The Worlds Best Poetry, Volume 4 | Page 7

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 the good from ill;?And, binding nature fast in fate,?Left free the human will:
What conscience dictates to be done,?Or warns me not to do,?This, teach me more than hell to shun,?That, more than heaven pursue.
What blessings thy free bounty gives?Let me not cast away;?For God is paid when man receives,?To enjoy is to obey.
Yet not to earth's contracted span?Thy goodness let me bound,?Or think thee Lord alone of man,?When thousand worlds are round:
Let not this weak, unknowing hand?Presume thy bolts to throw,?And deal damnation round the land?On each I judge thy foe.
If I am right thy grace impart?Still in the right to stay;?If I am wrong, O, teach my heart?To find that better way!
Save me alike from foolish pride?And impious discontent?At aught thy wisdom has dented,?Or aught thy goodness lent.
Teach me to feel another's woe,?To hide the fault I see;?That mercy I to others