From The Literary Workman.
ST. ELIZABETH.
"Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it to me."
A shrill and joyous summons
At Wartburg's postern rang.
And lightly from his panting steed
The princely Landgrave sprang.
Comes forth his stately mother
To meet him in her pride,
But the quick glance of Louis seeks
The sweet face of his bride.
Then scornful spoke the Landgravine,
"Fair son, thy lady sweet
Hath cares too urgent thus in haste
Thy coming step to greet.
Upon thy couch so stately,
Within thy chamber fair,
A vile and loathsome leper
She tends with pious care."
A wrathful man was Louis,
Yet not a word he said,
But up the castle's echoing stair
In quivering haste he sped—
Within her silent chamber,
As o'er the couch she hung,
Her lord's returning bugle
Had all unheeded rung.
In silent ecstacy she knelt,
Her heart so hushed in prayer.
It thrilled not at his longed-for step,
Now echoing on the stair.
With hasty hand young Louis tore
The coverlid aside—
The lifeless form before him lay
Of Jesus crucified,
Bleeding and pale, as in the hour
When for our sins he died.
"See, mother, see the Leper
She brings to be our guest,
Whom only she prefers to me—
May his dear name be blest
Elizabeth, sweet sister.
Still bring such guests to me;
Sinful and all unworthy
I am of him and thee;
Yet train me in thy patient love
His guest in heaven to be."
From The Month.
DR. PUSEY ON THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
It is just twenty years since the great movement in the Anglican Church, which took its rise and its name from the University of Oxford and the "Tracts for the Times," was broken, as it were, into two streams of very different direction by the submission of Mr. Newman to the Catholic Church. It happens that the circumstances of the last year and a half have brought the history of the movement prominently before the world; and they have occasioned an interesting set of publications from men of eminent position, whose names were at the time hardly less watchwords than at present. No one of the few most conspicuous Oxford leaders of thought who belonged in any sense to the Tractarian party has yet been removed by death. Dr. Pusey is still at Christ Church, Mr. Keble still at Hursley; but Mr. Newman has become the founder of the English Oratory of St. Philip Neri, and Archdeacon Manning is the present Catholic archbishop of Westminster. These four names were more than any others in the mouths of the adherents of the Oxford movement twenty years ago. Archdeacon Wilberforce lived in the country, and had, we believe, hardly begun to publish that series of theological treatises which soon after made his name second to none in the Anglican Church as a writer on doctrine: Isaac Williams, loved and venerated by all who knew him, had left Trinity and was occupied on his "Commentary on the Gospels" without taking any further part in the movement: the influence of Charles Marriott was hardly felt except by his immediate acquaintance. There were of course others whose position—such as that of Mr. Oakeley and Mr. Dodsworth in London —gave them much influence in particular places; but, speaking broadly, and without reference to the actual connection of individuals with the "Tracts"—in which, we think, Archdeacon Manning took no part at all—the four names we have just mentioned might be said to constitute the High-Church Quadrilateral. It must be remembered, moreover, that among the Anglicans, whose church had at that time not even so much liberty to speak in convocation as has since been allowed to it, and whose bishops were probably unanimous in nothing except in suspicion of Tractarianism, personal influence went for far more than is ever the case among Catholics. Whether they liked it or not, the position and responsibilities of party leaders were thrust upon the persons we have named; veneration and confidence haunted them, and their words were made into oracles. A little later than the time of which we are speaking, an enthusiastic admirer—now a colonial bishop—dedicated a volume of sermons to the three first, under the name of the three valiant men of David's band, who had broken through the ranks of the enemy to fetch water from the well of Bethlehem, the fountain of ancient doctrine; one of the three, he plaintively added in his dedication, was taken prisoner by the enemy in the attempt! This was after the submission of Dr. Newman.
Recent circumstances, as we have said, have drawn from three of these four distinguished persons declarations of opinion and feeling with regard to the Anglican establishment which it may well be worth while to place [{531}] side by side. The first in point Of time was Dr. Newman, in his celebrated "Apologia pro Vita suâ," in the appendix to which he had occasion to speak his mind about Anglicanism. The passage will be fresh in the memories of most of our readers; and it has been preserved as part of a note in the second edition of the "Apologia" lately published by Dr. Newman as the "History of my Religions Opinions." It contains, as a passage from Dr. Newman was sure to do, most that can be said for or against the establishment in the happiest words: