The blush upon her living cheek To see her on a summer's day, And happy thoughts would crowd the heart, I know the language of the flowers, I listened when the star of love Shone through the blue serene, When twilight held her silent wake, Beneath the crested queen. They told of her whose spirit come She's gone where sorrows may not come, But she, who lives an angel still, May sometimes think of me. Though gone, alas! her blushing smile, I joy to find its mimic grace Then when I love the modest flower, And cherish it with tears, It minds me of my fleeting time, And when my hour of rest shall be, So angel-missioned flowers may come The Missionary.-W. B. TAPPAN. ONWARD, ye men of prayer! Scatter, in rich exuberance, the seed, Whose fruit is living bread, and all your need To him, child of the bow, The wanderer of his native Oregon, Tell of that Jesus, who, in dying, won The peace-branch of the skies-salvation for His foe! Unfurl the banneret On other shores,-Messiah's cross bid shine O'er every lovely hill of Palestine; Fair stars of glory that shall never set. Seek ye the far-off isle; The sullied jewel of the deep, O'er whose remembered beauty angels weep, Restore its lustre, and to God give spoil. Go, break the chain of caste; Go, quench the funeral pyre, and bid no more Look up, thou East, thy night is overpast. To heal the bruised, speed; Oh, pour on Africa the balm Of Gilead, and, her agony to calm, Whisper of fetters broken, and the spirit freed. And thou, O Church, betake Thyself to watching, labour-help these men: God shall thee visit of a surety, when Thou'rt faithful:- Church that Jesus bought, awake, awake! Missions.-MRS. SIGOURNEY. LIGHT for the dreary vales Of ice-bound Labrador! Where the frost-king breathes on the slippery sails, And the mariner wakes no more; Lift high the lamp that never fails, Light for the forest child! An outcast though he be, From the haunts where the sun of his childhood smiled, And the country of the free; Pour the hope of Heaven o'er his desert wild, For what home on earth has he? Light for the hills of Greece! Where the rage of the spoiler refused to cease If the Moslem hath dealt the gift of peace, Light on the Hindoo shed! On the maddening idol-train, The flame of the suttee is dire and red, And the dying moan on their cheerless bed, Light for the Persian sky! The Sophi's wisdom fades, And the pearls of Ormus are poor to buy Hark! Hark! 'tis the sainted Martyn's sigh Light for the Burman vales! For the islands of the sea! For the coast where the slave-ship fills its sails And her kidnapped babes the mother wails 'Neath the lone banana-tree! Light for the ancient race Exiled from Zion's rest! Homeless they roam from place to place, Benighted and oppressed; They shudder at Sinai's fearful base; Guide them to Calvary's breast. Light for the darkened earth! Ye blessed, its beams who shed, Shrink not, till the day-spring hath its birth, Till, wherever the footstep of man doth tread Shall gild the dream of the cradle bed, From its lingering gloom, For the aged to rest his weary head. The Fear of Madness.*-LUCRETIA MARIA DAVIDSON. THERE is a something which I dread; It steals along with withering tread, That thought comes o'er me in the hour Oh! may these throbbing pulses pause, Be cold, and motionless, and still, The Matin Hour of Prayer.-ANONYMOUS. THIS cool and fragrant hour of prime, My matin hour of praise shall be, Sweet, solitary praise, and prayer. *These lines, expressing her fears of insanity, were written by this in teresting girl while confined to her bed in the last stage of consumption They were unfinished, and the last she ever composed.-ED. "Twill gird my spirit for the fight, The glare, the strife, of this world's way; Weak, tempted, weary, lone, and sad,— 'Tis never, never vain to pray. This cool and fragrant hour of prime; The stillness, the repose, the peace, Where breaketh an eternal day. Ere falls the stealing step of dawn, The night's soft dew on her brown wings Upriseth from her nest the lark, And, soaring to the sunlight, sings. Thus may my soul sing on, and soar Where sight tracks not her flight sublime. For, though the world enclose me round, Then let my soul sing on, and soar Sing on and soar, sing on and soar, Till, through the crystal gates of heaven No longer closed in upper skies, |