We endeavour to invest the conception of Duty, of which even the most heedless have some sense, with all those attributes of sanctity and solemnity hitherto associated with things remoter from human experience, and thus to give expression to our conviction that Religion is Morality and Morality is Religion, considered as a Divinely ordained law of life for all intelligent beings.

As a stimulus towards the adoption of the moral life, as a rebuke of the selfish, self-centred, unspiritual character for which "Faith" is no remedy, it is believed that hymns such as Whittier's are of incomparable value. For such purposes we retain

them, for such purposes we sing them, that amid the sound of many voices and the strains of music their winged words may find entrance into the sanctuary of our souls.

The thanks of the Ethical Religion Society are gratefully given to Mrs. Bridell-Fox for her permission to use the hymns composed by the late W. J. Fox and Sarah F. Adams; to Messrs. Macmillan and Messrs. Chapman & Hall for verses published by them; to

Mrs. Bullock for verses by the late Dean Alford; to Lady Bowring for Sir John Bowring's lines; to Mrs. Clough for the late A. H. Clough's poem; to Mrs. Matthew Arnold for the late Matthew Arnold's verses; to Mr. Malcolm Quin for hymns 14 and 49, and to other owners of copyright for their courtesy in granting the use of the poems which stand part of the collection.

1.

As once, upon Athenian ground,
Shrines, statues, temples, all around,
The man of Tarsus trod,-

'Midst idol-altars, one he saw

That filled his breast with sacred awe :
'Twas-" To the Unknown God".

Age after age has rolled away,
Altars and thrones have felt decay,
Sages and saints have risen;

And, like a giant roused from sleep,
Man has explored the pathless deep,
And lightnings snatched from heaven.

Yet still, where'er presumptuous man
His Maker's essence strives to scan,
And lifts his feeble hands,

Though saint and sage their powers unite

To fathom that abyss of light,

Ah! still that altar stands.

A. L. Barbauld.

"MAKE us a god," said man :
Power first the voice obeyed:
And soon a monstrous form

Its worshippers dismayed;

Uncouth and huge, by nations rude adored, With savage rites and sacrifice abhorred.

"Make us a god," said man :
Art next the voice obeyed;
Lovely, serene and grand,

Uprose the Athenian maid ;

The perfect statue Greece, with wreathèc

brows,

Adores in festal rites and lyric vows.

"Make us a god," said man:

Religion followed Art,

And answered, “Look within;

God is in thine own heart—

His noblest image there, and holiest shrine, Silent revere, and be thyself divine".

W. J. Fox.