Stillness reigns—the va­pors steal
Slowly down the mount­ain’s brow,
And the ev­en­ing sha­dows veil
Nature’s face of bright­ness now;
Flowers put off their glo­ri­ous dress,
All the morn­ing smiles are fled,
Earth is wrapped in lone­li­ness,
And the si­lence of the dead.

Thus be­neath the hand of God
Nature wakes and sleeps; but still
All obe­di­ent to His nod,
All sub­miss­ive to His will.
So we flour­ish, so we fade;
Drinking now life’s cup of joy,
Now on na­ture’s bo­som laid,
Treasured for eter­ni­ty.

All is mor­tal but the soul,
Whose un­dy­ing en­er­gy
Spurns the fet­ter­ing world’s con­trol,
And up­soars, my God, to Thee.
When life’s ev­en­ing twi­light shrouds
All our thoughts with care and gloom,
When Thy sun­shine breaks the clouds
Gathered o’er the win­try tomb.

Desolate the path ap­pears
To the dim and dist­ant eye;
Yet that path of dark­ness bears
Flowers of im­mor­tal­ity.
O’er it shine eter­nal lamps;
And the mists so dark that seem,
Are like morn­ing’s chil­ly damps
Heralding the sun­ny beam.

Father! Thy pa­ter­nal care
Has my guard­ian been, my guide;
Every hal­lowed wish and pray­er
Has Thy hand of love sup­plied;
Thine is ev­ery thought of bliss,
Left by hours and days gone by;
Every hope Thine of­fspring is,
Beaming from fu­tur­ity.

Every sun of splen­did ray;
Every moon that shines se­rene;
Every morn that wel­comes day;
Every ev­en­ing’s twi­light scene;
Every hour which wis­dom brings;
Every in­cense at Thy shrine;
These—and all life’s ho­li­est things,
And its fair­est—all are Thine.

And for all my hymns shall rise,
Daily to Thy gra­cious throne:
Thither let my ask­ing eyes
Turn un­wear­ied—righ­teous One!
Thro’ life’s strange vi­cis­si­tude
There re­pos­ing all my care,
Trusting still, thro’ ill and good,
Fixed and cheered and coun­seled there.

All be­sides is weak in­deed,
Dreams of fol­ly—base­less hope;
Earth is but a brok­en reed:
Heaven the best, the on­ly prop.
Who would live, to raise on earth
Some frail pile of dust—and die?
Man is of im­mor­tal birth,
Living for eter­ni­ty.