32. THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

FAT

NATHER of all, in every age,
In every clime, adored

By saint, by savage, or by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord;

Thou great First Cause, least understood, Who all my sense confined

To know but this, — that thou art good, And that myself am blind,

What conscience dictates to be done,
Or warns me not to do,

This teach me more than hell to shun,
That more than heaven pursue.

If I am right, thy grace impart
Still in the right to stay;

If I am wrong, oh! teach my heart
To find that better way.

Save me alike from foolish pride,
Or impious discontent;

At aught thy wisdom has denied,
Or aught thy goodness lent.

Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see:
The mercy I to others show,

That mercy show to me.

This day be bread and peace my lot:

All else beneath the sun

Thou know'st if best bestowed or not;
And let thy will be done.

BEFOR

EFORE I close my eyes to-night,
Let me myself these questions ask:

Have I endeavored to do right,
Nor thought my duty was a task?

Have I been gentle, lowly, meek,

And the small voice of conscience heard? When passion tempted me to speak, Have I repressed the angry word?

Have I with cheerful zeal obeyed
What my kind parents bade me do,
And not by word or action said

The thing that was not strictly true?

In hard temptation's troubled hour,

Then have I stopped to think, and pray That God would give my soul the power To chase the sinful thought away?

O Thou who seest all my heart!

Wilt thou forgive, and love me still?
Wilt thou to me new strength impart,
And make me love to do thy will?

Mrs. Follen.

34. THE DAY AND THE NIGHT ARE THINE.

FA

ADING, still fading, the last beam is shining.
Father in heaven! the day is declining:

Thine is the darkness, as thine is the light:

We trust thee by day, and we trust thee by

night.

From the fall of the shade till the morning bells

chime,

Shield us from danger, and guard us from crime. Father of mercy, oh! hear thou our prayer.

Father in heaven, oh! hear when we call,
Thou the Protector and Saviour of all.
Fainting and feeble, we trust in thy might:

In doubting and darkness, thy love be our light!

Let us sleep on thy breast while the night-taper burns,

And wake in thine arms when the morning returns.

Father of mercies, oh! hear thou our prayer.

35. AN EVENING SONG.

ORD, a happy child of thine,
Patient through the love of thee,

In the light, the life divine,
Lives and walks in liberty.

Leaning on thy tender care,
Thou hast led my soul aright:
Fervent was my morning prayer,
Joyful is my song to-night.

O my Father, Guardian true!
All my life is thine to keep:
At thy feet my work I do;
In thine arms I fall asleep.

Anna L. Waring.

36. REST.

THE daylight is fading o'er earth and o'er

ocean;

The sun has gone down o'er the slumbering sea; And now, in the hush of life's fitful commotion, We lift our tired spirits, blest Father! to thee.

Oh! when our feet stumble upon the dark mountains,

Or sink in the stormy and treacherous wave, Or seek in the desert in vain for the fountains, Be near in the darkness to help and to save.

And oft as the tumult of life's heaving billow Shall toss our frail bark, driving wild o'er night's

deep,

Let thy guarding wing be stretched over our pillow,

And shield us from evil, though death watch our sleep.

37. SONG OF THE NIGHT.

FATHER supreme, thou high and holy One!

To thee we bow,

Now, when the burden of the day is gone, -
Devoutly now.