Oh, that Book! whose leaves so bright Will set the world in severe light. Oh, that Judge! whose hand, whose eye None can endure, yet none can fly. Ah, then, poor soul! what wilt thou say? And to what patron choose to pray, When stars themselves shall stagger, and The most firm foot no more than stand? But thou giv'st leave, dread Lord, that we Take shelter from thyself in thee; And with the wings of thine own dove Fly to thy sceptre of soft love! Dear [Lord], remember in that day Who was the cause thou cam'st this way; Thy sheep was strayed, and thou wouldst be Even lost thyself in seeking me! Shall all that labor, all that cost Of love, and even that loss, be lost? And this loved soul judged worth no less Than all that way and weariness? Just Mercy, then, thy reckoning be With my price, and not with me; 'T was paid at first with too much pain, To be paid twice, or once in vain. Mercy, my Judge, mercy, I cry, With blushing cheek and bleeding eye; The conscious colors of my sin Are red without, and pale within. Oh, let thine own soft bowels pay Thyself, and so discharge that day! If sin can sigh, love car. forgive, Oh, say the word, my son shall live! Those mercies which thy Mary found, Or who thy cross confessed and crowned, Hope tells my heart the same loves be Still alive, and still for me. Though both my prayers and tears combine, Both worthless are, for they are mine; But thou thy bounteous self still be, And show thou art by saving me. Oh, when thy last frown shall proclaim The flocks of goats to folds of flame, And all thy lest sheep found shall be, Let "Come, ye blessed" then call me! When the dread "Ite!" shall divide Those limbs of death from thy left side, Let those life-speaking lips command That I inherit thy right hand! Oh, hear a suppliant heart, all crushed And crumbled into contrite dust! My hope, my fear! my Judge, my Friend! Take charge of me, and of my end! THOMAS Celano. Translated by RICHARD CRASHAW. HOW SHALL I APPEAR? JOSEPH ADDISON, the essayist, was born May 1, 1672, and died June 17, 1719. The following hymn appeared in the Spectator of Oct. 18, 1712; and in the same paper were some reflections upon recovering from illness, in which were these words: " Among all the reflections that usually arise in the mind of a sick man who has time and inclination to consider his approaching end, there is none more natural than that of his going to appear naked and unbodied before Him who made him." The trumpet sounds, the graves restore The dead in Christ shall first arise, And greet the archangel's warning, On this auspicious morning: On those prepared to meet him. Far over space, to distant spheres, Stay, fancy, stay, and close thy wings, Repress thy flight too daring! One wondrous sight my comfort brings, The Judge my nature wearing. Beneath his cross I view the day When heaven and earth shall pass away, And thus prepare to meet him. BARTHOLOMEW RINGWALDT, 1585. WILLIAM BENGO COLLYER, 1812. THE DAY OF THE LORD. CHARLES KINGSLEY, an English clergyman and novelist of note, was born June 12, 1819, and in 1844 became rector of Eversley, Hampshire, where he resided through life. He was a graduate of Magdalen College, Cambridge. At the time of his death, which occurred Jan. 24, 1875, he was canon of Westminster and chaplain to the Queen. THE Day of the Lord is at hand, at hand! The nations sleep starving on heaps of gold; Gather you, gather you, angels of God, Come down and renew us her youth. Wisdom, self-sacrifice, daring and love, Haste to the battle-field, stoop from above, To the Day of the Lord at hand. Gather you, gather you, hounds of hell Idleness, bigotry, cant, and misrule, Gather, and fall in the snare! This popular hymn, says Sir R. Palmer, is a cento, composed by Martin Madan, with some variations, out of two hymns by Charles Wesley (Nos. 38 and 39 of " Hymns of Intercession for all Mankind "), and one by John Cennick (No. 965 in the "Collection of Hymns for the Use of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren, revised and enlarged," Bath, 1801). The choice and arrangement of the stanzas, as made by Madan, is here preserved, as are his variations of the third and fourth stanzas (Cennick's), of which the last lines do not rhyme in the original. The first two stanzas and the last are from Wesley's No. 39, a hymn of four stanzas. Madan made some alterations in the first and the last, which (with the exception of “ Oh, come quickly," instead of Wesley's " Jah, Jehovah! "are not retained. The second and the fifth (which is the concluding stanza of Wesley's No. 38) he did not alter. (See page 901.) Lo! he comes, with clouds descending, God appears, on earth to reign! Every eye shall now behold him, Shall the true Messiah see. Every island, sea, and mountain, Heaven and earth shall flee away; All who hate him must, confounded, Hear the trump proclaim the day; "Come to judgment! Now Redemption, long expected, See the day of God appear! Answer thine own Bride and Spirit ; Hasten, Lord, the general doom; The new heaven and earth to inherit Take thy pining exiles home: All creation Travails, groans, and bids thee come! Yea, Amen! let all adore thee, High on thine eternal throne: Saviour, take the power and glory; Claim the kingdom for thine own : O, come quickly, Everlasting God, come down! Variation by MARTIN MADAN, 1760. From CHARLES WESLEY, 1758, and JOHN CENNICK, 1752. THE JUDGMENT. THEODORE was at the head of the great abbey of the Studium, in Constantinople, probably the most influential that ever existed in the world. Dr. Neale ranks his hymns above those of Theophanes, and nearly equal to those of Cosmas. Theodore died in banishment, Nov. 11, 826. Τὴν ἡμέραν τὴν φρικτήν. THAT fearful day, that day of speechless dread, When thou shalt come to judge the quick and dead I shudder to foresee, O God! what then shall be ! When thou shalt come, angelic legions round, With thousand thousands, and with trumpet sound; Christ, grant me in the air With saints to meet thee there! Weep, O my soul, ere that great hour and day, Thy sin, that thou mayst be The terror!-hell-fire fierce and unsufficed: Forgive, remit, protect; And set me with the elect! That I may hear the blessed voice that calls And, King of heaven, may reach Enter thou not in judgment with each deed, Nor each intent and thought in strictness read: Forgive, and save me then, O thou that lovest men ! Have mercy, Lord, have mercy, Lord, I cry, When with thine angels thou appear'st on high: And each shall doom inherit, How can I bear thy fearful anger, Lord? And spare me in that day! O miserable soul, return, lament, The Bridegroom close the door! Yea, I have sinned, as no man sinned beside: Three Persons in one Essence uncreate, Give everlasting light To them that sing thy might! Ἐφέστηκεν ἡ ἡμέρα. The day is near, the judgment is at hand, Where rich and poor the same tribunal own; There with the sheep the shepherd of the fold Shall stand together; there the young and old; Master and slave one doom shall undergo; Whom lawless lives condemn ! That judgment-seat, impartial in decree, No perjured witness wrong to right convert : Shall then be dragged to light. Let me not enter in the land of woe; Let me not realms of outer darkness know! Bound hand and foot, and cast When thou, the nations ranged on either side, The righteous from the sinners shalt divide, Then give me to be found amongst thy sheep, Then from the goats thy trembling servant keep: That I may hear the voice That bids thy saints rejoice! When righteous inquisition shall be made, And the books opened, and the thrones arrayed, My soul, what plea to shield thee canst thou know, Who hast no fruit of righteousness to show, No holy deeds to bring To Christ the Lord and King? I hear the rich man's wail and bitter cry, I know, beholding that devouring flame, In the great judgment day! The Word and Spirit, with the Father One, The thankful bymn of praise. Ὁ Κύριος ἔρχεται. The Lord draws nigh, the righteous throne's Assessor, The just to save, to punish the transgressor : When all the secrets of all hearts shall be Clouds and thick darkness o'er the Mount assembling, Moses beheld the Eternal's glory, trembling, -- And I I needs must view his fullest face:- For mercy in my need? Here, fires of deep damnation roar and glitter: bliss! My soul with many an act of sin is wounded: With mortal weakness is my frame surrounded: My life is wellnigh o'er : The Judge is at the door : How wilt thou, miserable spirit, fare, What time he sends his summons through the air? 66 THEODORE of the Studium. Translated by JOHN MASON NEALE, 1862, 1866. THE JUDGMENT. Apparebit repentina magna Dies Domini." "This rugged but grand judgment-hymn is at least as early as the seventh century, because quoted by the Venerable Bede. It manifestly contains the germ of the Dies Iræ,' to which, however inferior in lyric fervor and effect, it scarcely yields in devotion and simple realization of its subject."J. M. N. THAT great day of wrath and terror, Shall be near him in the sky: Then the sun shall turn to darkness, And the moon be red as blood, Then the elect upon the right hand Come, ye blessed, take the kingdom," I was naked, and ye clothed me ; For in prison ye came not nigh me, They shall say, "O Christ, when saw we And in prison or sick or hungry, Whom again the Judge shall answer, Backward, backward, at the sentence, Where are cries and chains and gnashing, But the righteous, upward soaring, |