NEW YEAR'S EVE.

And there were kindred gathered,
Round the table richly spread,
With heaps of goodly viands,

Red wine, and pleasant bread.

She could smell the fragrant savor,
She could hear what they did say,
Then all was darkness once again,
The match had burned away.

She struck another hastily,

And now she seemed to see, Within the same warm chamber, A glorious Christmas-tree.

The branches were all laden

With such things as children prize,— Bright gift for boy and maiden,

She saw them with her eyes.

And she almost seemed to touch them,
And to join the welcome shout;
When darkness fell around her,
For the little match was out.

Another, yet another, she

Has tried; they will not light, Till all her little store she took, And struck with all her might.

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NEW YEAR'S EVE.

And the whole miserable place

Was lighted with the glare,
And lo! there hung a little child
Before her in the air.

There were blood-drops on his forehead,
And a spear-wound in his side,

And cruel nail-prints in his feet,
And in his hands spread wide.

And he looked upon her gently,
And she felt that he had known
Pain, hunger, cold, and sorrow,
Ay, equal to her own.

And he pointed to the laden board,
And to the Christmas-tree,

Then up to the cold sky, and said,
"Will Gretchen come with me?"

The poor child felt her pulses fail,
She felt her eyeballs swim,
And a ringing sound was in her ears,
Like her dead mother's hymn.

And she folded both her thin white hands,
And turned from that bright board,
And from the golden gifts, and said,
"With thee, with thee, O Lord."

NEW YEAR'S EVE.

The chilly winter morning
Breaks up in the dull skies,
On the city wrapt in vapor,

On the spot where Gretchen lies.

The night was wild and stormy,
The morn is cold and gray,
And good church-bells are ringing,
Christ's circumcision day.

And holy men were praying
In many a holy place;
And little children's angels
Sing songs before his face.

In her scant and tattered garment,
With her back against the wall,

She sitteth cold and rigid,

She answers not their call.

They have lifted her up fearfully,
They shuddered as they said,

"It was a bitter, bitter night,
The child is frozen dead."

The angels sang their greeting,

For one more redeemed from sin; Men said, "It was a bitter night, Would no one let her in?"

K

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AN EASTERN LEGEND.

And they shuddered as they spoke of her,
And sighed they could not see,
How much of happiness there was
With so much misery.

AN EASTERN LEGEND.

ONE evening Jesus lingered in the market-place,
Teaching the people parables of truth and grace,
When in the square remote a crowd was seen to rise,
And stop, with loathing gestures and abhorring cries.

The Master and his meek disciples went to see
What cause for this commotion and disgust could be,
And found a poor dead dog beside the gutter laid;
Revolting sight! at which each face its hate betrayed.

One held his nose, one shut his eyes, one turned away; And all among themselves began aloud to say: "Detested creature!" "He pollutes the earth and air! "His eyes are blear!" "His ears are foul!" "His ribs are bare!"

"In his torn hide there's not a decent shoe-string left!” "No doubt the execrable cur was hung for theft ! "

Then Jesus spake, and dropped on him this saving wreath,

"Even pearls are dark before the whiteness of his teeth!

LOVE TO JESUS.

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The pelting crowd grew silent and ashamed, like one Rebuked by sight of wisdom higher than his own; And one exclaimed, "No creature so accursed can be, But some good thing in him a loving eye will see."

ALGER'S EASTERN POETRY.

LOVE TO JESUS.

WHEN Jesus Christ was here below,
And spread his works of love abroad,
If I had lived as long ago,

I think I should have loved the Lord.

Jesus, who was so very kind,

Who came to pardon sinful men,

Who healed the sick, and cured the blind

O, must I not have loved him then?

But where is Jesus? is he dead?

O no! he lives in heaven above;

"And blest are they," the Saviour said,

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Who, though they have not seen me, love.”

JANE TAYLor.