The Worlds Best Poetry, Volume 4 | Page 7

pervadeth and thrilleth all things, So great is thy
power and thy nature--in the Universe Highest of Kings! On earth, of
all deeds that are done, O God! there is none without thee; In the holy
ether not one, nor one on the face of the sea, Save the deeds that evil
men, driven by their own blind folly, have planned; But things that
have grown uneven are made even again by thy hand; And things
unseemly grow seemly, the unfriendly are friendly to thee; For no good
and evil supremely thou hast blended in one by decree. For all thy
decree is one ever--a Word that endureth for aye, Which mortals,
rebellious, endeavor to flee from and shun to obey-- Ill-fated, that,
worn with proneness for the lord-ship of goodly things, Neither hear
nor behold, in its oneness, the law that divinity brings; Which men with
reason obeying, might attain unto glorious life, No longer aimlessly
straying in the paths of ignoble strife. There are men with a zeal unblest,
that are wearied with following of fame, And men with a baser quest,
that are turned to lucre and shame. There are men too that pamper and
pleasure the flesh with delicate stings: All these desire beyond measure
to be other than all these things. Great Jove, all-giver, dark-clouded,
great Lord of the thunderbolt's breath! Deliver the men that are
shrouded in ignorance dismal as death. O Father! dispel from their
souls the darkness, and grant them the light Of reason, thy stay, when
the whole wide world thou rulest with might, That we, being honored,
may honor thy name with the music of hymns, Extolling the deeds of

the Donor, unceasing, as rightly beseems Mankind; for no worthier
trust is awarded to God or to man Than forever to glory with justice in
the law that endures and is One.
From the Greek of CLEANTHES.

TE DEUM LAUDAMUS.
We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. All the
earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting.
To thee all Angels cry
aloud; the Heavens, and all the powers therein. To thee Cherubim and
Seraphim continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth;

Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory.
The glorious
company of the Apostles praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the
Prophets praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs praise thee.
The
holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee; The
Father of an infinite Majesty;
Thine adorable, true, and only Son;

Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.
Thou art the King of Glory, O
Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
When thou
tookest upon thee to deliver man, thou didst humble thyself to be born
of a Virgin. When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, thou
didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. Thou sittest at the
right hand of God, in the Glory of the Father. We believe that thou shalt
come to be our Judge.
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants,
whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood. Make them to be
numbered with thy Saints, in glory everlasting. O Lord, save thy people,
and bless thine heritage.
Govern them, and lift them up for ever.

Day by day we magnify thee;
And we worship thy Name ever, world
without end.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.
O
Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.
O Lord, let thy
mercy be upon us, as our trust is in thee. O Lord, in thee have I trusted;
let me never be confounded.[A]
Version of the

AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH PRAYER-BOOK.
[Footnote A: This venerable hymn, familiar as a part of the morning
service in the Roman Catholic and Protestant Episcopal Churches, and
on special occasions in many Protestant Churches, has usually been
ascribed to the great St. Ambrose of Milan and St. Augustine, his
greater convert, in the year 387 A.D. But, like other productions of
mighty influence, it was doubtless a growth. Portions of it appear in the
writings of St. Cyprian (252 A.D.) and others in still earlier liturgical
forms of the Greek Church in Alexandria during the century previous.
It is thus probably the earliest, as it is certainly the most universal and
famous, of Christian hymns. It was translated from the Latin into
English in 1549 for the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, which
assumed its present form in 1660--during that wonderful era which
gave us the English Bible, with its unapproached majesty and music of
language.]

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.
Father of all! in every age,
In every clime adored,
By saint, by
savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!
Thou great First Cause, least understood,
Who all my sense confined

To know but this, that thou art good,
And that myself am blind;
Yet gave me, in this dark estate,
To see