Hills, plains, and vales in freshness burst,
And nature's earliest rainbow shone
On scenes more lovely than the first,

2 Loosed from the ark, a heavenly dove,
The promise-branch of olive bore,--
Pledge of returning peace and love
That beamed more brightly than before:--

3 So when affliction's waters glide
From the enfranchised soul away,
More peaceful, pure, and sanctified,
The soul emerges into day.

4 And then, as with the olive bough
The heavenly dove of old drew near,
Some gentle words of truth will flow,
In holy music on the ear.

5 O'er all the transient things of time,
The oblivious foot of years hath trod;
But all that's sacred and sublime
Stands steadfast as the truth of God.

969. 7s. M. Bowring.

Pious Worship.

1 In thy courts let peace be found,
Be thy temple full of love;
There we tread on holy ground,
All serene, around, above.

2 While the knee in prayer is bent,
While with praise the heart o'erflows,
Tranquillize the turbulent!
Give the weary one repose!

3 Be the place for worship meet,
Meet the worship for the place;
Contemplation's best retreat,
Shrine of guilelessness and grace!

4 As an infant knows its home,
Lord! may we thy temples know;
Thither for instruction come--
Thence by thee instructed go.

970. L. M. Cunningham.

An Ancient Church.

1 Long be our fathers' temple ours,
Far hence the time in which it falls;
A thousand spirits watch its bowers,
A cloud of angels guard its walls.

2 And be their shield by us possessed;
Lord, rear around the blest abode,
The buttress of a holy breast,
The rampart of a present God.

971. C. M. Anonymous.

The Widow's Prayer.

1 Though faint and sick, and worn away
With poverty and woe,
My widowed feet are doomed to stray
'Mid thorny paths below.

2 Be thou, O Lord, my Father still,
My confidence and guide:
I know that perfect is thy will,
Whate'er that will decide.

3 I know the soul that trusts in thee
Thou never wilt forsake;
And though a bruised reed I be,
That reed thou wilt not break.

4 Then keep me, Lord, where'er I go,
Support me on my way,