English

THE DUMB CURED .

His eyes uplifted, and his hands close clasp'd,
The dumb man, with a supplicating look,
Turn'd as the Lord pass'd by: Jesus beheld,
And on him bent a pitying look, and spake:
His moving lips are by the suppliant seen,
And the last accents of the healing sentence
Ring in that ear which never heard before.
Prostrate the man restored falls-to the earth,
And uses first the gift, the gift sublime,
Of speech, in giving thanks to him whose voice
Was never utter'd but in doing good.

JESUS WALKS ON THE SEA, AND CALMS THE STORM .

Loud blew the storm of night; the thwarting surge
Dash'd, boiling, on the labouring bark: dismay,
From face to face reflected, spread around:
When, lo! upon a towering wave is seen
The semblance of a foamy wreath, upright,
Move onward to the ship: the helmsman starts,
And quits his hold; the voyagers appall'd
Shrink from the fancied Spirit of the Flood:
But when the voice of Jesus with the gale
Soft mingled, " It is I, be not afraid,"

JESUS CALMS THE TEMPEST .

The roaring tumult of the billow'd sea
Awakes him not; high on the crested surge
Now heaved, his locks flow streaming in the gale;
And now descending 'tween the sheltering waves,
The falling tresses veil the face divine:
Meek through that veil a momentary gleam,
Benignant, shines; he dreams thaThe beholds
The opening eyes, that long hopeless had roll'd
In darkness, look around bedimm'd with tears
Of joy; but, suddenly, the voice of fear
Dispell'd the happy vision. Awful he rose,

LITTLE CHILDREN BROUGHT TO JESUS .

" Suffer that little children come to me,
Forbid them not." Embolden'd by his words,
The mothers onward press; but, finding vain
The attempt to reach the Lord, they trust their babes
To strangers' hands. The innocents alarm'd,
Amid the throng of faces all unknown,
Shrink trembling, till their wandering eyes discern
The countenance of Jesus, beaming love
And pity; eager then they stretch their arms,
And, cowering, lay their heads upon his breast.

BARTIMEUS RESTORED TO SIGHT .

Blind , poor, and helpless, Bartimeus sate,
Listening the foot of the wayfaring man,
Still hoping that the next, and still the next,
Would put an alms into his trembling hand
He thinks he hears the coming breeze faint rustle
Among the sycamores; it is the tread
Of thousand steps; it is the hum of tongues
Innumerable. But when the sightless man
Heard that the Nazarene was passing by,
He cried, and said, " Jesus, thou Son of David,
Have mercy upon me!" and, when rebuked,

BEHOLD MY MOTHER, AND MY BRETHREN !

" Who is my mother, or my brethren?" —
He spake, and looked on them who sat around,
With a meek smile of pity blent with love,
More melting than e'er gleam'd from human face,
As when a sun-beam, through a summer shower,
Shines mildly on a little hill-side flock;
And with that look of love he said, " Behold
My mother, and my brethren: for I say,
That whosoe'er shall do the will of God,
He is my brother, sister, mother, all."

THE BIRTH OF JESUS ANNOUNCED .

Deep was the midnight silence in the fields
Of Bethlehem; hush'd the folds; save that, at times,
Was heard the lamb's faint bleat: the shepherds, stretch'd
On the greensward, survey'd the starry vault:
" The heavens declare the glory of the Lord,
The firmament shews forth thy handiwork;"
Thus they, their hearts attuned to the Most High;
When, suddenly, a splendid cloud appear'd,
As if a portion of the milky way
Descended slowly in a spiral course.

ELIJAH FED BY RAVENS .

Sore was the famine throughout all the bounds
Of Israel, when Elijah, by command
Of God, journey'd to Cherith's failing brook.
No rain-drop falls; no dew-fraught cloud, at morn
Or closing eve, creeps slowly up the vale;
The withering herbage dies; among the palms,
The shrivell'd leaves send to the summer gale
An autumn rustle; no sweet songster's lay
Is warbled from the branches; scarce is heard
The rill's faint brawl. The prophet looks around,

SAUL AND DAVID .

Deep was the furrow in the royal brow,
When David's hand, lightly as vernal gales
Rippling the brook of Kedron, skimm'd the lyre:
He sung of Jacob's youngest born, the child
Of his old age, sold to the Ishmaelite;
His exaltation to the second power
In Pharaoh's realm; his brethren thither sent;
Suppliant they stood before his face, well known,
Unknowing, till Joseph fell upon the neck
Of Benjamin, his mother's son, and wept.
Unconsciously the warlike shepherd paused;

JEPHTHA ' S VOW .

From conquest Jephtha came, with faltering step
And troubled eye: his home appears in view;
He trembles at the sight. Sad he forebodes,
His vow will meet a victim in his child:
For well he knows, that, from her earliest years,
She still was first to meet his homeward steps:
Well he remembers how, with tottering gait,
She ran, and clasp'd his knees, and lisp'd, and look'd
Her joy; and how, when garlanding with flowers
His helm, fearful, her infant hand would shrink