TONGUES.

When I have sunk to rest,

Thus wilt thou pass, in calm sublimity.
Then be thy voice to others, as to me,
To the deep soul addressed.

Here does a spirit dwell

Of gratitude and contemplation high,
Holding deep union with eternity.
O loveliest scene, farewell!

37

TONGUES.

A. D. T. W.

"And every man heard them in his own language."

EARTH speaks to us! Her seasons, as they roll, Give noble utterings,

And inward bear sweet influence o'er the soul,Summers and springs!

Life hath its lessons,

fervent love, and losing,

Rapture and pain,

Writ on the leaf that turns not at our choosing, Nor turns in vain.

And every earnest spirit finds a tongue,

A mystic tone

Out on an air of mingled echoes flung,

Seeking its own.

God speaketh! He hath left beyond the sky
His awful crown,

And, wearing lesser robes of majesty,

To earth comes down.

Take heed how ye shall hear, in gratitude,
Coldness, or scorn,-

Since to each soul that tongue is understood,
Wherein 't is born.

Art thou alive to things of sense alone?
Then shalt thou hear,

Naught else, though heaven and earth their

thunder tone

Shout in thine ear.

Dost reverent wait and listen for the teaching
From all things given?

Then doth thine attitude of pure beseeching
Lift thee to heaven!

A voice shall one day utter weal or woe
To souls of men,

And "each in his own language," learned below,
Must hear it then!

THE LILIES OF THE FIELD.

39

THE LILIES OF THE FIELD.

AGNES STRICKLAND.

FAIR lilies of Jerusalem,

Ye wear the same array
As when imperial Judah's stem
Maintained its regal sway.

By sacred Jordan's desert tide
As bright ye blossom on

As when your simple charms outvied
The pride of Solomon.

Ye flourished when the captive band,
By prophets warned in vain,
Were led to far Euphrates' strand,
From Jordan's pleasant plain,

In hostile lands to weep and dream
Of things that still were free,
And sigh to see your golden gleam,
Sweet flowers of Galilee!

Ye have survived Judæa's throne,
Her temple's overthrow,

And seen proud Salem sitting lone,
A widow in her woe.

But, lilies of Jerusalem,

Through every change ye shine; Your golden urns unfading gem The fields of Palestine.

PART II.

REVELATION: THE OLD TESTAMENT.

THE BIBLE.

BERNARD BARTON.

LAMP of our feet! whereby we trace
Our path, when wont to stray;
Stream from the fount of heavenly grace!
Brook by the traveller's way!

Bread of our souls! whereon we feed;
True manna from on high!

Our guide and chart! wherein we read
Of realms beyond the sky.

Pillar of fire, through watches dark!

Of radiant cloud, by day!

When waves would whelm our tossing bark, Our anchor and our stay!