In vain we search the lowest deeps, But warm, sweet, tender, even yet And faith has still its Olivet, The healing of his seamless dress We touch him in life's throng and press, Through him the first fond prayers are said O Lord and Master of us all! Whate'er our name or sign, We own thy sway, we hear thy call, TUNE "ALBANO." 129-OUR FRIEND, OUR BROTHER, AND O OUR LORD. UR Friend, our Brother, and our Lord, Nor name, nor form, nor ritual word, But simply following thee. Thy litanies, sweet offices The heart must ring thy Christmas bells, Its faith and hopes thy canticles, We faintly hear, we dimly see, Alone, O Love ineffable! 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; 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, 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 SOULS of men! why will Was there ever kinder shepherd There's a wideness in God's mercy, There is no place where earth's sorrows There is plentiful redemption In the Blood that has been shed; For the love of God is broader And the Heart of the Eternal Is most wonderfully kind. Pining souls! come nearer Jesus, If our love were but more simple, 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, For all human ties that bind me, I live to learn their story 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, |