MORNING AND EVENING. MORNING. "His compassions fail not. They are new every morning." LAM. iii. 22, 23. HUES of the rich unfolding morn, That, ere the glorious sun be born, By some soft touch invisible Around his path are taught to swell; Thou rustling breeze so fresh and gay, Ye fragrant clouds of dewy steam, Why waste your treasures of delight Oh! timely happy, timely wise, Hearts that with rising morn arise! New every morning is the love New mercies, each returning day, Hover around us while we pray ; New perils past, new sins forgiven, New thoughts of God, new hopes of Heaven. If on our daily course our mind Be set to hallow all we find, New treasures still, of countless price, Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be, As for some dear familiar strain Such is the bliss of souls serene, O could we learn that sacrifice, What lights would all around us rise! We need not bid, for cloistered cell, The trivial round, the common task, Seek we no more; content with these, As Heaven shall bid them, come and go: Only, O Lord, in Thy dear love, JOHN KEBLE. LUX ECCE SURGIT AUREA. OW with the rising, golden dawn, Now Let us, the children of the day, Cast off the darkness which so long Has led our guilty souls astray. O may the morn, so pure, so clear, LYRA CATHOLICA. WHEN I AWAKE, I AM STILL WITH THEE. STILL, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh, When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee ; Fairer than morning, lovelier than the daylight, Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with Thee! Alone with Thee, amid the mystic shadows, As in the dawning, o'er the waveless ocean, Thine image in the waters of my breast. Still, still with Thee! as, to each new-born morning, Breathe, each day, nearness unto Thee and Heaven When sinks the soul, subdued by toil, to slumber, So shall it be at last, in that bright morning, HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. VESPERS. SHADOW in a sultry land! From aimless wanderings we come, Amid its ebb and flow; The grander sweep of tides serene That which the garish day had lost, Its silver cadence rings, The brush of angel wings! |