1 FATHER, there is no change to live with thee,
Save that in thee I grow from day to day;
In each new word I hear, each thing I see,
I but rejoicing hasten on my way.
2 The morning comes, with blushes overspread,
And I, new-wakened, find a morn within;
And in its modest dawn around me shed,
Thou hear'st the prayer and the ascending hymn.
3 Hour follows hour, the lengthening shades descend;
Yet they could never reach as far as me,
Did not thy love its kind protection lend,
That I, thy child, might sleep in peace with thee.
1 FATHER, thy wonders do not singly stand,
Nor far removed where feet have seldom strayed:
Around us ever lies the enchanted land,
In marvels rich to thine own sons displayed.
2 In finding thee are all things round us found;
In losing thee are all things lost beside;
Ears have we, but in vain sweet voices sound,
And to our eyes the vision is denied.
3 Open our eyes that we that world may see,
Open our ears that we thy voice may hear,
And in the spirit-land may ever be,
And feel thy presence with us always near.
1 ALL is of God: if he but wave his hand,
The mists collect, the rain falls thick and loud;
Till, with a smile of light on sea and land,
Lo! he looks back from the departing cloud.
2 Angels of life and death alike are his;
Without his leave they pass no threshold o'er :
Who, then, would wish or dare, believing this,
Against his messengers to shut the door?
WIMBORNE. 118 & 10s. GREATOREX'S COL. (by permission).
1 THOU art, O God! my East. In thee I dawned;
Within me ever let thy day-spring shine;
Then, for each night of sorrow I have mourned,
I'll bless thee, Father, since it seals me thine.
2 Thou art, O God! my North. My trembling soul,
Like a charmed needle, points to thee alone;
Each wave of time, each storm of life, shall roll
My trusting spirit forward to thy throne.
3 Thou art, O God! my South. Thy fervent love
Perennial verdure o'er my life hath shed;
And constant sunshine from thy heart of love,
With wine and oil thy grateful child hath fed.
4 Thou art, O God! my West. Into thy arms,
Glad as the setting sun, may I decline;
Baptized from earthly stains and sin's alarms
Re-born, arise in thy new heavens to shine.
"I wait for the Lord; my soul doth wait."
1 FATHER, I wait thy word. The sun doth stand
Beneath the mingling line of night and day,
A listening servant, waiting thy command
To roll rejoicing on its silent way.
2 The tongue of time abides the appointed hour,
Till on our ear its solemn warnings fall;
The heavy cloud withholds the pelting shower,
Then every drop speeds onward at thy call.
3 The bird reposes on the yielding bough,
With breast unswollen by the tide of song;
So does my spirit wait thy presence now,
To pour thy praise in quickening life along.
"He giveth power to the faint."
1 FATHER, to us thy children, humbly kneeling,
Conscious of weakness, ignorance, sin, and shame,
Give such a force of holy thought and feeling,
That we may live to glorify thy name,
2 That we may conquer base desire and passion,
That we may rise from selfish thought and will,
O'ercome the world's allurement, threat, and fashion,
Walk humbly, gently, leaning on thee still.
8 Let all thy goodness by our minds be seen,
Let all thy mercy on our souls be sealed:
Lord, if thou wilt, thy power can make us clean;
Oh speak the word, thy servants shall be healed!
1 IN holy books we read how God hath spoken
To holy men in many different ways;
But hath the present worked no sign nor token?
Is God quite silent in these latter days?
2 The word were but a blank, a hollow sound,
If he that spake it were not speaking still;
If all the light and all the shade around
Were aught but issues of Almighty Will.
8 So, then, believe that every bird that sings,
And every flower that stars the elastic sod,
And every thought the happy summer brings,
To the pure spirit is a word of God.
1 WHEN Israel, of the Lord beloved,
Out from the land of bondage came,
Her fathers' God before her moved,
An awful guide, in smoke and flame.
2 By day, along the astonished lands
The cloudy pillar glided slow;
By night, Arabia's crimsoned sands
Returned the fiery column's glow.
8 Thus present still, though now unseen,
When brightly shines the prosperous day,
Be thoughts of thee a cloudy screen,
To temper the deceitful ray.
4 And oh! when gathers on our path,
In shade and storm, the frequent night,
Be thou, long-suffering, slow to wrath,
A burning and a shining light.
275.
1 FORTH from the dark and stormy sky, Lord, to thine altar's shade we fly; Forth from the world, its hope and fear, Father, we seek thy shelter here:
Weary and weak, thy grace we pray; Turn not, O Lord! thy guests away.
|