ÆTERNE RERUM CONDITOR
Framer of the earth and sky,
Ruler of the day and night,
With a glad variety
Tempering all and making light.
Gleams upon our dark path flinging,
Cutting short each night begun;
Now Thy herald cock is singing
…
THE ODOR
How sweetly doth MY MASTER sound; MY MASTER!
As ambergris leaves a rich scent
Unto the taster:
So do these words a sweet content,
An oriental fragrancy: MY MASTER!
With these all day I do perfume my mind,
My mind even …
THE TRAVELLER’S EVENING SONG
Father, guide me! Day declines,
Hollow winds are in the pines;
Darkly waves each giant bough
O’er the sky’s last crimson glow;
Hushed is now the convent’s bell,
Which erewhile with breezy swell
From the purple mountains bore
Greetings to the sunset-shore.
Now the sailor’s vesper-hymn
Dies away.
Father, in …
A MIDNIGHT HYMN
Where’er I am, whate’er I see,
Eternal Lord, is full of Thee!
I feel Thee in the gloom of night;
I see Thee in the morning light.
When care distracts my anxious soul,
Thy grace can every thought control;
Thy word can still the troubled …
TO MONT BLANC
HAST thou a charm to stay the morning star
In his steep course? So long he seems to pause
On thy bald awful head, O sovereign Blanc!
The Arve and Arveiron at thy base
Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful Form,
Risest from forth thy …
GOD’S WORD
OH, blest were the accents of early creation,
When the Word of Jehovah came down from above,
In the clods of the earth to infuse animation,
And wake their cold atoms to life and to love!
And mighty the …
THE CROSS
ARE thy toils and woes increasing?
Are the Foe’s attacks unceasing?
Look with Faith unclouded,
Gaze with eyes unshrouded,
On the Cross!
Dost thou fear that strictest trial?
Tremblest thou at Christ’s denial?
Never rest without it,
Clasp thine arms about it, —
That …
JAM MOESTA QUIESCE QUERELA
(Prudentius, Fifth Century.)
No more, ah, no more sad complaining,
Resign these fond pledges to earth;
Stay, mothers, the thick-falling tear-drops:
This death is a heavenly birth.
What mean these still caverns of marble,
Fair shrines that the …
GOD IN NATURE
Go forth, my heart, and seek delight
In all the gifts of God’s great might,
These pleasant summer hours:
Look how the plains for thee and me
Have decked themselves most fair to see.
All bright and sweet with flowers.
The trees stand thick and …
CHRISTMAS-TIDE
μέγα xai παράδοξον Θαύμα.
A GREAT and mighty wonder!
A full and holy cure!
The Virgin bears the Infant
With Virgin-honor pure!
The Lord is made Incarnate,
And yet remains on high:
And Cherubim sing anthems
To shepherds …