HYMN.

MY God, had I my breath from Thee,

This power to speak and sing,

And shall my voice, and shall my song
Praise any but their King?

My God, had I my soul from Thee;
This power to judge and choose,-
And shall my brain, and shall my will
Their best to Thee refuse?

Alas, not this alone, or that
Hast Thou bestow'd on me;
But all I have, and all I hope,
I have and hope from Thee.

And more I have, and more I hope,
Than I can speak or think;

Thy blessings first refresh, then fill,

Then overflow the brink.

But though my voice and fancy be

Too low to reach Thy praise;

Yet both shall strain Thy glorious Name
High as they can to raise.

Glory to the immortal God,
One great, co-equal Three;
As at the first beginning was,

May now and ever be! AMEN.

LE

PSALM.

ET us now consider, O Lord our God, let us humbly remember what we are to

Thee;

We who, alas! are nothing in ourselves, what can we be to Thy immensity?

Thou who art all things in Thine own rich self, what canst Thou receive from our poverty? This only we are to Thee, O great Creator, the unthankful objects of all Thy bounties;

This only we are to Thee, O dear Redeemer, the unworthy cause of all Thy sufferings.

Guilty we committed the crime, and Thou with Thine innocency undertookest the punishment.

We went astray from the path of life, and Thy mercy came down from Heaven to seek us; To seek us in the wilderness where we had lost ourselves, and bring us home to the discipline of Thy love.

Lord, what are we that Thou shouldst thus regard such poor and vile and inconsiderable wretches?

What can our goodwill avail Thy bliss, that with so many charms Thou wooest us to love Thee?

What can our malice prejudice Thy content, that Thou threatenest so violently, if we love Thee not?

Is there not, O my Father, felicity enough in the sweetness alone of loving Thee?

Is there not, perhaps, misery enough in living deprived of Thy blissful love?

Yes, yes, dear Lord, and that Thou knowest; and that is the only cause which moved Thy goodness to court our affections.

Thou knewest we else should cast away ourselves, by doting on the follies of this deceitful world;

Thou knewest the danger of our wilful nature, and therefore strivest by greatest fears and greatest hopes,

And all the wisest arts of love and bounty,

to draw us to Thyself and endow us with Thy kingdom.

Unhappy we, whose frowardness required so strange proceedings to force upon us our own salvation !

Happy we, whose wants have met so kind a hand, that needed but our emptiness to engage Him to fill us!

Happy yet more, that our Lord that thus favours us now will at last give us Himself. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, shall be, world without end. AMEN.

and ever