GREGORY

X. [21]
Mnoeo Christe,
(Anapaestic monometer.)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Lord Jesu, think on me;
And this poor offering,
Which I do humbly weave for Thee,
Accept, O Christ, my King.
Lord Jesu, think on me,
And purge away my sin:
From earthborn passions set me free,
And make me pure within.
Lord Jesu, think on me,
With care and woe oppressed;
Let me Thy loving servant be,
And taste Thy promised rest.
Lord Jesu, think on me
Amid the battle's strife:
In all my pain and misery
Be Thou my Health and Life.
Lord Jesu, think on me,
Nor let me go astray:
Through darkness and perplexity
Point Thou the heavenly way.
Lord Jesu, think on me,
When flows the tempest high:
When on doth rush the enemy,
O Saviour, be Thou nigh.
Lord Jesu, think on me,
That when the flood is past,
I may the Eternal Brightness see,
And share Thy joy at last.
Lord Jesu, think on me,
And grant me my desire,
That I, with mind and limbs set free,
May join the heavenly choir.
Lord Jesu, think, on me,
That I may sing above
Praise to the Father, and to Thee,
And to the Holy Dove.

[21] In translating this ode I have given my spirit more liberty. It may be considered as a paraphrase or amplification, rather than an exact translation of the original. A brief form of it appears in Hymns Ancient and Modern.

[3] See The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Oxford edition, 1827, vol. ii. p. 446, and the foot notes. Also vol. iv. pp. 38, 39.

[4] Christian Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 464-5, London edition, 1843.

[5] See Ecclesiastical History. London edition, 1845, vol. i. pp. 310, 439.

[6] See the Notes, ibid.
[7] Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. ii. p. 446.
BISHOP OF NAZIANZUS
(Born A.D. 325. Died, 389).

This eminent man needs no introduction from my humble pen. His praises are, and always have been, in the Church. Born near Nazianzus in Cappadocia, he succeeded his father in that episcopate. He cultivated his natural gifts, and increased his learning, at Athens. Thence he went forth to be a champion of the Christian faith, and a luminary in the great Church constellation of the fourth century. After the deliverance from the last effort of paganism contrived and led by the Emperor Julian, who had once been his friend and fellow-collegian, he displayed his great talents and eloquence at Constantinople, of which great Eastern capital for a time he became bishop. But soon he retired to the solitary cell, which he bad before loved and frequented, near his native place, Nazianzus; and there renewed and exercised his gift of sacred poetry, of which, to name but one, his Hymn to God is an undying record, and may bear comparison with any similar composition in any age.