71

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS POETRY

FOR

JUNIOR PUPILS.

-CHILD'S MORNING HYMN.-Mrs. Opia.

The morning bright, with rosy light, has waked me from my sleep!
Father, I own, Thy love alone Thy little one doth keep.

All through the day, I humbly pray, be Thou my guard and guide;
My sins forgive, and let me live, blest Jesus! near Thy side.
O, make Thy rest within my breast, Great Spirit of all grace;
Make me like Thee, then shall I be prepared to see Thy face.

2.-CHILD'S EVENING HYMN.-Anon.

Now darkness shades the distant hill,
The little birds are hid and still;
And I my quiet sleep may take,
Since my Creator is awake.

How sweet, upon my little bed,
To think my Saviour guards my head;
And He a helpless child can keep
Through all the hours of silent sleep!

3. THE BEAUTIES OF CREATION.--Heber.

I praised the Earth, in beauty seen
With garlands gay of various green;
I praised the Sea, whose ample field
Shone glorious as a silver shield;
And Earth and Ocean seemed to say,
"Our beauties are but for a day!"
I praised the Sun, whose chariot rolled
On wheels of amber and of gold;
I praised the Moon, whose softer eye
Gleamed sweetly through the summer sky;
And Moon and Sun in answer said,
"Our days of light are numberèd !"

O God! O good beyond compare !
If thus Thy meaner works are fair;
If thus Thy bounties gild the span
Of ruined earth and sinful man-
How glorious must the mansion be

Where Thy redeemed shall dwell with Thee!

4.-LIFT THE HEART AND BEND THE KNEE.-Mrs, Hemans.

Child, amidst the flowers at play, while the red light fades away;Mother, with thy earnest eye ever following silently;-Father, by the breeze of eve called thy harvest-work to leave;-pray!-ere yet the dark hours be; "lift the heart and bend the knee." 2 Traveller, in the stranger's land, far from thine own household band;-Mourner, haunted by the tone of a voice from this world gone ;-Captive, in whose narrow cell sunshine hath not leave to dwell;-Sailor, on the darkening sea; "lift the heart and bend the knee." 3 Warrior, that, from battle won, breathest now at set of sun;--Woman, o'er the lowly slain weeping on his burial plain!-ye that triumph, ye that sigh, kindred by one holy tie;-heaven's first star alike ye see:-" lift the heart and bend the knee."

5.-HOPE BEYOND THE GRAVE.-Beattie.

""Tis night, and the landscape is lovely no more;
I mourn! but, ye woodlands, I nourn not for you.
For morn is approaching your charms to restore,
Perfumed with fresh fragrance and glittering with dew.
Nor yet for the ravage of winter I mourn,

Kind Nature the embryo blossom will save;

But when shall Spring visit the mouldering urn?
Oh! when shall it dawn on the night of the grave ?"

'Twas thus, by the glare of false science betrayed,
That leads to bewilder and dazzles to blind,

My thoughts wont to roam from shade onward to shade,
Destruction before me, and Sorrow behind.

"O pity, great Father of light," then I cried,

"Thy creature, who fain would not wander from Thee;
Lo, humbled in dust, I relinquish my pride:

From doubt and from darkness Thou only canst free."
And darkness and doubt are now flying away,
No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn ;—
So breaks on the traveller, faint and astray,
The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn.

Sec Truth, Love, and Mercy in triumph descending,

And Nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom!

On the cold cheek of Death smiles and roses are blending,
And Beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.

6. THE TEACHING OF THE BIRDS.-Heber.

'Lo, the lilies of the field, how their leaves instruction yield; hark to Nature's lesson, given by the blessed birds of heaven! Every bush and tufted tree warbles sweet philosophy; "Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow; God provideth for the morrow! 2 Say, with richer crimson glows the kingly mantle than the rose? Say, have kings more wholesome fare than we, poor citizens of air? Barns nor hoarded grain have we, yet we carol merrily :—Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow; God provideth for the morrow! 3 One there lives, whose guardian eye guides our humble destiny; one there lives, who, Lord of all, keeps our feathers lest they fall. Pass we blithely then the time, fearless of the snare and lime-free from doubt and faithless sorrow: God provideth for the morrow!"

7.—TO GOD, IN SICKNESS.-Herrick.

What though my harp and viol be
Both hung upon the willow-tree?
What though my bed be now my grave,
And for my house I darkness have?
What though my healthful days are fled,
And I lie number'd with the dead?
Yet I have hope, by God's great power,
To spring-though now a wither'd flower!

8.-MISSIONARY HYMN.-Heber.

From Greenland's icy mountains, from India's coral strand,
Where Afric's sunny fountains roll down their golden sand;
From many an ancient river, from many a palmy plain,—
They call us to deliver their land from error's chain.

What though the spicy breezes blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle;
Though every prospect pleases, and only man is vile?
In vain, with lavish kindness, the gifts of God are strown;
The heathen, in his blindness, bows down to wood and stone.
Can we, whose souls are lighted with wisdom from on high,
Can we to man benighted the lamp of life deny?
Salvation! oh, salvation! The joyful sound proclaim,
Till each remotest nation has learned Messiah's name!

Waft, waft, ye winds, his story; and you, ye waters, roll;
Till, like a sea of glory, it spreads from pole to pole;
Till, o'er our ransomed nature, the Lamb for sinners slain,
Redeemer, King, Creator, in bliss return to reign!

9.-OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD.-Montgomery.

Above, below, where'er I gaze, Thy guiding finger, Lord, I view, traced in the midnight planet's blaze, or glistening in the morning dew: whate'er is beautiful or fair is but Thine own reflection there. 2 I hear Thee, in the stormy wind that turns the ocean-wave to foam; nor less Thy wondrous power I find, when summer airs around me roam; the tempest and the calm declare Thyself, for Thou art everywhere. I find Thee in the depth of night, I read Thy name in every star; and when the radiant orb of light with gold hath tipped the hills afar, that ray of glory, bright and fair, is but Thy livingsh adow there. Thine are the silent moon of night, the twilight eve, the dewy morn; whate'er is beautiful and bright, Thy hand hath fashioned to adorn :-Thy glory walks in every sphere, and all things whisper "God is here!"

10.-HYMN TO THE SEASONS.-Heber.

When spring unlocks the flowers, to paint the laughing soil;
When summer's balmy showers refresh the mower's toil;
When winter binds, in frosty chains, the fallow and the flood,-
In God the earth rejoiceth still, and owns its Maker good.

The birds that wake the morning, and those that love the shade;
The winds that sweep the mountain, or lull the drowsy glade;
The sun that from his amber bower rejoiceth on his way,
The moon, and stars,—their Maker's name in silent pomp display
Shall Man, the lord of nature, expectant of the sky,—
Shall Man alone, unthankful, his little praise deny?
No,-let the year forsake its course, the seasons cease to be,
Thee, Master, must we always love, and, Saviour, honour Thee!
The flowers of spring may wither,—the hope of summer fade,—
The autumn droop in winter,-the birds forsake the shade,—
The winds be lulled,—the sun and moon forget their old decree;—
But we, in Nature's latest hour, O Lord! will cling to thee.

11.-THE GOODNESS OF PROVIDENCE -Addison.

'The Lord my pasture shall prepare, and feed me with a shepherd's care; His presence shall my wants supply, and guard me with a watchful eye; my noon-day walks He shall attend, and all my midnight hours defend. 2 When in the sultry glebe I faint, or on the thirsty mountains pant, to fertile vales and dewy meads my weary wandering steps He leads; where peaceful rivers, soft and slow, amid the verdant landscape flow. 3 Though in the paths of death I tread, with gloomy horrors overspread, my steadfast heart shall fear no ill; for Thou, O Lord, art with me still: Thy friendly crook shall give me aid, and guide me through the dreadful shade. 4 Though in a bare and rugged way, through devious lonely wilds I stray, Thy bounty shall my pains beguile; the barren wilderness shall smile-with sudden greens and herbage crown'd, and streams shall murmur all around.

12.“ AS THY DAYS SO SHALL THY STRENGTH BE.”—Mrs. Sigourney.

1 When adverse winds and waves arise, and in my heart despondence sighs; when life her throng of care reveals, and weakness o'er my spirit steals; grateful I hear the kind decree, that "As my day, my strength shall be." "When with sad footstep Memory roves 'mid smitten joys and buried loves; when Sleep my tearful pillow flies, and dewy Morning drinks my sighs; still to thy promise, Lord, I flee, that, "As my day, my strength shall be." One trial more must yet be pass'd,-one pang, the keenest, and the last! and when, with brow convulsed and pale, my feeble, quivering heart-strings fail, Redeemer, grant my soul to see, that "As her day, her strength shall be."

3

18.-CHRISTIAN LIGHT AND HOPE.--Bowring.

1If all our hopes and all our fears were prisoned in life's narrow bound; if, travellers through this vale of tears, we saw no better world beyond; oh, what could check the rising sigh? what earthly thing could pleasure give? oh, who would venture then to die? oh, who could then endure to live? 2 Were Life a dark and desert moor, where mists and clouds eternal spread their gloomy veil behind, before, and tempests thunder over-head; where not a sunbeam breaks the gloom, and not a flowret smiles beneath; who could exist in such a tomb? who dwell in darkness and in death? And such were Life, without the ray from our divine Religion given; 'tis this that makes our darkness day; 'tis this that makes our earth a heaven. Bright is the golden sun above, and beautiful the flowers that bloom and all is joy, and all is love, reflected from a world to come.