THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT.
GREAT God of power, whose workings naught can stay,
Aid our weak efforts, and direct them right;
All sin's dark-loving deeds to cast away,
And put on, as behoves, the arms of light;—
Those arms the happy Spirits of Heaven invest,
Forming the panoply that keeps them blest,
That guards frail man through the besetting strife
Which tempests mortal life,
From Hell's insidious practices ne'er free;