ADVENT.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.—Isaiah, xl. 3, 4, 5.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.—Isaiah, lxi. 1, 2.
Let the floods clap their hands, let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; for He cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity.—Psalm xcviii. 8, 9.
Well then, my soul, joy in the midst of pain;
Thy Christ, that conquered hell, shall from above
With greater triumph yet return again,
And conquer His own justice with His love—
Commanding earth and seas to render those
Unto His bliss, for whom he paid His woes.
Henry Wotton.
When Thou, attended gloriously from Heaven,
Shall in the sky appear, and from Thee send
The summoning archangels to proclaim
The dread tribunal, forthwith from all winds
The living, and forthwith the cited dead
Of all past ages, to the general doom
Shall hasten.
Milton.
Come then, and added to thy many crowns,
Deceive yet one, the crown of all the Earth,
Thou who alone art worthy! It was thine
By ancient covenant, ere Nature’s birth;
And thou hast made it thine by purchase since,
And overpaid its value with thy blood.
Thy saints proclaim thee king; and in their hearts
Thy title is engraven with a pen
Dipped in the fountain of eternal love.
Thy saints proclaim thee king; and thy delay
Gives courage to their foes, who could they see
The dawn of thy last advent long desired,
Would creep into the bowels of the hills
And flee for safety to the falling rocks.
Cowper.
Messiah comes!—Let furious discord cease;
Be peace on earth before the Prince of Peace!
Disease and anguish feel His blest control,
And howling fiends release the tortured soul!
The beams of gladness Hell’s dark caves illume,
And mercy broods above the distant gloom.
Bishop Heber.
The Lord shall come! the earth shall quake;
The mountains to their centre shake;
And withering from the vault of night,
The stars shall pale their feeble light.
The Lord shall come! but not the same
As once in lowliness he came;
A silent Lamb before His foes,
A weary man and full of woes.
The Lord shall come! a dreadful form,
With rainbow wreath, and robes of storm;
On cherub wings and wings of wind,
Appointed Judge of all mankind!
Bishop Heber.
The chariot! the chariot! its wheels roll on fire,
As the Lord cometh down in the pomp of his ire;
Self-moving it drives on its pathway of cloud,
And the heavens with the burthen of Godhead are bowed!
The glory! the glory! by myriads are pour’d
The host of the angels to wait on their Lord,
And the glorified saints and the martyrs are there,
And all who the palm-wreath of victory wear.
H. H. Milman.
Messiah comes! ye rugged paths be plain!
The Shiloh comes! ye towering cedars bend;
Swell forth, ye valleys; and, ye rocks, descend;
The withered branch let balmy fruits adorn,
And clustering roses twine the leafless thorn;
Burst forth, ye vocal groves, your joy to tell—
The God of Peace redeems His Israel.
C. H. Johnson.