DAY OF REST.

Mataura Ensign, 25 July 1914, Page 7

DAY OF REST.

LOVE ONE ANOTHER. (A ne iv commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.—John, xiii., 31.) Our Father, King of nations, In this our time give peace. Endi war's black desolations And: bid its c.nrnage cease, Its rifles' vengeful rattle, Its cannons' murderous roar. Staunch the red tide of battle # And let it rage 110 more. Wars, hateful to iih;, mothers Of sons in conflict slain, Where brothers kill their brothers Ay .'ilo widows weep in vain, Wi.xle orphans' tears are falling— God, end this reign of hate, This shrowd, financed, appalling, False glory of ihe Suxe. Teach Thou our heroes, Father, To use their strengtih- anil skill And leadership I'.e rather To savo and not to kill. Lest through war's devastations Good l human harvests cease, Destroy the ccourge of nations, Cnthrone tho Prince of Peace. * —Ernest A. Pell. Don't say, What can a word; do? It takes so little to help a soul. Don't- .say it was only a. word; It take 3 so little to hurt a soul. " HYMNS THAT HAVE HELPED." " GOD WAS MANIFEST." Of the Father's love begotten Ere iihe worlds began to be, He is Alpha and Omega, . He the Source, tho Ending He, Of the things that are, that have boon, And K'vait future years .shall see, Evermore and evermore. At His Word the worlds were framed'; He commanded; it was done: Heaven and earilb and depths of ocean In their threefold ord'er one ■ Alt that grows beiieaih the shining Of the moon and burning sun, Evermore and evermore. He is found in human fashion. • Death and' sorrow here to know, That the race of Adam's children, Doomed, by low'to eiidler-s woe. May jiot henceforth die and pencil In the dreadful guff below, Evermore and evermore. 0 that birth for ever blessed! "When the Virgin, full of grace, By" the Holy Ghost conceiving, Bare the Saviour of our race, And the Babe, Ihe world's Redeemer, First revealed) His sacred face, Evermore and evermore.

}■ oye heights of heaven, adore Him; Angel-hoE-'ts, Hi® praises sing; All dominions. bow before Him ; An oxitol our God and King; Let no tongue on earth be silent, Every voice iu concert ring, Evermore and evermore. Christ, to Thee, with Gcd l the Eather. And, 0 Holy Ghost, to Thee, Hymn, amd chant, and high i'hunkcgiving, Audi unwearied praises be, •Honor, glory, andl dominion. And l eternal victory, Evermore and evermore. Amen. Tr. Prudentius, v ßy Rev. J. M. Nealp ami Rev. Sir H. W. Baker. Thwt was an epo:<hal mom-en 1 : nilien, before the Roman .Senate in Oonstan■tinop?«, the Emperor Theodc-siu* laid ■ the question, "Sliould the wornhip o.fi .pupiU>r or of, Christ be ii.je religion) of the' Empire?" The teaching of the Divine Carpenter had travelled, fast and far since tho day when a facile governor of an obscure Roman province, "willing to please tlie people," de|ivere<l Jesus to be crucified amid 1 ■thieves! Now the leading power of t'ho civilised world was actually to decide between Him, and the mighty pantheon of once revered deities nil ose Worship poets, painters, sculptors, and popular acclaim had magnified for centuries. And the vote for .Tpsnp Christ, and for tihe degradation of all the idolatries in. whose name He had been assailed, and His followers persecuted!

An eye-witness of that memorable* scene was a Spanish lawyer smf rhetorician, named Prudentius. He has given us an account of it in his own writings, wliitf.l seems to have convinced' even the sceptical Gibbon of its truthfulness. Prudentius served as a soldier in the army of Theodosius, a ■wonderfully successful general, and at times l a cruel, blood-thirsty conqueror. At the age of 57 Prudentius assumed the spirit of Christianity; he had' previously put on its outward observance. A man of wide learning and great literary ability, he has the distinction, of being the first Christian poet. or as a modern writer puts it, "rather the first Christian wt'.io applied his' jxirvry to religion." He lived from .'JIS to 410 A.D. The same writer puis tiho case not a -whit too strongly when lie tells us that, "during the Middle Ages the works cf Prudentius were se-.-ondl orlv •to the Bible in popularity." Witlji his contemporary Ansonias lie proudly ministered; to the need l in a reviewing rburoh of "spiritual songs" to express the ecstasy of the'soul, as did 1 the Wesloys and their contemporaries in their <iny. and as. did Keble, Heber, Lyte. Jseil \ Newman, Stone and others at the time of the Oxford movement in t*io middle of the last century. Hie hymn we quote and one or two others found their way through the translations of Caswall, "Xeale and l Baker (the .last prepared for the well-known "Hymn? Ancient and Modern") into most of the great bymubeoks. There are many others whwlii still await competent treatment- in English, though many of them employ figures and siin-.il-es too archaic for modern congregational use. Here are, for instance, the first and last verses df a hymn; certainly addressed to the rock, "the bird of downing," as Shakespeare dubs him:

"The bird the messenger of day; •Ories Che approaching tight; And tr.".'U« dotih Christ who callcith us, Our minds to life excite. Disturb our dream, Thou iholv Christ, 'Break off the night's dark chain; Forgive us all our sin of old. And grant us light again." This was a well-known and no doubt very helpful 'hymn of tjlfo early Church, but it is not the fashion now to liken our Lord and Master Josus Christ to anything in uho animni world less ignoble than "Judah's lion" or the "Lamb slain." But those who recall the dicath of Socrates will remember that cOanticleer was a votive offering cf groat potency in the days when Zeus was god' at Athens, and later whew Jupiter was supreme deity at Rome. But tlw> hymn "Of the Father's love begotten," of which only representative verses are here printed, breathes only adoration. This was in fact tHie dominant notet of the ancienit hymns. Supplication and sentimentality "crept into t'he praises of the faithful" in later years. Tlk> initial feeling Chrisity inspired was thankful' devotion. Since it is at till? great festival times that comes most readily to us, there is an appropriateness in'classing this among the Christmas hymns, though ft is by no means un suited' to all occasions of; public worship. The time to which it is usually- sting dates back at least 700 years!