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The strain upraise of joy and praise:
Life be beautiful.
In the vision of the new day, let the ransomed people say:
Life be beautiful.
They who have left the gloom of ancient creed; they in this song of songs shall lead:
Life be beautiful.
They who in peace with all do dwell; all trustful souls the chorus swell:
Life be beautiful.
By the love that cheers the lost who call; by the grace that saves weak feet that fall: Life be beautiful.
By lofty aims that banish fear; by simple hearts and deeds sincere:
Life be beautiful.
Ye floods and oceans billows, ye storms and winters snow; ye days of cloudless beauty, hoar frost and summer glow; ye groves that wave in spring, and glorious forests sing:
Life be beautiful.
(After Youlden, H., section of 'The Strain Upraise' in Manual of Ethical Devotion, 1914, 97-9)
Beautiful is the blue weather that follows after rain; beautiful is the brimming river that slides through quiet meadows, with whispering reeds.
Beautiful is the flying moon that gleams and hides in the dappled sky. Beautiful are the salt pools locked in by bars of sand with seas beyond.
Beautiful is the wheat where crimson poppies burn; beautiful the brown waves of rippling corn, the glory of forest leaves, and orchards hung with fruit.
Beautiful is the return of the swallow, the coo-ing of doves in the tree tops; beautiful is the skylark throwing down his shower of melody.
Beautiful are the mist and the rain, the sere woods, the troubled clouds and the storm, and the hoar frost and the clear snow.
(Words of Worship, 135