A LITTLE TE DEUM OF THE

COMMONPLACE

A FRAGMENT

With hearts responsive
And enfranchised eyes,

We thank Thee, Lord,

For all things beautiful, and good, and true; For things that seemed not good yet turned to good;

For all the sweet compulsions of Thy will That chased, and tried, and wrought us to Thy shape;

For things unnumbered that we take of right, And value first when first they are withheld; For light and air; sweet sense of sound and

smell;

For ears to hear the heavenly harmonies;
For eyes to see the unseen in the seen;
For vision of The Worker in the work;
For hearts to apprehend Thee everywhere;
We thank Thee, Lord!

For all the wonders of this wondrous world;— The pure pearl splendours of the coming day, The breaking east, the rosy flush,-the Dawn,

For that bright gem in morning's coronal, That one lone star that gleams above the

glow;

For that high glory of the impartial sun,The golden noonings big with promised life; The matchless pageant of the evening skies, The wide-flung gates,-the gleams of Paradise,

Supremest visions of Thine artistry;

The sweet, soft gloaming, and the friendly stars;

The vesper stillness, and the creeping shades; The moon's pale majesty; the pulsing dome, Wherein we feel Thy great heart throbbing

near;

For sweet laborious days and restful nights; For work to do, and strength to do the work; We thank Thee, Lord!

For those first tiny, prayerful-folded hands That pierce the winter's crust, and softly bring

Life out of death, the endless mystery;For all the first sweet flushings of the Spring; The greening earth, the tender heavenly blue; The rich brown furrows gaping for the seed; For all Thy grace in bursting bud and leaf,-The bridal sweetness of the orchard trees, Rose-tender in their coming fruitfulness; The fragrant snow-drifts flung upon the breeze;

The grace and glory of the fruitless flowers, Ambrosial beauty their reward and ours; For hedgerows sweet with hawthorn and wildrose;

For meadows spread with gold and gemmed

with stars;

For every tint of every tiniest flower;
For every daisy smiling to the sun;
For every bird that builds in joyous hope;
For every lamb that frisks beside its dam;
For every leaf that rustles in the wind;
For spiring poplar, and for spreading oak;
For queenly birch, and lofty swaying elm,
For the great cedar's benedictory grace;
For earth's ten thousand fragrant incenses,
Sweet altar-gifts from leaf and fruit and
flower;

For every wondrous thing that greens and grows;

For wide-spread cornlands,-billowing golden seas;

For rippling stream, and white-laced waterfall; For purpling mountains; lakes like silver shields;

For white-piled clouds that float against the blue;

For tender green of far-off upland slopes; For fringing forests and far-gleaming spires; For those white peaks, serene and grand and still;

For that deep sea-a shallow to Thy love; For round green hills, earth's full benignant breasts;

For sun-chased shadows flitting o'er the plain; For gleam and gloom; for all life's counterchange:

For hope that quickens under darkening skies;
For all we see; for all that underlies,-
We thank Thee, Lord!

For that sweet impulse of the coming Spring,
For ripening Summer, and the harvesting;
For all the rich Autumnal glories spread,—
The flaming pageant of the ripening woods;
The fiery gorse, the heather-purpled hills;
The rustling leaves that fly before the wind,
And lie below the hedgerows whispering;
For meadows silver-white with hoary dew;
For sheer delight of tasting once again
That first crisp breath of winter in the air;
The pictured pane; the new white world
without;

The sparkling hedgerow's witchery of lace; The soft white flakes that fold the sleeping earth;

The cold without, the cheerier warmth within;
For red-heart roses in the winter snows;
For all the flower and fruit of Christmas-tide;
For all the glowing heart of Christmas-tide;
We thank Thee, Lord!

For all Thy ministries,

For morning mist, and gently-falling dew; For summer rains, for winter ice and snow; For whispering wind and purifying storm; For the reft clouds that show the tender blue; For the forked flash and long tumultuous roll;

For mighty rains that wash the dim earth clean;

For the sweet promise of the seven-fold bow; For the soft sunshine, and the still calm night; For dimpled laughter of soft summer seas; For latticed splendour of the sea-borne moon; For gleaming sands, and granite-frontled cliffs;

For flying spume, and waves that whip the skies;

For rushing gale, and for the great glad calm; For Might so mighty, and for Love so true, With equal mind,

We thank Thee, Lord!

For maiden sweetness, and for strength of

men;

For love's pure madness and its high estate;
For parentage-man's nearest reach to Thee;
For kinship, sonship, friendship, brotherhood
Of men-one Father-one great family;
For glimpses of the greater in the less;
For touch of Thee in wife and child and friend;
For noble self-denying motherhood;

For saintly maiden lives of rare perfume;
For little pattering feet and crooning songs;
For children's laughter, and sweet wells of
truth;

For sweet child-faces and the sweet wise tongues;

For childhood's faith that lifts us near to Thee