The hope that e'en may lighten These be our Christmas wishes As once they shared our mirth. S. P.. MEDIEVAL SEQUENCES AND HYMNS. No. I.-FOR THE CIRCUMCISION. (In Sapientia disponens omnia Eterna Deitas.) IN His Wisdom ordering all things well, the Eternal Deity Upon the shepherds Light hath shined, Not on the proud ones of mankind. Within a manger He is found Whom neither earth nor heaven can bound. The Star its brilliancy doth shed, For Jesse's Rod hath blossomed. The Royal Sages from afar Bring gold and frankincense and myrrh. Circumcision suffered He Who was born to set us free. He the Jordan's flowing tide Him the Virgin offereth, SOME of the readers of The Monthly Packet are probably acquainted with the above lines,* and know something respecting the character of the good and beneficent woman who wrote them. * See The Monthly Packet, July, 1867. My own particular object in recurring to them at this season is partly because the thoughts they suggest seem to me suitable to a New Year, and partly because I have been led to know, in consequence of an enlarged circulation which has been given to the lines in question, that there are considerable differences in the degree of assent given to Lady Nairn's summary decision in the first two of them: and these differences interest me, and may interest our readers. There is great unanimity in the feeling of admiration for the little poem itself, and the spirit of its writer-its elevated, yet evidently natural tone; but it has been said to me more than once, 'I am afraid I do wish to be young again!"-said with a feeling of humility, but with manifest sincerity-said, as if the speaker was fully conscious of an opposition to the decrees of Heaven, (if such a wish were allowed to triumph over better thoughts,) but still as one penetrated by the sense of past short-comings, and willing even to encounter much bygone trouble, for the sake of correcting errors, and acquiring a more elevated present standing-point. This case (and there have been several such) has, I confess, excited in my mind much of sympathy and tenderness. I dare not say the feeling is wrong; though it may, no doubt, if indulged in, pass on to what is wrong. I cannot think that the past should be excluded from bearing its present fruit, even in sad wishes and regretful longings. We have done wrong.-We have lost an opportunity of doing good.-Who says we are not to be sorry for it, though the offence happened long ago? Who says it is not part of our discipline to wish (though vainly) we could redress the wrong, and recall misspent time? 'When anxious Memory numbers o'er surely the dissatisfaction is salutary, and from it we may advance to better things—the higher future may grow out of an unsatisfying past. Yet I think it is clear that we must not yield readily to dreamy contemplation of these things, when they excite wishes which are doubtless formed in ignorance-perhaps with presumption, only a little disguised. We 'know not what we ask,'-know not, when we flatter ourselves that we should SOAR, how an earthward force might drag us down lower than in our past beginnings. The clearest, the only clear duty, indeed, presented to us in such retrospects, is to pray that our bygone days may bear their legitimate natural fruits in lowly thoughts of ourselves, and a more earnest perpetual application to the Holy Spirit of our God for newness of purpose and deed. Step by step we may thus advance to a higher state, where we may forget 'the things that are behind.' It may be said, however, that our good Lady Nairn was not looking *Mrs. Barbauld. Ode to Remorse. so deeply as this into the matter-that she was simply combating the lightness and lowness of mind which could lead some to dwell upon the past pleasures of life as objects of desired recall, instead of looking on to nobler objects. Yes; this doubtless is the mark she aims at. Who will not agree with her here? and yet I cannot believe that she would have found any fault with pleasurable recollections of a happy youth. I think, if she ever read Henry Vaughan, she would have enjoyed and sympathized in those beautiful lines of his, called 'The Retreat:" Happy those early days, when I Shone in my angel infancy. O how I long to travel back, And tread again that ancient track, The view may be too poetical; but I own I see no harm in such casual ebullitions of memory. Childhood and youth may be, and are sometimes, very beautiful, and not to own them as such is repaying blessings with ingratitude. Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, or glory in the flower,' yet every new spring might reprove us if the sense of its enjoyments were denied or frustrated by our own unnatural efforts to undervalue them. Varieties in human feeling, on this and kindred subjects, there must be-founded, as they are, upon the habits and characteristics of individuals. Thus we are amused by Mrs. Gaskell's clever bringing out of Mr. and Mrs. Gibson's wishes in her 'Wives and Daughters,'-the former wishing he could live on to see the effect of this or that scientific discovery, the latter grumbling over her disappointing past, because, when she was young and handsome, as handsome as Cynthia-for 'though she had not her dark eye-lashes, her nose was straighter'—there are now many more rich young men than there were in her time. And here, in quite a different manner and mode, are Lamartine's beautiful lines, though still French in their mannerism :— 'Pour moi, quand le destin m'offrirait à mon choix Je ne veux pas d'un monde où tout change où tout passe: Et le jour du bonheur n'a pas de lendemain.' MEDITATION XVIII.—Lamartine. Once more to recur to Lady Nairn, whose verses are happily not her all. We know that she gave freely of what she possessed to those who needed it, and that she greatly helped a devoted servant of Christ in a work designed for the glory of God and the good of men. It cannot be doubted Her last piece, printed since her death, is on "The Dead who have died in the Lord;' and thus it ends: that her heart was in the right place. 'Oh! weep not for those who shall sorrow no more, It is most refreshing to take to ourselves the memory of such a woman, and to follow where she is gone. It is well known that she scrupulously denied herself any indulgence of personal fame or praise; the good she did was known to very very few-only to those who could help her in her aims. Such cannot, neither need it be, the course of all who minister in various ways to the wants of their fellow-creatures. The great thing is to be ready at all points, public or private, wherever we are needed, caring little whether we are known or unknown-caring only to do God's work in His own way. Who shall say what claims the coming year may have upon us? the poverty or sickness we may have to grapple with around us-the evils of insubordination, of ignorance, of vice? For these and more, let us strive to be prepared, knowing Whose arm is ever outstretched to defend the right; and that, whatever divisions there may be around us, God and goodness are eternally ONE. T. THE EPIPHANY IN SPAIN. (AFTER THE SPANISH.) PART I. It was a cold cloudy December night, raw, dark, and silent. A detachment of soldiers, on their way to a neighbouring seaport, there to take ship for America, arrived at a retired Dr. Chalmers. ''America,' par excellence, denotes South America in Spanish, just as it implies North America among us. |