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 sendest 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,
Upward I fly;
Still all my song shall be,—
Nearer, my God, to thee,
Nearer to thee.
21 A PRAYER FOR DIVINE HARMONY. C. WESLEY.
1 LORD! subdue our selfish will;
Each to each our tempers suit,
By thy modulating skill,
Heart to heart, as lute to lute.
2 Sweetly on our spirits move;
Gently touch the trembling strings :
Make the harmony of love,
Music for the King of kings.
1 THY name be hallowed evermore ;
O God! thy kingdom come with power:
Thy will be done, and day by day
Give us our daily bread, we pray.
2 Lord! evermore to us be given
The living bread that came from heaven!
Water of life on us bestow;
Thou art the Source,—the Fountain thou!
1 How sweet, how heavenly is the sight,
When those who love the Lord
In one another's peace delight,
And so fulfil his word!
2 When each can feel his brother sigh,
And with him bear a part;
When sorrow flows from eye to eye,
And joy from heart to heart :
3 When free from envy, scorn, and pride,
Our wishes all above,-
Each can his brother's failing hide,
And show a brother's love:
4 Love is the golden chain that binds
The happy souls above;
And he's an heir of heaven that finds
His bosom glow with love.
THE ANGEL AT THE TOMB. S. F. ADAMS.
1 THE mourners came, at break of day,
Unto the garden sepulchre,
With saddened hearts to weep and pray
For him, the loved one, buried there.
What radiant light dispels the gloom ?—
An angel sits beside the tomb.
2 The earth doth mourn her treasures lost,
All sepulchred beneath the snow,
When wintry winds and chilling frost
Have laid her summer glories low :
The spring returns, the flow'rets bloom-
An angel sits beside the tomb.
3 Then mourn we not beloved dead,
E'en while we come to weep and pray;
The happy spirit hath but fled
To brighter realms of heavenly day;
Immortal hope dispels the gloom;
An angel sits beside the tomb.
1 FRIENDS never leave us, those we call
The "dear departed" never do;
They are around us, though the pall
Of earth conceals them from our view.
2 They are around us, O how near!
Their spirits throb close to our own;
Bound to our hearts with ties more dear
Than we before have ever known.
3 They're with us ever-morning's hour
Bears on its wing their holy love,
And evening hath its gentle dower
Of peace to bear us from above.
4 Oh, purer than the love of earth,
Is that those friends do freely bring,
Who've passed the change of "second birth,"
And songs of "life eternal" sing.
1 No human eye thy face may see;
No human thought thy form may know ;
But all creation dwells in thee,
And thy great life through all doth flow !
2 Though we may faint on life's dark hill,
And thought grow weak, and knowledge flee,
Yet faith shall teach us courage still,
And love shall guide us on to thee.
THE SPIRITS' MISSION.
L.M.
1 WE come at morn and dewy eve,
At radiant noon, and midnight hour,
To breathe our messages, or leave
The inward tokens of our power.
2 Think not our home is far away
From human sympathy and love,
Nor when desired, that we delay
To leave our spirit-home above.
3 Our mission is the work of love
To kindred in the earthly home,
And they with joy our work approve,
And often kindly bid us come.
4 Thrice gladly we the call obey,
When yearning hearts the welcome give,
Receive our love, our care repay,
In our communion joyous live.
1 THERE is a land mine eye hath seen
In visions of enraptured thought,
So bright that all which spreads between,
Is with its radiant glory fraught.
2 A land upon whose blissful shore
There rests no shadow, falls no stain;
There those who meet shall part no more,
And those long-parted meet again.
3 There sweeps no desolating wind
Across that calm, serene abode;
The wanderer there a home may find
Within the paradise of God.
HE sendeth sun, he sendeth shower;
Alike they're needful for the flower;
And joys and tears alike are sent
To give the soul fit nourishment:
As comes to me o'er cloud or sun,
Father, thy will, not mine be done.
1 WITH sunshine always on his face,
Fairer to us than summer flowers,
How sank our trembling hearts to see
His pathway turning off from ours.
2 As one on whom we dared not look,
So strange and chilling was his grasp,
Took solemnly his childish hand,
And pushed our fingers from his clasp;
3 And led his half-reluctant feet
Along the common way for all,
Down softly toward that open gate,
Set in life's farthest boundary wall!
4 But when we saw the portals gained,
Ne'er folded back for death or sin,
The shadow which had led him on
Shrank back, afraid to enter in.
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