Song of the New Creation

Eventnii by Evening.

Advesperascit; et inclinavit dies.

GOOD-NIGHT, ye gems of beauty,
Good-night, thou gentle blue;
On quiet bed I lay me,

And bid farewell to you.
Good-night, ye wakeful woodlands,
Good-night, ye sleeping flowers,
Amid whose smiles and odours

I've passed day's wayward hours.
Good-night, ye star-tipt mountains,
Old friends, the tried and true;
Good-night, ye wandering waters;
Ocean, good-night to you.

Good-night to all, but not to Thee,
My God, who ever art with me.

Good-night, dear faces round me,

Night's hours will swiftly run;
And we shall say, Good-morning,

At the ascending sun.
The farewell hour is coming,

The last good-night is near,
When I shall part in silence

With those who love me here. Then, all my farewells over,

Just passing out of sight, Unweeping and untrembling,

I'll look my last good-night.

Good-night to all, but not to Thee,
My God, who ever art with me.

Yet not good-night for ever;

For He who is my day
Will wake me soon;—I see Him

Already on His way.
No, not good-night for ever;

I shall but sleep in Him,
Who shall arouse me early,

While yet the dawn is dim,—. Who shall arouse me early,

And bid this flesh arise, In glorious resurrection,

To meet Him in the skies.

Good-night to all, but not to Thee,
My God, who ever art with me.

I see Him,—lo, He cometh!

Himself the morning light, To bring the dawn of gladness,

The dawn that knows no night. O Bridegroom of the morning!

Bright Bringer of the day,
Put on Thy fair adorning,

Thy beautiful array.
Lord Jesus, Star of evening,

Yet Star of morning too;
Earth's uncreated Splendour,

Rise on our longing view.

Good-night to all, but not to Thee,
My God, who ever art with me.

f>omewar&.

TO my beloved ones my steps are moving; Not hard the road that ends in love and

home.

Have done my eyes, have done my feet with roving; 'T is to the well-known gate I look and come.

Your watch is now on the eternal mountains;

Our eyes are gazing upward from afar. Your rest is now by the clear-welling fountains;

Ours is the journey still, the toil and war.

Years have gone by since the last words were spoken;

O loved and saved, how gladly shall we meet In the home-city, where no ties are broken,

Where love is perfect, fellowship complete!

I see your crowns, the wreaths which cannot wither, And from the city-walls ye beckon me;

'Come up, and tarry not. Oh, come up hither, To this dear land of light we welcome thee!'

Only a little while: a little longer

Of tarriance here upon these death-swept plains. O well-beloved, death is growing stronger,

And life more feeble in these ebbing veins.

To follow you we are each day preparing;

And where you are, there we shall shortly be. Death is to us but as an angel, bearing

The keys of life and immortality.

Yet not the less we say, 'Twere surely better That He should come and summon us away

To meet Him in the sky, ere yet the fetter Of dark corruption bind our crumbling clay.

Then ye who slept, and we who knew no sleeping,
Should meet together each to tell his tale;

The tale of earthly weariness and weeping,
The short strange story of Time's cloudy vale.

Come then, Lord Jesus, come! Thy Church is calling;

The world is old, though still its skies are blue. Its flowers are fading, and its leaves are falling;

Come in Thy glory to make all things new.

Divine Discipline.

Patior ut videam.

I SUFFER, that I may behold, when pain
Has passed away, Thy face in righteousness.
It is the suffering here that fits the soul
For the bright vision of eternal bliss.

I suffer, that these dim, dim eyes of mine
May be thus purified, and made to see

Afar off even. now, and farther still,
In the vast vistas of eternity.

Only the touch of suffering can remove

This earth-born dulness from my narrow sight;

Only the healing which the rod imparts
Can fit me for beholding holy light.

I suffer, that I may behold the cross
In all its fitness for a soul like mine;

Who but a sufferer knows what such a cross
Can mean, or see its glory fully shine?

I suffer here, that I may taste the joy
Hereafter in the city of the blest;

That I may bear the brilliance that shall burst
Upon us in the Paradise of rest.

Our present light affliction, which endures
But for a moment, worketh for us there

A weight of glory, such as sorrow here
Alone can fit us to possess or bear.

Only the pressure of a loving hand,
A hand as tender as divinely wise,

Can lift these drooping eyelids, and impart
True health and vigour to these sickly eyes.

I suffer, that I may be strong to gaze
Upon the glory yet to be revealed;

Glory which we shall yet in joy behold,
When earthly vision shall be purged and healed.

O silent arrows of the Lord my God,
O secret touches of a hand unseen,

O sharpness of the sweet but bitter rod,
Yet softness of the still small voice within!

ASCRIBE ye strength to God! ** The mighty Lord is He,

The God of majesty,

Jehovah is His name;

O'er all the earth His fame: Ascribe ye strength to God!

His strength is in the clouds! Girded with glorious might, Compassed about with night; Yet light His dwelling-place, And light in all His ways.

His strength is in the clouds!

He rideth on the heavens!
The heaven of heavens is His,
With all its light and bliss;
His are the stars of light,
His is the solemn night.

He rideth on the heavens!

Sing loud to God our strength! Rejoice and praise His name, Rejoice and sound His fame; Rejoice and tell His grace, Rejoice before His face.

Sing loud to God our strength!

M

His kingdom knows no end!
The King of kings is He,
The Lord of lords is He,
The God of gods is He,
The Judge of earth is He.

His kingdom knows no end!

Divine acquaintanceship.

ACQUAINT thyself with God! •*» Know thou His tender love; So shall the healing sunshine fall

Upon thee from above.
Acquaint thyself with God!

In Him alone is peace,—
Rest for the weary child of time,

And everlasting bliss.

Acquaint thyself with God!

Choose thou the better part;
So shall His heavenly sunlight be

The day-spring of thy heart.
Acquaint thyself with God!

He bids thee seek His face,
That thus thy youthful soul may taste

The sweetness of His grace.

Acquaint thyself with God!

In Jesus and His cross Read there that love which makes all loss

But gain, all gain but loss.

Acquaint thyself with God

In childhood's joyous prime;
So shall thy life a foretaste prove

Of heaven's long summer-time.

praiae.

PRAISE ye the Lord, all things that be:
Sky, sun, and moon, with every star;
All things above, below, Him praise,
In whom we live, and move, and are.
Praise ye the Lord!
Praise Him with one accord;
Praise Him for evermore.

Praise ye the everlasting God!

The God of majesty and might;
The God of grace, and truth, and love,
The God of glory infinite.
Praise ye the Lord!
Praise Him with one accord;
Praise Him for evermore.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

The one Jehovah, God, and Lord;—
Creator of the earth and heaven,
For ever be His name adored.
Praise ye the Lord!
Praise Him with one accord;
Praise Him for evermore.

Cbe ffountalnbead of

I WAS in love with hill and vale,
The noon's warm flush, the starlight pale,
The murmur of the midnight gale,
The mirth of wayward streams.
I wooed the silence of the night,
The blushes of the bursting light,
The sea's green depths, the heaven's blue height,
And days went by in dreams.

I sought the shadows of the wood,

I woke the glen's low solitude;

I mused above the mountain-flood,—

Days of the rock and grove!
The tide's great ebb and flow, to me
Was speech, and psalm, and minstrelsy;
O musical and mighty sea!

Young life went by in love.

And shall I cease to love you now,
Ye hills above, ye rocks below,
Because I see your beauty flow

From God the only wise?
Shall I not love you, praise you more,
And fill me with your beauty's store,
The glory of earth's wondrous shore,

And splendour of its skies?

When faith has now restored to me
All childhood's dear simplicity,
And, in heaven's own sweet liberty,

Made me once more a child;
When, standing by the cross, I read
All nature in the light thence shed,
No darkness and no guilty dread,—

Bright with the undefiled.

Jntercesston.

WHEN it is well with thee before thy God,
Remember those with whom it is not well;
Bear them upon thy heart before that God
In whose glad presence thou hast learned to
dwell.

Pray for thy friends: let the full heart go out
For all thou lovest here; forget not one:

Count o'er the precious names; nor let a doubt Obtrude that God upon thy cry can frown.

For the dear Church of God thy prayers prolong,
The one wide family of God below,

The little flock of every tribe and tongue;
All one in faith, in love, in joy and woe.

For all the many members of that throng,
And for each fellow-pilgrim lone and faint;

Known or unknown, the feeble or the strong, For each hard-pressed and sorrow-stricken saint.

Plead for the bleeding heart and burdened soul, Plead for the weary and the wounded here;

Ask that the God of health would make them

whole, And the great Comforter dispense His cheer.

Plead for the weary earth, upon whose breast

Ages of evil and unrighteousness
Have lain, unbroken by one hour of rest;

Plead for the hast'ning of the age of peace.

Plead for the advent of the promised King,
The reign of heavenly glory here on earth,

The budding of the world's eternal spring,
The coming of creation's second birth.

{Taken Swag (torn the jEvil to Come.
H. R. B.

HE died to live; for Jesus died:
He lives, to die no more.
Why weep for one whose tears are dried,
For whom all death is o'er?

You miss the little footstep here,

You miss the golden smile;
You miss the sunny locks so fair,

You miss the playful wile.

Yet all is well; you part to meet
And clasp your gem once more,

When all shall deathless be, and sweet,
On the eternal shore.

In the first opening stage of life

The little traveller failed;
Too rough the road, too full of strife,—

The gentle spirit quailed!

He laid him down to sleep, and slept

In smiling sleep away:
He waked not, though we called and wept;

He would not,—would not stay.

Gently he sighed, and gently sank

Ere morning had begun;
Closing his eyes, as if he shrank

From gazing on the sun.

In the first storm the little bark
Went down beneath the foam;

In its first flight the little lark
Soared to its kindred home.

March, 1869.

Xu.bt of Xife.

EjHT of life, so softly shining
From the blood-besprinkled tree,
Never waning nor declining,
Shine, shine on me!

Light of life, so sweetly gleaming
Down upon our troubled sea,
With the love of Jesus beaming.
Shine, shine on me!

Light of life, that knows no fading;
From all changes Thou art free.
Holy Light, that knows no shading,
Shine, shine on me!

Light of life, that knows no setting,
Day and night Thy beams we see,
Joy and peace in us begetting,
Shine, shine on me!

Light of life, in childhood's gladness,
To Thy radiance we would flee;
Be our strength in days of sadness,
Shine, shine on me!

Light of life, all health bestowing,
Lift we up our eyes to Thee;
From the cross of Jesus flowing,
Shine, shine on me!

Gfce Seamless .Raiment.

. If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole.'— Matt. ix. 31.

HEM of the seamless robe,
Through which the virtue poured;
Which told that He from whom it came

Was earth's great King and Lord.
With tremulous eager hand,

Thee would I touch and grasp; No force of man nor wiles of hell My hand should e'er unclasp.

Hem of the seamless robe,

Which clothed our High Priest here, When in the lowliness of love

He trod our earthly sphere; When with His priestly hand

He came and cleansed and healed; When in the fulness of His grace

He all that cleansing sealed.

True health, through thee, from Him

Into this soul shall flow;
The health of heaven, the life of God

Begun on earth below.
Instead of feebleness,

Strength shall my portion be; Instead of ashes, beauty then

Shall brightly compass me.

One touch of that fair robe

Hath all this healing given;
I need but this for blessedness,

I need but this for heaven.
Out from its Wearer comes

An energy divine,
Pervading with transforming power

This tainted soul of mine.

Who touches it is free!

His chains are snapt in twain; Immortal purity is his,

Instead of mortal stain.
Through it flows priestly power

To liberate the soul;
It purges sin, it casts out ill,

It makes the bruised whole.

Through it pours royal strength,

The endless life to give;
It wakes the sleeper from his sleep,

It bids the dead man live.
This priestly-royal robe,

The robe without a seam, Has wrought strange miracles on earth,

Beyond the dreamer's dream.

Thrown o'er the soul, it works

To quicken and to save; Thrown o'er the tomb-enshrouded dust,

It disenchants the grave.

Thrown over this sad earth,

As yet its folds shall be,
It shall wipe out the wasting curse,

And bid corruption flee.

Ages of sickness then

Shall in a moment go; The age of everlasting health

Shall be begun below. Ages of darkness end;

Light, with its fair array, Long veiled within the seamless robe,

Shall burst forth into day.

ssiiiab'a ascension.

ON his Lord's bosom now
He resteth from his toil;
Done is his fiery warfare here,
Purged of all earthly soil.

The fiery chariot comes;

He knoweth well for whom: It halts, he enters it, and goes

In awful splendour home.

At Jordan's margin green
He lays his burden down,

Shakes off mortality, and mounts
To his eternal crown.

He does not stay to doff

The well-worn mantle here; Just as he is he passes up,

Without a care or fear.

All travel-stained his feet,

His sandals soiled and torn; His raiment rough, and strange, and old,

With life's sore journey worn.

With weary limbs that day,

On farewell errands bound, Bethel's rough hills he climbed, then sought

The river-plain renowned;—

The plain where Israel's camp
First stood on Canaan's shore;

The pillar-glory overheard,
Marching in light before.

Smiting the water's strength,

He parts the flood in twain, Moves o'er its dark uncovered bed,

Not to return again.

Here, where of old the Lord
In wondrous grace came down

To lay His honoured saint to rest,
Deep in a grave unknown,—

Here He descends again,

In fiery chariot driven,
To snatch from death His prophet-saint,

And bear him up to heaven.

Far above Nebo's height

He moves triumphant on; From higher peaks than Pisgah's, sees

That goodly Lebanon.

All the fair land he leaves,

Beneath his feet now lies; And Salem in her zone of hills

Looks up to see him rise.

His mighty works are done;

These naming coursers bear This over-wearied son of toil

Beyond both hope and fear.

He needs no armour now,

No buckler for his breast;
His fight is fought, his victory won,

He rests where warriors rest.

But now he heard the noise

Of Jordan's turbid roar;
Next moment he is by the fount

Where living waters pour.

Fair are the palms he left

Behind him as he rose; But fairer far the palms which shade

Life's river as it flows.

Fair is Samaria's hill,

Bright is its crown of pride; More fair the city where she dwells,—

The Lamb's immortal Bride.

There, in his Father's house,

The pilgrim rests at last,
His Cherith-days, his Horeb-nights

Of pilgrimage all past.

No more he wars with kings,
Or fights with sin and wrong;

His are the crown, and palm, and harp,
And his the endless song.

Cbe Strength of Evil.

IN this great world of ours
Nothing is small or poor;
For each hour's smallest thing is knit
To the long evermore.

The common deed or word,
Of which we took no heed,

Ends in a vast eternity,
As in the tree the seed.

No room to trifle here;

To jest away life's hours,
As if we were but born to laugh,

And sport among the flowers.

Sin spreadeth round and round

In all we hear or see;
Each drop enough to poison earth

And stain eternity.

Its lightest touch is death;

And from each spark there come Fires, through the ages spreading wide,

The harbingers of doom.

The soul that sinneth dies!

He who has swerved aside
From the full-hearted love of God,

He has already died.

Yet as the one sad sin

Brought death, and woe, and strife,
So the one Righteousness has brought

The everlasting life.

Cbe Double Star.

ENG ages came and went;
And, sick with hope deferred,
The Church's voice grew faint; she seemed
Unnoticed and unheard.
At length to her a Child was born,

At length a Son was given;
The dayspring broke on earth,
The love came down from heaven.

Long years have come and gone,

And, with uplifted eye,
The Church, with calm and silent hope,

Has watched the eastern sky.

At length the voice shall yet be heard,
With which all earth shall ring:

Lo, this is God, our God,
This the long-promised King.