Your foes both pray for, and forgive;
And, when you ceasing are to live,
Strong cries to Love Paternal send ;
Into Love's hands your soul commend ;
In Love's soft hands to bliss you'll fly,
Taught by loved Jesus how to die.

Bishop Thomas Ken. [1721]

VI

HOLY MATRIMONY

CCXCIX

HE voice that breathed o'er Eden,
That earliest wedding-day,

The primal marriage blessing,
It hath not passed away.

Still in the pure espousal

Of Christian man and maid,
The Holy Three are with us,
The threefold grace is said:

For dower of blessed children,
For love and faith's sweet sake,

For high mysterious union

Which naught on earth may break!

Be present, awful Father,
To give away this Bride,
As Eve thou gav'st to Adam
Out of his own pierced side!

Be present, Son of Mary,

To join their loving hands,

As Thou didst bind two natures

In Thine eternal bands!

Be present, Holiest Spirit,
To bless them as they kneel;
As Thou, for Christ the Bridegroom,
The heavenly Spouse doth seal!

O spread Thy pure wing o'er them!
Let no ill Power find place,
When onward to Thine altar

The hallowed path they trace,

To cast their crowns before Thee

In perfect sacrifice,

Till to the home of gladness

With Christ's own Bride they rise!

John Keble. 1857

VII

THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

CCC

HOU God of Love! beneath thy sheltering wings

ΤΗ

We leave our holy dead,

To rest in hope! From this world's sufferings
Their souls have fled !

Oh! when our souls are burdened with the weight
Of life, and all its woes,

Let us remember them, and calmly wait

For our life's close!

Miss J. E. Browne. 1849

R

CCCI

Nunc suscipe, terra, fovendum

ECEIVE him, Earth, unto thine harboring shrine;
In thy soft tranquil bosom let him rest;
These limbs of man I to thy care consign,
And trust the noble fragments to thy breast.

This house was once the mansion of a soul
Brought into life by its Creator's breath ;
Wisdom did once this living mass control;
And Christ was there enshrined, who conquers death.

Cover this Body to thy care consigned ;
Its Maker shall not leave it in the grave;
But His own lineaments shall bear in mind,
And shall recall the image which He gave.

CCCII

Isaac Williams. 1838
(From Prudentius.)

HERE is a calm for those who weep;

Test for weary pilgrims found;

And, while the mouldering ashes sleep,
Low in the ground,

The Soul, of origin Divine,

God's glorious image, freed from clay,
In Heaven's eternal sphere shall shine,
A Star of Day.

The sun is but a spark of fire,
A transient meteor in the sky;
The Soul, immortal as its Sire,
Shall never die !

James Montgomery, 1804

Μυ

CCCIII

UST friends and kindred droop and die,
And helpers be withdrawn,

While sorrow, with a weeping eye,
Counts up our comforts gone?

Be Thou our comfort, mighty God!
Our Helper and our Friend!
Nor leave us, in this dangerous road,
Till all our trials end!

O may our feet pursue the way
Our pious fathers led;
With love and holy zeal obey

The counsels of the dead!

Let us be weaned from all below;
Let hope our grief expel;
While death invites our souls to go

Where our best kindred dwell.

Isaac Watts. 1709

CCCIV

WOW let our mourning hearts revive,

N°

And all our tears be dry;

Why should those eyes be drowned in grief,
Which view a Saviour nigh?

What though the arm of conquering death
Does God's own house invade?

What though the prophet and the priest
Be numbered with the dead?

Though earthly shepherds dwell in dust,
The aged and the young;

The watchful eye in darkness closed,
And mute th' instructive tongue :

Th' Eternal Shepherd still survives,
New comfort to impart ;

His eye still guides us, and His voice
Still animates our heart.

Lo, I am with you! saith the Lord;
My Church shall safe abide;
For I will ne'er forsake My own,
Whose souls in Me confide.

Through every scene, of life and death,
This promise is our trust;

And this shall be our children's song

When we are cold in dust.

Philip Doddridge. 1755

THOU

CCCV

HOU art gone to the grave: but we will not deplore thee,

Though sorrows and darkness encompass the tomb : The Saviour hath passed through its portal before thee, And the lamp of His love is thy guide through the gloom!

Thou art gone to the grave: we no longer behold thee, Nor tread the rough path of the world by thy side; But the wide arms of Mercy are spread to enfold thee, And sinners may die, for the Sinless has died!

Thou art gone to the grave: and, its mansion forsaking, Perhaps thy weak spirit in fear lingered long;