Hymns for Christian Devotion Part 158

957. S. M. Conder.

Sat.u.r.day Evening.

1 The hours of evening close; Its lengthened shadows, drawn O'er scenes of earth, invite repose, And wait the Sabbath dawn.

2 So let its calm prevail O'er forms of outward care; Nor thought for "many things" a.s.sail The still retreat of prayer.

3 Our guardian Shepherd near His watchful eye will keep; And, safe from violence and fear, Will fold his flock to sleep.

4 So may a holier light Than earth's our spirits rouse, And call us, strengthened by his might, To pay the Lord our vows.

958. L. M. 6l. Anonymous.

The Same.

1 Sweet to the soul the parting ray, That ushers placid evening in, When with the still, expiring day, The Sabbath's peaceful hours begin; How grateful to the anxious breast, The sacred hours of holy rest.

2 Hushed is the tumult of this day, And worldly cares and business cease; While soft the vesper breezes play, To hymn the glad return of peace.

O season blest! O moment given To turn the vagrant thoughts to heaven.

3 Oft as this hallowed hour shall come, O raise my thoughts from earthly things, And bear them to my heavenly home, On living faith's immortal wings-- Till the last gleam of life decay, In one eternal Sabbath day.

959. L. M. Cunningham.

Sabbath Morning.

1 Dear is the hallowed morn to me, When Sabbath bells awake the day, And, by their sacred minstrelsy, Call me from earthly cares away.

2 And dear to me the winged hour, Spent in thy hallowed courts, O Lord!

To feel devotion's soothing power, And catch the manna of thy word.

3 And dear to me the loud Amen, Which echoes through the blest abode, Which swells and sinks, and swells again, Dies on the walls, but lives to G.o.d.

4 Oft when the world, with iron hands, Has bound me in its six days' chain, This bursts them, like the strong man's bands, And lets my spirit loose again.

5 Go, man of pleasure, strike thy lyre, Of broken Sabbaths sing the charms; Ours be the prophet's car of fire That bears us to a Father's arms.

960. L. M. Anonymous.

Sabbath Evening.

1 There is a time when moments flow More happily than all beside; It is, of all the times below, A Sabbath of the eventide.

2 O then the setting sun s.h.i.+nes fair, And all below, and all above, The various forms of Nature, wear One universal garb of love.

3 And then the peace that Jesus brought The life of grace eternal beams, And we, by his example taught, Improve the life his love redeems.

4 Delightful scene! a world at rest; A G.o.d all love; no grief, no fear; A heavenly hope, a peaceful breast, A smile, unsullied by a tear.

MISCELLANEOUS.

961. L. M. Edwards.

Sabbath Hymn with Nature.

1 King of the world! I wors.h.i.+p thee: Lord of the mind! the Sabbath's thine:-- A contrite heart, a bended knee, To-day shall be my corn, my wine.

A choral song for sacrifice Will mount as fire, and heavenward own The green-leaved earth, through joys and sighs A satellite round Mercy's throne.

2 The moon comes up to wake the dew, And hang a star on every leaf; The sun can take a rainbow hue, To kiss away the meadow's grief; The wave will lay its buoyance by, To let the cloud take anchor there; Earth, through her flowers, salutes the sky; The sky meets earth in balmy air.

3 And I was born to see and say How beauty beams, without, within: From the fly, made to gild a day, To my own soul, outliving sin.

Even now I feel thy cherubim Have come to me from thee, All-wise!-- Then, Silence, thou shalt be my hymn, And thought, my only sacrifice.

962. C. M. Herbert.

The Soul's Beauty Unfading.

1 Sweet day! so cool, so calm, so bright, Bridal of earth and sky, The dew shall weep thy fall to-night, For thou, alas! must die.

2 Sweet rose! in air whose odors wave, And color charms the eye, Thy root is ever in its grave, And thou, alas! must die.