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°

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.

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

All day the wind had howled along the leas
All night, in the pauses of sleep, I heard
All shimmering in the morning shine

All silent is the garden.

All through the night

All weary thought and care

Alone, yet not alone am I .

And after He has come to hide

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

PAGE

264

309

170

428

402

81

9

Bethink thee, while the tears do run
Better to weave in the web of life

Better trust all and be deceived.

Beyond the land, beyond the sea

Beyond these chilling winds and gloomy skies
Blessed fold! no foe can enter

Blindfolded and alone I stand

Blow, winds of God, awake and blow

Brief life is here our portion

Briers beset my every path

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning

By all means use sometimes to be alone.

CALM me, my God, and keep me calm

13

Carest Thou not, O Thou that givest life
Children of God, who, faint and slow.

Come, little snow-drop, struggle on through dark and cling-
ing mould!

Come, wandering sheep, oh, come!

Could I recall the years that now are flown.

"Could ye not watch one hour?" The hour is late

DEATH comes to take me where I long to be
Die to thy root, sweet flower!
Do saints keep holy day in heavenly places?
"Do ye think of the days that are gone, Jeanie
"Does the road wind up-hill all the way?".

EACH spirit weaves the robe it wears
Every day hath its dawn

Every morn.

FAIR pledges of a fruitful tree

Farewell, Old Year, the rustle of whose garment.

Father! by Thy love and power

Father! forgive the heart that clings

Father! in Thy mysterious presence kneeling

Father, how merciful art Thou

Father! I know that all my life.

Father, it is enough! my full soul drank

Father of Heaven and Earth!

Father of heaven! if by Thy mercy's grace.

Feeling the way - and all the way up hill

Fierce was the wild billow, dark was the night

"For this true nobleness I seek in vain'

Flowers! when the Saviour's calm benignant eye

For thee, O dear, dear country

From slender minaret, 'twixt earth and sky.
From the deeps of grief and fear

165

From the recesses of a lowly spirit.

GIVE me the lowest place; not that I dare
Go forth, my heart, and seek delight