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

O

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 admira tion 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.

L

ORD of all being, throned afar,

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.

TUNE"MARYTON."

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.

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

SOULS of men! why will

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.

Pining souls! come nearer Jesus,
And oh! come not doubting thus,
But with faith that trusts more bravely
His huge tenderness for us.

If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at his word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the sweetness of our Lord.

Amen.

TUNE "CLARION."

132-WHAT I LIVE FOR.

THIS poem, by the late Mr. G. Linnæus Banks, has been sent me by Mr. Mayer, of the Children's Home, Bolton, as one which is morally and spiritually helpful to the people.

LIVE for those who love me,

ILWE for those who lod and true,

For the heaven that smiles above me,
And awaits my spirit too;

For all human ties that bind me,
For the task by God assigned me,
For the bright hopes yet to find me,
And the good that I can do.

I live to learn their story
Who suffered for my sake;

To emulate their glory,

And follow in their wake

Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages,

The heroic of all ages,

Whose deeds crowd history's pages,

And Time's great volume make.

I live to hold communion

With all that is divine,