I was a wayward child,

I did not love my home;

I did not love my Father's voice,

I loved afar to roam.

The Shepherd sought His sheep,
The Father sought His child,
They followed me o'er vale and hill,
O'er deserts waste and wild.
They found me nigh to death,
Famished and faint and lone ;

They bound me with the bands of love,
They saved the wandering one.

They spoke in tender love,

They raised my drooping head,

They gently closed my bleeding wounds, My fainting soul they fed.

They washed my filth away,

They made me clean and fair;

They brought me to my home in peace, The long-sought wanderer!

Jesus my Shepherd is,

'Twas He that loved my soul;

'Twas He that washed me in His blood;

'Twas He that made me whole.

'Twas He that sought the lost,

That found the wandering sheep; 'Twas He that brought me to the fold, 'Tis He that still doth keep.

I was a wandering sheep,

I would not be controlled;

But now I love my Shepherd's voice,

I love, I love the fold!

I was a wayward child,

I once preferred to roam;

But now I love my Father's voice,

I love, I love His home.

A BETHLEHEM HYMN.

He has come! the Christ of God,
Left for us His glad abode;
Stooping from His throne of bliss
To this darksome wilderness.

He has come the Prince of peace,
Come to bid our sorrows cease;
Come to scatter with His light
All the shadows of our night.

He, the mighty King, has come !
Making this poor earth His home;
Come to bear our sins' sad load;
Son of David, Son of God.

He has come, whose name of grace
Speaks deliverance to our race;
Left for us His glad abode ;
Son of Mary, Son of God.

"Unto us a Child is born!"
Ne'er has earth beheld a morn,
Among all the morns of time,
Half so glorious in its prime.

"Unto us a Son is given !"

He has come from God's own heaven,

Bringing with Him from above

Holy peace and holy love.

THE INNER CALM.

CALM me, my God, and keep me calm,
While these hot breezes blow;
Be like the night-dew's cooling balm
Upon earth's fevered brow.

Calm me, my God, and keep me calm,

Soft resting on Thy breast;

Soothe me with holy hymn and psalm, And bid my spirit rest.

Calm me, my God, and keep me calm;
Let Thine outstretched wing
Be like the shade of Elim's palm
Beside her desert spring.

Yes! keep me calm, tho' loud and rude

The sounds my ear that greet,

Calm in the closet's solitude,

Calm in the bustling street.

Calm in the hour of buoyant health,
Calm in my hour of pain,
Calm in my poverty or wealth,
Calm in my loss or gain;

Calm in the sufferance of wrong,

Like Him who bore my shame;

Calm 'mid the threatening, taunting throng
Who hate Thy holy name.

Calm when the great world's news with power

My listening spirit stir ;

Let not the tidings of the hour

E'er find too fond an ear.

Calm as the ray of sun or star
Which storms assail in vain,
Moving unruffled thro' earth's war,
The eternal calm to gain.

THE MORNING STAR.

THERE is a Morning Star, my soul,

There is a Morning Star;

'Twill soon be near and bright, tho' now

It seems so dim and far.

And when time's stars have come and gone,

And every mist of earth has flown,

That better star shall rise

On this world's clouded skies,

To shine for ever!

The night is well-nigh spent, my soul,
The night is well-nigh spent ;

And soon above our heads shall shine
A glorious firmament:

A sky all glad and pure and bright,
The Lamb, once slain, its perfect light;
A star without a cloud,

Whose light no mists enshroud,
Descending never!

REST YONDER.

THIS is not my place of resting,
Mine's a city yet to come;
Onwards to it I am hasting-
On to my eternal home.

In it all is light and glory,

O'er it shines a nightless day;

Every trace of sin's sad story,

All the curse, has pass'd away.

There the Lamb, our Shepherd, leads us
By the streams of life along;
On the freshest pastures feeds us,
Turns our sighing into song.

Soon we pass this desert dreary,
Soon we bid farewell to pain;

Never more be sad or weary,
Never, never sin again.