So not alone we stand upon the shore, 'Twill be as though we had been there before; We shall meet more we know, Than we can meet below, The song of thanks and praise, ** Those first affections, Those shadowy recollections, Are yet the fountain light of all our day. * And perish never, and have power to make Our noisy years seem moments in the being Of the eternal silence. Hence in a season of calm weather, Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither, Can in a moment travel thither, And see the children sport upon the shore, And hear the mighty waters rolling ever more. And find our rest like some returning dove, Haply the river of time Our home at once with the eternal love. A host of angels flying, Through cloudless skies impelled, The spoiler set the seal of silence, So fixed, so holy, from that cherub brow Death gazed and left it there. He dared not steal The signet ring of Heaven. We saw thee come, we saw thee go, We shall go home to our father's house, Wordsworth. As it grows, as the towns on its marge On the wider, statelier stream, And the width of the waters, the hush foam As it draws to the ocean, may strike Murmurs and scents of the infinite sea. Build thee more stately mansions, O, my soul ! As the swift seasons roll, Let each new temple, nobler than the last, vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thy outgrown shell by life's unrest ing sea. -Holmes. With the help of friends to select the tunes and write new words, we print a few songs in which well-known music is set to singing our Liberal Faith. Not a few wide-circling hymn tunes have been echoes and adaptations caught from unchurched music: much more, why not thankfully borrow from friends in neighbor churches the swing, the lilt, the leading rhythm which they have found heart-stirring? We do not think they will grudge this use of them, even in the cases where old words have been altered to better serve our thought. Of the forty-seven songs, nineteen are new, fifteen are more or less changed from old forms,-some of them very slightly,—and the rest are old and unchanged. In selecting tunes the chief question has been, What is best known and easily caught? What can people readily join in from memory or by ear? "Who among us will use them ?" Now and then a Conference or Grove meeting will use them; now and then a Unity club, while waiting for late comers; now and then a Sunday-school; now and then the summer picnic; oftenest of all, perhaps, the group clustering about the home piano; and if they grow familiar, they will sing themselves as we walk or work. In indicating tunes, "G. H." means the Moody and Sankey collection of "Gospel Hymns", fors parts consolidated in one volume; "F. Sq." means the "Franklin Square" collection of popular song(Part I); “S. S." means the little Sunday-school collection called "Sunny Side;" and "H. T." means th、 revised "Hymn and Tune Book", published by the American Unitarian Association. Double referenc◄ are sometimes given. E. E. M. |