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SUNDAY EVENING.

123

Sunday Evening.

FAREWELL, Sweet day of rest!

Gladly at morn I hail'd thy light:And now I see thee in the fading west, Taking thy flight.

Bright fleeting season stay!

Nor to the past yet hurry on;

Still, still I would detain thee, on thy way
To Sabbaths gone.

Dear was the early sound

That floated from thy joyous bells; Inviting to the consecrated ground Where Jesus dwells.

Deserted now thy fanes:

The herald's voice-the song-the prayer Are silent; but the fragrance still remains That fill'd me there.

Calm for the weary breast!

I hail thee, foretaste of a life

Where, in an endless Sabbath, we shall rest From mortal strife,

Saviour thy gift I sing!

Thine is the day :-thine let it be; And may each hallow'd season nearer bring My soul to Thee!

ABIDE IN ME, AND I IN YOU. 125

Abide in Me, and I in Yon.

THAT mystic word of thine, O sovereign Lord!
Is all too pure, too high, too deep for me;
Weary of striving, and with longing faint,
I breathe it back again in prayer to thee.

Abide in me, I pray, and I in thee.

From this good hour, O leave me never more! Then shall the discord cease, the wound be heal'd, The life-long bleeding of the soul be o'er.

Abide in me-o'ershadow by thy love,
Each half-form'd purpose, and dark thought
of sin;

Quench ere it rise each selfish, low desire,
And keep my soul as thine, calm and divine.

As some rare perfume in a vase of clay
Pervades it with a fragrance not its own—

So, when thou dwellest in a mortal soul,

All heaven's own sweetness seems around it thrown.

The soul alone, like a neglected harp,

Grows out of tune, and needs that hand divine; Dwell thou within it, tune and touch the chords, Till every note and string shall answer thine.

Abide in me; there have been moments pure When I have seen thy face, and felt thy power; Then evil lost its grasp, and passion, hush'd, Own'd the divine enchantment of the hour.

These were but seasons beautiful and rare ;
Abide in me, and they shall ever be.

I

pray thee now fulfill my earnest prayer,

Come and abide in me and I in thee.

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