Pining souls! come nearer Jesus, If our love were but more simple, Amen. TUNE- -"CLARION." 132-WHAT I LIVE FOR. THIS poem, by the late Mr. G. Linnæus Banks, has been sent me by Mr. Mayer, of the Children's Home, Bolton, as one which is morally and spiritually helpful to the people. I LIVE for those who love me, Whose hearts are kind and true, For all human ties that bind me, I live to learn their story And follow in their wake Whose deeds crowd history's pages, And Time's great volume make. I live to hold communion With all that is divine, To feel there is a union 'Twixt Nature's heart and mine; Reap truth from fields of fiction, I live to hail that season, I live for those who love me, For the cause that lacks assistance, 133 THE SPACIOUS FIRMAMENT ON HIGH. ADDISON'S paraphrase of the Nineteenth Psalm is a brief and popular compendium of natural theology. The psalm was one of the favourites of St. Augustine. THE spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, The unwearied sun, from day to day, Soon as the evening shades prevail, Whilst all the stars that round her burn, What though, in solemn silence all · "When only a youngster at school," writes a correspondent in the Isle of Man, "Addison's hymn had more attraction for me than a story in the Arabian Nights." This is, perhaps, putting it rather strongly ; but, when a boy myself, I remember well committing it to memory, and the pleasure which it afforded me, — pleasure which, curiously enough, is linked by association with the effect produced by the first time I read a translation of Hesiod. Another correspondent says that "at eight this hymn first taught me what poetry meant." XVI. - And All Ye are Brethren. 134-A JEWISH HYMN THAT HELPED. THIS Collection of Hymns that have Helped would be incomplete without, at least, one specimen of a Jewish hymn, and one or two which have helped thousands in the Roman Communion. I asked Mr. M. H. Spielmann, editor of the Magazine of Art, to help me to the most helpful Jewish hymn. He replied as follows: 66 Jews have no 'hymns,' properly so-called, though they have many poems of a hymnal sort, taking chiefly the form of praise. For myself, I may say that the 'Adown Olam' was to me the most helpful as a child and youth, and was the point de départ, and the base of all my subsequent reading, theological or philosophical. It is not merely a profession of faith, it is the complete exposition of the Jewish religion, and the supremest expression of comfort and consolation, so far as I am aware, in all our book of prayer." The Rev. F. L. Cohen, joint editor of the Book of Synagogue Music, has kindly sent me a translation of the "Adôn 'Olam," the text of which is as follows: ADÔN 'OLAM. HE Universal Master reigned His might proclaimed Him King of all And after all shall pass away, 'Tis He alone shall grandly reign, Who was, and is, and still shall be: For He is One, no other power Compares with Him, with Him consorts; Without beginning, free from end, From change and variation free, e.] He is my God, my Saviour lives, F. L. C. Speaking of this, Mr. Cohen says: "It is almost a literal translation, and reproduces the rhythm and the rhyme of the original Hebrew. "We have a number of Table-Hymns (Zemiroth) chanted on the Sabbath before Grace. Of these, Psalm cxxvi. (we sing the Psalms in Hebrew, of course) and No. 10 Sabbath Rest' in the publication of mine I enclose (p. 25) have proved very precious helps to many of us. Much help, too, has been derived from the hymn Ma'ôz Tsur, for Hanucah (the anniversary of the Maccabean Dedication), a copy of my English version of which (again closely reproducing the rhythm and rhyme of the Hebrew) I give on the back of ' Ádôn 'Olam." " 135.-AVE MARIA. As many Protestants have never read the prayer which is said and sung all over Roman Christendom, I quote it here together with one of the best-known hymns to the Virgin : |