EVENING HYMN.

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!

181

MRS. FOLLEN.

EVENING HYMN.

GLORY to thee, my God! this night,
For all the blessings of the light:
Keep me, O keep me, King of kings,
Beneath the shadow of thy wings!

Forgive me, Lord, through thy dear Son,
The ills which I this day have done;
That with the world, myself, and thee,
I, ere I sleep, at peace may be.

Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed;
Teach me to die, that so I may
Rise joyful at the judgment-day.

Be thou my guardian while I sleep;
Thy watchful station near me keep;
My heart with love celestial fill,

And guard me from the approach of ill.

182

AN EVENING PRAYER.

Lord, let my heart forever share
The bliss of thy paternal care:
'Tis heaven on earth, 't is heaven above,
To see thy face and sing thy love.

BISHOP KENN.

AN EVENING PRAYER.

LORD, thine eye is closéd never ;
When night casts o'er earth her hood,
Thou remainest wakeful ever,

And art like a shepherd good,
Who, through every darksome hour,
Tends his flock with watchful power.

Grant, O Lord! that we thy sheep

May this night in safety sleep;

And when we again awake,

Give us strength our cross to take;
And to order all our ways
To thine honor and thy praise.

Or, if thou hast willed that I
Must before the morning die,
Into thy hands to the end,
Soul and body I commend.

Amen.

SONGS FROM THE GERMAN.

IV. MISCELLANEOUS.

WISDOM.

How happy is the child who hears
Instruction's warning voice;
And who celestial wisdom makes
His early, only choice.

Wisdom has treasures greater far
Than east or west unfold;
And her rewards more precious are
Than is the gain of gold.

She guides the young with innocence
In pleasure's path to tread ;
A crown of glory she bestows
Upon the hoary head.

According as her labors rise,

So her rewards increase;

Her ways are ways of pleasantness, And all her paths are peace.

184

IMMORTAL BEAUTY.

THE HOLY CHILD.

By cool Siloam's shady rill
How sweet the lily grows!

How sweet the breath, beneath the hill,
Of Sharon's dewy rose !

Lo, such the child whose early feet
The paths of peace have trod;
Whose secret heart, with influence sweet,
Is upward drawn to God!

O Thou, who giv'st us life and breath,
We seek thy grace alone,

In childhood, manhood, age, and death,
To keep us still thine own!

IMMORTAL BEAUTY.

SWEET day! so cool, so calm, so bright,
Bridal of earth and sky,

The dew shall weep thy fall to-night,
For thou, alas! must die.

Sweet rose in air whose odors wave,
And color charms the eye,
Thy root is ever in its grave,

And thou, alas! must die.

HEBER.

SUNDAY EVENING.

Sweet Spring! of days and roses made,

Whose charms for beauty vie, Thy days depart, thy roses fade,

Thou too, alas! must die.

Only a sweet and holy soul
Hath tints that never fly;

While flowers decay, and seasons roll,

This lives, and cannot die.

185

GEORGE HERBERT.

SUNDAY EVENING.

'T WAS night, and o'er the desert moor The wintry storm-gusts wildly blew, And so we closed our cottage door

And round our cheerful wood-fire drew: Each joined the hymn of evening praise, Then told a tale of Bible days.

First Charley, in his little chair,
With sober face, his tale began,
And told us of the faith and prayer
Of Daniel in the lion's den;
And how the lions were afraid
To kill the righteous man who prayed.

Then Henry spoke of Israel's guide,-
The cloud by day, the fire by night,