The flowers of spring may wither, the hope of summer fade, The autumn droop in winter, the birds forsake the shade; The winds be lulled the sun and moon forget their old decree, But we in nature's latest hour, O Lord, will cling to thee. TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. JERUSALEM, Jerusalem! enthroned once on high, Thou favored home of God on earth, thou heaven below the sky, Now brought to bondage with thy sons, a curse and grief to see, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, our tears shall flow for thee. O, hadst thou known thy day of grace, and flocked beneath the wing Of him who called thee lovingly, thine own anointed King, Then had the tribes of all the world gone up thy pomp to see, And glory dwelt within thy gates, and all thy sons been free. And who art thou that mournest me?' replied the ruin gray, And fear'st not rather that thyself may prove a castaway? I am a dried and abject branch,my place is given to thee; But wo to every barren graft of thy wild olive tree. 'Our day of grace is sunk in night, our time of mercy spent, For heavy was my children's crime, and strange their punishment; Yet gaze not idly on our fall, but, sinner, warned be, Who spared not his chosen seed may send his wrath on thee. 'Our day of grace is sunk in night, thy noon is in its prime ; O, turn and seek thy Saviour's face in this accepted time. So, Gentile,may Jerusalem a lesson prove to thee, And in the new Jerusalem thy home for ever be.' THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRIN ITY. Who yonder on the desert heath, Complains in feeble tone?' —A pilgrim in the vale of death, Faint, bleeding and alone.' 'How cam'st thou to this dismal strand - From blessed Sion's holy land, 'What ruffian hand hath stript thee bare? - Sin for my footsteps twined her snare, Can art no medicine for thy wound, 'But, sufferer, is no comfort near Thy terrors to remove?' · There is to whom my soul was dear, But I have scorned his love." |