A EVENING. NOTHER day is numbered with the past, Look on its failures, efforts, and mistakes, Nightly, Thou sendeft reft to all the earth, O, Father! teach me all the holy worth Of the still hours when thy clear stars are burning. Thou giveft me reft that with the day's beginning Blefs those that love me, those that love me not, Riches, and peace, and ftrength in true believing. So to thy arms my body I commit, My weary body to thine arms outspread: Prepare me to accomplish what is fit, And peace and purenefs watch befide my bed. UNTO the glory of thy Holy Name, Eternal God! whom I both love and fear, Before thy throne and found thee loth to hear, And though sometimes thou seems't thy face to hide 'Tis that my faith may to the full be tried, And I thereby may only better see How weak I am when not upheld by Thee. Thomas Ellwood. 1669. IMMANUEL. OW good a God have we! who for our sake, HOW OW a God the burning lake, Did change the order of creation : At first He made Man like Himself in his own image; now The heavens bow, Eternity took the measure of a span; "Let us make ourselves like man; And not from man the woman take, Hallelujah, we adore His name, whose goodness hath no store. Jeremy Taylor. 1667. CHRIST. CHRISTMAS HYMN. CALM ALM on the listening ear of night Come Heaven's melodious ftrains, Where wild Judea ftretches far Her silver-mantled plains! Celestial choirs, from courts above, Shed sacred glories there; And angels, with their sparkling lyres, Make mufic on the air. The answering hills of Palestine And greet, from all their holy heights, On the blue depths of Galilee "Glory to God!" the sounding skies Peace to the earth, good-will to men, From heaven's Eternal King! Light on thy hills, Jerusalem! The Saviour now is born! And bright on Bethlehem's joyous plains G SHEPHERDS. LOOMY night embraced the place Where the noble infant lay: The babe look'd up, and show'd His face; It was Thy day, sweet, and did rise, We saw thee in thy balmy neft, Young dawn of our eternal day; |