170

1

WHILE

C. M.

HILE thee I seek, protecting Power,
Be my vain wishes stilled;

And may this consecrated hour

With better hopes be filled.

2 Thy love the powers of thought bestowed;
To thee my thoughts would soar;
Thy mercy o'er my life has flowed;
That mercy I adore.

3 In each event of life how clear
Thy ruling hand I see!

Each blessing to my soul more dear
Because conferred by thee.

4 In every joy that crowns my days,
In every pain I bear,

My heart shall find delight in praise,
Or seek relief in prayer.

5 When gladness wings my favoured hour,
Thy love my thoughts shall fill;
Resigned, when storms of sorrow lower,
My soul shall meet thy will.

6 My lifted eye, without a tear,

The lowering storm shall see ;

My steadfast heart shall know no fear;

That heart will rest on thee.

Helen M. Williams.

171

1

6-8 M.

GOD! beyond that boundless sea,
Above that dome of sky,

Further than thought itself can flee,
Thy dwelling is on high:

Yet dear the awful thought to mo,
That Thou, my God! art nigh.

2 Thou'rt nigh, and yet my labouring mind
Feels after thee in vain :

Thy herald is the stormy wind,
Thy path the watery plain :

But Thee in tempests who can find,
Or in the trackless main?

3 We hear thy voice when thunders roll
Through the wide fields of air:
The waves obey thy dread control;
Yet still Thou art not there.

Where shall I find Him, O my soul
Who yet is everywhere ?

40 not in circling depth or height,
But in the conscious breast,
Present to faith, though veiled from sight,
There does his spirit rest,

O come, thou Presence infinite!

And make thy creature blest.

Josiah Conder.

1 NO human eyes thy face may see;

No human thought thy form may know : But all creation dwells in thee,

And thy great life through all doth flow;

2 And yet, O strange and wondrous thought!
Thou art a God who hearest prayer,

And every heart with sorrow fraught
To seek thy present aid may dare.

3 And though most weak our efforts seem Into one creed these thoughts to bind, And vain the intellectual dream,

To see and know th' Eternal Mind ;

4 Yet Thou wilt turn them not aside,
Who cannot solve thy life divine,

But would give up all reason's pride
To know their hearts approved by thine..

5 So though we faint on life's dark hill,

And thought grow weak and knowledge flee, Yet faith shall teach us courage still

And love shall guide us on to thee.

Thomas W. Higginson.

GOD IS LOVE.

173

1 LE

8 M.

ET all men know, that all men move
Under a canopy of love,

As broad as the blue sky above;
That doubt and trouble, fear and pain,
And anguish, all are shadows vain ;
That death itself shall not remain.

2 That weary deserts we may tread,
A dreary labyrinth we may thread,
Through dark ways underground be led ;
Yet, if we will our guide obey,

The dreariest path, the darkest way,
Shall issue out in heavenly day!

3 And we on divers shores now cast,
Shall meet, our perilous voyage past,
All in our Father's house at last!
Let all men count it true that love,-
Blessing, not cursing, rules above,
And that in it we live and move.

Archbishop Trench.

1 I CANNOT always trace the way
Where thou, almighty one, dost move ;

But I can always, always say,

That God is love.

2 When mystery clouds my darkened path,
I'll check my dread, my doubts reprove;
In this my soul sweet comfort hath,
That God is love.

3* When hope grows faint and knowledge fails,
And reason vainly tries to prove;
For faith, for proof, for sight avails,
That God is love.

4 Yes, God is love,-a trust like this

Can every gloomy thought remove,
And turn all tears, all woes to bliss,
Our God is love.

Sir John Bowring.

175

1

MY

8, 8, 6 M.

Y God! thy boundless love I praise:
How bright on high its glories blaze,
How sweetly bloom below!

It streams from thy eternal throne,
Through heaven its joys for ever run,
And o'er the earth they flow.