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As through a zodiac, moves the ritual year
Of England's Church; stupendous mysteries!
Which whoso travels in her bosom eyes,
As he approaches them, with solemn cheer.
Upon that circle traced from sacred story
We only dare to cast a transient glance,
Trusting in hope that Others may advance
With mind intent upon the King of Glory,1
From his mild advent till his countenance
Shall dissipate the seas and mountains hoary.†

ΙΟ

XX

BAPTISM

Published 1827

DEAR 2 be the Church, that, watching o'er the needs

Of Infancy, provides a timely shower

Whose virtue changes to a christian Flower

1 1845.

Enough for us to cast a transient glance

The circle through; relinquishing its story

For those whom Heaven hath fitted to advance

And, harp in hand, rehearse the King of Glory- 1822.

Enough for us to cast no careless glance

Upon that circle, leaving Christian story

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Here let us cast a more than Transient glance,
And harp in hand endeavour to advance,
With mind intent.

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*Compare The Christian Year, by Keble, passim.—ED.
† See The Revelation of St. John, chapter xx. V. II.-ED.

C.

C.

1827.

A Growth from sinful Nature's bed of weeds !_1
Fitliest beneath the sacred roof proceeds

The ministration; while parental Love
Looks on, and Grace descendeth from above
As the high service pledges now, now pleads.

5

There, should vain thoughts outspread their wings and fly To meet the coming hours of festal mirth,

The tombs-which hear and answer that brief cry,

The Infant's notice of his second birth

Recal the wandering Soul to sympathy

IC

With what man hopes from Heaven, yet fears from Earth.

ΧΧΙ

SPONSORS

Published 1832

FATHER! to God himself we cannot give
A holier name! then lightly do not bear
Both names conjoined, but of thy spiritual care
Be duly mindful: still more sensitive

Do Thou, in truth a second Mother, strive 2
Against disheartening custom, that by Thee
Watched, and with love and pious industry 3

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CATECHISING

Tended at need, the adopted Plant may thrive
For everlasting bloom. Benign and pure 1
This Ordinance, whether loss it would supply,
Prevent omission, help deficiency,

Or seek to make assurance doubly sure. * 2
Shame if the consecrated Vow be found
An idle form, the Word an empty sound! 3 †

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XXII

CATECHISING

FROM Little down to Least, in due degree,
Around the Pastor, each in new-wrought vest,
Each with a vernal posy at his breast,
We stood, a trembling, earnest Company!
With low soft murmur, like a distant bee,

Some spake, by thought-perplexing fears betrayed ;
And some a bold unerring answer made:
How fluttered then thy anxious heart for me,
Beloved Mother! Thou whose happy hand

Had bound the flowers I wore, with faithful tie: ‡
Sweet flowers! at whose inaudible command

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* Compare Macbeth, act IV. scene i. 1. 83.-Ed.

W. W., Dec. 7, 1827.

This Sonnet was sent by Wordsworth in holograph MS. to Orton Hall in the form indicated in the footnotes, dated Dec. 7, 1827.-ED.

See Wordsworth's reference to his Mother in his Autobiographical Memoranda.-ED.

Her countenance, phantom-like, doth re-appear:
O lost too early for the frequent tear,
And ill requited by this heartfelt sigh!

XXIII

CONFIRMATION

Published 1827

THE Young-ones gathered in from hill and dale,
With holiday delight on every brow :

'Tis passed away; far other thoughts prevail;
For they are taking the baptismal Vow

Upon their conscious selves; their own lips speak
The solemn promise. Strongest sinews fail,
And many a blooming, many a lovely, cheek
Under the holy fear of God turns pale;
While on each head his lawn-robed servant lays
An apostolic hand, and with prayer seals
The Covenant. The Omnipotent will raise
Their feeble Souls; and bear with his regrets,
Who, looking round the fair assemblage, feels
That ere the Sun goes down their childhood sets.

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ΙΟ

XXIV

CONFIRMATION CONTINUED

I SAW a Mother's eye intensely bent
Upon a Maiden trembling as she knelt;

In and for whom the pious Mother felt

Things that we judge of by a light too faint:

Tell, if ye may, some star-crowned Muse, or Saint! 5

SACRAMENT

Tell what rushed in, from what she was relieved—
Then, when her Child the hallowing touch received,
And such vibration through 1 the Mother went
That tears burst forth amain. Did gleams appear?
Opened a vision of that blissful place

93

Where dwells a Sister-child? And was power given
Part of her lost One's glory back to trace

Even to this Rite? For thus She knelt, and, ere
The summer-leaf had faded, passed to Heaven.*

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XXV

SACRAMENT

Published 1827

By chain yet stronger must the Soul be tied :
One duty more, last stage of 2 this ascent,
Brings to thy food, mysterious 3 Sacrament!
The Offspring, haply at the Parent's side;
But not till They, with all that do abide

In Heaven, have lifted up their hearts to laud
And magnify the glorious name of God,
Fountain of Grace, whose Son for sinners died.
Ye, who have duly weighed the summons, pause

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* Compare the tribute to a Daughter, who died within the year after her confirmation, in A Presbyterian Clergyman looking for the Church, by the Rev. Flavel S. Mines, p. 95.-ED.

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