Hear the Master's risen word!
Delving spades have set it free,
Wake! the world has need of thee,
Rise and let thy voice be heard,
Like a fountain disinterred,

Upward springing, singing, sparkling;
Through the doubtful shadows darkling:
Till the clouds of pain and rage
Brooding o'er the toiling age,

As with rifts of light are stirred
By the music of the Word;

Gospel for the heavy-laden, answer to the labourer's

cry;

Raise the stone, and thou shalt find Me: cleave the wood, and there am I."

HENRY VANDyke.

God of light and strength and beauty, for this day we thank Thee. The morning hours come to us freighted with messages of gladness. Thou, our Father, art refreshing our spirits, and home seems dearer, love more sacred and the way of duty clearer before our waiting feet. We thank Thee for life as it is given us, day by day. Help us to fill it with honest, cheerful, fruitful service. May we realize and rejoice in the nobility of labor, and may we learn how it is that a child of Thine, standing in his own place, giving himself to the tasks of the hour, imparts strength and courage to his fellow-worker, and helps the world forward in the path of righteousness and peace. So may Thy will be done in and through us. Amen.

JOHN P. FORBES.

O the green things growing, the green things growing
The faint sweet smell of the green things growing!
I should like to live, whether I smile or grieve,
Just to watch the happy life of my green things
growing.

DINAH MULOCK CRAIG.

Not all these sweets, these sounds, this vernal blaze,
Is but one joy, express'd a thousand ways;
And honey from the flowers, and song of birds,
Are from the poet's pen, his overflowing words.
LEIGH HUNT.

O Thou who art the Creator of life in every form in which it is expressed in the earth, we thank Thee for the grass and the flowers, the trees and the shrubs, the music of the streams and the melody of the birds. As nature is ever vocal with Thy praise, so may our hearts be attuned to deepest joy that we are a part of Thy creation and made capable of constant exultation in the beauty and the beneficence of Thy purpose therein displayed. In this spirit may we rejoice and be glad in this new day which Thou hast made for us. Amen.

I. J. MEAD.

As one familiar with the sonatas and the symphonies of Beethoven, while passing along the street in summer, gets, from out of the open window, a snatch of a song or a piece that is being played, catching a strain here and another there and says to himself, “Ah, that is Beethoven. I recognize that: it is from such and such a movement of the Pastoral," or whatever it may be; so men in life catch strains of God in the mother's disinterested and self-denying love, in the lover's glow, in the little child's innocent affections. Where did this thing come from? No plant ever brought out such fruit as this?

HENRY WARd Beecher.

Father of all and giver of every good thing, to Thee we pray; to Thee we look for light, for truth, for beauty. In the travail of thought may there come only the highest and best good. Where there is division we ask for unity; where there is confusion we ask for serenity; where there is discord, we ask for harmony. May divergent paths lead to the larger way of widening vision, distinctive service, unstinted love. Hasten the day when Thy purpose shall be accomplished in us, and when that which is now imperfect shall become the perfected whole. Grant to us wisdom to pursue noble ends with intelligent zeal, and patient effort, and in a charitable and hopeful spirit. Amen.

C. C. CLARK.

It is very interesting to watch a plant grow, it is like taking part in creation. When all outside is cold and white, when the little children of the woodland are gone to their nurseries in the warm earth and the empty nests on the bare trees filled with snow, my window-garden glows and smiles, making summer within while it is winter without. It is wonderful to see flowers bloom in the midst of a snow-storm! I have felt a bud" shyly doff her green hood and blossom with a silken burst of sound," while the icy fingers of the snow beat against the window panes. What secret power, I wonder, caused this blossoming miracle? What mysterious force guided the seedling from the dark earth up to the light, through leaf and stem and bud, to glorious fulfilment in the perfect flower? Who could have dreamed that such beauty lurked in the dark earth, was latent in the tiny seed we planted? Beautiful flower, you have taught me to see a little way into the hidden heart of things. Now I understand that the darkness everywhere may hold possibilities better than even my hopes.

HELEN KELler.

Grant us, O God, this day, vitality of brain and heart, to lay hold on the ordinary events and experiences of life, and transmute them into beautiful and permanent values for ourselves and others. May we have courage, love and faithfulness, to conquer adversities and fulfil our duties. And should the winter of discontent and disappointment beat without against our souls, even so may Thy Kingdom come. Amen.

JULIUS P. WEST.

Brother - there is no payment in the world!
We work and pour our labor at the feet
Of those who are around us and to come.
our living at the hands
around us and have been.
No person can have more

We live and take

Of those who are

No one is paid.

Than he can hold. And none can do beyond
The power that's in him. To each child that's born
Belongs as much of all our human good

As he can take and use to make him strong.

And from each man, debtor to all the world,
Is due the fullest fruit of all his powers,
His whole life's labor, proudly rendered up,
Not as return can moments pay an age?
But as the simple duty of a man.
Can he do less-receiving everything?

CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN.

O, Thou Most Bountiful Giver! We thank Thee this morning for all the conveniences and comforts, the stored knowledge and acquired wisdom, the inspirations and encouragements of our daily life. Truly others have lived as Thy children and labored as Thy servants, by mind and hand and heart, and we are wondrously permitted to enter into the fruits of their labours. Grant unto us this day, O Father, so to strive and so to live that some other life may be cheered and blessed by the spirit and by the fruit of our day's service. May our thoughts and words and deeds somehow express our gratitude for the blessings which we are constantly receiving Amen.

WILLLIAM H. GOULD.