I.

O

SHADOW in a sultry land.
We gather to thy breast,
Whose love, enfolding like the night,
Brings quietude and rest,
Glimpse of the fairer life to be,
In foretaste here possessed.

2.

From aimless wanderings we come,
From drifting to and fro,
The wave of being mingles deep
Amid its ebb and flow:

The grander sweep of tides serene
Our spirits yearn to know.

3.

That which the garish day had lost
The twilight vigil brings,
While softlier the vesper bell

Its silver cadence rings,-
The sense of an immortal trust,
The brush of angel wings.

4.

Drop down behind the solemn hills,
O day with golden skies,
Serene, above its fading glow,

Night, starry-crowned. arise!
So beautiful may heaven be

When life's last sunbeam dies.

CHARLOTTE MELLEN PACKARD, 1839

I.

AGAIN, as evening's shadow falls,

We gather in these hallowed walls,
And vesper hymn and vesper prayer
Rise mingling on the holy air.

2.

May struggling hearts that seek release
Here find the rest of God's own peace,
And, strengthened here by hymn and prayer,
Lay down the burden and the care.

3.

O God, our Light, to thee we bow;
Within all shadows standest thou.
Give deeper calm than night can bring,
Give sweeter songs than lips can sing.

4.

Life's tumult we must meet again,
We cannot at the shrine remain;
But in the spirit's secret cell
May hymn and prayer forever dwell.

SAMUEL LONGFELLOW, 1819-1892.