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Pining souls! come nearer Jesus,
And oh! come not doubting thus,
But with faith that trusts more bravely
His huge tenderness for us.

If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at his word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the sweetness of our Lord.

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 the heaven that smiles above me,
And awaits my spirit too;

For all human ties that bind me,
For the task by God assigned me,
For the bright hopes yet to find me,
And the good that I can do.

I live to learn their story
Who suffered for my sake;
To emulate their glory,

And follow in their wake
Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages,
The heroic of all ages,

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;
To profit by affliction,

Reap truth from fields of fiction,
Grow wiser from conviction,
And fulfil God's grand design.

I live to hail that season,
By gifted ones foretold,
When men shall live by reason,
And not alone by gold;
When man to man united,
And every wrong thing righted,
The whole world shall be lighted
As Eden was of old.

I live for those who love me,
For those who know me true,
For the heaven that smiles above me,
And awaits my spirit too;

For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the wrong that needs resistance,
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I can do.

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,
a shining frame,

And spangled heavens,
Their great Original proclaim.

The unwearied sun, from day to day,
Doth his Creator's power display,
And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And, nightly, to the listening earth,
Repeats the story of her birth :

Whilst all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.

What though, in solemn silence all
Move round this dark terrestrial ball;
What though no real voice nor sound
Amidst their radiant orbs be found;
In reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice;
For ever singing as they shine
The hand that made us is Divine.

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"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
Ere yet created things took shape;

His might proclaimed Him King of all
When He to all existence gave;

And after all shall pass away,

'Tis He alone shall grandly reign,

Who was, and is, and still shall be:
His glories all our worship have.

For He is One, no other power

Compares with Him, with Him consorts;

Without beginning, free from end,
Above what splendour men may crave.
[Without corporeality,

From change and variation free,
As unconjoined as undetached,
Alone in matchless power to save.

e.]

He is my God, my Saviour lives,
My Rock in travail's time of woe;
My Banner and my Refuge He,
My Draught of Life when help I crave.
Into His hand my soul I trust,
Both when I sleep and when I wake;
And with my soul my body too:
God is with me, no fears enslave.

F. L. C.
N.B. The verse in brackets above is usually omitted.

Speaking of this, Mr. Cohen says: "It is almost a literal translation, and reproduces the rhythm and the rhyme of the original Hebrew.

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"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 :

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