WHEN the sun sets, shadows that show'd at noon
But small, appear most long and terrible :
So when we think fate hovers o'er our heads,
Our apprehensions shoot beyond all bounds;
Owls, ravens, crickets, seem the watch of death:
Nature's worst vermin scare her god-like sons.
Echoes, the very leaving of a voice,

Grow babbling ghosts, and call us to our graves.
Each mole-hill thought swells to huge Olympus,
While we, fantastic dreamers, heave and puff,
And sweat with an imagination's weight.-Lee.

His fear was greater than his haste;
For fear, though fleeter than the wind,
Believes 'tis always left behind.-Butler.

Oh fear not thou to die!
No more to suffer or to sin;

No snares without thy faith to try,
No traitor heart within :

But fear, oh! rather fear
The gay, the light, the changeful scene,
The flattering smiles that greet thee here,
From Heaven thy heart that wean.
Fear lest, in evil hour,

Thy pure and holy hope, o'ercome
By clouds that in the horizon lower,
Thy spirit feel that gloom
Which over earth and heaven
The covering throws of fell despair;
And deems itself the unforgiven
Predestined child of care.

1257. FEAR. Refuge from

WHEN time seems short and death is near,
And I am press'd by doubt and fear,
And sins, an overflowing tide,
Assail my peace on every side,
This thought my refuge still shall be,
I know the Saviour died for me.
His name is Jesus, and He died
For guilty sinners crucified;
Content to die that He might win
Their ransom from the death of sin :
No sinner worse than I can be,
Therefore I know He died for me.

If grace were bought, I could not buy;
If grace were coin'd, no wealth have I ;
By grace alone I draw my breath,
Held up from everlasting death;
Yet, since I know His grace is free,

I know the Saviour died for me.

I read God's holy Word, and find
Great truths which far transcend my mind;
And little do I know beside

Of thoughts so high, so deep and wide:
This is my best theology, -

I know the Saviour died for me.

My faith is weak, but 'tis Thy gift;
Thou canst my helpless soul uplift,
And say, 'Thy bonds of death are riven,
Thy sins by Me are all forgiven;
And thou shalt live from guilt set free,
For I, thy Saviour, died for thee.'-Bethune.

Though the path be through the sea,
Israel, what is that to thee?
He who bids thee pass the waters,
Will be with His sons and daughters.

Israel, art thou sorely tried?
Art thou press'd on every side?
Does it seem as if no power
Could relieve thee in this hour?
Wherefore art thou thus dishearten'd?
Is the arm that saves thee shorten'd?

Stand thou still this day, and see
Wonders wrought, and wrought for thee;
Safe thyself on yonder shore,
Thou shalt see thy foes no more,
Thine to see the Saviour's glory,
Thine to tell the wondrous story.

Yes! thy God shall yet be known,
Far and wide as God alone;
At His feet shall idols fall,
For thy God is Lord of all ;
His is strength and His salvation-
He shall reign o'er every nation.

While prostrate worlds before thee bow,
And wait upon thy will!

'May evermore this clear, pure heaven,
Whence every speck and stain
Of trouble far away is driven,

Above thy head remain !'

The caliph cried: "Thou wishest well,
There waits thee golden store
For this-but, oh! resume the spell,

I fain would listen more.'
'Drink thou life's sweetest goblet up,

O King, and may its wine, For others' lips a mingled cup,

Be all unmix'd for thine.

'Live long-the shadow of no grief
Come ever near to thee:

As thou in height of place art chief,
So chief in gladness be.'
Haroun Al Raschid cried again,

'I thank thee-but proceed,
And now take up a higher strain,
And win a higher meed.'
Around that high, magnific hall
One glance the poet threw
On courtiers, king, and festival,
And did the strain renew:

'And yet, and yet-shalt thou at last
Lie stretch'd on bed of death:
Then, when thou drawest thick and fast
With sobs thy painful breath,
'When Azrael glides through guarded gate,
Through hosts that camp around
Their lord in vain-and will not wait,
When thou art sadly bound

'Unto thine house of dust alone,
O King, when thou must die,
This pomp a shadow thou shalt own,
This glory all a lie.'

Then darkness on all faces hung,

And through the banquet went Low sounds the murmuring guests among Of angry discontent;

And him anon they fiercely urge

'What guerdon shall be thine? What does it, this untimely dirge, 'Mid feasts, and flowers, and wine? 'Our lord demanded in his mirth A strain to heighten glee; But lo at thine his tears came forth In current swift and free.'

1265. FEASTING. Unwise

SATED with nature's boons, what thousands seek,
With dishes tortured from their native taste,
And mad variety, to spur beyond

Its wiser will the jaded appetite!—Armstrong.

1266. FELLOWSHIP. Bond of

ONE sole baptismal sign,

One Lord below, above,
One faith, one hope divine,

One only watchword-Love: From different temples though it rise, One song ascendeth to the skies.

Our sacrifice is one

One Priest before the throne, The slain, the risen Son,

Redeemer, Lord alone!

And sighs from contrite hearts that spring Our chief, our choicest offering. —Robinson.

1267. FELLOWSHIP. Christian How blest the sacred tie that binds,

In union sweet, according minds!
How swift the heavenly course they run

Whose hearts, whose faith, whose hopes, are one!

To each the soul of each how dear!
What jealous love! what holy fear!
How doth the generous flame within
Refine from earth, and cleanse from sin!

Their streaming tears together flow
For human guilt and mortal woe;
Their ardent prayers together rise
Like mingling flames in sacrifice.

Together both they seek the place
Where God reveals His awful face:

How high, how strong, their raptures swell,
There's none but kindred souls can tell.

Young.

And cast our crowns before His throne!

When we adore Him there,

We shall be void of fear,

Nor faith, nor hope, nor patience need:

Love will absorb us quite,

Love in the midst of light,

On God's eternal love shall feed.

Oh! what sweet company
We then shall hear and see!
What harmony will there abound!
When souls unnumber'd sing
The praise of Zion's King,
Nor one dissenting voice is found!

With everlasting joy,

Such as will never cloy,

We shall be fill'd, nor wish for more;
Bright as meridian day,
Calm as the evening ray,
Full as a sea without a shore.

Till that blest period come,
Zion shall be my home;
And may I never thence remove,

Till from the Church below

To heaven at once I go,

And there commune in perfect love!

Joseph Swain.

1269. FELLOWSHIP. Incense of

MORE Sweet than odours caught by him who sails
Near spicy shores of Araby the blest—

A thousand times more exquisitely sweet
The freight of holy feeling which we meet,
In thoughtful moments, wafted by the gales
From fields where good men walk,

Or bowers wherein they rest.—Wordsworth.

1270. FELLOWSHIP. Sympathetic THE heart-the heart! oh! let it spare A sigh for others' pain;

The breath that soothes a brother's care
Is never spent in vain.

And though it throb at gentlest touch,
Or Sorrow's faintest call,

"Twere better it should ache too much, Than never ache at all.

No ray of glory lights the breast

That beats for self alone.-Eliza Cook.

1271. FICKLENESS.

As I blow this feather from my face, Obeying with my wind when I do blow, And yielding to another when it blows,

Commanded always by the greatest gust, Such is the lightness of you common men. Shakespeare.

1272. FIDELITY. Tests of

WELL hast thou fought

The better fight, who single hast maintain'd
Against revolted multitudes the cause

Of truth, in word mightier than they in arms;
And for the testimony of truth hast borne
Universal reproach, far worse to bear
Than violence. -Milton.

1273. FIDELITY. Test of

HIS courtiers of the caliph crave

'Oh, say how this may be, That of thy slaves, this Ethiop slave Is best beloved by thee?

'For he is hideous as the night:
Yet when has ever chose
A nightingale for its delight
A hueless, scentless rose?'

The caliph then, 'No features fair,
No comely mien are his;
Love is the beauty he doth wear,
And love his glory is.

'Once when a camel of my train

There fell in narrow street, From broken casket roll'd amain Rich pearls before my feet.

'I nodding to my slaves that I

Would freely give them these, At once upon the spoil they fly, The costly boon to seize.

'One only at my side remain'dBeside this Ethiop, none:

He moveless as the steed he rein'd, Behind me sat alone.

"What will thy gain, good fellow, be, Thus lingering at my side?"

"My king, that I shall faithfully
Have guarded thee," he cried.
'True servant's title he may wear,
He only, who has not,
For his lord's gifts, how rich soe'er,
His lord himself forgot!'

So thou alone dost walk before
Thy God with perfect aim,
From Him desiring nothing more
Beside Himself to claim

'Tis but one family-the accents come

Like light from heaven to break the night of woe, The banner-cry to call the spirit home,

The shout of victory o'er a fallen foe.

Death cannot separate-Is memory dead?

Has thought, too, vanish'd, and has love grown

chill?

Has every relic and memento fled,

And are the living only with us still?

No! in our hearts the lost we mourn remain
Objects of love and ever-fresh delight;
And fancy leads them in her fairy train,

In half-seen transports past the mourner's sight.
Yes! in ten thousand ways, or far or near,
The call by love, by meditation brought,
In heavenly visions yet they haunt us here,
The sad companions of our sweetest thought.
Death never separates; the golden wires

That ever trembled to their names before, Will vibrate still, though every form expires, And those we love, we look upon no more,

No more indeed in sorrow and in pain,

But even memory's need ere long will cease,
For we shall join the lost of love again,
In endless bands, and in eternal peace.

1216. FAMILY. Reunion of a

Edmeston.

SCATTER'D o'er various fields by Heaven,
Through various pathways led,
What happiness in peace to meet
Around a common head!

To talk of mercies shared by all,
Of hopes that virtues raise;
And in the general bliss enjoy'd,
To join in general praise !

The pleasures of the past recall,

And tell the tales again

Of infant dreams, and childhood's joys,
And youth's delightful reign,-

And then the strange vicissitudes

Of mankind to compare ;
And mark how wonderful, how kind,
Heaven's dispensations are,—

To plan the schemes of future bliss ;

Rejoicing to confess,

That He whose love hath bless'd the past,

The future, too, will bless.

Thus the domestic hearth is made
Both love and virtue's shrine,

And thus earth's dross is purified,

And man becomes divine.-Bowring.

1217. FAMILY. Ties of the

If there is happiness below,

In such a home she's shrined: The human heart can never know

Enjoyment more refined,

Than where the sacred band is twined
Of filial and parental ties,—
That tender union, all combined
Of Nature's holiest sympathies !

'Tis friendship in its loveliest dress!
'Tis love's most perfect tenderness !
All other friendships may decay,
All other loves may fade away:
Our faults or follies may disgust
The friend in whom we fondly trust;
Or selfish views may intervene,
From us his changeful heart to wean:
Or we ourselves may change, and find
Faults to which once our love was blind:
Or ling'ring pain, or pining care
At length may weary friendship's ear;
And love may gaze with alter'd eye,
When beauty's young attractions fly:
But in that union, firm and mild,
That binds a parent to his child,
Such jarring chords can never sound-
Such painful doubts can never wound.
Though health and fortune may decay,
And fleeting beauty pass away;
Though grief may blight, or sin deface
Our youth's fair promise, or disgrace
May brand with infamy, and shame,
And public scorn, our blasted name;
Though all the fell contagion fly,
Of guilt, reproach, and misery,—
When love forgets, and friends forsake,
A parent, though his heart may break,
From that fond heart will never tear
The child, whose last retreat is there!
O union, purest, most sublime!
The grave itself but for a time

The holy bond shall sever;

His hand who rent shall bind again,
With firmer links, thy broken chain,
To be complete for ever!-Fitsarthur.

1218. FAMILY. Worship in the

FAIR is the sight, by Israel's psalmist sung,

Of those whom God hath in one household join'd, In peace, and unity, and love combined; Most fair, when all assemble, old and young, Parents and children; those who serve, among