168 EVENING HYMN FOR A CHILD Another day its course has run, And still, O God, Thy child is blest; Sweet sleep descends, my eyes to close; I give my body to repose, My spirit to my Father's will. JOHN PIERPONT 169 LORD, WE ARE THANKFUL Lord, we are thankful for the air, For breath of life, for water fair, For place in Thy infinity, Lord, we are thankful unto Thee. For years and seasons as they run, For winter cloud and summer sun, For seed-time and the autumn store In due succession evermore, For flower and fruit, for herb and tree, Lord, we are thankful unto Thee. For beauty and delight of sound, For fall of streams, for gush of birds, For daily toil that we endure, For fellowship with human kind, For Conscience, and its voice of awe- CHARLES MACKAY 170 WE THANK THEE For flowers that bloom about our feet; For blue of stream and blue of sky; ANONYMOUS 171 MISUNDERSTOOD Could we but draw back the curtains Purer than we judge we should; Could we judge all deeds by motives, Often we should love the sinner All the while we loathe the sin. We should judge each other's errors If we knew the cares and trials, Ah! we judge each other harshly, Is less turbid at the source; All the golden grains of good; Oh, we'ld love each other better, If we only understood! ANONYMOUS 66 172 APPEARANCES We cannot trust appearances, for they oftentimes mislead ; And clearest eyes will sometimes fail their true intent to read; So we should be ever cautious, and always think the best Of everything that we may see, and leave to Heaven the rest." Thus a father to his children spake, one pleasant autumn night, When in the sky the clear half-moon shone beautiful and bright; And then he told this story, as they sat beside his knee, And listened, like some little birds, so still and quietly : "In the city of Marseilles, in France, an old man lived and died, Who to himself with iron hand, life's comforts had denied ; And thus, by hardest labor and abstinence severe, Amassed a noble fortune when the end of life drew near. "To many of his neighbors a miser he appeared, Who hoarded up his money with feelings cold and seared; |