hymns and tunes to show them what he said was the sweetest hymn he knew, set to the sweetest tune. What was the Boston lady's surprise to hear him repeat the lines which her own father had written, "Lo! the day of rest declineth," and begin to sing "Bedford Street," a tune composed for the words by Mr. L. B. Barnes, President of the Handel and Haydn Society, and named for the author's own church, which was in Bedford Street, Boston. The hymn is in many Collections, and well befits the sacred quiet of a Sabbath evening.

EVENING HYMN. CLOSE OF WORSHIP.

+

LO! the day of rest declineth,

Gather fast the shades of night;

May the Sun that ever shineth
Fill our souls with heavenly light.

Softly now the dew is falling;

Peace o'er all the scene is spread;
On his children, meekly calling,
Purer influence God will shed.

While thine ear of love addressing,
Thus our parting hymn we sing,-
Father, give thine evening blessing;
Fold us safe beneath thy wing.

EDMUND HAMILTON SEARS.

(1810.)

REV. EDMUND H. SEARS, D.D., was born in Berkshire, Mass., in 1810. He graduated at Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., in 1834, and at the Theological School, at Cambridge, in 1837. He became the minister of the Unitarian Church in Wayland, Mass., in 1838; removed to Lancaster in 1840, and returned to his former charge in Wayland in 1847. Here he remained until 1865, when he assumed the pastoral care of the Unitarian Society in Weston, where he now resides, pursuing still the duties of his profession, and adding thereto his continued labors as an author.

He first came to be widely known by an able, suggestive, and beautiful treatise, entitled "Regeneration," which was written at the request of the Executive Committee of the American Unitarian Association, and published in 1854. This was followed by "Pictures of the Olden Time," in 1857; "Athanasia, or Foregleams of Immortality," in 1858 (enlarged edition in 1872); and "The Fourth Gospel the Heart of Christ," 1872. Most of these works have passed through various editions, and have been much read and admired in many Christian communions. They are marked by a high degree of intellectual vigor and abundant evidence of scholarly taste and of theological and literary attainments, while they are written in a singularly rich and poetic style, and teem with the most glowing spiritual thought and sentiment. For many years he has been a prolific writer for the "Monthly Religious Magazine," published in Boston; and for twelve years (1859-1871) he and Rev. Rufus Ellis were its editors. This periodical was formerly under the charge of Rev. Dr. Huntington; but, since 1871, it has been edited successively by Rev. J. H. Morison, D.D., Rev. Charles Lowe, and Rev. Henry W. Foote. To its pages Dr. Sears has contributed not only numerous theological articles and "Random Readings," but also, from time to time, hymns and poems which have been gems of the rarest lustre.

Dr. Sears received the degree of D.D. from his Alma Mater in 1871. In 1873 he visited England, where his writings, but especially his most important work, "The Heart of Christ," secured for him much attention in religious circles. He has another volume in press, of Sermons and Songs, which, we need not say, will be warmly welcomed by his multitude of readers.

In introducing a few of his best hymns, it may be said concerning the first, "Calm on the listening ear of night," that it has already been admitted - too often, we regret to say, only in part into many Orthodox as well as Unitarian Collections in America and England, and promises to be one of the most universally accepted and cherished of all spiritual songs. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in a course of lectures which he delivered many years ago before the Lowell Institute in Boston, pronounced it one of the finest and most beautiful hymns ever written. It was first published, in its original form, in the "Boston Observer," in 1834; afterwards, in the "Christian Register," in 1835; subsequently it was emended by the author, and, as thus emended, was reprinted entire in the "Monthly Magazine," Vol. XXXV. As it has so frequently appeared in the hymnbooks with unauthorized alterations and with various omissions, we present it here as it appeared in the periodical just referred to.

CHRISTMAS SONG.

'ALM on the listening ear of night

CALM

Come Heaven's melodious strains,

Where wild Judea stretches far

Her silver-mantled plains;

Celestial choirs from courts above
Shed sacred glories there;

And angels with their sparkling lyres
Make music on the air.

The answering hills of Palestine
Send back the glad reply,

And greet from all their holy heights

The day-spring from on high.
O'er the blue depths of Galilee
There comes a holier calm;
And Sharon waves, in solemn praise,
Her silent groves of palm.

"Glory to God!" The lofty strain
The realm of ether fills:

How sweeps the song of solemn joy
O'er Judah's sacred hills!

"Glory to God!" The sounding skies
Loud with their anthems ring:
"Peace on the earth; good-will to men,
From Heaven's eternal King!"

Light on thy hills, Jerusalem!

The Saviour now is born:

More bright on Bethlehem's joyous plains Breaks the first Christmas morn;

And brighter on Moriah's brow,

Crowned with her temple-spires,

Which first proclaim the new-born light, Clothed with its orient fires.

This day shall Christian hearts be mute
And Christian hearts be cold?
Oh, catch the anthem that from heaven
O'er Judah's mountains rolled!
When nightly burst from seraph-harps
The high and solemn lay,-
"Glory to God! on earth be peace;
Salvation comes to-day!"

However much the foregoing hymn may be admired, another Christmas song, which Dr. Sears has written, and which is in not a few of the hymn-books, is thought by many to be even better. We copy it entire from Mr. Martineau's recent Collection, which omits the other. Rev. Dr. Morison, of Milton, writes to us : "Sears's second Christmas hymn was sent to me as editor of the 'Christian Register,' I think, in December, 1849. I was very much delighted with it, and, before it came out in the Register,' read it at a Christmas celebration of Dr. Lunt's Sunday school in Quincy. I always feel that, however poor my Christmas sermon may be, the reading and singing of this hymn are enough to make up for all deficiencies."

IT

PEACE ON EARTH.

T came upon the midnight clear, —
That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold:
"Peace on the earth, good will to men,

From heaven's all-gracious King!"

The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled;
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world.
Above its sad and lowly plains

They bend, on hovering wing;
And ever o'er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long:
Beneath the angels' strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring :
Oh, hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!

And ye, beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way

With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing:
Oh, rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!

For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet-bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,

And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.

"FEED MY LAMBS."

Taken from the "Hymns of the Spirit."

HO! ye that rest beneath the rock,
On pastures gently growing,

Or roam at will, a favored flock,
By waters gently flowing;
Hear ye upon the desert air

A voice of woe come crying,
Where, cold upon the barren moor,
God's little lambs are dying!

See the great Shepherd bend and call
From fields of light and glory,

"Go, feed my lambs, and bring them all From moor and mountain hoary!"

Ye favored flock, the call obey,

And from the desert dreary

Lead those who faint along the way,
Or wander, lost and weary.