"Soon-and for Ever!"

Every hill and vale rejoices,

Every flower that decks the sward, All that lives and moves around us, Sing the praises of the Lord.

Hallelujah! let us sing

Praise unto our Heavenly King.

Heaven is now the earth arraying

In its robe of summer sheen,
Flowers their brightness are displaying
On its mantle rich and green;
Up to heaven the lark ascending
Sings his carols to the sky;

Winds and waves, in music blending,—

All His greatness glorify.

Hallelujah! let us sing

Praise unto our Heavenly King.

"Soon-and for Ever!"

REV. J. S. B. MONSELL, D.D.

OON-and for ever!

SOON

Such promise our trust,

Though ashes to ashes

And dust unto dust;

Soon-and for ever

Our union shall be

Made perfect, our glorious

Redeerner, in Thee.

When the sins and the sorrows

Of time shall be o'er,

Its pangs and its partings

Remember'd no more;

183

So their bridal gifts shall never
Fade, as earthly things decay,
But the bride and bridegroom ever
Walk together in Thy way.

Like Morning, when her Early Breeze.

L'

T. MOORE.—Air, Beethoven.

IKE morning, when her early breeze
Breaks up the surface of the seas,
That in those furrows, dark with night,
Her hand may sow the seeds of light—

Thy grace can send its breathings o'er
The spirit, dark and lost before,
And freshening all its depths, prepare
For Truth divine to enter there.

Till David touch'd his sacred lyre,
In silence lay the unbreathing wire;
But when he swept its chords along,
Even angels stoop'd to hear that song.

So sleeps the soul, till Thou, O Lord,
Shalt deign to touch its lifeless chord-
Till, waked by Thee, its breath shall rise
In music worthy of the skies!

I

Magdalen's Hymn during the Plague. 195

The Dying Christian.

Phil. i. 23.

J. E. CARPENTER.-Air, German.

HAVE a desire to depart, obeying

The heavenly call that bids me fly to rest;
Tired and weary, through the darkness straying,
Fain would I be with angels ever bless'd;
Worn is my pilgrim's staff,-my days expended;
The home I lived for distant cannot be ;
Why should I cling to earth? its ties are ended;
It is the grave that sets the Christian free.

What is the earth to me, with all its errors?

Long have I struggled with its empty show;
But to the sinful heart the grave has terrors,
Not to the righteous ones, prepared to go;
Farewell, ye friends whose tears so fast are falling,
Weep not that I so soon must take my flight;
Oh, may ye hear, like me, the angels calling,
And long to join them in the realms of light.

Magdalen's Hymn during the Plague.
JOHN WILSON.

`HE air of death breathes through our souls,

THE

The dead all round us lie;

By day and night the death-bell tolls,

And says, "Prepare to die.”

The face that in the morning sun

We thought so wondrous fair, Hath faded, ere his course was run, Beneath its golden hair.

When life cannot fail

And when death cannot sever, Christians with Christ shall be Soon-and for ever.

Soon-and for ever

The breaking of day

Shall drive all the dark clouds

Of sorrow away.

Soon-and for ever

We'll see as we're seen, And learn the deep meaning Of things that have been. When fightings without us, And fears from within, Shall weary no more

In the warfare of sin.

Where tears, and where fears,

And where death shall be-never,

Christians with Christ shall be

Soon-and for ever.

Soon-and for ever

The work shall be done, The warfare accomplished,

The victory won. Soon-and for ever

The soldier lay down

His sword for a harp,

And his cross for a crown. Then droop not in sorrow, Despond not in fear,

A glorious to-morrow

Is brightening and near;

The Spirit's Home.

When-blessed reward

Of each faithful endeavour-
Christians with Christ shall be
Soon-and for ever.

Strong Faith and Perfect Love.

J. E. CARPENTER.—Music by Stephen Glover.

WHY

should

we bring a broken heart

To offer at the throne

Of Him who holds our meanest part

As if it were His own?

If 'tis but sorrow here below,

Does not hope point above?

Then let us through life's journeying show
Strong faith and perfect love.

It is a grievous thing you say
To suffer and to bear ;

But did not One we all obey

More than His burthen share?

For us He died, that we might know
Those boundless realms above;

Then let us through life's journeyings show
Strong faith and perfect love.

The Spirit's home.

W. E. STAITE.-Music by E. J. Loder.

HEN weeping o'er some sacred spot

WHE

That holds what once we call'd a friend,

How sadly mournful seems the lot

Of all things here so soon to end!

185