Let me Thy power, Thy beauty see,
So shall my vain aspirings cease,
And my freed heart shall follow Thee,

Through paths of everlasting peace;
My strength Thy gift, my life Thy care,
I shall forget to seek elsewhere

The joy to which my soul is heir.

Anna L. Waring.

66 THERE SHALL IN NO WISE ENTER INTO IT

ANYTHING THAT DEFILETH."

HE roseate hues of early dawn,
The brightness of the day,

The crimson of the sunset sky,

How fast they fade away!

Oh for the pearly gates of heaven!
Oh for the golden floor!

Oh for the Sun of Righteousness,

That setteth nevermore!

The highest hopes we cherish here,
How fast they tire and faint!
How many a spot defiles the robe
That wraps an earthly saint!

Oh for a heart that never sins!
Oh for a soul wash'd white!
Oh for a voice to praise our King,
Nor weary day or night!

Here faith is ours, and heavenly hope,
And grace to lead us higher;
But there are perfectness and peace
Beyond our best desire.

Oh! by Thy love and anguish, Lord!
Oh! by Thy life laid down!

Oh! that we fall not from Thy grace,

Nor cast away our crown!

Cecil Frances Alexander.

“PEACE ON EARTH; GOODWILL TOWARDS MEN.”

T came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold:

"Peace to the earth, goodwill to man,
From heaven's all-gracious King;"

The world in solemn stillness lay

To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurl'd;
And still their heavenly music floats

O'er all the weary world:

Above its sad and lowly plains

They bend on heavenly wing, And ever o'er its Babel-sounds The blessed angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffer'd long;
Beneath the angel-strain have roll❜d
Two thousand years of wrong;
And men, at war with men, hear not
The love-song which they bring ;-
Oh! hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!

And ye, beneath life's crushing load
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful step and slow;
Look now! for glad and golden hours

Come swiftly on the wing,
Oh! rest beside the weary road,

And hear the angels sing!

For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet-bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold;
When Peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendours fling,

And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.

Sears.

MARY MAGDALENE.

HY for thy Lord dost thou thus weep and

mourn,

Like one half broken-hearted and forlorn?

No need for Him that thou should'st mourn and

weep,

No need with tears an empty shroud to steep.

He, whom thou seekest in the murky tomb,
Hath sprung bright and victorious from the gloom;
He lives, He greatly lives for evermore ;

See! wide the rocks ope the sepulchral door.

Why bring'st thou myrrh and spices, offerings meet For livid corpses in their winding-sheet?

His body blooms with immortality,
Meet to return to His paternal sky.

Thy tears proclaim the greatness of thy love,
Nor doth thy Lord thy flowing tears reprove;

Hear'st thou? and know'st thou not that voice adored?

'Tis thine own name! He speaks-thy God and Lord.

Now go, first witness and first messenger,
Throughout the city thy glad tidings bear,
And teach the Twelve that Christ Himself is nigh,
And, wheresoe'er thou speakest, standing by.

All love, and praise, and majesty be Thine,
Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit Divine;
Quicken'd by whom, our bodies shall return,
And in immortal bloom for ever burn.

Williams: From the Latin.

THE CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.

ND Thou art growing up, O Child divine!
While on Thy life a daily dying lies;
All things that open on this life of Thine

Are preludes to Thy dying agonies.