Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, all Shall feel the shower of Mercy fall, Till their high deeds the world appall, WHITSUNDAY. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them: and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Acts ii. 2, 3. WHEN God of old came down from Heaven, Before his feet the clouds were riven, Half darkness and half flame : Around the trembling mountain's base Convinc'd of sin, but not of grace; It was a dreadful day. But when He came the second time, The fires that rush'd on Sinai down Like arrows went those lightnings forth And as on Israel's awe-struck ear The voice exceeding loud, The trump, that angels quake to hear, Thrill'd from the deep, dark cloud, So, when the Spirit of our God Came down his flock to find, A voice from heaven was heard abroad, A rushing, mighty wind. Nor doth the outward ear alone At that high warning start; Conscience gives back th' appalling tone; "Tis echoed in the heart. It fills the Church of God; it fills To other strains our souls are set : Fills ear and brain, and will not let Heaven's harmonies come in. Come, Lord, come, Wisdom, Love, and Power, Open our ears to hear; Let us not miss th' accepted hour; Save, Lord, by Love or Fear. MONDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth and they left off to build the city. Genesis xi. 8. SINCE all that is not heav'n must fade, Light be the hand of Ruin laid Upon the home I love: With lulling spell let soft Decay Far opening down some woodland deep And wild-flower wreaths from side to side What ruthless Time has wrought. Such are the visions green and sweet In Asia's sea-like plain, Where slowly, round his isles of sand, Winds toward the pearly main. Slumber is there, but not of rest; What shapeless form, half lost on high', Seems like a ghost to glide, And watch, from Babel's crumbling heap, Is fall'n imperial Pride? f See Sir R. K. Porter's Travels, ii. 387. "In my second visit to Birs Nimrood, my party suddenly halted, having descried several dark objects moving along the summit of its hill, which they construed into dismounted Arabs on the look out: I took out my glass to examine, and soon distinguished that the causes of our alarm were two or three majestic lions, taking the air upon the heights of the pyramid." |