Why crowd ye cities forth? some reed to find, Some dwell in kingly domes-no silken form Woos the stern wind and braves the mountain storm. C. H. Johnson. In Judah's rugged wilderness, And while upon the river's side, Now Jesus to the stream descends; And o'er his head, that humbly bends, When, lo! a heavenly form appears, And wondrous sounds the assembly hears, "This is my well-beloved Son, On him my spirit rests; Now is his reign of grace begun, The sacred voice has reached our ear, Shall sound, till all His name revere, T. Fletcher. BEAUTIFUL. ONE thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.--Psalm xxvii. 4. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth.--Psalm xxxix. 11. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.--Proverbs, xxxi. 30. I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.--Ecclesiastes, iii. 10, 11. Он, what is Beauty's power? It flourishes and dies; Will the cold earth its silence break, Mute, mute is all, O'er Beauty's fall; Her praise resounds no more, when mantled in her pall. The most beloved on earth Not long survives to-day; So music past is obsolete, And yet 'twas sweet, 't was passing sweet, But now 't is gone away. Thus does the shade In evening fade, When in forsaken tomb the form beloved is laid. At Thy rebuke, the bloom And grief shall, like a moth, H. K. White. consume All that delights our eyes. J. Montgomery. A sinful soul possessed of many gifts, Tennyson. The beautiful, the beautiful! It sparkles on the ocean-wave- On mountain-top, in valley deep, The glories of the noontide-day There's beauty in the dancing beam And in the being whom our love How beautiful! how beautiful! Is every look and tone. 'Twas in that glance that God threw o'er The young created earth, When He pronounced it "very good," The beautiful had birth. Then who shall say this world is dull, While yet there lives on every side If so much loveliness is sent To grace our earthly home, How beautiful-how beautiful Will be the world to come! Anon. BELIEF-UNBELIEF. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.--Isaiah, vii. 9. Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.--Mark, ix. 24. Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. --John, xiv. 1. For what, if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid.--Romans, iii. 3, 4. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.--II. Thessalonians, ii. 13. SUCH my belief. Oh, that thou would'st thy bold, The flower would be more sweet, the moon more fresh, The harbinger of everlasting bliss. Dare then be wise, Dash down the subtle web, Believe and fear not! In the blackest cloud R. Montgomery. Since fools alone all things believe For sceptics have their creed,-of things Some truths above our reason, we Reject not, but receive: Against all reason, infidels Unnumber'd lies believe. C. C. Colton. BELLS. AND beneath upon the hem of it, thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about. And it shall be upon Aaron to minister: and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not --Exodus, xxviii. 33, 35. In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord.--Zechariah, xiv. 20. WHAT a deep murmur on the night-air swells, What in your mighty sweetness, do you seek, I hear the message, but I cannot trust; I dare not strive those distant spheres to gain, From whence these holy tidings came to us; And yet it seems that long-remembered strain, In youth, recalls me back to life again. The kiss of heavenly love upon me fell, In the deep stillness of the sabbath calm, The heartfelt fullness of the sabbath bell, A prayer to my glad soul sufficient balm, Beyond conception sweet; a holy longing Drove me to wander forth through wood and mead; And in the thousand tear-drops warmly thronging, I felt a world grow up, mine own indeed. The joyous sports of youth those tones revealing, Of the spring feast once more the joy unfolds, And recollection, fraught with childish feeling, Me from the last dread step of all withholds. Oh sound, sound on, thou sweet celestial strain, The tears well forth, the earth hath me again. Goethe's "Faust." |