We sing the everlasting truth
⁠Of words that Jesus said:
There is a holy human life
⁠Upon the earth we tread.
It was poured out our faith to win,
It has prevailed against our sin,
It brings eternal glory in,
⁠E'en here among the dead.

0 Lord of all the angel host
⁠And of the church above,
⁠We know thee in the midst of us
⁠By thy descending dove.
We in our prison stained and dim,
With cherubim and seraphim,
Lift up to thee the heaven-born hymn
⁠Of joy, and praise, and love.

Hail, bread of God that men may take! —-
⁠His spirit teaches how.
The dying soul that eateth thee
⁠Shall even live as thou. -
"Come, eat," the faithful witness saith
To sinners breathing mortal breath,
"And live forever after death;
⁠Yea, live forever now."

This being, with its ransomed powers,
⁠Oh let thy body feed,
And make the very life it lives
⁠An endless life indeed.
With faith in thy anointing shod,
It chooses paths which thou hast trod,
And offers to the living God
⁠Its whole immortal need.

Soldiers and servants by thy grace,
⁠But helpless children first,
We gather round our Father's board
⁠In hunger and in thirst.
Bold through the love which thou hast shown,
Rich without substance of our own,
We give thee, not our best alone,
⁠But all our least and worst.

The treasure worthless in our hands
⁠Transformed in thine we see.
Thou takest from us what we are,
⁠How spoiled soe'er it be.
In thy participating name,
We pour out sorrows, tremblings, shame,
The empty hope, the failing aim;
⁠And then we feast on thee.

It is for service that we live,
⁠Destroyer of our sin.
It is to keep the children's place,
⁠With all its discipline.
But sweet be our communion song,
The whole contented way along.
God gave us thee, and we are strong
⁠For life to triumph in.

O gentle sleep! the gracious gift and blest,
⁠Of God's own sending;
O sacred sleep! dear foretaste of that rest
⁠Which knows no ending;
Sweet promise of that far-off Paradise
⁠Of calm release,
Where weary ones may lean on Jesus' breast,
⁠And close their eyes,
⁠And be at peace.

Earth "presses down;" the hearts that would ascend
⁠Droop, faint and weary;
So distant seems the lifelong journey's end,
⁠The way so dreary;
Each day's fierce struggle tires us out, as though
⁠We could no more,
Then comes thine handmaid, Sleep, our griefs to tend.
⁠With balm for woe,
⁠And strength in store.

We lay us down in peace, — thy touch divine
⁠Our eyelids closing;
Darkness, — thy secret place, — becomes the shrine
⁠Of our reposing;
Gently we breathe our souls into thy care,
⁠So glad to be
One day mpre near to that home-rest of thine.
⁠Which we may share
⁠With saints and thee.

So night by night we linger at thy feet,
⁠Until the morning;
Glimpses of heaven, bright visions pure and sweet,
⁠Our dreams adorning;
And if thy voice, kind Lord, we seem to hear,
⁠That word most blest
For willing souls, with sympathy replete,
⁠Falls on our ear,
⁠"Sleep, — take your rest!"

Glamor of bud, and blossom, and sweet May,
Glamor of life, and of love's burgeoning,
When through gray mists of eld a second spring
Glances a moment, flying — ah, welaway,
Needed there other witcheries, O fay,
Of olden rune's low crooning, and the swing
And rhythm of lissom limbs in mystic ring,
To charm the sage into thy thrall and prey?

But, ah, the horror of those eyes athirst
For draughts of fuller life, that drink for these
Thy soul's sly poison to the subtler lees,
Knowing it poison — seeing the past accurst,
To-day a lie, hope like a bubble burst,
And worse than death creep on by slow degrees!