THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

Thou wert alone in that fierce multitude,

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When "Crucify him!" yell'd the general shout; No hand to guard thee mid those insults rude, Nor lip to bless in all that frantic rout:

Whose lightest whisper'd word

The seraphim had heard,

And adamantine arms from all the heav'ns broke

out.

They bound thy temples with the twisted thorn; Thy bruised feet went languid on with pain; The blood, from all thy flesh with scourges torn, Deepen'd thy robe of mockery's crimson grain: Whose native vesture bright

Was the unapproachèd light,

The sandal of whose foot the rapid hurricane.

They smote thy cheek with many a ruthless palm, With the cold spear thy shuddering side they

pierced;

The draught of bitterest gall was all the balm They gave t' enhance thy unslaked burning thirst; Thou, at whose words of peace

Did pain and anguish cease,

And the long-buried dead their bonds of slumber burst.

Low bow'd thy head convulsed and droop'd in death, Thy voice sent forth a sad and wailing cry;

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THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

Slow struggled from thy breast the parting breath, And every limb was wrung with agony;

That head, whose veilless blaze

Fill'd angels with amaze,

When at that voice sprang forth the rolling suns on high.

And thou wert laid within the narrow tomb,

Thy clay-cold limbs with shrouding grave-clothes

bound,

The sealed stone confirm'd thy mortal doom; Lone watchmen walk'd thy desert burial ground, Whom heaven could not contain,

Nor the immeasurable plain

Of vast infinity enclose or circle round.

For us, for us, thou didst endure the pain,
And thy meek spirit bow'd itself to shame
To wash our souls from sin's infecting stain,
T'avert the Father's wrathful vengeance-flame:
Thou, who could'st nothing win

By saving worlds from sin,

Nor aught of glory add to thy all-glorious name.

MILMAN.

Mutations of the World.

"As a vesture thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail."

A VESSEL was passing the calm summer seas,
And its streamers were floating and fann'd by the
breeze;

While the radiance above, the bright waters beneath,
Smiled a promise of joy and of safety from death!
And it seem'd, as it sail'd along, gallant and free,
A bright spot on the waves of eternity's sea:
Where now is the vessel gone?-Sunk in the wave,
And the billows roll over its crew in their grave.

A city once stood in its power and prime,
Which mock'd all the rude devastations of time,
While its pinnacles high, and its banners unfurl'd,
Seemed to threaten with slavery half of the world:
Where now is its glory?-'tis crush'd to the ground,
And its mouldering ruins lie fading around;

While the breeze, as it sighs through the moss on the walls,

Where the shout of the free often peal'd through the halls,

Speaks a tale to the soul of long ages gone by,

And a voice whispers thence

must die."

"Every creature

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MUTATIONS OF THE WORLD.

I thought on the heart once so light and so gay, With smiles like the beams of abright summer's day, Each year as it came brought more bliss than the last,

And the hopes of the future were bright as the past; Those years of the future are still flowing on,

But where is that cheerful heart? Broken and gone: Those hopes once so brilliant are hush'd in the grave,

Not a relic of joy from the past could they save!

I look'd on the starry sky, boundless and free, And it seem'd in its vastness an emblem of THEE; Though clouds may leap o'er it, and tempests may lower,

They but sully its brightness and calm for an hour; While earthly things vanish, their pride and their

fame,

Still THOU art immutable, ever the same!

ANON.

Gospel Cruth.

AGES roll'd on rolling ages,
Letting gifts of gladness fall,
Till the gospel's sacred pages
Brought the highest gift of all.

Ages-by the gospel brighten'd,
Since have sped their holier way,
Hearts improved and minds enlighten'd,
By its night-dispelling ray.

And when we in dust shall moulder,
Gospel truth her shrine shall rear,
And eternal years behold her,

Still more firm, and still more fair,

Future, present, past, combining,
In one great transcendent sun;
Strengthen'd most when brightest shining,
And still shining brighter on.

BOWRING.