God of the storm, God of the flowers, God of the worm, God of each one, Breathe on our spirits thy love and thy healing; Teach us content with thy fatherly dealing; Teach us to love thee, To love one another, brother his brother; Free from the bondage of old superstition, bor. Help us each one to fulfil his true mission; And teach us 'tis noble, 'tis godlike, to labor. K 16. PRAISE. ING of comfort, King of life, And, when fears and doubts were rife, Thou hast cleared me. Not a nook in all my breast, But thou fill'st it; Not a thought that breaks my rest, But thou kill'st it. Day and night- not once a day I will bless thee; Not one minute in the year But I'll mind thee: As my seal and bracelet here I will bind thee. In thy word, as if in heaven, I will rest me; And thy promise, till made even, There shall feast me. And if, dear Lord, when to thy board Thy child comes begging, He hath a flower, or to his Some lesser offering, power When thou hast made thy beggar glad, And filled his bosom, Let him, though poor, drop at thy door His tiny blossom. Henry Vaughan. R 17. THE GOOD SHEPHERD. EGION of life and light! Land of the good whose earthly toils are o'er! No frost nor heat may blight Thy vernal beauty, fertile shore, Yielding thy blessed fruits forevermore! There without crook or sling Walks the Good Shepherd. Blossoms white and red Round his meek temples cling; And, to sweet pastures led, His own loved flock beneath his eye is fed. And heavenly roses blow Deathless, and gathered but again to grow. Named of the infinite and long-sought good, And where his feet have stood The climbing sun has reached his highest bound, With all his flock around, He witches the still air with numerous sound. From his sweet lute flow forth Immortal harmonies, of power to still All passions born of earth, And draw the ardent will A wandering breath, of that high melody And change it till it be Transformed and swallowed up, O Love! in thee,- Released, should take its way W. C. Bryant (from the Spanish). 18. THE GOD OF THE SEASONS. HESE as they change, Almighty Father, these Are but the varied God. The rolling year Is full of thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love. Wide flush the fields; the softening air is balın; Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles; And every sense and every heart is joy. Then comes thy glory in the Summer months, With light and heat refulgent; then thy sun Shoots full perfection through the swelling year. And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks; That ever busy wheels the silent spheres; Works in the secret deep; shoots steaming thence One general song. To Him, ye vocal gales, Breathe soft, whose Spirit in your freshness breathes : |