Nor let the good man's trust depart,

Though life its common gifts deny ; Though with a pierced and bleeding heart,

And spurn'd of men, he goes to die.
For God hath mark'd each sorrowing day,

And number'd every secret tear,
And heaven's long age of bliss shall pay

For all His children suffer here. - Bryant.

Now let us thank th' Eternal Power ; convinced That Heaven but tries our virtue by affliction : That oft the cloud which wraps the present hour, Serves but to brighten all our future days.

Brown.

He takes my soften'd heart and beats it

The sparks fly off at every blow; He turns it o'er and o'er, and heats it,

And lets it cool, and makes it glow; And yet I whisper, ‘As God will !' And in His mighty hand hold still. Why should I murmur? for the sorrow

Thus only longer-lived would be ; Its end may come, and will to-morrow,

When God has done His work in me; So I say, trusting, 'As God will !' And, trusting, to the end hold still.

88. AFFLICTION : develops excellencies.

WITHIN this leaf, to every eye
So little worth, doth hidden lie
Most rare and subtle fragrancy.
Wouldst thou its secret strength unbind ?
Crush it, and thou shalt perfume find
Sweet as Arabia's spicy wind.

He kindles for my profit purely

Affliction's glowing, fiery brand; And all His heaviest blows are surely

Inflicted by a Master-hand; So I say, praying, “As God will !' And hope in Him and suffer still.-Sturm.

90. AFFLICTION. Eucharist of

Strong to consume small troubles ; to commend Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to

the end. - Aubrey De Vere.

ABOVE the seas of gold and glass

The Christ, transfigured, stands to-day; Below, in troubled currents, pass

The tidal fates of man away. Through that environ'd blessedness

Our sorrow cannot wholly rise, Nor his swift sympathy redress

The anguish that in Nature lies.

93. AFFLICTION. Heroism under

LIKE a ball that bounds According to the force with which 'twas thrown, So in affliction's violence, he that's wise, The more he's cast down, will the higher rise.

Nabb.

Yet mindful from His banquet sends

The guest of God a cup of wine, And shares a morsel with His friends, Who, wondering, wait without the shrine.

Julia Ward Howe.

Afflictions may press me, they cannot destroy,
One glimpse of Thy love turns them all into joy ;
And the bitterest tears, if Thou smile but on them,
Like dew in the sunshine, grow diamond and gem.
Let doubt, then, and danger my progress oppose,
They only make heaven more sweet at the close ;
Come joy or come sorrow, whate'er may befall,
An hour with my God will make up for it all.

91. AFFLICTION. Furnace of He that from dross would win the precious ore,

Bends o'er the crucible an earnest eye,
The subtle, searching process to explore,

Lest the one brilliant moment should pass by,
When in the molten silver's virgin mass
He meets his pictured face as in a glass.
Thus in God's furnace are His children tried;

Thrice happy they who to the end endure !
But who the fiery trial may abide?

Who from the crucible come forth so pure, That He, whose eyes of fame look through the

whole, May see His image perfect in the soul ?

A scrip on my back, and a staff in my hand,
I march on in haste through an enemy's land ;
The road may be rough, but it cannot be long,
And I'll smooth it with hope, and cheer it with song.

Lyte. 94. AFFLICTION : its results.

Not with an evanescent glimpse alone,

As in that mirror the refiner's face,
But, stampt with heaven's broad signet, there be

shown
Immanuel's features, full of truth and grace, -
And round that seal of love this motto be,
•Not for a moment, but eternity!'

James Montgomery.

The more the cross, the nearer heaven ;Where is no cross there God is not ; The world's turmoil doth hide His face, Hell, sense, and self, make Him forgot. Oh! where God draws a blessed lot, His mercy some dark lines doth trace. The more the cross, the better Christian ;God lays the touchstone to each soul ; How many a garden must lie waste Did not a tear-storm o'er it roll! Refining grief, a living coal, Upon the Christian's heart is placed. The more the cross, the more believing ;In desert lands the palm trees grow; And when the grape is strongly press'd, Then doth its sweetness overflow; And strength lies hid in every woe, As pearls do in the salt wave rest.

92. AFFLICTION : God's messenger. Count each affliction, whether light or grave, God's messenger sent down to thee. Do thou With courtesy receive him : rise and bow; And, ere his shadow pass thy threshold, crave Permission first his heavenly feet to lave, Then lay before him all thou hast. Allow No cloud of passion to usurp thy brow, Or mar thy hospitality, no wave Of mortal tumult to obliterate Thy soul's marmoreal calmness. Grief should be Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate, Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free,

The more the cross, the more the praying ;-
The bruised plant yields sweetest balm ;
Man doth not seek to find the pole
In quiet seas and steady calms;
And how should we have David's psalms
Had he not had a troubled soul ?
The more the cross, the more the longing ;-
Out of the vale man upward goes;

When joy no longer soothes or cheers,

And e'en the hope that threw
A moment's sparkle o'er our tears,

Is dimm'd and vanish'd too !
Oh, who would bear life's stormy doom,

Did not Thy wing of love
Come brightly wafting through the gloom

Our peace-branch from above !
Then sorrow, touch'd by Thee, grows bright

With more than rapture's ray;
As darkness shows us worlds of light
We never saw by day!- Moore.

The epoch ends, the world is still.
The age has talk'd and work'd its fill,
The famous orators have done,
The famous poets sung and gone,
The famous men of war have fought,
The famous speculators thought,
The famous players, sculptors, wrought,
The famous painters fill'd their wall,
The famous critics judged it all.
The combatants are parted now,
Uphung the spear, unbent the bow,
The puissant crown'd, the weak laid low!

And in the after-silence sweet,
Now strife is hush'd, our ears doth meet,
Ascending pure, the bell-like fame,
Of this or that down-trodden name,
Delicate spirits, push'd away
In the hot-press of the noon-day.
And o'er the plain, where the dead age
Did its now silent warfare wage, -
O'er that wide plain, now wrapt in gloom,
Where many a splendour finds its tomb,
Many spent fames and fallen mights,
The one or two immortal lights,
Rise slowly up into the sky
To shine there everlastingly,
Like stars over the bounding hill.
The epoch ends, the world is still.

Matthew Arnold

A moderate pace would now my body heat,
A walk of moderate length distress my feet.
I show'd my stranger guest those hills sublime,
But said, “The view is poor, we need not climb.'
At a friend's mansion I began to dread
The cold neat parlour, and the gay glazed bed ;
At home I felt a more decided taste,
And must have all things in my order placed.
I ceased to hunt ; my horses pleased me less,
My dinner more; I learn'd to play at chess.
I took my dog and gun, but saw the brute
Was disappointed that I did not shoot.
My morning walks I now could bear to lose,
And bless'd the shower that gave me not to choose.
In fact, I felt a languor stealing on;
The active arm, the agile hand, were gone ;
Small daily actions into habits grew,
And new dislike to forms and fashions new.
I loved my trees in order to dispose ;
I number'd peaches, look'd how stocks arose ;
Told the same story oft,-in short, began to prose.

Crabbe.

101. AGE. The New

Age by degrees invisibly doth creep,
Nor do we seem to die, but fall asleep.

Denham.

THUNDERING and bursting In torrents, in waves, Carolling and shouting Over tombs, amid graves, See on the cumber'd plain Clearing a stage, Scattering the past about, Comes the new age ! Bards make new poems, Thinkers new schools, Statesmen new systems, Critics new rules ! All things begin again ; Life is their prize ; Earth with their deeds they fill, Fill with their cries !-Matthew Arnold.

Thus daily changing, by degrees I'd waste,
Still quitting ground by unperceived decay,
And steal myself from life, and melt away.

Dryden. 104. AGE : comes to all. 'Tis greatly wise to know before we're told, The melancholy news that we grow old. — Young.

105. AGE: its effects.