Page:The Christian Year 1887.djvu/112

 Beyond the summer hues of even, Beyond the mid-day beam.

Thenceforth, to eyes of high desire, The meanest thing below, As with a seraph's robe of fire Invested, burn and glow:

The rod of Heaven has touched them all, The word from Heaven is spoken: "Rise, shine, and sing, thou captive thrall;  Are not thy fetters broken?

"The God Who hallowed thee and blest,  Pronouncing thee all good - Hath He not all thy wrongs redrest,   And all thy bliss renewed?

"Why mourn'st thou still as one bereft,  Now that th' eternal Son His blessed home in Heaven hath left   To make thee all His own?"

Thou mourn'st because sin lingers still In Christ's new heaven and earth; Because our rebel works and will Stain our immortal birth:

Because, as Love and Prayer grow cold, The Saviour hides His face, And worldlings blot the temple's gold With uses vile and base.

Hence all thy groans and travail pains, Hence, till thy God return, In Wisdom's ear thy blithest strains, Oh Nature, seem to mourn.