THE POET'S TRUSTING HEART. So I ask thee for the daily strength, And a mind to blend with outward life, Content to fill a little space, If thou be glorified. And if some things I do not ask In my cup of blessing be, 529 I would have my spirit filled the more There are briers besetting every path, And an earnest need for prayer; In a service which thy will appoints ANNA LETITIA WARING. SUPPLICATION. FATHER, I know that all my life And the changes that will surely come I do not fear to see; But I ask thee for a present mind I ask thee for a thoughtful love, And to wipe the weeping eyes; I would not have the restless will Or secret thing to know; I would be treated as a child, Wherever in the world I am, I have a fellowship with hearts And a work of lowly love to do. For the Lord on whom I wait. THY WILL BE DONE! The flesh may fail, the heart may faint, Thy will be done! We take with solemn thankfulness Though dim as yet in tint and line, And if, in our unworthiness, If from thy ordeal's heated bars Our feet are seamed with crimson scars, Thy will be done! If, for the age to come, this hour Thy will be done! Strike, thou the Master, we thy keys, JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. HIS WAY IS BEST. THE Snows of winter nurse the hopeful corn: Long, patient months produce the harvest fair; The darkling clouds the sunset's throne prepare; Mid glacier crags are noblest rivers born; The tempest tracks the mountain's face adorn; In deepest mines are treasured gems most rare; The port is calmer reached through storms of care; The night of weeping melts in joyful morn. CHRISTOPHER NEWMAN HALL. MY PSALM. I MOURN no more my vanished years: An April rain of smiles and tears, The west-winds blow, and, singing low, No longer forward nor behind I plough no more a desert land, The manna dropping from God's hand Yet shall the blue-eyed gentian look The woods shall wear their robes of praise. And sweet, calm days in golden haze Not less shall manly deed and word The graven flowers that wreathe the sword But smiting hands shall learn to heal, - Nor less my heart for others feel All as God wills, who wisely heeds Enough that blessings undeserved That more and more a Providence Making the springs of time and sense That death seems but a covered way Wherein no blinded child can stray That care and trial seem at last, That all the jarring notes of life THE POET'S TRUSTING HEART. 531 And so the shadows fall apart, And so the west-winds play; And all the windows of my heart I open to the day. JOHN GREENLEAF Whittier. HOPE EVERMORE AND BELIEVE. ARTHUR Hugh Clough, of whom Emerson said that he would make Tennyson look to his laurels, was born at Liverpool, Jan. 1, 1819. He was educated at Rugby, under the celebrated Dr. Arnold, who, as Clough's fellowpupil, Dean Stanley, says, watched over his career with an uncommonly lively interest. He subsequently won laurels at Oxford, but found himself out of sympathy with the prevailing thought there, and left, coming to America, where he lived for a few months in 1852, and made many friends. Having an appointment tendered him in connection with the privy council office, he returned to England. His health, never robust, failed under the pressure of efforts in aid of the work of his wife's cousin, Florence Nightingale, and he died at Florence, where he had gone with Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Tennyson, Nov. 13, 1861. HOPE evermore and believe, O man, for e’en as thy thought So are the things that thou see'st; e'en as thy hope and belief. Cowardly art thou and timid? They rise to provoke thee against them. Hast thou courage? Enough, see them exulting to yield. Yea, the rough rock the dull earth, the wild Go with the spiritual life, the higher volition and action, With the great girdle of God, go and encompass the earth. Go; say not in thy heart, And what then were it accomplished, Were the wild impulse allayed, what were the use or the good! Go, when the instinct is stilled, and when the deed is accomplished, What thou hast done and shalt do, shall be declared to thee then. Go with the sun and the stars, and yet evermore in thy spirit Say to thyself: It is good: yet is there better than it. This that I see is not all, and this that I do is but little; Nevertheless it is good, though there is better than it. ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH. SECRET. WHEN winds are raging o'er the upper ocean, And billows wild contend with angry roar, 'T is said, far down beneath the wild commotion, That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore. Far, far beneath, the noise of tempests dieth, And silver waves chime ever peacefully, And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er it flieth, Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea. So to the heart that knows thy love, O Purest ! Dies in hushed stillness at its peaceful door. Far, far away, the roar of passion dieth, And loving thoughts rise calm and peacefully, And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er it flieth, Disturbs the soul that dwells, O Lord, in thee. O rest of rests! O peace, serene, eternal! Thou ever livest, and thou changest never; And in the secret of thy presence dwelleth Fulness of joy, forever and forever! HARRIET BEEcher Stowe. Whose streams do water Paradise, GOD'S PRAISE. And all the earth beside! Thine upper and thy nether springs Make both thy worlds to thrive; Under thy warm and sheltering wings Thou keep'st two broods alive. Thy arm of might, most mighty King, Both rocks and hearts doth break: My God, thou canst do everything But what should show thee weak. Thou canst not cross thyself, or be Less than thyself, or poor; But whatsoever pleaseth thee, That canst thou do, and more. Mercy is God's memorial, Thy bright back-parts, O God of grace, Show me thy glory and thy face, That I may praise thee more. Since none can see thy face and live, For me to die is best: 533 Through Jordan's streams who would not dive, To land at Canaan's rest? JOHN MASON. THE HUNDREDTH PSALM. This psalm is attributed to WILLIAM KETHE, an exile with John Knox at Geneva, in 1555- He was chaplain of the English army in Havre, in 1563, and rector of the parish of Okeford in Dorset. ALL people that on earth do dwell, The Lord, ye know, is God indeed; |