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HOME.

Thou, whose every hour

Is spent in home's green bower, Where love, like golden fruit o'erhanging grows, Where friends to thy soul sweet,

United, circling meet,

As lapping leaves that form the entire rose;
Thank thy God well soon from this joy, thy day
Passes away.

Thou, at whose household fire,
Sits still thine aged sire,

An angel guest with lore as those of old;
Make thy young children's care,

That crown of hoary hair,

Which the calm heavens love as they behold:
Soon, soon the glory of that sunset ray
Passes away.

Thou, from whose household nooks

Peep forth gay, gleaming looks,

Those "fairy heads" shot up from opening flowers, With wondrous perfume filled,

The fresh, the undistilled,

The overflowing bliss that childhood showers; Praise Him who gave, and at whose word their stay Passes away.

Thou, with another heart

United, though apart,

As two close stars that mingling shine but one

Whose pleasant pathway lies

'Neath tender, watchful eyes,

Where love shines clearer than the morning sun; Praise God for life, that in such soft array,

Passes away.

More, more

thou hast yet more!

These, thy heart's treasured store,

Transferred to heaven may win immortal birth With radiant seraphs there

May tune ambrosial air

To ever glorying hymns of praise, while earth,
Like lingering music from some harper grey,
Passes away.

:

HEAVEN.

When through the silent, midnight hours,
I watch with wakeful eyes,

And the frail clay's exhausted powers
Forbid my soul to rise ;

Yet then, with child-like faith I cling
To my promise-keeping Lord;
I hide me 'neath his sheltering wing,
And stay me on His word.

There's calm in heaven, and perfect rest,

And undisturbed repose;

Sweet prospect to an aching heart,

Is such a peaceful close.

It's sweetness I delight to own,

But its purity is bliss,

I shall be like the Holy One,
And see him as he is.

RECONCILIATION.

Two celebrated ministers had quarrelled; they refused to speak to each other; when Dr. John Owen adopted the following plan to reconcile them, after several others had been tried in vain. He wrote and left at the house of each the following lines. An instant and perfect reconciliation was the happy result.

How rare that task a prosperous issue finds,
Which seeks to reconcile discordant minds!
How many scruples rise at passion's touch!
This yields too little, and that yields too much.
Each wishes each with other's eyes to see
And many sinners can't make two agree.
What mediation, then, the Saviour showed,
Who singly reconciled us all to God!

TO MOURNERS.

HUIE.

O ye, who, with the silent tear,
And saddened step, assemble here,
To bear these cold, these loved remains,
Where dark and cheerless silence reigns;
Your sorrows hush, your griefs dispel,
The Saviour lives, and all is well!

Those eyes, indeed, are rayless now;
And pale that cheek, and chill that brow;
Yet could that lifeless form declare

The joys its soul is called to share,

How would those lips rejoice to tell,

The Saviour lives

and all is well.

SEASONS OF PRAYER.

Come to the morning prayer:
Come let us kneel and pray
Prayer is the Christian pilgrim's staff,
To walk with God all day.

At noon, beneath the Rock
Of Ages, rest and pray ;

Sweet is that shelter from the heat,
When the sun smites by day.

At evening, shut thy door,

Round the home altar pray;
And finding there the house of God-
At Heaven's gate close the day.

When midnight veils our eyes,
Oh! it is sweet to say,

I sleep, but my heart waketh, Lord,
With thee to watch and pray.

ON GENESIS II: 21, 22.

CHARLES WESLEY.

Not from his head was woman took,
As made her husband to o'erlook;
Not from his feet, as one designed
The footstool of the stronger kind ;
But fashioned for himself, a bride,
An equal, taken from his side:
Her place intended to maintain,
The mate and glory of the man ;
To rest, as still beneath his arm,
Protected by her lord from harm,
And never from his heart removed,
And only less than God beloved.

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