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lovely and beneficent productions, that display the minutest thought, most elaborate compositions, and so much personal kindness.". Turner's Sacred History of the World.

THE milk-white blossoms of the thorn

Are waving o'er the pool,

Moved by the wind that breathes along
So sweetly and so cool.

The hawthorn clusters bloom above,
The primrose hides below,
And on the lonely passer by

A modest glance doth throw!

The humble primrose' bonnie face
I meet it everywhere;

Where other flowers disdain to blow
It comes and nestles there.

Like God's own light, on every place
In glory it doth fall:

And where its dwelling-place is made,
It straightway hallows all!

Where'er the green-winged linnet sings
A primrose bloometh 'lone;
And love it wins-deep love-from all
Who gaze its sweetness on.
On field-paths narrow, and in woods,
We meet thee near and far,
"Till thou becomest prized and loved,
As things familiar are!

The stars are sweet at eventide,
But cold, and far away;

The clouds are soft in summer time,
But all unstable they :

The rose is rich-but pride of place
Is far too high for me-

God's simple, common things I love-
My primrose such as thee!

I love the fireside of my home,
Because all sympathies,
The feelings fond of every day
Around its circle rise;

And while admiring all the flowers
That summer suns can give,

Within my heart the primrose sweet,
In holy love doth live!

NICOLL.

THE VICTORY OF FAITH.

LVII. ALL MEN ARE BRETHREN.

389

"THE ties of family and of country were never intended to circumscribe the soul. Man is connected at birth with a few beings, that the spirit of humanity may be called forth by their tenderness; and whenever domestic or national attachments become exclusive, engrossing, clannish, so as to shut out the general claims of the human race, the highest end of Providence is frustrated, and home, instead of being the nursery, becomes the grave of the heart."- Channing. Children we are all

Of one Great Father, in whatever clime
His providence hath cast the seed of life,
All tongues, all colours: neither after death
Shall we be sorted into languages

And tints,-white, black, and tawny, Greek and Goth,
Northmen and offspring of hot Africa:

The all-seeing Father,-He in whom we live and move,
He, the impartial judge of all, regards

Nations, and hues, and dialects alike.
According to their works shall they be judged,
When even-handed justice in the scale

Their good and evil weighs.

SOUTHEY.

LVIII. WEAK IS THE WILL OF MAN.

"THE faculty of imagination is the great spring of human activity, and the principal source of human improvement. As it delights in presenting to the mind scenes and characters more perfect than those which we are acquainted with, it prevents us from ever being completely satisfied with our present condition, or with our past attainments; and engages us continually in the pursuit of some untried enjoyment, or of some ideal excellence. Hence the ardour of the selfish to better their fortune, and to add to their personal accomplishments; and hence the zeal of the patriot and the philosopher to advance the virtue and the happiness of the human race. Destroy this faculty, and the condition of man will become as stationary as that of the brutes. *** While it adds a double relish to every enjoyment, it blunts the edge of all our sufferings; and even when human life presents to us no object on which our hopes can rest, it invites the imagination beyond the dark and troubled horizon, which terminates all our earthly prospects, to wander unconfined in the regions of futurity."-Stewart's Philosophy.

"WEAK is the will of man, his judgment blind;
"Remembrance persecutes and hope betrays;

66

Heavy is woe; and joy, for human kind,

"A mournful thing, so transient is the blaze!"

Thus might he paint our lot of mortal days
Who wants the glorious faculty assigned
To elevate the more-than-reasoning mind,
And colour life's dark cloud with orient rays.
Imagination is that sacred power,

Imagination lofty and refined;

'Tis hers to pluck the Amaranthine flower
Of faith, and round the sufferer's temples bind
Wreaths that endure affliction's heaviest shower,
And do not shrink from sorrow's keenest wind.
WORDSWORTH.

LIX. THE VICTORY OF FAITH.

"I ENVY no quality of the mind or intellect in others; not genius, power, wit, or fancy: but if I could choose what would be most delightful, and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing: for it makes life a discipline of goodness, creates new hopes when all earthly hopes vanish, and throws over the decay-the destruction of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity; makes an instrument of torture and of shame the ladder of ascent to Paradise; and, far above all combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of palms and amaranths, the gardens of the blest, the security of everfasting joys, where the sensualist and the sceptic view only gloom, decay, annihilation, and despair."-Sir H. Davy.

ONE adequate support

For the calamities of mortal life
Exists-one only; an assured belief
That the procession of our fate, howe'er
Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a Being
Of infinite benevolence and power;
Whose everlasting purposes embrace
All accidents, converting them to good.
The darts of anguish fix not where the seat
Of suffering hath been thoroughly fortified
By acquiescence in the Will Supreme
For time and for eternity; by faith,
Faith absolute in God, including hope,
And the defence that lies in boundless love
Of His perfections; with habitual dread
Of aught unworthily conceived, endured
Impatiently; ill done, or left undone,
To the dishonour of His holy name.

WORDSWORTH.

THE CHRISTIAN PAUPER'S DEATH-BED.

391

LX. THE CHRISTIAN PAUPER'S DEATH-BED. "How childish-how far below the proper aim of every humane and thoughtful mind-is this invidious comparison of rank with rank-of one outward condition of men and brethren with another; one feels a kind of shame in even alluding to the subject. The very entertainment of it seems to betray a little and a selfish soul. How often must we be reminded, that we are all members of God's great family. That we have all been placed where we are by his wisdom. That we have all one common heritage of duties and trials, temptations and griefs--none shut out from blessing, because they are low. And that, when this short scene of earth has passed away, all must alike give account of the trust confided to them, at that solemn tribunal-where the lady who now wears the diadem of these realms, and the humblest daughter of poverty and toil, will bow their heads and bend their knees, side by side, before the Father and Judge of all."-Tayler's Christian Aspects of Faith and Duty.

TREAD Softly, bow the head,

In rev'rent silence bow,
No passing bell doth toll,
Yet an immortal soul

Is passing now.

Stranger, however great,

With holy reverence bow;
There's one in that poor shed,
One by that paltry bed,

Greater than thou.

Beneath that beggar's roof,

Lo! Death doth keep his state;
Enter--no crowds attend;

Enter-no guards defend

This palace gate.

That pavement, damp and cold,

No smiling courtiers tread;

One silent woman stands,
Lifting with meagre hands

A dying head.

No mingling voices sound

An infant wail alone;

A sob suppressed-again

That short, deep gasp, and then

The parting groan.

Oh! change-oh, wondrous change!

Burst are the prison bars;

This moment, there, so low,

So agonised-and now

Beyond the stars!

Oh! change-stupendous change!
There lies the soulless clod;
The sun eternal breaks--

The new immortal wakes

Wakes with his God!

CAROLINE SOUTHEY.

LXI. THE BETTER LAND.

"THE truth seems to be, that the human understanding, constituted as it is, though fitted for the purposes for which we want it-that is, though capable of receiving the instruction and knowledge which are necessary for our conduct and the discharge of our duty--has a native original incapacity for the reception of any distinct knowledge of our future condition. The reason is, that all our conceptions and ideas are drawn from experience (not, perhaps, all immediately from experience, but experience lies at the bottom of them all), and no language, no information, no instruction, can do more for us than teach us the relation of the ideas which we have. Therefore, so far as we can judge, no words whatever that could have been used, no account or description that could have been written down, would have been able to convey to us a conception of our future state, constituted as our understandings now are. I am far from saying that it was not in the power of God, by immediate inspiration, to have struck light and ideas into our minds, of which naturally we have no conception. I am far from saying, that He could not, by an act of his power, have assumed a human being, or the soul of a human being, into heaven; and have shown to him or it the nature and the glories of that kingdom: but it is evident, that, unless the whole order of our present world be changed, such revelations as these must be rare; must be limited to very extraordinary persons, and very extraordinary occasions. And even then, with respect to others, it is to be observed, that the ordinary modes of communication by speech or writing are inadequate to the transmitting of any knowledge or information of this sort: and from a cause, which has already been noticed, namely, that language deals only with the ideas which we have; that these ideas are all founded in experience; that probably, most probably indeed, the things of the next world are very remote from any experience which we have in this; the consequence of which is, that, though the inspired person might himself possess this supernatural knowledge, he could not impart it to any other person not in like manner inspired. When, therefore, the nature and constitution of the human understanding is considered, it can excite no surprise, it ought to excite no complaint, it is no fair objection to Christianity, that it doth not yet appear what we shall be.' I do not say that the imperfection of our understanding forbids it (for in strictness of speech, that is not imperfect which answers the purpose designed by it), but the present constitution of our understanding forbids it.-Paley's Sermons.

"I HEAR thee speak of the better land:

Thou callest its children a happy band;

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