Thou wilt preserve me by Thy power From all my raging foes; Thy heavenly host in danger’s hour, Before me goes; Cherubic and seraphic ranks in might, Far scattering the forces of my night. I see the Patriarchs of eld, The Prophets bold and strong; Apostles who the Lord beheld, The Martyrs’ throng; All faithful witnesses, who hence have gone; I gaze, and pause afresh to reach the throne. O Unity in Trinity! In mercy grant Thine aid; O Trinity in Unity! I seek thy shade, Where Christ has made a covenant sure with me; Oh, fearless, there let me abide with Thee! There is a hymn by another author of Welsh extraction, St. Mugint, in the “Leabhar imuin,” beginning with the words “Parce dne.” The “Altus” of Columba, who arrived in Scotland from Ireland in 563, is a production of considerable length and much merit, in the A B C Darian style. It takes cognisance of the whole sphere of sacred and Scriptural truths, somewhat in the fashion of the compositions of the Brytho-Saxon Caedmon, and has been regarded as a highly effective “Lorica”:— ALTUS PROSATOR. Great Father of all, the Almighty, we praise, The One-unbegotten, the Ancient of Days, Eternally first, and eternally last! With Thee there remains neither future nor past. With Thee co-eternal in glory and might, Reigns Christ on the throne in the regions of light, Thine Only-begotten, the Son of Thy love, And there, too, the Spirit, the heavenly Dove. Bright myriads of angels a ministrant throng, Ring praises unceasing, rejoicing in song, Where crowns are cast down at Immanuel’s feet, And anthems eternal the elders repeat. The judgements of heaven shall be scattered abroad On all who deny that our Saviour is God; But we shall be raised up with Jesus on high, To where the new mansions all glorious lie. There is a Gaelic hymn attributed to Columba, which illustrates the manner and occasions of using these “Loricae”—in Gaelic _lurech_. Its superscription runs thus: “Colum cilli cecinit, while passing alone; and it will be a protection to the person who will repeat it going on a journey.” The author in the first verse represents himself as lonely on the hillside, and addressing the royal “Sun.” M’oenuran dam is in sliabh, &c.:— “Alone am I in the mountain, O Royal Sun of prosperous path; Nothing is to be feared by me, Not if I were _attended by_ sixty-hundred.” The _rig-grian_—Sun-king, is applied to the Creator.