67. Saint Gabriel

Hail, Gabriel! hail! a thousand Plails
For thine whose music still prevails
In the world's listening ear!
Ans:elic Word! sent forth to tell
How the Eternal Word should dwell
Amid His creatures here!

Familiar of the Eternal Word!
To thee the Wisdom of thy Lord
By special grace was shown;
And in the secrets of His will,
Thy love for sinners drank its fill,
And made our lot thine own.

In the dear Word thou didst behold
More even than thy words have told,
More than thou couldst impart;
Decrees of God before thine eye
Passed in procession silently,
And made thee what thou art, —

Counsels of mercy, oceans bright
Of grace to overflow the night
Of man's most hapless fall;
Predestination's secret might,
The Passion's depth, our Lady's height,
The Vision crowning all!

God's Confidant! fair task was thine,
Depths within depths of Love Divine,
To fathom and adore,
Till e'en thy marvellous mind was lost,
Li w^orship blind upon that coast
Of endless More and More!

Angel of Jesus! days gone by
Bore burdens of kind prophecy
To quicken hope delayed;
Then, preluding with John's sweet name,
At length thy choicest music came
Unto the Mother-Maid.

Voice of heaven's sweetness, uttered low,
Thy words like strains of music grow
Upon the stilly night,
Clear echoes froQi the Mind of God,
Stealing through INIary's blest abode
In i^ulses of delight.

O Voice! clear Voice! the ages hear
That Hail of thine still lingering neai',
An unexhausted song;
And still thou com'st with balmy wing,
Yea, and thou seemest still to sing,
Thine Ave to prolong.

O meditative Spirit! bright
With beauty and abounding light,
Life of surpassing bliss,
Brooding, profound, most calm in power,
AYhat joy for thee to feel each hour
How deep thy being is!

Pure as the sunrise, fair as light,
Lovely as visions of the night
Where saintly souls find food;
Angel of worship! skilled and wise,
Thou hauntest prayer and sacrifice,
Because they fit thy mood.

Zeal burns thee like a quiet fire,
All self-possessed in chaste desire,
• As DaniePs was of old;
And thou hast caught from God's near Throne
His love of creatures, and His tone
Of charity untold.

O blessed Gabriel! Tongue of God!
Sweet-spoken Spirit! thou hast showed
To us the AVord made Man;
He bade thee break His silence here;
The tale thou told'st in Mary's ear
His coming scarce fore-ran.

Jesus is nigh where Gabriel is;
His presence too was Mary's bliss,
And Daniel loved him near;
Angel of grace! oh prophecy
To us of God's forgiving Eye,
Which thou canst see all clear.

Joseph and John were like to thee,
Chosen for Mary's custody
In her retired abode;
Ah Gabriel! get us love like theirs.
For her whose unremitting prayers
Have gained us love of God!

Take up in heaven for us thy part.
And, singing to the Sacred Heart,
Thy strains of rapture raise;
And tune with endless Ave still
The voices of the Blest, and fill
The ear of God with praise!