LXVII YET HABAKKUK'S PRAYER Chap. iii. 17, 18. ET though the fig-tree should no burden bear, Though vines delude the promise of the year; Yet though the olive should not yield her oil, Nor the parched glebe reward the peasant's toil; Though the tired ox beneath his labors fall, And herds in millions perish from the stall! Yet shall my grateful strings Forever praise Thy name, Forever Thee proclaim The everlasting God, the mighty King of kings. Broome LXVIII JOB'S CONFESSION HOU canst accomplish all things, Lord of might: But O, Thy ways are wonderful, and lie E. Young LXIX THE WATERS OF BABYLON B Tan before me su pe whe moon mit stories, OUT on before me swept the moonlit stream A thousand battles, and one burst of Psalms Nigh to two thousand miles from Ararat. And sang me something of a gentler stream And then I thought I knelt, and kneeling heard And one sweet Psalm that sobbed for evermore. W. Alexander LXX THE ANGELS' SONG T came upon the midnight clear, From angels bending near the earth Still through the cloven sky they come O'er all the weary world: Above its sad and lowly plains They bend on heavenly wing, And ever o'er its Babel sounds Yet with the woes of sin and strife The world has suffered long; Beneath the angel strain have rolled Two thousand years of wrong; And men, at war with men, hear not The love-song which they bring : O! hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing! And ye, beneath life's crushing load Whose forms are bending low, Who toil along the climbing way With painful steps and slow; Look now! for glad and golden hours For lo! the days are hastening on, Its ancient splendors fling, And the whole world send back the song LXXI E. H. Sears THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM THEN, marshalled on the nightly plain, WHE The glittering hosts bestud the sky; One star alone of all the train Can fix the sinner's wandering eye. Hark! hark! to God the chorus breaks Once on the raging seas I rode, The storm was loud, the night was dark, The ocean yawned, — and rudely blowed The wind that tossed my foundering bark : Deep horror then my vitals froze, When suddenly a star arose, It was the star of Bethlehem. It was my guide, my light, my all; Now safely moored, my perils o'er, The star! the star of Bethlehem ! H. Kirke White H LXXII THE SEA OF GALILEE WOW pleasant to me thy deep blue wave, For the Glorious One, who came to save, Fair are the lakes in the land I love, It is not that the wild gazelle Comes down to drink thy tide; But He that was pierced to save from hell |