Ten are the holy commandments given
To man below, from God in heaven.

Human watch from harm can't ward us---
God will watch and God will guard us;
He, through His eternal might,
Give us all a blessed night.

"Hark! ye neighbours, and hear me tell,
Eleven sounds on the belfry bell!
Eleven apostles, of holy mind,
Taught the Gospel to mankind.
Human watch, &c.

"Hark! ye neighbours, and hear me tell, Twelve resounds from the belfry bell! Twelve disciples to Jesus came,

Who suffered rebuke for their Saviour's name. Human watch, &c.

"Hark! ye neighbours, and hear me tell, One has peal'd on the belfry bell!

One God alone, one Lord, indeed,

Who bears us forth in our hour of need.
Human watch, &c.

"Hark! ye neighbours, and hear me tell,
Two resounds on the belfry bell!
Two paths before mankind are free ;-
Neighbour, choose the best for thee.
Human watch, &c.

"Hark! ye neighbours, and hear me tell, Three now tolls on the belfry bell! Threefold reigns the heavenly host,

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Human watch, &c.

"Hark! ye neighbours, and hear me tell,
Four are the strokes of the belfry bell!
Four gospels pure to men proclaim
Eternal life in the Saviour's name.
Human watch, &c.

"Hark! ye neighbours, and hear me tell,
Five now rings on the belfry bell!
Five barley loaves, when Jesus will'd,
Five thousand fed-twelve baskets filled.
Human watch, &c.

"Hark! ye neighbours, and hear me tell,
Six now tolls from the belfry bell!
Six are the days to labour given,
In six days God created heaven.
Human watch, &c.

"Hark! ye neighbours, and hear me tell,
Seven resounds from the belfry bell!
The seventh day is the sacred rest—
The Lord's own day, the Sabbath blest.
Human watch, &c.

"Hark! ye neighbours, and hear me tell,
Eight are the strokes of the belfry bell!
And eight were the souls that the ark did save
Above the flood's o'erwhelming wave.

Human watch, &c.

"Hark! ye neighbours, and hear me tell,
Nine has pealed on the belfry bell!
The ninth sad hour saw Jesus die;

The rocks, the graves, the dead reply.

Human watch from harm can't ward us--

God will watch and God will guard us;

He, through His eternal might,

Give us all a blessed night."

THE WRECK OF THE "HESPERUS."

It was the schooner Hesperus,

That sailed the wintry sea;

And the skipper had taken his little daughter, To bear him company.

Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax,

Her cheeks like the dawn of day,

And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds That ope in the month of May.

The skipper he stood beside the helm,

With his pipe in his mouth,

And watched how the veering flaw did blow

The smoke now west, now south.

Then up and spake an old sailor,
Had sailed the Spanish Main,

"I pray thee put into yonder port,
For I fear a hurricane.

"Last night the moon had a golden ring,
And to-night no moon we see!"

The skipper he blew a whiff from his pipe,
And a scornful laugh laughed he.

Colder and louder blew the wind

A gale from the north-east;
The snow fell hissing in the brine,

And the billows frothed like yeast.

Down came the storm, and smote amain
The vessel in its strength;

She shuddered and paused like a frighted steed,
Then leaped her cable's length.

"Come hither, come hither, my little daughter, And do not tremble so,

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For I can weather the roughest gale

That ever wind did blow."

He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat,
Against the stinging blast;

He cut a rope from a broken spar,

And bound her to the mast.

O father! I hear the church-bells ring,
Oh, say, what may it be?"

""Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!"
And he steered for the open sea.

"O father! I hear the sound of guns, Oh, say, what may it be?”

"Some ship in distress, that cannot live In such an angry sea!"

"O father! I see a gleaming light,

Oh, say, what may it be?"

But the father answered never a word,

A frozen corpse was he.

Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,

With his face to the skies,

The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow On his fixed and glassy eyes.

Then the maiden clasped her hands, and prayed That saved she might be;

And she thought of Christ, who stilled the waves On the lake of Galilee.

And fast through the midnight dark and drear,
Through the whistling sleet and snow,
Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept
Towards the reef of Norman's woe.

And ever the fitful gusts between,
A sound came from the land;
It was the sound of the trampling surf
On the rocks and hard sea-sand.

The breakers were right beneath her bows,
She drifted a dreary wreck,

And a whooping billow swept her crew
Like icicles from her deck.

She struck where the white and fleecy waves
Looked soft as carded wool;

But the cruel rocks, they gored her sides
Like the horns of an angry bull.

Her rattling-shrouds, all sheathed in ice,
With the mast, went by the board;
Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,
Ho! ho! the breakers roared!

At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,
A fisherman stood aghast,

To see the form of a maiden fair

Lashed close to a drifting mast.

The salt sea was frozen on her breast,
The salt tears in her eyes;

And he saw her hair like the brown sea-weed,
On the billows fall and rise.