Pope, the author of this hymn, was a Roman Catholic by creed. But in the above hymn he is catholic

indeed.

A correspondent wrote me on behalf of some young Japanese friends, asking especially for the insertion of this hymn in the hope that "the time may come when even Christians, especially insular Protestant Christians, will arise to the full conception of the Holy One (Blessed be He!), that He has made of one Blood and of many honest beliefs all nations of the earth. In centuries hence, if the progress we hope for will be realised, surely hymns will be found or written in which all nations can join."

A correspondent in Italy writes of this hymn: "My grandfather made me learn it when I was five years old, and since then it has stuck to my memory as almost a kind of active faith, when things in the world in general seem wrong, and faith is very feeble. At such times there is wonderful rest in the poem, something quite above our usual petty ideas."

128-IMMORTAL LOVE, FOR EVER FULL. WHITTIER, the Quaker poet, wrote poems which have passed into general use as hymns, even among the Friends, who are not much given to hymn-singing.

MMORTAL Love, for ever full,

Forever flowing free,

For ever shared, for ever whole,
A never-ebbing sea!

Our outward lips confess the Name
All other names above;

Love only knoweth whence it came
And comprehendeth love.

We may not climb the heavenly steeps
To bring the Lord Christ down;

In vain we search the lowest deeps,
For him no depths can drown.

But warm, sweet, tender, even yet
A present help is he :

And faith has still its Olivet,

And love its Galilee.

The healing of his seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;

We touch him in life's throng and press,
And we are whole again.

Through him the first fond prayers are said
Our lips of childhood frame,
The last low whispers of our dead
Are burdened with his name.

O Lord and Master of us all!
Whate'er our name or sign,
We own thy sway, we hear thy call,
We test our lives by thine.

TUNE "ALBANO."

129-OUR FRIEND, OUR BROTHER, AND

OUR LORD.

UR Friend, our Brother, and our Lord,

What may thy service be?

Nor name, nor form, nor ritual word,

But simply following thee.

Thy litanies, sweet offices
Óf love and gratitude;
Thy sacramental liturgies
The joy of doing good.

The heart must ring thy Christmas bells,
Thy inward altars raise;
Its faith and hopes thy canticles,
And its obedience praise!

To thee our full humanity,
Its joys and pains belong;
The wrong of man to man on thee
Inflicts a deeper wrong.

We faintly hear, we dimly see,
In differing phrase we pray;
But, dim or clear, we own thee
The Light, the Truth, the Way!
Apart from thee all gain is loss,
All labour vainly done;
The solemn shadow of thy cross
Is better than the sun.

Alone, O Love ineffable!

Thy saving name is given;
To turn aside from thee is hell,
To walk with thee is heaven.

In reply to an enquiry as to what hymns had helped her and her fellow-workers in the struggle which they carried on for a quarter of a century against the criminal system of state-patronised_vice, Mrs. Josephine Butler replied: "Strange to say, I find it very difficult to select any special hymn which helped me in my soul or in my work. Psalms have been above all else Songs in the house of my pilgrimage,' but Whittier's 'Our Master' was most helpful to me in connection with the wide circle of persons of different countries, creeds, and characters with whom I have been sent to work - dear souls to whom I am united in the common aim of seeking after righteousness, but some of whom seemed of the narrowly orthodox, to be very unsatisfactory on

the religious side. God has given me a wider outlook, and a far greater charity based on an increasing admiration of all good. This hymn of Whittier will explain what I mean, and show you where my tempest-tossed bark has found a haven in calm waters."

130-LORD OF ALL BEING, THRONED AFAR.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, was a Unitarian. He published this as a Sunday hymn on the last page of the "Professor of the Breakfast Table." It was speedily exploited as a hymn by the Methodists.

ORD of all being, throned afar,

L°

Thy glory flames from sun and star;
Centre and soul of every sphere,
Yet to each loving heart how near.
Sun of our life, thy quickening ray
Sheds on our path the glow of day;
Star of our hope, thy softened light
Cheers the long watches of the night.
Our midnight is thy smile withdrawn;
Our noontide is thy gracious dawn;
Our rainbow arch, thy mercy's sign;
All, save the clouds of sin, are thine.

Lord of all life, below, above,

Whose light is truth, whose warmth is love,

Before thy ever-blazing throne

We ask no lustre of our own.

Grant us thy truth to make us free,
And kindly hearts that burn for thee,
Till all thy living altars claim

One holy light, one heavenly flame.

131-SOULS OF MEN! WHY WILL YE

SCATTER.

THIS Contribution to the universal catholic section of my collection is from Faber, the Roman Catholic. It expresses a breadth of Christian charity not often found in men of his communion.

SOULS

OULS of men! why will ye scatter
Like a crowd of frightened sheep?
Foolish hearts! why will ye wander
From a love so true and deep?

Was there ever kinder shepherd
Half so gentle, half so sweet,
As the Saviour Who would have us
Come and gather round His feet?

There's a wideness in God's mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There's a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty.

There is no place where earth's sorrows
Are more felt than up in Heaven;
There is no place where earth's failings
Have such kindly judgment given.

There is plentiful redemption

In the Blood that has been shed;
There is joy for all the members
In the sorrows of the Head.

For the love of God is broader
Than the measures of man's mind;

And the Heart of the Eternal

Is most wonderfully kind.