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Angelic guardianship.

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TORD, in the morning thou shalt hear

My voice ascending high:
To thee will I direct my prayer,
To thee lift up mine eye:

2 Up to the hills where Christ is gone,
To plead for all his saints,
Presenting, at the Father's throne,
Our songs and our complaints.

3 Thou art a God before whose sight
The wicked shall not stand;
Sinners shall ne'er be thy delight,
Nor dwell at thy right hand.

4 Now to thy house will I resort,
To taste thy mercies there;
I will frequent thy holy court,
And worship in thy fear.

Whose throne is in the vast abyss

Of uncreated light.

2 Each thought and deed his piercing eyes, With strictest search survey;

The deepest shades no more disguise,

Than the full blaze of day.

In ways of righteousness; Make every path of duty straight, And plain before my face.

ISAAC WATTS.

Title: For the Lord's Day Morning. It is Watts's version of Psalm v, 3-8:

"My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto

Under the shadow of thy wings

Shall they securely rest.

4 Thy angels shall around their beds
Their constant stations keep:
Thy faith and truth shall shield their heads,
For thou dost never sleep.

5 May we with calm and sweet repose,
And heavenly thoughts refreshed,
Our eyelids with the morn unclose,
And bless thee, ever blest.

CHARLES WESLEY.

An Evening Hymn. From A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, published by John Wesley, M.A. London, 1741.

The third line of the first stanza originally read: "Whose throne is darkness in the abyss."

The last line of the hymn was:

"And bless the Ever-bless'd."

hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face."

From The Psalms of David, Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, 1719. It is unaltered.

3 Minutes and mercies multiplied,
Have made up all this day;
Minutes came quick, but mercies were
More swift and free than they.

4 New time, new favors, and new joys,
Do a new song require:
Till we shall praise thee as we would,
Accept our hearts' desire.

JOIN MASON, ALT.

A Song of Praise for the Evening. Verses one and two are taken from the first two stanzas of the original, with slight changes:

1 "Now from the Altar of my Heart,
Let Incense-Flames arise;
Assist me, Lord, to offer up
Mine Evening Sacrifice.

Awake, my Love; Awake, my Joy;
Awake my Heart and Tongue:
Sleep not: when Mercies loudly call,
Break forth into a Song.

2 "Man's Life's a Book of History,
The Leaves thereof are Days,

The Letters Mercies closely join'd,

The Title is thy Praise.

This Day God was my Sun and Shield,
My Keeper and my Guide,

His care was on my Frailty shewn,

His Mercies Multiply'd."

The closing lines are as follows:

"Lord of my Time, whose Hand hath set
New Time upon my Score;
Then shall I praise for all my Time,
When Time shall be no more."

3 O let the same almighty care My waking hours attend; From every danger, every snare, My heedless steps defend.

ANNE STEELE.

A Morning Hymn. The original has six stanzas, These are verses one, three, and five, verbatim. Omitted stanzas:

2 "Preserv'd by the almighty arm,
I pass'd the shades of night,
Serene, and safe from every harm,
And see returning light.

4 "When sleep, death's semblance, o'er me spread, And I unconscious lay,

Thy watchful care was round my bed,

To guard my feeble clay.

6 "Smile on my minutes as they roll,

And guide my future days;

And let thy goodness fill my soul,

With gratitude and praise."

From Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional. By Theodosia. London, 1760. See No. 63.

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there,

APPY the home when God is And love fills every breast; When one their wish, and one their prayer, And one their heavenly rest.

2 Happy the home where Jesus' name
Is sweet to every ear;

Where children early lisp his fame,
And parents hold him dear.

3 Happy the home where prayer is heard, And praise is wont to rise;

Where parents love the sacred word,
And live but for the skies.

4 Lord, let us in our homes agree,
This blessed peace to gain;
Unite our hearts in love to thee,
And love to all will reign.

2 Forgive me. Lord, for thy dear Son,
The ill which I this day have done;
That with the world, myself, and thee,
I, ere I sleep, at peace may be.

3 Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed;
Teach me to die, that so I may
Rise glorious at the judgment-day.

4 O let my soul on thee repose,

And may sweet sleep mine eyelids close;
Sleep, which shall me more vigorous make,
To serve my God, when I awake.

5 Lord, let my soul forever share
The bliss of thy paternal care:
'Tis heaven on earth, 'tis heaven above,
To see thy face, and sing thy love.

THOMAS KEN.

This is a part of Bishop Ken's famous Evening tained twelve stanzas. Several lines have been Hymn; the original, including the doxology, con

altered:

Verse one, line four:

"Under Thy own Almighty Wings." Verse three, line four:

"Triumphing rise at the last day."

Verse four, line one:

"O may my soul on Thee repose."

Verse four, line two:

"And with sweet sleep mine eyelids close." Verse four, line three:

"Sleep that may me more vigorous make."

From the author's Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College, edition of 1700. A few of the above changes were made by Bishop Ken himself for the edition of 1709.

The last verse of the hymn was not written by Ken, but was added by some editor, who attempted to sum up the poem in a single stanza, and sueceeded as well as could be expected.

Thomas Ken was born in 1637; was educated at Oxford, and ordained about 1666. In 1684 he was appointed chaplain to Charles II. and Bishop of Bath and Wells in the same year. It is said that the Bishop was faithful to the king, and that the "merry monarch" had good sense enough to respect and appreciate a chaplain who dared to tell him his faults. He died in 1710.

Three of this writer's hymns, Morning, Evening, and Midnight, were first published in 1697 in an Appendix to the author's Manual of Prayers for the Winchester Scholars. The familiar and grand long meter doxology first appeared at the close of each of these hymns.

2 Wake, and lift up thyself, my heart,
And with the angels bear thy part,
Who all night long unwearied sing
High praises to the eternal King.

3 All praise to thee, who safe hast kept,
And hath refreshed me while I slept:

Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake,
I may of endless life partake.

4 Lord, I my vows to thee renew:
Disperse my sins as morning dew.
Guard my first springs of thought and will,
And with thyself my spirit fill.

5 Direct, control, suggest, this day,
All I design, or do, or say;
That all my powers, with all their might,
In thy sole glory.may unite.

THOMAS KEN.

A fine lyric made up of verses one, five, nine, twelve, and thirteen of Bishop Ken's Morning Hymn. The original has fourteen stanzas, including the doxology. This is slightly altered from the edition of 1700, but it agrees with the edition of 1709.

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TOW doth the sun ascend the sky, And wake creation with its ray; Keep us from sin, O Lord most high, Through all the actions of the day.

2 Curb thou for us the unruly tongue;
Teach us the way of peace to prize;
And close our eyes against the throng
Of earth's absorbing vanities,

3 O may our hearts be pure within;
No cherished madness vex the soul:
May abstinence the flesh restrain
And its rebellious pride control.

4 So when the evening stars appear,
And in their train the darkness bring,
May we, O Lord, with conscience clear,
Our praise to thy pure glory sing.

AMBROSE OF MILAN. TR. BY E. CASWALL.

The translation is found in Caswall's Hymns and Poems, Original and Translated. London. Second edition, 1878, and in Lyra Catholica, 1848.

SAMUEL LONGFELLOW.

Title: Vesper Hymn, unaltered and entire. Written for the author's Vespers, published in 1859. It is a beautiful hymn. "Spirit's," in the last stanza should begin with a small letter. It means, of course, the soul of the worshiper.

The Rev. Samuel Longfellow is a Unitarian minister, and brother of the poet, Henry W. Longfellow. He was born in 1819, was graduated at Harvard in the class of 1839. He died in Portland, Me., October 3, 1892. In connection with the Rev. Samuel Johnson, he edited A Book of Hymns, 1846, and Hymns of the Spirit, 1864. To both of these he made valuable original contributions.

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HEN, streaming from the eastern skies,
The morning light salutes mine eyes,

O Sun of righteousness divine!
On me with beams of mercy shine;
O chase the clouds of guilt away,
And turn my darkness into day.

2 And when to heaven's all-glorious King,
My morning sacrifice I bring,
And, mourning o'er my guilt and shame,
Ask mercy in my Saviour's name;
Then, Jesus, cleanse me with thy blood,
And be my Advocate with God.

3 When each day's scenes and labors close,
And wearied nature seeks repose,
With pardoning mercy richly blest,
Guard me, my Saviour, while I rest;
And, as each morning sun shall rise,
O lead me onward to the skies.

4 And at my life's last setting sun,
My conflicts o'er, my labors done,
Jesus, thy heavenly radiance shed,
To cheer and bless my dying bed;
And, from death's gloom my spirit raise,
To see thy face, and sing thy praise.

WILLIAM SHRUBSOLE, JR.

The original poem of eight stanzas, entitled Daily Duties, first appeared in the Christian Observer in 1818. This hymn is composed of the first two and last two stanzas of the poem. One line, the first in the second verse, has been changed; the author

wrote it:

"When to nerven's great and glorious King." William Shrubsole, Jr., was born in Sheerness, England, in 1759. He was a business man, and for many years a clerk and secretary in the Bank of