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372

8s. M.

HOGG.

God of Life.

2 BLESSED be thy name forever,

Thou of life the Guard and Giver!
Thou canst guard thy creatures sleeping,
Heal the heart long broke with weeping:
God of stillness and of motion,
Of the desert and the ocean,
Of the mountain, rock, and river,.
Blessed be thy name forever!

2 Thou who slumberest not nor sleepest,
Blest are they thou kindly keepest.
God of evening's parting ray,

Of midnight gloom, and dawning day-
That rises from the azure sea

Like breathings of eternity;

God of life! that fade shall never,

Blessed be thy name forever!

373

10 & 9s. M.

LONGFELLOW.

The Flowers.

1 WONDROUS truths, and manifold as wondrous,
God hath written in the stars above;

But not less in the bright flowerets under us
Stands the revelation of his love.

2 Bright and glorious is that revelation

Written all over this great world of ours;
Making evident our own creation

In these stars of earth, these golden flowers.

3 And with childlike, credulous affection,
We behold their tender buds expand;
Emblems of our own great resurrection,
Emblems of the bright and better land!

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1 PRAISE to thee, all holy God;

From the world, the race, thou rulest;

From the green earth's dewy sod:

From the wayward hearts thou schoolest

2 Teach us, glorious Being, still
In our hearts to feel thy glory!
Nature ever works thy will

May we read her gentle story.

376

P. M.

W. J. Fox.

True Worship.

1 GRACIOUS Power, the world pervading,
Blessing all, and none upbraiding,

We are met to worship thee;

Not in formal adorations,
Nor with servile deprecations,
But in spirit true and free.

2 By thy wisdom mind is lighted,
By thy love the heart excited,

Light and love all flow from thee;
And the soul of thought and feeling,
In the voice thy praises pealing,
Must thy noblest homage be.

3 Not alone in our devotion,
In all being, life, and motion,
We the present Godhead see:
Gracious Power, the world pervading,
Blessing all, and none upbraiding,

We are met to worship thee.

377

P. M.

To the One God.

BOWRING.

1 ANCIENT of Ages! humbly bent before thee,
Songs of glad homage, Lord! to thee we bring:
Touched by thy spirit, O teach us to adore thee,
Sole God and Father, everlasting King;
Let thy light attend us,

Let thy grace befriend us!

Eternal, unrivalled, all-directing King!

2 Send forth thy mandate, gather in the nations,
Through the wide universe thy name be known;
Millions of voices shall join in adorations—
Join to adore thee, Undivided One!

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2 Though like the wanderer,

The sun gone down,

Darkness be over me,
My rest a stone;

Yet in my dreams I'd be,
Nearer, my God, to thee -
Nearer to thee!

3 There let the way appear,
Steps unto heaven;

All that thou send'st me,
In mercy given:

Angels to beckon me

Nearer, my God, to thee

Nearer to thee!

4 Then with my waking thoughts,

Bright with thy praise,

Out of my stony griefs,

Bethel I'll raise:

So by my woes to be

Nearer, my God, to thee

Nearer to thee!

5 Or if on joyful wing

Cleaving the sky,

Sun, moon, and stars forgot,

Upwards I fly:

Still all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God, to thee-

Nearer to thee!

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