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The Versicle

Lo, we adore Thee,

Dread Lamb, and bow thus low before Thee.

The Responsory

'Cause by the covenant of Thy Cross, Thou hast saved at once the whole World's loss.

The Prayer

O Lord JESU CHRIST, Son of the living God, interpose, I pray Thee, Thine Own precious Death, Thy Cross and Passion, betwixt my soul and Thy Judgment, now and in the hour of my death. And vouchsafe to grant unto me Thy grace and mercy; unto all quick and dead, remission and rest; to Thy Church, peace and concord; to us sinners, life and glory everlasting. Who livest and reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

THE NINTH

The Versicle

LORD, by Thy sweet and saving Sign,

The Responsory

Defend us from our foes and Thine.

V. Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord,

R. And my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.

V. O God, make speed to save me.

R. O Lord, make haste to help me.

V. Glory, etc.

R. As it was, etc.

THE HYMN

The Ninth with awful horror hearkened to those

groans

Which taught attention even to rocks and stones. Hear, Father, hear! Thy Lamb (at last) complains

Of some more painful thing than all His pains.
Then bows His all-obedient head, and dies,
His own love's, and our sins' great Sacrifice.
The sun saw that, and would have seen no more;
The centre shook her useless veil th' inglorious
Temple tore.

Of

The Antiphon

O strange, mysterious strife
open Death and hidden Life!

When on the Cross my King did bleed,
Life seem'd to die, Death died indeed.

The Versicle

Lo, we adore Thee,

Dread Lamb, and fall

Thus low before Thee.

The Responsory

'Cause by the covenant of Thy cross Thou hast saved at once the whole World's loss.

The Prayer

O Lord JESU CHRIST, Son of the living God, interpose, I pray Thee, Thine Own precious Death, Thy Cross and Passion, betwixt my soul and Thy

Judgment, now and in the hour of my death. And vouchsafe to grant unto me Thy grace and mercy; unto all quick and dead, remission and rest; to Thy Church, peace and concord; to us sinners, life and glory everlasting. Who livest and reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

EVENSONG

The Versicle

LORD, by Thy sweet and saving Sign,

The Responsory

Defend us from our foes and Thine. V. Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord, R. And my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise. VO God, make speed to save me.

R. O Lord, make haste to help me.

V. Glory, etc.

R. As it was, etc.

THE HYMN

1

But there were rocks 1 would not relent at this:
Lo, for their own hearts, they rend His;
Their deadly hate lives still, and hath
A wild reserve of wanton wrath;

Superfluous spear! but there's a heart stands by
Will look no wounds be lost, no Death shall die.
Gather now thy grief's ripe fruit, great Mother-maid,
Then sit thee down, and sing thine evensong in
the sad Tree's shade.

1 The hearts of those who crucified Him,

The Antiphon

O sad, sweet Tree,

Woeful and joyful we

Both weep and sing in shade of thee.
When the dear nails did lock

And graft into thy gracious stock

The hope, the health,

The worth, the wealth

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Of all the ransomed World, Thou hadst the power (In that propitious hour)

To poise each precious limb,

And prove how light the World was, when it weighed with Him.

Wide mayest thou spread

Thine arms, and with Thy bright and blissful head
O'erlook all Libanus.1 Thy lofty crown
The King Himself is, thou His humble throne,
Where yielding and yet conquering He
Proved a new path of patient victory:
When wondering Death by death was slain,
And our Captivity His captive ta'en.

The Versicle

Lo, we adore Thee,

Dread Lamb, and bow thus low before Thee.

The Responsory

'Cause by the covenant of Thy cross

Thou hast saved at once the whole World's loss.

1 The mountains of Libanus are to the extreme north of Palestine, and famous for cedars. This probably 'means that the Cross having borne our Saviour is greater than all other trees.

The Prayer

O Lord JESU CHRIST, Son of the living God, etc.

COMPLINE

The Versicle

LORD, by Thy sweet and saving Sign,

The Responsory

Defend us from our foes and Thine.
V. Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord,
R. And my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.
V. O God, make speed to save me.

R. O Lord, make haste to help me.
V. Glory be, etc.

R. As it was, etc.

THE HYMN

The Compline hour comes last, to call
Us to our own lives' funeral.

Ah, heartless task! yet Hope takes head,
And lives in Him that here lies dead.
Run, Mary, run! bring hither all the blest
Arabia,1 for thy Royal Phoenix' nest;

Pour on thy noblest sweets, which, when they touch
This sweeter Body, shall indeed be such.

But must Thy bed, Lord, be a borrowed grave,
Who lend'st to all things all the life they have?
O rather use this heart, thus far a fitter stone,
'Cause, though a hard and cold one, yet it is Thine
Amen.

own.

1 Cf. "All the perfumes of Arabia "— Macbeth ; and John xii. 3.

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