Hymns, Songs, and Fables, for Young People | Page 4

TO MY FATHER."
Help me, O God, to trust in thee,?Thou high and holy One!?And may my troubled spirit flee?For rest to thee alone.
In thee alone the soul can find?Secure and sweet repose;?And thou canst bid the desert mind?To blossom as the rose.
Let not this spirit, formed to rise?Where angels claim their birth,?Forsake its home beyond the skies,?And cling to barren earth.
The bird of passage knows the sign?That warns him to depart;?Shall I not heed the voice divine,?That whispers in my heart,--
"Up! plume thy wings, soar far away!?No longer idly roam!?Fly to the realms of endless day;?For this is not thy home."
This still, small voice, O, may I hear!?Ere clouds and darkness come,?And thunders in my startled ear?Proclaim my final doom.
Father! to thee my spirit cries!?Thy wandering child reclaim.?Speak! and my dying faith shall rise,?And wake a deathless flame.
EVENING HYMN.
Thou, from whom we never part,?Thou, whose love is everywhere,?Thou who seest every heart,?Listen to our evening prayer.
Father! fill our souls with love,?Love unfailing, full, and free,?Love no injury can move,?Love that ever rests on thee.
Heavenly Father! through the night?Keep us safe from every ill;?Cheerful as the morning light,?May we wake to do thy will.
AUTUMN.
Sweet Summer, with her flowers, has past,?I hear her parting knell;?I hear the moaning, fitful blast,?Sighing a sad farewell.
But, while she fades and dies away,?In rainbow hues she glows;?Like the last smile of parting day,?Still brightening as she goes.
The robin whistles clear and shrill;?Sad is the cricket's song;?The wind, wild rushing o'er the hill,?Bears the dead leaf along.
I love this sober, solemn time,?This twilight of the year;?To me, sweet Spring, in all her prime,?Was never half so dear.
While death has set his changing seal?On all that meets the eye,?'Tis rapture, then, within to feel?The soul that cannot die;--
To look far, far beyond this sky,?To Him who changes never.?This earth, these heavens, shall change and die;?God is the same for ever.
THE LORD'S DAY.
This is the day when Jesus woke?From the deep slumbers of the tomb;?This is the day the Saviour broke?The bonds of fear and hopeless gloom.
This is indeed a holy day;?No longer may we dread to die.?Let every fear be cast away,?And tears be wiped from every eye.
Sorrow and pain the Saviour knew;?A dark and thorny path he trod;?But heaven was ever in his view,--?That toilsome path led up to God.
Let every heart rejoice and sing;?Let every sin and sorrow cease;?Let children come this day and bring?Their offering of love and peace.
THE MINISTRY OF PAIN.
Cease, my complaining spirit, cease;?Know 'tis a Father's hand you feel;?It leads you to the realms of peace;?It kindly only wounds to heal.
My Father! what a holy joy?Bursts on the sad, desponding mind,?To say, when fiercest ills annoy,--?"I know my Father still is kind!"
This bids each trembling fear be still,?Checks every murmur, every sigh;?Patience then waits his sovereign will,?Rejoiced to live,--resigned to die.
O blessed ministry of pain!?To teach the soul its real worth;?To lead it to that source again,?From whence it first derived its birth.
"BY FAITH YE ARE SAVED."
Christian! when, overwhelmed with grief and care,?Thou prayest for the help that thou dost need,?As shipwrecked mariner for life will plead,?O, then for faith pour forth the fervent prayer!?'Tis faith alone life's heavy ills can bear.?O, mark her calm, far-seeing, quickening eye,?Full of the light of immortality!?It tells of worlds unseen, and calls us there;?That look of hers can save thee from despair.
When sorrow, like thick darkness, gathers round,?And all life's flowers are fading in the dust,?Faith lifts our drooping vision from the ground,--?Says, that the hand that smites us yet is just;?That human agony hath ever found?The mighty God a never-failing trust.
EVENING PRAYER.
Great Source of being,?Father all-seeing!?We bow before thee;?Our souls adore thee;?Help us obey thee;?Guide us aright;?Keep us, we pray thee,?Through the long night.
Thou kind, forgiving?God of all living,?Thy power defend us,?Thy peace attend us,?While we are closing?This day in prayer,?Ever reposing?Under thy care.
EVENING HYMN.
Before I close my eyes to-night,?Let me myself these questions ask:--?Have I endeavoured to do right,?Nor thought my duty was a task?
Have I been gentle, lowly, meek,?And the small voice of conscience heard??When passion tempted me to speak,?Have I repressed the angry word?
Have I with cheerful zeal obeyed?What my kind parents bid me do,?And not by word or action said?The thing that was not strictly true?
In hard temptation's troubled hour,?Then have I stopped to think and pray,?That God would give my soul the power?To chase the sinful thought away?
O Thou who seest all my heart,?Wilt thou forgive and love me still!?Wilt thou to me new strength impart,?And make me love to do thy will!
LINES WRITTEN AT MIDNIGHT.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF A.G. EBERHARD.
The sun in smiles doth dress his face,?As evening comes to take his place;?So looks the parting loved-one, when?He means to quickly come again.
With moon and stars all sparkling bright,?Advances now the silent night;?And with the calm and