2 Then, though conscious we are sleeping
In the outer courts of death,
Safe beneath a Father's keeping,
Calm we rest in placid faith.

3 Lord, when life is closing round us,
Dark with anguish, faint with fear,
Let thy beams of love surround us;
Let us know thee, feel thee, near!

1 THE heavenly spheres to thee, O God, Attune their evening hymn:

All wise, all holy, thou art praised
In song of seraphim:

Unnumbered systems, suns and worlds
Unite to worship thee,

While thy majestic greatness fills
Space, time, eternity.

2 Nature,

a temple worthy thee,

That beams with light and love;
Whose flowers so sweetly bloom below,
Whose stars rejoice above,

Whose altars are the mountain cliffs
That rise along the shore,
Whose anthems the sublime accord
Of storm and ocean roar,

3 Her song of gratitude is sung
By spring's awakening hours;
Her summer offers at thy shrine
Its earliest, loveliest flowers;
Her autumn brings its ripened fruits,
In glorious luxury given;

While winter's silver heights reflect
Thy brightness back to heaven.

4 On all thou smil'st; and what is man Before thy presence, God?

A breath but yesterday inspired,
To-morrow but a clod.

That clod shall mingle in the vale;
But, kindled, Lord, by thee,

The spirit to thy arms shall spring,
To life, to liberty.

234.

C. M.

ANCIENT HYMNS.

Social Evening Worship.

1 0, 'Tis a scene the heart to move,
When, at the close of day,
Whom God unites in Christian love
Unite their thanks to pay.

2 What though the number be but small? Whenever two or three

Join on the Savior's name to call,
There in the midst is he.

3 When faithful and repentant hearts
His heavenly grace ensue,

His grace, entreated, he imparts
To many or to few.

4 O, come, then, and, with joint accord, In social worship meet,

And, mindful of the Savior's word,
The Savior's boon entreat.

235. C. M. BP. HEBER.

Early Religion.

1 By cool Siloam's shady rill
How sweet the lily grows!

How sweet the breath, beneath the hill,
Of Sharon's dewy rose!

2 Lo, such the child whose early feet
The paths of peace have trod;
Whose secret heart, with influence sweet,
Is upward drawn to God!

3 By cool Siloam's shady rill
The lily must decay;

The rose that blooms beneath the hill
Must shortly fade away.

4 And soon, too soon, the wintry hour
Of man's maturer age

Will shake the soul with sorrow's power,
And stormy passion's rage!

5 O Thou who giv'st us life and breath,
We seek thy grace alone,

In childhood, manhood, age, and death,
To keep us still thine own.

236.

C. M.

SALISBURY COL.

"Remember thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth."

1 IN the soft season of thy youth,
In nature's smiling bloom,

Ere age arrive, and trembling wait
Its summons to the tomb,

2 Remember thy Creator, God;
For him thy powers employ;

Make him thy fear, thy love, thy hope,
Thy confidence, thy joy.

3 He shall defend and guide thy course Through life's uncertain sea,

Till thou art landed on the shore
Of blest eternity.

4 Then seek the Lord betimes, and choose
The path of heavenly truth:
The earth affords no lovelier sight
Than a religious youth.

237.

S. M. J. F. CLARKE.

Baptism of Children.

1 To Him who children blessed,
And suffered them to come,-
To Him who took them to his breast,
We bring these children home.

2 To thee, O God, whose face
Their spirits still behold,

We bring them, praying that thy grace
May keep, thine arms enfold.

3 And as this water falls

On each unconscious brow,

Thy Holy Spirit grant, O Lord,
To keep them pure as now.

238.

L. M.

ANONYMOUS.

Death of an Infant.

1 As the sweet flower that scents the morn,
But withers in the rising day,
Thus lovely was this infant's dawn,
Thus swiftly fled its life away.

2 It died ere its expanding soul
Had ever burnt with wrong desires,
Had ever spurned at Heaven's control,
Or ever quenched its sacred fires.

3 It died to sin, it died to cares,
But for a moment felt the rod:-
O mourner! such, the Lord declares,
Such are the children of our God!

239.

L. M. J. Q. ADAMS.

Death of Children.

1 SURE, to the mansions of the blest
When infant innocence ascends,
Some angel brighter than the rest
The spotless spirit's flight attends.
2 On wings of ecstasy they rise,
Beyond where worlds material roll,
Till some fair sister of the skies
Receives the unpolluted soul.

3 There, at th' Almighty Father's hand,
Nearest the throne of living light,
The choirs of infant seraphs stand,
And dazzling shine, where all are bright.
4 For when the Lord of mortal breath
Decrees his bounty to resume,
And points the silent shaft of death,
Which speeds an infant to the tomb, -
5 No passion fierce, no low desire,
Has quenched the radiance of the flame;
Back to its God the living fire

Returns unsullied, as it came.

1 CALM on the bosom of thy God,
Young spirit, rest thee now!

E'en while with us thy footstep trod,
His seal was on thy brow.