worth unless there be a beyond? What are the attainments and acquisitions of our threescore and ten years, unless they are to be completed and perfected and applied in a hereafter? Why struggle and toil to gather a little knowledge that will be buried in all its weakness and incompleteness in the grave? But Reason herself breaks the chains of such a despairing doctrine. She shapes her wings to fly. She looks onward and upward. An endless vista opens before her. She anticipates immortality. H. J. VAN DYKE. WAITING. I. I HAVE my dreams as you do, yet for me II. To wait: it is not wearisome; each day Brings something; newer needs, or lessons caught With gold that glitters, though it fades away After a little. Nothing comes to stay, Success or suffering. To wait is naught But somewhat selfish) that 't is better so Than to be carried upward by the swell JAMES BERRY BENSEL. January 20. How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! Ps. cxxxix. 17. THE 'HERE are seasons, when, for the moment, at least, the power of the world seems to drop. A strange and awful sense of responsibility comes upon us. Aspirations rise up out of the soul like the morning mist kindling in the sun as it rises from the mountain top towards heaven. We long for a higher and holier life. The vanity of the world, the worth of virtue, the goodness of God, and the peace of a trusting and devout heart are revealed to us. It is a heavenly vision open before the soul. These hours, when the soul is freed from its bonds, and holds communion with truth and God, and sees revealed the realities of its existence, are blessed hours hours of heaven hours, which if obeyed, shall raise the soul upward to heaven. EPHRAIM PEABODY. MY SPIRIT TURNS TO THEE. THOUGHTS of my soul! how swift ye go- Or arrows from the archer's bow- Thought after thought, ye thronging rise, Of music unto God! And shall these thoughts of joy and love All-moving Spirit! freely forth, At Thy command, the strong wind goes Its errand to the passive earth; Nor art can stay, nor strength oppose, Until it folds its weary wing Once more within the hand divine; So, weary of each earthly thing, LAMARTINE. January 21. They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.-Ps. lxxxiv. 7. BE E always displeased at what thou art, if thou desirest to attain to what thou art not; for where thou hast pleased thyself, there thou abidest. SAINT AUGUSTINE. THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. THIS is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings And coral reefs lie bare, Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl, Wrecked is the ship of pearl! And every chambered cell, Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, Before thee lies revealed, Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed! Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his lustrous coil; Still, as the spiral grew, He left the past year's dwelling for the new, Stole with soft step the shining archway through, Built up its idle door, Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, Child of the wandering sea, Cast from her lap, forlorn! From thy dead lips a clearer note is born Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn! While on mine ear it rings, Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings: Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. January 22. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. HOSEA vi. 3. Lord, increase our faith. THE LUKE xvii. 5. 'HERE is many a crisis in life when we need a faith like the martyr's to support us. There are hours in life like martyrdom, - as full of bitter anguish, as full of utter earthly desolation; in which life itself loses its value, and we ask to die; in whose dread struggle and agony, life might drop from us and not be minded. Oh, then must our cry, like that of Jesus, go up to the pitying heavens for help, and nothing but the infinite and immortal can help us. Then, when the world is sinking beneath us, must we seek the everlasting arms to bear us up, to bear us up to heaven. Thus was it with our great example, and so must it be with us. "In Him was life; the life of self-renunciation, the life of love, the life of spiritual and all-conquering faith; and that life is the light of men. Oh, blessed light! come to our darkness; for our soul is dark, our way is dark, for want of thee; come to our darkness and turn it into day; and let it shine brighter and brighter, till it mingles with the light of the all-perfect and everlasting day! FAITH AND SIGHT. THOU Sayst, "Take up thy cross The night is black, the feet are slack, But O dear Lord, we cry, That we Thy face could see! Thy blessed face one moment's space- Dim tracts of time divide Those golden days from me; Thy voice comes strange o'er years of change, How can I follow Thee? Within our heart of hearts, In nearest nearness be; Set up Thy throne within Thine own, FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE. |