987,

L. M.

For the Blessing of Schools.

C. SPRAGUE

10 THOU, at whose dread name we bend,

To whom our purest vows we pay,
God over all, in love descend,

And bless the labors of this day.

2 Our fathers here, a pilgrim band,

Fixed the proud empire of the free;
Art moved in gladness o'er the land,
And Faith her altars reared to thee.
3 Here, too, to guard, through every age,
The sacred rights their valor won,
They bade instruction spread her page,
And send down truth from sire to son.

4 Here still, through all succeeding time,
Their stores may truth and learning bring
And still the anthem-note sublime

988.

To thee from children's children sing.

L. M.

Dedication of a School-house.

J. G. ADAMS

1 GoD of our fathers! from whose hand Came all our lights and blessings down,Who this devoted, favored land

Dost with thy choicest mercy crown!

2 To Learning and to Knowledge rearedWe dedicate with prayer and praise This edifice, to thee, revered

Above all gods, through endless days!

3 Accept the offering-deign to dwell
With thy confiding children here;
The shades of Ignorance dispel,-
In Truth's omnipotence appear!

4 Here through successive years may come The youthful mind-fair Wisdom's guest; Long be this house Instruction's home,

When those who reared it sink to rest.

989

6s. & 4s. M.

J. G ADAMS

The Same.

1 RAISE the adoring song!
Praises to God belong,

In this glad hour!

He who from worlds on high,
Spreads over earth and sky
Proofs of his majesty,

Goodness and power!

2 Praise, that Instruction's voice
Bids the young heart rejoice
In this fair land;

Praise, that the humblest mind
Wisdom's true light may find,
Ground on which all inclined
Freely may stand.

3 Source of all holiness!

With thy rich favor bless
This house of thine;

Here be true knowledge sought,
Here purest wisdom taught,
Wisdom with Freedom fraught,
Freedom divine!

990.

C. M.

P. H. SWEETSER

The Same.

1 LET monumental pillars rise

In majesty sublime

Their granite columns shall decay

Before the touch of time.

991.

2 But mind, enlightened and refined,
Shall live beyond the sky,
And heavenly sciences explore,
When time itself shall die!

2 A nobler monument we raise
Than costly marble pile-
A beacon light to lead the way
From ignorance and guile.

4 This house, with prayer, O God, we give
To truth's supreme control;

To virtue and progressive thought,
The riches of the soul.

1 THERE is a pure and peaceful wave,
That issues from the throne of love,
Whose waters gladden as they lave
The bright and heavenly courts above.

2 In living streams behold that tide

Through Christ the rock profusely burst, And in his word, behold supplied

The fount for which our spirits thirst.

3 The pilgrim faint, who seems to sink
Beneath the sultry sky of time,
May here repose, and freely drink
The waters of that better clima

4 And every soul may here pstrike
The blessings of the for at above;
And none who drink will er forsake
The crystal stream of andless love.

992.

8s. & 7s. M.

The Soldier of the Cross.

1 SOLDIER, to the contest pressing,
Onward, let thy watchword be;
God upon thee pours
his blessing;

ANONYMOUS

What though man derideth thee!

2 Onward, though the fagot's burning
By thy pathway's only light;
Onward, death and danger spurning;
Onward in the path of right!

3 God, for all thy wants providing,
Armor trusty hath for thee;
Gird thyself, in him confiding,
With the goodly panoply:

4 Righteousness thy breast defending,
And thy feet with justice shod:
Onward; with the foe contending,
Wield thy sword, the word of God.

5 Thine the helmet of salvation,
Faith thy mighty shield shall be ;
And let prayer and supplication,
Lance and glorious falchion be;

6 Onward then, with bold contending,
In the path the martyrs trod :
God to thee his strength is lending;
Onward, in the strength of God.

C. M.

On Occasion of a Destructive Fire.

1 ETERNAL GOD, our humbled souls
Before thy presence bow;

With all thy wasting magazines,
How terrible art thou

993.

2 The flames thy messengers Lecome,
And their destruction pour,

And that which we in strength had reared
Lies mouldered in an hour.

3 Within our pleasant places, Lord,
Destruction rears its head,

And blackened walls and smoking heaps
Along our streets are spread.

4 Lord, in this hour we come to thee,
With awe adore thy name;

Yet bless the hand of guardian love,
That snatched us from the flame.

994.

C. M.

E. H. CHAPIN

During or after a Great Storm.

1 AMID surrounding gloom and waste,
From nature's face we flee;

And in our fear and wonder haste
O nature's life, to thee!
Thy ways are in the mighty deep;
In tempests as they blow;

In floods that o'er our treasures sweep;
The lightning; and the snow.

2 Though earth upon its axis reels,
And heaven is veiled in wrath;
Not one of nature's million wheels
Breaks its appointed path;
Fixed in thy grasp, the sources meet
Of beauty and of awe;

In storm or calm, all pulses beat

True to the central law.

3 Thou art that law, whose will thus done
In seeming wreck and blight,

Sends the calm planets round the sun,
And pours the moon's soft light.