THE LORD'S DAY.

TIME of tranquil joy and holy feel ing!

When over earth God's spirit from

above

Spreads out His wings of love!

When sacred thoughts, like angels, come appeal

ing

To our tent doors; O loeve; to earth and heaven The sweetest of the seven !

How peaceful are thy skies! thy air is clearer, As on the advent of a gracious time:

The sweetness of its prime

Blesseth the world, and Eden's days seem

nearer:

I hear, in each faint stirring of the breeze,
God's voice among the trees.

O while thy hallowed moments are distilling Their fresher influence on my heart like dews, The chamber when I muse

Turns to a temple! He, whose converse thrill

ing

Honored Emmaüs, that old eventide,

Comes sudden to my side.

'Tis light at evening time when Thou art pres

ent;

Thy coming to the eleven in that dim room
Brightened, O Christ! its gloom:

So bless my lonely hour that memories pleasant
Around the time a heavenly gleam may cast,
Which many days shall last!

Raise each low aim, refine each high emotion,
That with more ardent footstep I may press
Toward Thy holiness;

And, braced for sacred duty by devotion,
Support my cross along that rugged road
Which Thou hast sometimes trod!

I long to see Thee, for my heart is weary:
O when, my Lord! in kindness wilt Thou

come

To call Thy banished home?

The scenes are cheerless, and the days are

dreary;

From sorrow and from sin I would be free,

And evermore with Thee!

Even now I see the golden city shining

Up the blue depths of that transparent air:
How happy all is there!

There breaks a day which never knows declin

ing;

A Sabbath, through whose circling hours the

blest

Beneath Thy shadow rest!

JAMES D. BURNS, (1855.)

EARLY RISING AND PRAYER.

HEN first thy eyes unveil, give thy soul leave

To do the like; our bodies but
forerun

The spirit's duty:(true hearts spread and heave
Unto their God, as flowers do to the sun:
Give Him thy first thoughts then, so shalt thou
keep

Him company all day, and in Him sleep.

Yet never sleep the sun up; prayer should

Dawn with the day: there are set awful hours 'Twixt heaven and us; the manna was not good

After sun-rising; for day sullies flowers:

Rise to prevent the sun; sleep doth sins glut, And heaven's gate opens when the world's is shut.

Walk with thy fellow creatures; note the

hush

And whispering amongst them. Not a spring
Or leaf but hath his morning hymn; each bush
And oak doth know I AM. Canst thou not
sing!

O leave thy cares and follies! Go this way,
And thou art sure to prosper all the day.

Serve God before the world; let him not go
Until thou hast a blessing; then resign
The whole unto him and remember who
Prevail'd by wrestling ere the sun did shine;
Pour oil upon the stones, weep for thy sin,
Then journey on and have an eye to heaven.

Mornings are mysteries; the first, the world's youth,

Man's resurrection, and the future's bud,

Shroud in their births; the crown of life, light, truth

Is styl❜d their star; the stone and hidden food: Three blessings wait upon them, one of which Should move, they make us holy, happy,

rich.

When the world's up, and every swarm abroad, Keep well thy temper, mix not with each clay;