And turn, with heart of hope, to hail
God's gift, the latest born;
Those promises which never fail
Make glad our New Year's morn.
Before His fiat nature bends,
His verdure clothes the tree;
He grandeur to the mountain lends,
And sways the surging sea.
At His command the torrents pour,
The spring leaps from the rock;
The eaglets from the eyrie soar,
Firm earth sustains a shock.
With power unbounded at His feet
All heaven and earth to move;
Through Calvary's cross, in Him we greet,
'Yond justice, pardoning love.
Though dismal clouds at noontide lower,
What need to grope our way;
Ahead doth stream, from beacon tower,
Light to celestial day.
That Hand which paints the rose's bloom,
Which hung heaven's canopy,
Doth point to where, 'yond present gloom,
Unblemished landscapes be.
That Heart, responsive to the cry
Of man, and bird, and beast;
Bids teeming earth, in prompt reply,
Spread out perpetual feast.
Then, sigh not o'er the buried year,
Nor mourn, in low-set voice;
Young Life sings forth in accents clear;
In her sweet joy rejoice.
[Illustration]