Sleep! sleep, and through your slumbers
The watchers, tried and calm,
Shall breathe, in angel-numbers,
A sweet and solemn psalm.

Shall say, "No cloud can gather
Around His children's path,
But He, th' all-loving Father,
His part in their sadness hath.

Not for His own good pleasure
Would He have given them life,
Unless joy's coming measure
Outweigh'd all present strife.

"Who gently bears his sorrow,
And lives it bravely down,
Shall win a fairer morrow,
And wear the starry crown."

The Child and the Stars.

J. E. CARPENTER.-Music by James Perring.

"THE

HEY tell me, dear father, each gem in the sky
That sparkles at night is a star,

But why do they dwell in those regions so high,

And shed their cold lustre so far?

I know that the sun makes the blossoms to spring, That it gives to the flow'rets their birth,

But what are the stars? do they nothing but fling Their cold rays of light upon earth?"

The Use of the Flowers.

"My child, it is said that yon stars in the sky

Are worlds that are fashion'd like this,

Where the souls of the good and the gentle who die,
Assemble together in bliss ;

And the ray that they shed o'er the earth is the light
Of His glory whose throne is above,

That tells us, who dwell in these regions of night,
How great is His goodness and love."

217

"Then, father, why still press your hand to your brow, Why still are your cheeks pale with care?

If all that was gentle be dwelling there now,

Dear mother, I know, must be there."

"Thou chidest me well," said the father, with pain,

"Thy wisdom is greater by far ;

We may mourn for the lost, but we should not complain, While we gaze on each beautiful star."

The Use of the Flowers.

Go

MRS MARY HOWITT.

OD might have bade this earth bring forth
Enough for great and small,

The oak tree and the cedar tree,

Without a flower at all.

He might have made enough,-enough

For every want of ours,

For luxury, medicine, and toil,

And yet have made no flowers.

The ore within the mountain mine
Requireth none to grow,

Nor doth it need the lotus flower
To make the river flow.

The clouds might give abundant rain,
The nightly dews might fall,
The herb that keepeth life in man
Might yet have drunk them all.

Then wherefore, wherefore were they made,
All dyed with rainbow light,
All fashion'd with supremest grace,
Upspringing day and night;
Springing in valleys green and low,
And on the mountains high,
And in the silent wilderness,
Where no man passeth by?

Our outward life requires them not,
Then wherefore had they birth ?—
To minister delight to man,

To beautify the earth;

To whisper hope—to comfort man
Whene'er his faith is dim;

For whoso careth for the flowers
Will care much more for him!

The Dial of Flowers.

'TWAS

MRS HEMANS.

'WAS a lovely thought to mark the hours, As they floated in light away,

By the opening and the folding flowers

That laugh to the summer's day.

Thus had each moment its own rich hue,

And its graceful cup and bell,

In whose colour'd vase might sleep the dew, Like a pearl in an ocean shell.

The Law of Love.

To such sweet signs might the time have flow'd

In a golden current on,

Ere from the garden, man's first abode,
The glorious guests were gone.

So might the days have been brightly told
Those days of song and dreams—
When shepherds gather'd their flocks of old
By the blue Arcadian streams.

So in those isles of delight, that rest
Far off in a breezeless main,

Which many a bark, with a weary quest,
Has sought, but still in vain.

Yet is not life, in its real flight,

Mark'd thus, even thus,-on earth, By the closing of one hope's delight, And another's gentle birth?

Oh! let us live, so that flower by flower,
Shutting in turn, may leave

A lingerer still for the sunset hour,
A charm for the shaded eve.

The Law of Love.

2 Kings iv. 1-6.

ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.

POUR forth the oil, pour boldly forth,

It will not fail until

Thou failest vessels to provide,
Which it may largely fill.

219

But then, when such are found no more,
Though flowing broad and free,

Till then, and nourish'd from on high,
It straightway stanch'd will be.

Dig channels for the streams of love,
Where they may broadly run;
And love has overflowing streams
To fill them every one.

But if at any time thou cease
Such channels to provide,
The very founts of love for thee
Will soon be parch'd and dried.

For we must share, if we would keep,
That good thing from above;
Ceasing to give, we cease to have---
Such is the law of love.

Brightest and Best.

BISHOP REGINALD HEBER.—Music by S. Glover.

BRIGHTEST and best of the sons of the morning,

Dawn on our darkness, and lend us Thine aid!

Star of the East, the horizon adorning,

Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid!

Cold on His cradle the dew-drops are shining;
Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall;

Angels adore Him, in slumber reclining,

Maker and Monarch and Saviour of all.