III. WHITSUNDAY HYMN. 1. What blessed joys are ours, When time renews our thought Of that true Comforter On the disciples brought. 2. With light of quivering flame In fiery tongues He fell, And hearts were warm with love And lips were quick to tell. 3. All tongues were loosened then, And fear, in men, awoke Before that mighty power By which the Spirit spoke. 4. Achieved in mystic sign Has been that paschal feast, Whose sacred list of days The soul from sin released. 5. Thee then, O holiest Lord, We pray in humble guise To give such heavenly gifts Before our later eyes. 6. Fill consecrated breasts With grace to keep Thy ways; Show us forgiveness now, And grant us quiet days. IV. HYMNUS MATUTINUS. 1. Jam meta noctis transiit, Somni quies jam praeterit Aurora surgit fulgida Et spargit coelum lux nova. 2. Sed cum diei spiculum Cernamus, hinc nos omnium Ad te, superne Lucifer, Preces necesse est fundere. 3. Te lucis sancte Spiritus Et caritatis actibus Ad instar illud gloriae Nos innovatos effice. 4. Praesta Pater piissime Patrique compar unice, Cum Spiritu paraclito Nunc et per omne saeculum. IV. A MORNING HYMN. 1. The limit of the night is passed, The quiet hour of sleep has fled; Far up the lance of dawn is cast; New light upon the heaven is spread. 2. But when this sparkle of the day Our eyes discern, then, Lord of light, To Thee our souls make haste to pray And offer all their wants aright. 3. O Holy Spirit, by the deeds Of Thine own light and charity, Renew us through our earthly needs And cause us to be like to Thee. 4. Grant this, O Father ever blessed; And Holy Son, our heavenly friend; And Holy Ghost, Thou comfort best! Now and until all time shall end. CHAPTER IV. POPE DAMASUS AND THE BEGINNING OF RHYME. Contemporary with Hilary of Poitiers, but probably a younger man, as he survived him by seventeen years, was Damasus of Rome. Like many other Romans of the imperial period, he was a Spaniard by birth; or, at least, he was the son of a Spaniard who had removed to Rome and had become a deacon or presbyter of the church dedicated to the memory of the Roman martyr, St. Lawrence. Of his own earlier life we know very little. An extant epitaph records the fact that he had a sister who became a nun and died in her twentieth year. He himself served in the Church of St. Lawrence until his sixtieth year, when he was chosen Bishop of Rome; and in the accepted catalogue, which begins with the Apostle Peter, he ranks as the thirty-sixth bishop of the see.