2 Here holy thoughts a light have shed

From many a radiant face,
And prayers of tender hope have spread

A perfume through the place.
3 And anxious hearts have pondered here

The mystery of life,
And prayed the Eternal Spirit clear

Their doubts and aid their strife.

4. From humble tenements around

Came up the pensive train,
And in the church a blessing found,

Which filled their homes again. 5 They live with God, their homes are dust;

But here their children pray,
And, in this flecting lifetime, trust

To find the narrow way.

L. M.

693.

HEGINBOTHAM.

The God of the Seasons.

1 Great God! let all our tuneful powers

Awake and sing thy mighty name;
Thy hand rolls on our circling hours,

The hand from which our being came. 2 Seasons and moons, revolving round

In beauteous order, speak thy praise ;
And years, with smiling mercy crowned,

To thee successive honors raise.
3 Each changing season on our souls

Its sweetest, kindest influence sheds ;
And every period, as it rolls,
Showers countless blessings on our heads.

4 Our lives, our health, our friends, we owe

All to thy vast, unbounded love;
Ten thousand precious gifts below,
And hope of nobler joys above.

88. M.

694. HAWES.

Spring.
1 The winter is over and gone,

The thrush whistles sweet on the spray,
The turtle breathes forth her soft moan,
The lark mounts and warbles away.

2 Shall every creature around

Their voices in concert unite,
And I, the most favored, be found
In praising to take less delight?

3 Awake, then, my harp, and my lute!

Sweet organs, your notes softly swell!
No longer my lips shall be mute,

The Saviour's high praises to tell.
4. His love in my heart shed abroad,
My graces shall bloom as the spring ;
This temple, his Spirit's abode ;
My joy as my duty to sing.

C. M.
695.

STEELE.

Spring
1 When verdure clothes the fertile vale,

And blossoms deck the spray,
And fragrance breathes in every gale,

How sweet the vernal day!

2 Hark! how the feathered warblers sing!

'Tis Nature's cheerful voice; Soft music hails the lovely spring,

And woods and fields rejoice.

3 Earth and her thousand voices give

Their thousand notes of praise; And all, that by his mercy live,

To God their offering raise.

4 O God of nature and of grace,

Thy heavenly gifts impart;
Then shall my meditation trace

Spring, blooming in my heart.
3 Inspired to praise, I then shall join

Glad Nature's cheerful song, And love and gratitude divine

Attune my joyful tongue.

7 & 68. M.

696.

BRITISH MAG.

Autumn.

1 The leaves around me falling

Are preaching of decay ;
The hollow winds are calling,

“ Come, pilgrim, come away"
The day, in night declining,

Says I must too decline;
The year its bloom resigning,

Its lot foreshadows mine.

2 The light my path surrounding,

The loves to which I cling,
The hopes within me bounding,

The joys that round me wing,

All, all, like stars at even,

Just gleam and shoot away,
Pass on before to heaven,

And chide at my delay.
3 The friends gone there before me

Are calling from on high,
And happy angels o'er me

Tempt sweetly to the sky:
“ Why wait,” they say, “and wither,

'Mid scenes of death and sin ? O rise to glory, hither,

And find true life begin."

8 & 78. M.

697.

Bp. HORNE. Autumn Warnings. i See the leaves around us falling,

Dry and withered to the ground, Thus to thoughtless mortals calling,

In a sad and solemn sound: 2. “Sons of Adam, (once in Eden,

Where, like us, be blighted fell,) Hear the lesson we are reading;

Mark the awful truth we tell.

2

3

Youth, on length of days presuming,

Who the paths of pleasure tread; View us, late in beauty blooming,

Numbered now among the dead. 4 “What though yet no losses grieve you,

Gay with health and many a grace; Let not cloudless skies deceive you :

Summer gives to autumn place.

5 “ Yearly in our course returning,

Messengers of shortest stay,
Thus we preach this truth concerning,

Heaven and earth shall pass away." 6 On the tree of life eternal,

O let all our hopes be laid;
This alone, for ever vernal,

Bears leaf that shall not fade.

H. M.

698.

FREEMAN.

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2

Imitation of Thomson's Hymn on the Seasons.
LORD of the worlds below!

On earth thy glories shine;
The changing seasons show

Thy skill and power divine.
In all we see

The rolling years A God appears ;

Are full of thee.
Forth in the flowery spring

We see thy beauty move;
The birds on branches sing

Thy tenderness and love;
Wide flush the hills; Devotion's calm
The air is balm : Our bosom fills.

Then come, in robes of light,

The summer's flaming days;
The sun, thine image bright,

Thy majesty displays;
And oft thy voice But still our souls
In thunder rolls;

In thee rejoice.
In autumn, a rich feast

Thy common bounty gives

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