Thy throne a monarch's,-like the North Star's gleam, Reveal'st each snare. So Reason's steady torch, with light as pure, Dispels the gloom, when stormy passions rise, Or Fortune's cheating phantoms would obscure The soul's dim eyes. Anonymous. DUQUE DE RIVAS. "THE LIGHT." "He had in his hand a little book open; and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth."-(REV. x. 2.) ON the verge of the ocean, where danger appears, When the bosom of ocean is tranquilly heaving, The breeze blowing free, and the canvas all set, The gay-hearted mariner, scarcely perceiving The light-bearing tower, may the blessing forget. But, oh! when the Hand that the tempest confines Lets forth on the ocean its fury and might, How eagerly then, as the daylight declines, Does the eye of the mariner long for "The Light." SORROW ON THE SEA. 131 As blacker the shadows, and wilder the wave, Oh! thus stands the Angel with record sublime, His head with the rainbow of mercy entwined, And warns of the rocks and the quicksands of Time, And guides to the Lamb in his glory enshrined. Thus manhood and youth, in their vigour and bloom, That record may slight, and that warning despise; But eager their gaze, 'mid the sepulchre's gloom, For a ray of that glory to gladden their eyes! J. LONGMUIR. SORROW ON THE SEA. "There is sorrow on the sea."-(JER. xlix. 23.) "THERE is sorrow on the sea," when the loving, cherished boy His widowed mother's solace, and his fair young sister's joy Gazes on their lessening forms, which he may behold no more, And with strangers goes to toil on a distant, unknown shore. "There is sorrow on the sea," when the young and gentle bride, For new friends and foreign home quits her tender parent's side; Sweet sisters and companions blend fond wishes with their tears, And her joys and hopes are dimmed by sad thoughts of absent years. 'There is sorrow on the sea," when the widow leaves the shore Of her late so joyous home, the wide sea to cross once more: "The desire of her meek eyes by a stroke has been removed". Like Naomi she returns, but without a Ruth beloved. "There is sorrow on the sea," when the transportship sets sail, And some among her convicts all too late their sin bewail; They who think, with breaking hearts, of the shame and bitter pain, Bequeathed by them to loved ones they shall ne'er behold again. "There is sorrow on the sea," when the raging storm beats high, And the riven vessel sinks, and no friendly bark is nigh; THE OCEAN GRAVE. 133 And when the spreading smoke-wreath dread proclaims the ship on fire, From shore, from ship, no rescue-the crew's last hopes expire. "There is sorrow on the sea,” for that man, fallen man, is there; And earth, and sea, and creatures must awhile his sorrow share: But a blissful kingdom comes, in which sin shall cease to be, With "death and sorrow, tears and pain "-and there is " no more sea. "Behold, with clouds He cometh!"-He who will "make all things new A heaven and earth all glory, far too bright for mortal view; Nor sun, nor moon, nor temple, in that shining world are known, For "God the Lamb" is "all in all," on his eternal throne! VAN HAGEN. THE OCEAN GRAVE. FRIENDS, when I die, prepare my welcome grave Where the eternal ocean rolls his wave; Rough though the blast, still let his free-born breeze, Which freshness wafts to earth from endless seas, Sigh o'er my sleep, and let his glancing spray, Weep tear-drops sparkling with a heavenly ray; A constant mourner then shall watch my tomb, And nature deepen while it soothes the gloom. O let that element, whose voice had power The generous ocean, whose proud waters bear Binds man to man, and mingles clime with clime; Exiled on earth, a fettered prisoner here, |