Like that which deepens in the summer rose,
Or tips the daisy's frill, creeps over them;
As if they blushed, in a white, flowerless world,
To find themselves the only blooming things.
Unchanged they last until the seed is ripe,
In which the single life dies for the race.
And then, their purpose served, they darken down
Into the dusky green of common leaves.
Transfiguration strange! a lowly sign

Of Him, whose robe and face shone whiter far
Than Hermon's crest, while of His death He talked!
That which exalts the flower above its wont,
Ennobles everything. The priestly dress
Of beauty and of glory clothes each life
That yields itself a sacrifice to love.

HUGH MACMILLAN.

December 30.

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Ps. xc. 12.

GOD gives thee a little light that thou mayest know thy

duty. But He surrounds thee with much darkness, that thou mayest know thy dependence. He rewards thy efforts after knowledge with some discoveries, to encourage thee to persevere. He meets them with more difficulties, to humble thy vain-glory. He allows thee to ascend higher and higher on the mount of prospect; but He causes the horizon to recede farther and farther from thy view. He reminds thee perpetually that thy career is to be unending; that thy improvement is to be eternal; that thou art to be ever learning, and yet never coming to the knowledge of all truth; that as thou must always remain finite, so forever and ever it will be true that thy thoughts are not God's thoughts, nor His ways thy ways.

ALONZO POtter.

17442

THE OLD YEAR'S BLESSING.

I AM fading from you, but one draweth near
Called the angel-guardian of the coming year.

If my gifts and graces coldly you forget,
Let the New Year's Angel bless and crown them yet.

For we work together; he and I are one;
Let him end and perfect all I leave undone.

I brought Good Desires, though as yet but seeds;
Let the New Year make them blossom into Deeds.

I brought Joy to brighten many happy days;
Let the New Year's Angel turn it into Praise.

If I gave you Sickness, if I brought you Care,
Let him make one Patience and the other Prayer.

Where I brought you Sorrow, through his care at length It may rise triumphant into future Strength.

If I brought you Plenty, all wealth's bounteous charms, Shall not the new Angel turn them into Alms?

I gave health and leisure, skill to dream and plan;
Let him make them nobler, work for God and man.

If I broke your Idols, showed you they were dust,
Let him turn the Knowledge into heavenly Trust.

If I brought Temptation, let Sin die away
Into boundless Pity for all hearts that stray.

If your list of Errors dark and long appears,
Let this new-born Monarch melt them into Tears.

May you hold this Angel dearer than the last, -
So I bless his Future, while he crowns my Past.
ADELAIDE A. PROCTER.

December 31

The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth, and even forevermore.-Ps. cxxi. 8.

D°

O we thirst for God? As the days and months and years pass, do we ever look out of and beyond ourselves upon that vast ocean of Uncreated Life which encircles us, which penetrates our inmost selves? Do we ever think steadily, so as to dwell with a real intellectual interest, upon Him who is the first and highest of Truths, to whose free bounty we ourselves owe the gift of existence, and to whom we must one day account for our use of it? Do we ever sincerely desire to love Him, and to live for Him, or are we hurrying along our solitary path, from one vanishing shape towards another, while we neglect the Alone Unchangeable? Be sure that if we will, in God revealed in Christ, the soul may slake the thirst of the Ages; and the dreariest, and darkest, and most restless existence may find illumination and peace. "This God is our God forever and ever. He will be our Guide even unto death," and beyond it. To each of us now this, if we will; if we will, He will be forever to each the Eternal Truth, wherein thought can never find its limit; the Uncreated Beauty, "Most Ancient, but always Fair," whereof affection can never tire; the Perfect Rule, existing eternally in the Life of the Necessary Moral Being, whereunto each created will may perpetually confirm itself, yet never exhaust its task. Without this Awful and Blessed Being man has no adequate object, even during these days of his brief earthly existence; his thought, his affection, his purpose spring up, and are exercised only that they may presently waste and die. With God the human soul not merely interprets the secret of the universe; it comprehends and is at peace with itself. In God is the satisfaction of its thirst, He is the Object of religion.

CANON LIDDON.

A PSALM FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE.

A FRIEND stands at the door;

In either tight-closed hand

Hiding rich gifts, three hundred and threescore;
Waiting to strew them daily o'er the land

Even as seed the sower.

Each drops he, treads it in, and passes by:

It cannot be made fruitful till it die.

O good New Year, we clasp

This warm shut hand of thine,

Loosing forever, with half sigh, half gasp,

That which from ours falls like dead fingers' twine:

Ay, whether fierce its grasp

Has been, or gentle, having been, we know

That it was blessed : let the Old Year go.

O New Year, teach us faith!

The road of life is hard:

When our feet bleed, and scourging winds us scathe, Point thou to Him whose visage was more marred

Than any man's; who saith,

"Make straight paths for your feet," and to the opprest,

"Come ye to Me, and I will give you rest."

Yet hang some lamp-like hope

Above this unknown way,

Kind year, to give our spirits freer scope

And our hands strength to work while it is day.

But if that way must slope

Tombward, oh, bring before our fading eyes

The lamp of life, the Hope that never dies.

Comfort our souls with love,

Love of all human kind;

Love special, close, in which, like sheltered dove,
Each weary heart its own safe nest may find;

And love that turns above

Adoringly, contented to resign

All loves, if need be, for the Love Divine.

Friend, come thou like a friend,

And whether bright thy face,

Or dim with clouds we cannot comprehend,
We'll hold out patient hands, each in his place,
And trust thee to the end,

Knowing thou leadest onwards to those spheres
Where there are neither days, nor months, nor years.
DINAH MULOCH CRAIK.

INDEX

OF

FIRST LINES OF POETICAL QUOTATIONS.

A CLOUD lay cradled near the setting sun

A cloudy morning, and a golden eve

A few months ago.

A friend stands at the door

A leaden sky is bending dark.

A little bird I am.

A little pause in life, while daylight lingers.
A perfect day! I tried to hold it fast

A single sparkling drop of love divine
Ah! don't be sorrowful, darling.

All are not taken! there yet are left behind
All before us lies the way

All day fierce heat had held the quivering earth

And is there care in heaven? And is there love.
And so beside the silent sea.

And were that best, Love, dreamless, endless sleep?
Another day is numbered with the past
Another day its course hath run

Arouse thee, soul!

As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean

Ask God to give thee skill

At evening time let there be light

At first I prayed for light; could I but see the way
Ay, thou art welcome, heaven's delicious breath.

BARE and sunshiny, bright and bleak.

Be like the bird, that halting in her flight
Be not afraid to pray - to pray is right
Be strong to hope, O Heart!.

Behold, a giant am I !

Beneath the moonlight and the snow
Beside the toilsome way