Living stars to view be brought, Holy Truth, eternal Right,· THE INFINITY OF SPACE. JOHN STERLING. WHEN up to nightly skies we gaze, But could we rise to moon or sun, "T is vain to dream those tracts of space With all their worlds approach His face; One glory fills each wheeling ball, One love has shaped and moved them all. THE INFINITY OF SPACE. This earth, with all its dust and tears, The rock, the wave, the little flower, And is this all that man can claim ? Can man, no more than beast, aspire Not this our doom, thou God benign! We view those halls of painted air, Is he whose thoughts to thine accord. 27 MELODIES AND MYSTERIES. CHARLES MACKAY. WOULDST thou know what the blithe bird pipeth High in the morning air? Wouldst thou know what the blithe stream singeth, Rippling o'er pebbles bare? Sorrow the mystery shall teach thee Wouldst thou find in the rose's blossom Than odor on the wind? Love Nature, and her smallest atoms Wouldst thou know what the moon discourseth To the docile sea? Wouldst hear the echoes of the music Of the far infinity! Sorrow shall ope the founts of knowledge, Wouldst thou see through the riddle of Being CORRESPONDENCES. 29 Sorrow shall give thine eyes new lustre And love of God and thy kind shall aid thee To Love and Sorrow all Nature speaketh; They the best can see through darkness Of its mazy texture, and discover Love and Sorrow are sympathetic Their touch from the harp of Nature bringeth To them the eternal chords for ever CORRESPONDENCES. C. P. CRANCH. ALL things in Nature are beautiful types to the soul that will read them ; Nothing exists upon earth, but for unspeakable ends. Every object that speaks to the senses was meant for the spirit: Nature is but a scroll, thereon. God's handwriting Ages ago, when man was pure, ere the flood overwhelmed him, While in the image of God every soul yet lived, Everything stood as a letter or word of a language familiar, Telling of truths which now only the angels can read. Lost to man was the key of those sacred hiero glyphics, Stolen away by sin, till with Jesus restored. Now with infinite pains we here and there spell out a letter; Now and then will the sense feebly shine through the dark. When we perceive the light which breaks through the visible symbol, What exultation is ours! we the discovery have made! Yet is the meaning the same as when Adam lived sinless in Eden, Only long-hidden it slept, and now again is restored. Man unconsciously uses figures of speech every moment, |