So, Lord, when that last morning breaks
Which shrouds in darkness earth and skies,
May it on us, low bending here,
Arrayed in joyful light arise!

To God the Father glory be,
And to his sole-begotten Son;
The same, O Holy Ghost! to thee,
While everlasting ages run.

Ambrosian Hymn. Translated by EDWARD CASWALL.

MORNING HYMN.

"Ecce jam noctis tenuatur umbra."

GREGORY THE GREAT was born in Rome about the year 554. He took the monastic habit, and loved retirement, but in 590 the office of Pope was forced upon him. His life was full of trials and useful work. It was he who sent Augustine to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons, and made him the first Archbishop of Canterbury. He patronized church music, and we are indebted to him for the Gregorian Chant. He died in 604, exhausted by trials and labors. The hymn " Veni Creator Spiritus" is by some attributed to Gregory.

Lo, fainter now lie spread the shades of night, And upward shoot the trembling gleams of

morn;

Suppliant we bend before the Lord of light, And pray at early dawn,

That his sweet charity may all our sin Forgive, and make our miseries to cease: May grant us health, grant us the gift divine Of everlasting peace.

Father Supreme! this grace on us confer;
And thou, O Son, by an eternal birth!
With thee, coequal Spirit Comforter!
Whose glory fills the earth.

GREGORY THE GREAT. Translated by
EDWARD CASWALL.

MIDDAY.

WHEN at midday my task I ply
With laboring hand or watchful eye,
I need the timely aid of prayer
To guard my soul from worldly care.

Thou, Lord, didst consecrate this hour
To mind us of thy saving power.
Thy living water's heavenly spell,
The mystery of Jacob's well.

There, about noon, with toil oppressed,
Feebly thy voice its plaint expressed:
"Give me to drink!" O wondrous woe!
God thirsts, from whom all blessings flow!

EVENING HYMN.

"Rerum Deus tenax vigor."

O THOU true Life of all that live!
Who dost, unmoved, all motion sway;
Who dost the morn and evening give,

And through its changes guide the day:

Thy light upon our evening pour,

So may our souls no sunset see; But death to us an open door

To an eternal morning be.

Father of mercies, hear our cry!

Hear us, O sole-begotten Son!
Who, with the Holy Ghost most high,
Reignest while endless ages run.

Ambrosian Hymn. Translated by
EDWARD CASWALL.

A CHAMBER HYMN.

AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY, a holy and devout clergyman of the Church of England, was born in Surrey, in 1740. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Dublin, and became a strenuous supporter of Calvinistic views. He died Aug. 11, 1777. Some of his hymns especially "Rock of Ages." are great favorites. The following is generally made to begin with the fourth stanza, which is altered to "Inspirer and hearer of prayer."

WHAT though my frail eyelids refuse

Continual watching to keep,
And punctual as midnight renews,
Demand the refreshment of sleep;
A sovereign protector I have,

Unseen, yet forever at hand,
Unchangeably faithful to save,
Almighty to rule and command.

From evil secure, and its dread,
I rest, if my Saviour be nigh;
And songs his kind presence indeed
Shall in the night season supply.
His smiles and my comforts abound,

His grace as the dew shall descend;
And walls of salvation surround

The soul he delights to defend. Kind author and ground of my hope, Thee, thee for my God I avow, My glad Eben-ezer set up,

And own thou hast helped me till now. I muse on the years that are past, Wherein my defence thou hast proved; Nor wilt thou relinquish at last A sinner so signally loved. Beneficent hearer of prayer,

Thou feeder and guardian of thine,

And thou wilt turn our wandering feet,
And thou wilt bless our way,

Till worlds shall fade, and faith shall greet
The dawn of lasting day!

HENRY KIRKE WHITE.

1803.

EVENING HYMN. CLOSE OF WORSHIP.

A pleasant incident is related of this hymn by Dr. Putnam in the "Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith." A company of Bostonians, among whom was a daughter of Dr. Robbins, Mrs. Hill, were returning from England in a Cunard steamer. An aged Scotch Presbyterian minister and his wife were among the passengers. The party were singing hymns on deck at the close of a lovely Sabbath day, when the clergyman went to his state-room and brought a book of hymns and tunes to show them what he said was the sweetest hymn he knew, set to the sweetest tune. What was the Boston lady's surprise to hear him repeat the lines which her own father had written," Lo! the day of rest declineth," and begin to sing "Bedford Street," a tune composed for the words by Mr. L. B. Barnes, President of the Handel and Haydn Society, and named for the author's own church, which was in Bedford Street, Boston.

Lo! the day of rest declineth, Gather fast the shades of night; May the Sun that ever shineth

Fill our souls with heavenly light.

Softly now the dew is falling;

Peace o'er all the scene is spread ; On his children, meekly calling.

Purer influence God will shed.

While thine ear of love addressing,

Thus our parting hymn we sing, Father, give thine evening blessing; Fold us safe beneath thy wing. CHANDLER ROBBINS, D. D.

THE EVENING CLOUD.

JOHN WILSON, better known as Christopher North, under which name he wrote for Blackwood's Magazine a series of papers entitled "Noctes Ambrosianæ," was born at Paisley, May 19, 1785, and died in Edinburgh, April 3, 1854.

sun;

A CLOUD lay cradled near the set
A gleam of crimson tinged its braided snow;
Long had I watched the glory moving on,
O'er the still radiance of the lake below;
Tranquil its spirit seemed and floated slow;
Even in its very motion there was rest;
While every breath of eve that chanced to
blow

Wafted the traveller to the beauteous West.
Emblem, methought, of the departed soul!
To whose white robe the gleam of bliss is
given;