THE ASCENSION.

A HYMN OF GLORY LET US SING.

(Hymnum canamus gloriæ.)

By BEDA VENERABILIS, an Anglo-Saxon monk and presbyter at Yarrow, the most learned man of his age, d. 735. DANIEL, I. p. 206; SCHAFF (German translation) Translated by Mrs. CHARLES (Christian Life in Song, p. 141).

No. 143.

A

HYMN of glory let us sing;

New songs throughout the world shall ring;

By a new way none ever trod,

Christ mounteth to the throne of God.

The apostles on the mountain stand,

The mystic mount, in Holy Land;
They, with the Virgin-mother, see
Jesus ascend in majesty.

The angels say to the eleven:
"Why stand ye gazing into heaven?
This is the Saviour,- this is He!
Jesus hath triumphed gloriously!"

VOL. I. 20

They said the Lord should come again,
As these beheld Him rising then,

Calm soaring through the radiant sky,
Mounting its dazzling summits high.

May our affections thither tend,
And thither constantly ascend,

Where, seated on the Father's throne,
Thee reigning in the heavens we own!

Be Thou our present joy, O Lord!
Who wilt be ever our reward;
And, as the countless ages flee,
May all our glory be in Thee!

EXALT, EXALT, THE HEAVENLY.

(Επάρατε πυλάς.)

From the Greek of St. Joseph, THE HYMNOGRAPHER, died 883. This most prolific of Greek hymn-writers was a Sicilian by birth; became a monk at Thessalonica and Constantinople; for some years, a slave in Crete; a friend of Photius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, whom he followed into exile. His hymns are tedious, full of verbiage and bombast, and unsuited to our taste. But his canon for Ascension is highly praised by Dr. J. M. NEALE as equal to the hymns of John of Damascus. The following is the third ode of this canon, from NEALE'S Hymns of the Eastern Church, p. 143.

"EXALT, exait, the heavenly gates,

Ye chiefs of mighty name!

The Lord and King of all things waits,

Enrobed in earthly frame:'

JESUS, LORD OF LIFE ETERNAL.

So to the higher seats they cry,
The humbler legions of the sky.

For Adam, by the serpent's guile,
Distressed, deceived, o'erthrown,
Thou left'st Thy native home awhile,
Thou left'st the Father's throne:
Now he is decked afresh with grace,
Thou seek'st once more the heavenly place.

Glad festal keeps the earth to-day,
Glad festal heaven is keeping:
The ascension-pomp, in bright array,
Goes proudly skyward sweeping;
The Lord the mighty deed hath done,
And joined the severed into one.

307

JESUS, LORD OF LIFE ETERNAL.

(Ἰησοῦς ὁ Ζωοδότης.)

From the Greek of JOSEPH, THE HYMNOGRAPHER, died 883, by Dr. NEALE.

JESUS, Lord of life eternal,

Taking those He loved the best,
Stood upon the mount of Olives,
And His Own the last time blest:
Then, though He had never left it,

Sought again His FATHER'S breast.

Know, O world! this highest festal:
Floods and oceans, clap your hands!
Angels, raise the song of triumph;
Make response, ye distant lands;
For our flesh is knit to Godhead,
Knit in everlasting bands.

Loosing death with all its terrors,
Thou ascendedst up on high;
And to mortals, now Immortal,
Gavest immortality,

As Thine own disciples saw Thee
Mounting Victor to the sky.

ON EARTH AWHILE, 'MID SUFFERINGS.

(In terris adhuc positam.)

By PETER ABELARD (1079-1142), the celebrated schoolman, and unfortunate friend Translated by the Rev. Dr. E. A. WASHBURN, New York, June, 1868.

of Heloise.

Contributed.

N earth awhile, 'mid sufferings tried,

ON

Still hears the Church, the holy Bride, Her Lord from heaven, calling with daily cry, Bidding her heart ascend to Him on high.

"Draw me," she answers, "after Thee;
Stretch Thy right hand to succor me: