath,

Soul and spirit unto death;

Jesu Saviour, pity me,

When I cannot watch with thee.

            Miserere Domine.

          6.

Jesu, in the purple weed,

Thorny crown, and scornful reed;

Jesu, fainting in the way,

’Neath the cross that on thee lay;

Jesu, with thy tender eye,

Straining for its hour to die;

Jesu, bid thy servant be

Yet in Paradise with thee.

            Miserere Domine.

          7.

Jesu, scarred but strong to save,

Rising deathless from the grave;

Jesu, in the garden seen

By adoring Magdalene;

Jesu, going up on high,

Leading thy captivity;

Jesu Saviour, let me be

Evermore in Heaven with thee.

            Miserere Domine.

   ADVENT HYMN.

   Theme from the Dies Iræ.

          1.

That awful day of ire,

  Ah, who shall bear that day!

When earth dissolves in fire,

  And heaven shall roll away:

What trembling shall surprise

  The guilty child of clay,

When opes that last assize:

  Ah, who shall bear that day!

          2.

When loud the trump shall sound,

  Ah, who shall bear that day!

When shrill it echoes round,

  Where long the slumberers lay;

When up from every tomb

  Shall start the silent clay;

That dreadful day of doom,

  Ah, who shall bear that day!

          3.

Oh, death itself shall quake,

  And nature shrink away,

When from the clods they break,

  To meet that dreadful day!

Ah, when the just are pale,

  What shall the guilty say!

Ah, who shall heed their wail;

  Ah, who shall bear that day!

          4.

Tremendous Monarch! now

  To thy majestic sway

Our trembling spirits bow,

  Or ere that dreadful day!

Oh, save us, Fount of Love!

  Oh, wash our sin away!

Spare—spare us, God above!

  Else who shall bear that day!

          5.

Oh, Judge Supreme and Just,

  Appalled, I bend and pray!

Oh God, I shrink to dust!

  How can I bear that day!

That day of dread surprise!

  Jesu, be thou my stay,

That awful day of sighs:

  Else, who shall bear that day!

          6.

That awful day of ire,

  When heaven shall roll away,

When earth dissolves in fire;

  That day—that awful day!

Its trumpet, in the tomb

  Shall stir the shrouded clay;

That dreadful day of doom;

  Oh who shall bear that day!

     NOT UNTO US.

 Theme from the Non Nobis Domine.

            1.

Not unto us, oh Lord our God,

Not unto us, the noble laud,

For thine are all things here below,

And earth and skies thy glory show,

And Heaven is thine, and thine are we,

And thine are all things good, we see,

            Non nobis decus, Domine.

            2.

Now the bright skies thy praise proclaim!

The heavens are letter’d with thy name;

O’er all the world, the sunlight poured,

Is shadow to thy glory, Lord;

And stars, and light, and earth and sea,

Send up one anthem, Lord, to thee,

            Non nobis decus, Domine.

            3.

Thine is the heaven of heavens, oh God;

How is thy glory spread abroad!

And realms unseen, and worlds divine,

And angel armies, Lord, are thine;

So great art thou, so lowly we;

Not unto us, the glory be,

            Non nobis decus, Domine.

 THEE, GOD, WE PRAISE.

     Te Deum Laudamus.

            1.

Thee, God, we praise, acknowledging

Thou art the Lord, and thou our King:

To thee all earth doth lowly bow,

The Father everlasting thou!

            2.

To thee all angels loudly cry,

The heavens and all the powers on high,

While seraphs bright, and cherubim,

Upsend their sweet continual hymn!

            3.

In homes of light their song is poured,

Oh, holy, holy, holy Lord!

Earth and high heaven are full of thee,

Thy glory and thy majesty!

            4.

The glorious company above

Of the apostles hymn thy love,

While with the prophets’ goodly ring,

The martyrs’ noble army sing.

            5.

And all throughout this world so wide,

The holy Church, the spotless bride,

Father and Lord confesseth thee,

All infinite in majesty!

            6.

Also thy true and only Son,

The church with thee adoreth one;

And one with thee, sent down to her,

O Holy Ghost, the Comforter!

            7.

Thou art the King of glory bright,

O Christ! the Lord—the God of might;

Thou art the true, the Holy One,

The Father’s Everlasting Son!

            8.

When on thyself, poor man to save,

Thou tookest shame, the cross, the grave,

Thou, sent to suffer in our room,

Didst not abhor the Virgin’s womb.

            9.

When death’s sharp bitterness was o’er,

And thou hadst spoiled the conqueror,

Thou to the faithful and forgiven

Didst open wide the gates of heaven.

            10.

Now in the Father’s glory high,

Thou sittest clothed with majesty,

At the right hand of God enthroned,

Till foes thy footstool shall be owned.

            11.

Thence we believe that thou shalt come,

To be our Judge, that day of doom;

Oh, therefore, help thy servants, Lord,

Bought with thy blood, thy due reward.

            12.

Make them with all thy saints to sit,

In glory everlasting writ;

Oh, save thy flock from Satan’s rage!

Lord, bless thy chosen heritage!

            13.

O Lord, their King vouchsafe to be,

And daily lift them up to thee,

Whom, day by day, we magnify,

And worship till the world shall die!

            14.

Keep us this day from sin abhorr’d,

Have mercy on us—mercy, Lord!

And let thy mercy on us be,

As we have trusted, Lord, in thee!

            15.

O Lord, in thee—in thee alone,

My hope from holy faith hath grown,

And since I’ve trusted in thy name,

Oh, let me never suffer shame!

  A LENT HYMN.

         1.

Alas, which way I turn I err,

  My thoughts are vile within,

Ah how shall earth’s poor voyager,

  Escape the paths of sin.

         2.

Lord, I have wandered and to thee

  Have been a faithless son,

But father, still a father be,

  And spare thine erring son.

         3.

Through His dear love, by whom alone,

  We may thy children be,

And by the sorrows He hath known,

  My soul from sorrow free.

         4.

And smile, my Father, through the gloom

  That wraps my suppliant hour,

Nor quench the glowing soul’s perfume,

  Nor break the drooping flower.

 STANZAS FOR EASTERTIDE.

  Thy dew is as the dew of herbs.

            1.

How in the flowery spring, my God,

  The buds of promise ope,

And blossom o’er life’s thorny road

  To cheer the Christian’s hope!

Like them, exulting from the tomb,

  We, too, revived, shall rise,

And flourish in immortal bloom,

  In Edens of the skies.

            2.

What though in pensive Autumn’s wane,

  Earth’s sere-grown glories fall,

And sleep through winter’s dull domain,

  When death is writ on all;

Exulting, in the breaking year,

  The lily doth unclose,

And daisies o’er the waste appear,

  And roses from the snows.

            3.

So then to dust, our dust shall turn,

  So, too, shall rise and sing,

When falls upon the mouldered urn,

  The joyous dew of Spring:

The God that rears the tender flowers,

  And breathes to life their dust,

From the cold grave shall quicken ours,

  And new-create the just.

HYMN FOR HOLY THURSDAY.

            1.

Oh, crowned with light in glory now,

  Though crowned on earth with thorn,

To thee, with all the earth we bow,

  And sing the Virgin-born.

And lowly are the notes we raise,

  Yet, Saviour, deign to hear,

Though there thou reign’st where seraphs blaze,

  And cherubs burn and fear.

            2.

For so, to bless the sons of earth,

  On earth thou wast forlorn:

A man of sorrows from thy birth,

  The lowly Virgin-born:

For us, thy tender hand was scarred:

  For us, was bowed thy head,

And all thy human beauty marred,

  When Death was captive led.

            3.

For us, the crimson cross was stain’d,

  For us, thy life-blood given:

For us, the glorious conflict gained,

  To bring us home to heaven:

For us, thou art gone up on high,

  With victor-beauty crowned:

For us, thy hand hath oped the sky,

  And Death in fetters bound.

            4.

For us, thy garments stained with blood,

  Thee, more than Conqueror show,

The Prince of Peace, the mighty God,

  The Lord of all below!

Oh Wonderful!—in glory now,

  Though once on earth forlorn,

To thee, with all the earth, we bow,

  And laud the Virgin-born!

HYMN FOR TRINITY SUNDAY.

           1.

Now, the shining worlds along,

Rises high the angel-song,

Where the emerald rainbows spread,

Glorious round the Eternal head;

Where upon the sapphire throne,

Beams the mystic sardin-stone;

And where veiling seraphs bow,

Crying Holy, Holy, thou!

Thou who art, and art to be

Glorified eternally,

And forevermore adored;

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord!

           2.

Streams on earth a dimmer day,

Where thy lowly people pray:

Yet rejoicing in thy light,

And adoring thee aright,

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;

We, with all the heavenly host,

Here on earth would bend and bow,

Crying Holy, Holy, thou!

Thou who art, &c.

           3.

So, forever till we die,

Holy, Holy may we cry!

So forever, honour thee

Glorious God, the Trinity!

Still confessing thee but one,

Father, Holy Ghost and Son,

Till with angel choirs we bow,

Crying Holy, Holy thou,

Thou who art, and art to be

Glorified eternally,

And forevermore adored;

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord!

 LET OUT THY SOUL.

      A Lent Lay.

          1.

Let out thy soul, and pray

  Not for thy home alone!

Away—in prayer, away!

  Make all the world thine own!

Let out thy soul in prayer;

  Oh, let thy spirit grow!

God gives thee sun and air;

  Let the full blossom blow!

          2.

There! dost thou not perceive

  Thy spirit swell within,

And something high receive,

  That is not born of sin?

Oh, paltry is the soul

  That only self can heed!

Sail outward—from the shoal,

  And bourgeon, from the seed!

          3.

Moth and the rust consume

  The spangled folds of pride;

Dry-rot doth eat the bloom,

  And gnaw the wealth we hide:

The Spirit’s selfish care,

  Doth die away the same;

But give it air—free air,

  And how the soul can flame!

          4.

Yestreen I did not know

  How largely I could live;

But Faith hath made me grow,

  To more than Earth can give.

Joy! for a heart released

  From littleness and pride;

Fast is the Spirit’s feast,

  And Lent the soul’s high-tide.

          5.

When for the Church I pray’d,

  As this dear Lent began,

My thoughts, I am afraid,

  Within small limits ran.

By Ember-week I learn’d

  How large that prayer might be,

And then, in soul, I burn’d

  That all might pray with me.

          6.

Plead for the victims all

  Of heresy and sect;

And bow thy knees like Paul,

  For all the Lord’s Elect!

Pray for the Church—I mean,

  For Shem and Japhet pray:

And churches, long unseen,

  In isles, and far away!

          7.

Oh, pray that all who err

  May thus be gather’d in;

The Moslem worshipper,

  And all the sects of sin!

For all who love in heart,

  But have not found the way,

Pray—and thy tears will start!

  ’Twas so the Lord did pray.

          8.

Now, when the hordes of Rome

  Are up against the Lord,

All churches are our home,

  And Prayer our mighty sword!

The saints’ communion—one,

  One Lord—one Faith—one birth,

Oh, pray to God the Son,

  For all his Church on Earth.

     WATCHWORDS.

      A hymn for the times.

            1.

We are living,—we are dwelling

  In a grand and awful time;

In an age, on ages telling,

  To be living—is sublime.

            2.

Hark! the waking up of nations,

  Gog and Magog, to the fray;

Hark! what soundeth, is Creation’s

  Groaning for its latter day.

            3.

Will ye play, then! will ye dally,

  With your music, with your wine?

Up! it is Jehovah’s rally!

  God’s own arm hath need of thine.

            4.

Hark, the onset! will ye fold your

  Faith-clad arms in lazy lock?

Up, O up, thou drowsy soldier!

  Worlds are charging to the shock.

            5.

Worlds are charging—Heaven beholding;

  Thou hast but an hour to fight;

Now, the blazon’d cross unfolding,

  On—right onward, for the right!

            6.

What! still hug thy dreamy slumbers?

  ’Tis no time for idling play:

Wreaths, and dance, and poet-numbers,

  Flout them! we must work to-day!

            7.

Fear not! spurn the worlding’s laughter;

  Thine ambition—trample thou!

Thou shalt find a long Hereafter,

  To be more than tempts thee now.

            8.

Oh! let all the soul within you,

  For the truth’s sake, go abroad!

Strike! let every nerve and sinew

  Tell on ages—tell for God.

            9.

Magog leadeth many a vassal;

  Christ his few—his little ones;

But about our leaguer’d castle,

  Rear and Vanguard are his sons!

            10.

Seal’d to blush, to waver never;

  Cross’d, baptized, and born agen,

Sworn to be Christ’s soldiers ever,

  Oh, for Christ, at least, be men!

   HOLY ORDERS.

I will wash my hands in innocency.

          1.

I’ll wash my hands in waters

  That are innocent as snow,

And thus unto thine altars,

  My Redeemer, will I go:

I’ll stand within thy temples,

  In garments pure and white,

And take thy yoke upon me,

  For ’tis easy and ’tis light.

          2.

But give me in the beauty

  Of holiness to shine,

And to sound upon the mountains

  That cheery trump of thine;

And to ope the gushing fountains

  In the desert’s dreary ways,

And herald joyful tidings,

  And the holy cross to raise.

          3.

And with a soul that tramples

  On the laurel and the gem,

May I strive, in godlike meekness,

  For a brighter diadem;

And run my race with glory,

  And fight a noble fight,

Till I join the victor-pæan

  Of the conquerors in light.

          4.

Now clothe me in mine armor,

  Ye fathers of the host,

And give my hand the banner

  Of the dove-like Holy Ghost;

While swells around the war-song

  Of my Redeemer King,

And all the warrior-anthems

  That the noble armies sing.

          5.

Then bless me for the onset

  That I may battle well,

For the Captain of salvation,

  ’Gainst the leaguered hosts of hell;

Nor shun the hottest conflict,

  Where the spoiler is abroad,

But breast his fiercest phalanx,

  In the panoply of God.

          6.

Oh, glorious is the warfare

  And the triumph-cry shall sound,

Not sweeter to the victors,

  Than the vanquished heathen round:

Messiah’s armies ever,

  To their foemen faint in strife,

Bend down the laden branches

  Of the healing tree of life.

          7.

Yet, Saviour, not with boasting

  Would I gird me for the fight,

And take thy yoke upon me,

  Though so easy and so light!

Who putteth on his harness,

  And striveth for a crown,

Oh, let him never glory

  Till he lays his armor down.