LESSON 88.

CENTENNIAL HYMN.

SUNG AT THE OPENING OF THE INTERNATIONAL
EXHIBITION, PHILADELPHIA, MAY 10, 1876.

UR fathers' God! from out whose hand
The centuries fall like grains of sand,

We meet to-day, united, free,
And loyal to our land and Thee,
To thank Thee for the era done,
And trust Thee for the opening one.

2. Here, where of old, by Thy design,
The fathers spake that word of Thine
Whose echo is the glad refrain
Of rended bolt and falling chain,
To grace our festal time, from all

The zones of earth our guests we call.

3. Be with us while the New World greets
The Old World thronging all its streets,
Unvailing all the triumphs won
By art or toil beneath the sun;
And unto common good ordain
This rivalship of hand and brain.

4. Thou, who hast here in concord furled
The war flags of a gathered world,
Beneath our Western skies fulfil
The Orient's mission of good-will,

And, freighted with love's Golden Fleece,
Send back its Argonauts of peace.

5. For art and labor met in truce,
For beauty made the bride of use,

We thank Thee; but, withal, we crave
The austere virtues strong to save,
The honor proof to place or gold,
The manhood never bought nor sold!

6. Oh, make Thou us, through centuries long,
In peace secure, in justice strong;
Around our gift of freedom draw
The safeguards of Thy righteous law ;
And cast in some diviner mould,

Let the new cycle shame the old!

J. G. Whittier.

LESSON 89.

MORNING HYMN OF ADAM AND EVE.

THESE

HESE are Thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty! Thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair! Thyself how wondrous then!
Unspeakable, who sitt'st above these heavens,
To us invisible, or dimly seen

In these Thy lowest works; yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought and power divine.
Speak, ye who best can tell, ye sons of light,
Angels; for ye behold Him, and with songs
And choral symphonies, day without night,
Circle his throne rejoicing—ye in heaven!
On earth join, all ye creatures, to extol
Him first, Him last, Him midst, and without end.

2.

Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,

If better thou belong not to the dawn

Sure pledge of day, that crowned the smiling morn

With thy bright circlet praise Him in thy sphere,

While day arises, that sweet hour of prime.

Thou sun

- of this great world both eye and soul Acknowledge Him thy greater; sound his praise

In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st,

And when high noon hast gained, and when thou fall'st.

3.

Moon, that now meet'st the Orient sun, now fliest
With the fixed stars, fixed in their orb that flies,
And ye five other wandering fires that move
In mystic dance not without song, resound
His praise who out of darkness called up light.
Ye mists and exhalations that now rise
From hill or steaming lake, dusky or gray,
Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold,
In honor to the world's great Author, rise;
Whether to deck with clouds the uncolored sky
Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers,
Rising or falling still advance his praise.

4.

His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow,
Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines,

With every plant, in sign of worship wave.
Fountains, and ye that warble, as ye flow,
Melodious murmurs, warbling, tune his praise!
Join voices, all ye living souls; ye birds,
That singing up to heaven-gate ascend,
Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise.

5.

Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk
The earth and stately tread or lowly creep,
Witness if I be silent, morn or even,
To hill or valley, fountain or fresh shade,
Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise.

Hail, universal Lord! be bounteous still
Tc give us only good; and if the night
Have gathered aught of evil, or concealed,
Disperse it as now light dispels the dark.

Milton.

LA

--

LESSON 90.

PUMPKINS AND ENTERPRISE.

AST summer, I remember, a little vine — a pumpkin vine came out of the ground in a corn-field, “up the road," and there it was, in the midst of the corn, unseeing and unseen. So there was nothing for it but to make the best of its way out to the fence that bounded the road, some eighteen or twenty feet distant, where there would be some prospect of its being appreciated, if it could.

2. COULD? But it did; for away it went, vine and leaves, baggage and all, through the corn, this way and that, out to the fence, and up the fence, three rails, and through the fence. And what do you think it did then? Just unraveled a delicate yellow blossom, and. held it there, for every one passing to see, saying all the time, as well as it could,—and it could as well as anybody,-"See what I've done,- this! Isn't it pretty?"

3. Well, there it held it, and everybody saw it, and nobody thought anything about it. Passing that way in the fall, lo! a PUMPKIN, rotund, golden, magnificent; held out at arm's length by the little vine; held in the air; held week after week, and never laid down, nights nor Sundays, nor any time.

4. Now, "man your brakes;" rig your levers, ye Archimedes-es, and pump up from the earth, and along that vine, and from the surrounding air, the raw material for just

such another article as that, and you shall have two summers to do it in. Bring on the alembic wherein shall be distilled from the falling rain the essence of Pumpkin, and we 'll let it go without painting.-B. F. Taylor.

LESSON 91..

CHOICE BOOKS, GOOD COMPANY.

RANTING that we had both the will and the sense

GRANT

to choose our friends well, how few of us have the power! or, at least, how limited, for most, is the sphere of choice! Nearly all of our associates are determined by chance or necessity, and restricted within a narrow circle. We cannot know whom we would; and those whom we know, we cannot have at our side when we most need them.

2. All the higher circles of human intelligence are, to those beneath, only momentarily and partially open. We may, by good fortune, obtain a glimpse of a great poet, and hear the sound of his voice; or put a question to a man of science, and be answered good-humoredly. We may intrude ten minutes' talk on a cabinet minister, answered probably with words worse than silence, being deceptive; or snatch, once or twice in our lives, the privilege of throwing a bouquet in the path of a princess, or of arresting the kind glance of a queen.

3. And yet, these momentary chances we covet; and spend our years, and passions, and powers, in pursuit of little more than these; while, meantime, there is a society continually open to us, of people who will talk to us as long as we like, whatever our rank or occupation; - talk to us in the best words they can choose, and with thanks, if we listen to them.

4. And this society, because it is so numerous and so