Cetus Jonam fugitivum,
Veri Jonæ signativum,

Post tres dies reddit vivum

De ventris angustiâ.
Botrus Cypri reflorescit,
Dilatatur et excrescit :
Synagogæ flos marcescit,
Et floret Ecclesia.

Mors et vita conflixere,
Resurrexit Christus vere,
Et cum Christo surrexere
Multi testes gloriæ.

Mane novum, mane lætum,
Vespertinum tergat fletum;

exhalet, ut vivificentur. Sic omnipotens Pater Filium suum tertiâ die suscitavit a mortuis. And Hildebert (De Leone);

Natus non vigilat dum sol se tertio gyrat,
Sed dans rugitum pater ejus suscitat illum :
Tunc quasi vivescit, tunc sensus quinque capescit;
Et quotiens dormit sua nunquam lumina claudit.

This last line expresses another belief, namely that the lion slept with its eyes open: these open eyes being an emblem of that divine life of Christ which ran uninterrupted through the three days' sleep of his body in the grave. Cf. Cant. v. 2, often quoted in this sense: "I sleep, but my heart waketh."-It need hardly be said that the mater (ver. 59) is the New Jerusalem, "the mother of us all."

65. Botrus Cypri] Cf. Cant. i. 13 (Vulg.), i. 14 (E. V.): Botrus Cypri dilectus mihi, in vineis Engaddi; on which Bernard (In Cant., Serm. 44) with allusion to the verse preceding (“A bundle of myrrh is my beloved unto me"): Dominus meus Jesus myrrha mihi in morte, botrus in resurrectione.

72. Cf. Matt. xxvii. 52.

73, 74. The allusion is to Ps. xxix. 6 (Vulg.), xxx. 5 (E. V.):

Ad vesperum demorabitur fletus, et ad matutinum lætitia ; words often regarded as a prophecy of Him who turned by his resurrection the night of sorrow into the morning of joy. Thus Jerome: Ad vesperum demorabitur fletus, quia passo et sepulto Domino Apostoli et mulieres in fletu et gemitu demorabantur. Et ad matutinum lætitia, quia mane [cf. Marc. xvi. 9] venientes ad sepulcrum gloriam resurrectionis ab angelis acceperunt. And compare Augustine (in loc.), who carries on his thought to yet another morning of joy, after a yet longer night of weeping: Matutinum, quo exsultatio resurrectionis futura est, quæ in matutinâ Domini resurrectione præfloruit.

Nothing is poorer

XXXIV. Corner, Promp. Devot. p. 788. throughout the whole Christian Church than the hymnology of the Ascension. Even the German Protestant hymn-book, so incomparably rich in Passion and Resurrection and Pentecost hymns, is singularly ill-furnished with these. It is not here the place to enquire into the causes of this poverty, which certainly is not the effect of chance, but only to observe that the Latin forms no exception; it does not possess a single first-rate hymn on the Ascension. At the same time the following stanzas are not without a real merit of their own; and strangely enough, they have never found their way into any of the more modern collections of Latin hymns.

1-6. Cf. Ps. xxiii. 9, 10 (Vulg.): Attollite portas principes vestras, et elevamini, portæ æternales: et introibit rex gloriæ. Quis est iste rex gloriæ? Dominus virtutum, ipse est rex gloriæ.

8. Cf. Cant. v. 10 (Vulg.): Dilectus meus candidus et rubicundus. A few words from Richard of St Victor (in Cant. c. 36) will shew in what sense the epithets were continually applied to the Lord: Candidus, quia immunis est ab omni peccato; et rubicundus, quia in Passione sanguine suo est perfusus.

9-11. Cf. Isai. lxiii. 1 (Vulg.): Quis est iste, qui venit de Edom, tinctis vestibus de Bosrâ, iste formosus in stolâ suâ, gradiens in multitudine fortitudinis suæ ?

32, 33. Cf. John xiv. 3.

Locum tuis famulis,
Fac me tibi famulari,
Et te piis venerari

Hic in terrâ jubilis;

Ut post actum vitæ cursum,
Ego quoque scandens sursum
Te videre valeam,

Juxta Patrem considentem,

Triumphantem et regentem
Omnia per gloriam.

35

40

42. I have spoken in no high terms of the hymns on the Ascension. I must not however leave unsaid that one of these, first published by Dr. Neale (Ecclesiologist, Feb. 1854), yields the following noble stanzas:

In the last line I have ventured to substitute sacculo for

sæculo.