SACRED SONGS.

Thou art, Oh God!

Air-Unknown. 61

"The day is thine; the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.

"Thou hast set all the borders of the earth; thou hast made summer and winter."-Psalm lxxiv. 16, 17.

THOU art, oh God! the life and light
Of all this wondrous world we see;
Its glow by day, its smile by night,
Are but reflections caught from Thee.
Where'er we turn thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are Thine.

When Day, with farewell beam, delays

Among the opening clouds of even,
And we can almost think we gaze

Through golden vistas into heaven;
Those hues, that make the sun's decline
So soft, so radiant, Lord! are Thine.

When night, with wings of starry gloom,
O'ershadows all the earth and skies,
Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume
Is sparkling with unnumber'd eyes;-
That sacred gloom, those fires divine,
So grand, so countless, Lord! are thine.

When youthful Spring around us breathes,
Thy Spirit warms her fragrant sigh;
And every flower the Summer wreathes
Is born beneath that kindling eye.
Where'er we turn thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are Thine.

This world is all a fleeting show.

Air-Stevenson.

This world is all a fleeting show,
For man's illusion given;
The smiles of Joy, the tears of Woe,
Deceitful shine, deceitful flow——

There's nothing true but Heav'n.

And false the light on Glory's plume,

As fading hues of Even;

And Love, and Hope, and Beauty's bloom,
Are blossoms gathered for the tomb-

There's nothing bright but Heaven!

Poor wanderers of a stormy day,

From wave to wave we're driven, And Fancy's flash and Reason's ray Serve but to light the troubled wayThere's nothing calm but Heaven!

Fall'n is thy throne.

Air-Martini.

Fall'n is thy throne, oh Israel!
Silence is o'er thy plains;
Thy dwellings all lie desolate,

Thy children weep in chains.
Where are the dews that fed thee
On Etham's barren shore?

That fire from heaven which led thee, Now lights thy path no more.

Lord! thou didst love Jerusalem ;—
Once she was all thy own;
Her love, thy fairest heritage,62
Her power thy glory's throne. 63
Till evil came and blighted

Thy long-loved olive-tree;-64
And Salem's shrines were lighted

For other gods than Thee!

Then sunk the star of Solyma;
Then pass'd her glory's day,
Like heath, that, in the wilderness,65
The wild wind whirls away.
Silent and waste her bowers,
Where once the guilty trod,
And sunk those mighty towers,
While Baal reign'd as God!

"Go," said the Lord, " ye conquerors! "Steep in her blood your swords, "And raze to earth her battlements,66 "For they are not the Lord's! "Till Zion's mournful daughter "O'er kindred bones shall tread, "And Hinnom's vale of slaughter67 "Shall hide but half her dead!"

Saint Jerome's love.68

Air-Beethoven.

Who is the maid my spirit seeks,

Through cold reproof and slander's blight? Has she Love's roses on her cheeks?

Is hers an eye of this world's light?
No, wan and sunk with midnight prayer
Are the pale looks of her I love;
Or if, at times, a light be there,
Its beam is kindled from above.