When are we happiest, then?-oh! when

resigned

To whatsoe'er our cup of life may brim; When we can know ourselves but weak and

blind

Creatures of earth! and trust alone in

Him

Who giveth in His mercy, joy, or pain :
Oh! we are happiest then!

M. A. BROWNE.

CX.-TO-MORROW.

TO-MORROW is that lamp upon the marsh, which a traveller never reacheth;

To-morrow, the rainbow's cup, coveted prize of ignorance;

To-morrow, the shifting anchorage, dangerous trust of mariners;

To-morrow, the wrecker's beacon, wily snare of the destroyer.

Reconcile convictions with delay, and tomorrow is a fatal lie;

Frighten resolutions into actions, to-morrow is a wholesome truth;

I must, for I fear to-morrow; this is the Cassava's food;

Why should I? let me trust to-morrow, this is the Cassava's poison.

Lo, it is the even of to-day-a day so lately,

a to-morrow;

Where are those high resolves, those hopes of yester-night?

O faint, fond heart, still shall thy whisper be,

to-morrow,

And must the growing avalanche of sin roll down that easy slope?

Alas, it is ponderous, and moving on in might that a Sisyphus may not stop it;

But haste thee, with the lever of a prayer, and stem its course to-day:

For its race may speedily be run, and this poor hut, thyself,

Be whelmed in death and suffocating guilt,

that dreary Alpine snow-wreath.

N

Pensioner of life, be wise, and heed a brother's

counsel;

I also am a beadsman, with scrip and staff, as thou:

Wouldst thou be bold against the past, and all its evil memories,

Wouldst thou be safe amid the present, its dangers and temptations,

Wouldst thou be hopeful of the future, vague though it be, and endless?

Haste thee, repent, believe, obey! thou standest in the courage of a legion.

Commend the past to God, with all its irrevocable harm,

Humbly, but in cheerful trust, and banish vain regrets;

Come to Him, continually come, casting all the present at His feet,

Boldly, but in prayerful love, and fling off selfish cares;

Commit the future to His will, the viewless, fated future,

Zealously go forward with integrity, and God will bless thy faith,

For that, feeble as thou art, there is with thee a mighty Conqueror,

Thy friend, the same for ever, yesterday, today, to-morrow:

That Friend, changeless as eternity, Himself shall make thee friends

Of those thy foes transformed, yesterday, today, and to-morrow.

MARTIN Tupper.

CXI. CHRISTIAN ENERGY.

"Let us be going."

THERE were two ways open to our Lord in which to submit to His doom. He might have waited for it; instead of which, He went to meet the soldiers. He took up the Cross; the cup of anguish was not forced between His lips, He took it with His own hands, and drained it quickly to the last drop. In after years the disciples under

stood the lesson, and acted on it. They did not wait till persecution overtook them; they braved the Sanhedrim: they fronted the world. They proclaimed aloud the unpopular and unpalatable doctrines of the Resurrection and the Cross. Now, in this there lies a principle. Under no conceivable set of circumstances are we justified in sitting

"By the poison'd springs of life,

Waiting for the morrow

Which shall free us from the strife."

Under no circumstances, whether of pain, or grief, or disappointment, or irreparable mistake, can it be true that there is not something to be done, as well as something to be suffered. And thus it is that the spirit of Christianity draws over our life, not a leaden cloud of remorse and despondency, but a sky —not perhaps of radiant, but yet-of most serene and chastened and manly hope. There is a past, which is gone for ever; but there is a future, which is still our own.

REV. T. W. ROBERTSON.