,
More longings for home;
More fit for the kingdom,
More used I would be,
More blessed and holy--
More, Saviour, like thee.

--Philip Paul Bliss.

"MY SOUL DOTH MAGNIFY THE LORD"

My soul shall be a telescope,
Searching the distant bounds of time and space,
That somehow I may image, as I grope,
Jehovah's power and grace.

My soul a microscope shall be,
In all minutest providences keen
Jehovah's patient thoughtfulness to see,
And read his love between.

My soul shall be a burning-glass
That diligence to worship may succeed,
That I may catch God's glories as they pass,
And focus to a deed.

So, even so,
A mote in his creation, even I
Seeking alone to do, to feel, to know,
The Lord must magnify.

--Amos R. Wells.

Lord, let me not be too content
With life in trifling service spent--
Make me aspire!
When days with petty cares are filled
Let me with fleeting thoughts be thrilled
Of something higher!

Help me to long for mental grace
To struggle with the commonplace
I daily find.
May little deeds not bring to fruit
A crop of little thought to suit
A shriveled mind.

I know this earth is not my sphere,
For I cannot so narrow me but that
I still exceed it.

--Robert Browning.

A SHRINKING PRAYER

Give me, O Lord, a heart of grace,
A voice of joy, a smiling face,
That I may show, where'er I turn,
Thy love within my soul doth burn!

Then life be sweet, and joy be dear,
Be in my mind a quiet fear;
A patient love of pain and care,
An enmity to dark despair.

A tenderness for all that stray,
With strength to help them on their way;
A cheerfulness, a heavenly mirth,
Brightening my steps along the earth.

I ask and shrink, yet shrink and ask;
I know thou wilt not set a task
Too hard for hands that thou hast made,
Too hard for hands that thou canst aid.

So let me dwell all peacefully,
Content to live, content to die;
Rejoicing now, rejoicing then,
Rejoicing evermore. Amen.

--Rosa Mulholland.

THAT I MAY SOAR

Great God, I ask thee for no meaner pelf
Than that I may not disappoint myself;
That in my action I may soar as high
As I can now discern with this clear ey