Angelus.

Softly drops the crimson sun:     Softly down from overhead,     Drop the bell-notes, one by one,     Melting in the melting red;     Sign to angel bands unsleeping,--     "Day is done, the dark is dread,     Take the world in care and keeping.     "Set the white-robed sentries close,     Wrap our want and weariness     In the surety of repose;     Let the shining presences,     Bearing fragrance on their wings,     Stand about our beds to bless,     Fright away all evil things.     "Rays of Him whose shadow pours     Through all lives a brimming glory,     Float o'er darksome woods and moors,     Float above the billows hoary;     Shine, through night and storm and sin,     Tangled fate and bitter story,     Guide the lost and wandering in!"     Now the last red ray is gone;     Now the twilight shadows hie;     Still the bell-notes, one by one,     Send their soft voice to the sky,     Praying, as with human lip,--     "Angels, hasten, night is nigh,     Take us to thy guardianship."