Introits Or Ante Communion Psalms

main A fire to burn within? While wicked men of stranger-race Lay waste thine Israel's dwelling-place. O! hear us soon, for thy Name's sake; Receive our sorrowing cries; Upon the Heathen, vengeance take With seven-fold miseries; That our sad day and dangerous past, Thy blood-stained fold be calm at last! So, Lorii, of old thy Psalmist sang; So answered Rama's wail; And still, to-day, in sight do hang The Martyr-crowns we hail; ?First fruits of that baptismal sign, Water or blood, that seals us thine! See 8. Matt. ii. IS. Gospel for the Day. a. Luc. xii. 50. 1 8. Fet. iii. 21. 1 S. Joann. v. 6. after PSALM CXXI. See, how the Evening-shadows lengthen Along each sunset-gilded hill, To mark their march, who help and strengthen My fainting heart and feeble will : Sooner than Night and gloom, God's armed Angels come To guard my rest, and bid the world be still ! And as they stand, glad vigil keeping, Bright hosts and heavenly plumes around ,- They tell me of an Eye unsleeping, Whose glance, no time or distance bound : " His Hand, that Israel keeps, Who slumbers not nor sleeps, Will hold thy feet, for all the slippery ground :" At thy right hand He stands, repelling All hasty chance or craft mature; By day, He guards thy quiet dwelling From sun-lit crimes and ills obscure; And, in the silent night, The moon's mysterious light Shall, harmless, bathe thy couch serene and pure: " More kindly st...