Father, lo! I am here, and the children, whom thou hast given me !"

Weeping he spake in these words; and now at the beck of the old man

Knee against knee they knitted a wreath round the altar's enclosure.

Kneeling he read then the prayers of the consecration, and softly

With him the children read; at the close, with tremulous accents,

Asked he the peace of heaven, a benediction upon them.

Now should have ended his task for the day; the following Sunday

Was for the young appointed to eat of the Lord's

holy Supper.

Sudden, as struck from the clouds, stood the

Teacher silent and laid his

Hand on his forehead, and cast his looks upward;

while thoughts high and holy

Flew through the midst of his soul, and his eyes glanced with wonderful brightness.

"On the next Sunday, who knows! perhaps I shall rest in the grave-yard!

Some one perhaps of yourselves, a lily broken untimely,

Bow down his head to the earth; why delay I? the hour is accomplished.

Warm is the heart; I will so ! for to-day grows the harvest of heaven.

What I began accomplish I now; for what failing therein is

I, the old man,

will answer to God and the rev

erend father.

Say to me only, ye children, ye denizens newcome in heaven,

Are ye ready this day to eat of the bread of Atonement?

What it denoteth, that know ye full well, I have told it you often.

of the new covenant a symbol it is, of Atonement a token,

Stablished between earth and heaven. Man by

his sins and transgressions

Far has wandered from God, from his essence. 'T was in the beginning

Fast by the Tree of Knowledge he fell, and it hangs its crown o'er the

Fall to this day; in the Thought is the Fall; in the Heart the Atonement.

Infinite is the Fall, the Atonement infinite like

wise.

See! behind me, as far as the old man remembers, and forward,

Far as Hope in her flight can reach with her wearied pinions,

Sin and Atonement incessant go through the lifetime of mortals.

Brought forth is sin full-grown; but Atonement sleeps in our bosoms

Still as the cradled babe; and dreams of heaven and of angels,

Cannot awake to sensation; is like the tones in the harp's strings,

Spirits imprisoned, that wait evermore the deliverer's finger.

Therefore, ye children beloved, descended the Prince of Atonement,

Woke the slumberer from sleep, and she stands now with eyes all resplendent,

Bright as the vault of the sky, and battles with Sin and o'ercomes her.

Downward to earth he came and transfigured, thence reascended,

Not from the heart in like wise, for there he still lives in the Spirit,

Loves and atones evermore. So long as Time is, is Atonement.

Therefore with reverence receive this day her visible token.

Tokens are dead if the things do not live. The light everlasting

Unto the blind man is not, but is born of the eye that has vision.

Neither in bread nor in wine, but in the heart that is hallowed

Lieth forgiveness enshrined; the intention alone of amendment

Fruits of the earth ennobles to heavenly things, and removes all

Sin and the guerdon of sin. Only Love with his arms wide extended,

Penitence weeping and praying; the Will that is

tried, and whose gold flows

Purified forth from the flames; in a word, man

kind by Atonement

Breaketh Atonement's bread, and drinketh Atone

ment's wine-cup.