Our young and gentle friend, whose smile
Made brighter summer hours,
Amid the frosts of autumn time
Has left us with the flowers.

No paling of the cheek of bloom Forewarn'd us of decay;

No shadow from the silent land

Fell round our sister's way.

The light of her young life went down,

As sinks behind the hill

The glory of a setting star-!

Clear, suddenly, and still.

The blessing of her quiet life

Fell on us like the dew;

And good thoughts, where her footsteps press'd, Like fairy blossoms grew.

Sweet promptings unto kindest deeds

Were in her very look;

We read her face, as one who reads
A true and holy book:

The measure of a blessed hymn,

To which our hearts could move; The breathing of an inward psalm;

A canticle of love.

We miss her in the place of prayer,
And by the hearth-fire's light;
We pause beside her door to hear
Once more her sweet 'Good-night!'
There seems a shadow on the day,

Her smile no longer cheers;
A dimness on the stars of night,
Like eyes that look through tears.

Alone unto our Father's will

One thought hath reconciled; That He whose love exceedeth ours

Hath taken home His child.

Fold her, O Father! in Thine arms, And let her henceforth be

A messenger of love between

Our human hearts and Thee.

Still let her mild rebuking stand

Between us and the wrong,
And her dear memory serve to make

Our faith in goodness strong.

And grant that she who, trembling, here Distrusted all her powers,

May welcome to her holier home

The well-beloved of ours.—Whittier.

Consists not in the multitude of friends,
But in the worth and choice: nor would I have
Virtue a popular regard pursue:

Let them be good that love, although but few.
Jonson.

Friends, not adopted with a schoolboy's haste,
But chosen with a nice discerning taste,
Well born, well disciplined, who, placed apart
From vulgar minds, have honour much at heart,
And (though the world may think the ingredients
odd)

The love of virtue, and the fear of God!

Such friends prevent what else would soon succeed,
A temper rustic as the life we lead,

And keep the polish of the manners clean
As theirs who bustle in the busiest scene.-Cowper.

1383. FRIENDS. Christ's

CHRIST had His friends-His eye could trace In the long train of coming years,

The chosen children of His grace,
The full reward of all His tears.

These are His friends, and these are thine,
If thou to Him hast bow'd the knee;
And where these ransom'd millions shine
Shall thy eternal mansion be.

1384. FRIENDS. Dying

WE tread one path to glory,
Are guided by One hand,
And led in faith and patience
Unto one Fatherland!
Then let this hour of parting
No bitter grief record,
But be an hour of union

More blessed with our Lord!
With Him to guide and save us,
No changes that await,
No earthly separations,
Can leave us desolate !-Spitta.

1385. FRIENDS: easily separated.

ALAS! how light a cause may move
Dissension between hearts that love!
Hearts that the world in vain had tried,
And sorrow but more closely tied ;

That stood the storm when waves were rough,
Yet in a sunny hour fall off,

Like ships that have gone down at sea

When heaven was all tranquillity.-Moore.

1386. FRIENDS. Faithful

MUCH beautiful, and excellent, and fair

Was seen beneath the sun; but nought was seen
More beautiful, or excellent, or fair

Than face of faithful friend; fairest when seen
In darkest day. And many sounds were sweet,
Most ravishing, and pleasant to the ear;
But sweeter none than voice of faithful friend;
Sweet always, sweetest heard in loudest storm.
Some I remember, and will ne'er forget;
My early friends, friends of my evil day;
Friends in my mirth, friends in my misery too;
Friends given by God in mercy and in love;
My counsellors, my comforters, and guides;
My joy in grief, my second bliss in joy;
Companions of my young desires; in doubt
My oracles; my wings in high pursuit.
Oh, I remember, and will ne'er forget,
Our meeting spots, our chosen sacred hours;
Our burning words, that utter'd all the soul;
Our faces beaming with unearthly love;

Sorrow with sorrow sighing, hope with hope Exulting, heart embracing heart entire.-Pollok.

1387. FRIENDS. False and True

FALSE friends, like insects in a summer's day, Bask in the sunshine, but avoid the shower; Uncertain visitants, they fly away,

E'en when misfortune's cloud begins to lower.

Into life's bitter cup true friendship drops

Balsamic sweets to overpower the gall; True friends, like ivy and the wall it props, Both stand together, or together fall.

1388. FRIENDS. Lack of

A RARE thing is faith, and friendship is a marvel among men,

Yet strange faces call they friends, and say they believe when they doubt.

Those hours are not lost that are spent in cementing affection,

For a friend is above gold, precious as the stores of the mind.

Be sparing of advice by words, but teach thy lesson by example;

For the vanity of man may be wounded, and retort

unkindly upon thee.

There be some that never had a friend, because they

were gross and selfish:

Worldliness, and apathy, and pride leave not many that are worthy,

But one who meriteth esteem need never lack a friend;

For as thistle-down flieth abroad, and casteth its anchor in the soil,

So philanthropy yearneth for a heart where it may take root and blossom.

For alas! how few be friends, of whom charity hath hoped well!

How few there be among men who forget themselves for others!

Each one seeketh his own, and looketh on his brethren as rivals,

Masking envy with friendship, to serve his secret ends.

And the world, that corrupteth all good, hath wronged that sacred name,

For it calleth any man friend who is not known for an enemy;

And such be as the flies of summer, while plenty sitteth at thy board.-Tupper.

Beyond the flight of time,
Beyond this vale of death,
There surely is some blessed clime
Where life is not a breath,

Nor life's affection transient fire,
Whose sparks fly upward to expire.

There is a world above,
Where parting is unknown;
A whole eternity of love,

Form'd for the good alone:
And faith beholds the dying here
Translated to that happier sphere.

Thus star by star declines,
Till all are pass'd away,

As morning high and higher shines,
To pure and perfect day;

Nor sink those stars in empty night—
They hide themselves in heaven's own light.
James Montgomery.

'Tis sweet, as year by year we lose
Friends out of sight, in faith to muse
How grows in Paradise our store.-Keble.

Oh! sweet bond of friendship, whate'er may betide

us,

Though on life's stormy billows our barks may be driven,

Though distance, or trial, or death may divide us, Eternal re-union awaits us in heaven.

1393. FRIENDS. Prayer for

FATHER, who to us hast given

Love and friends as summer flowers, Who hath brought the once sad-hearted To the joys of many hours, Hear us, Friend of love Divine, Let the friends we love be Thine.

Lo! they gather at the fireside

Happy hearts, and shining eyes ; And they walk along the valleys,

Cheering us with sympathies;
But we ask Thee evermore,
Let them all Thy Name adore.

Look upon the merry children,
Look upon the happy young;
And by their sweet, ringing voices,
Let Thy words of praise be sung,
That their happy lives may be
Given alone, O Lord, to Thee.

When shall fall the evening shadows, And the sunset dyes are deep,

ALAS! they had been friends in youth:
But whispering tongues can poison truth;
And constancy lives in realms above;
And life is thorny; and youth is vain ;
And to be wroth with one we love
Doth work like madness in the brain.
And thus it chanced, as I divine,
With Roland and Sir Leoline!
Each spoke words of high disdain

And insult to his heart's best brother;
They parted,-ne'er to meet again!
But never either found another
To free the hollow heart from paining.
They stood aloof, the scars remaining,
Like cliffs which had been rent asunder!
A dreary sea now flows between,
But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder
Shall wholly do away, I ween,
The marks of that which once hath been.
Coleridge.

Two barks met on the deep mid-sea,
When calms had still'd the tide ;
A few bright days of summer glee
There found them side by side.

And voices of the fair and brave

Rose mingling thence in mirth;
And sweetly floated o'er the wave
The melodies of earth.

Moonlight on that lone Indian main
Cloudless and lovely slept;
While dancing step and festive strain
Each deck in triumph swept.

And hands were link'd, and answering eyes

With kindly meaning shone; Oh, brief and passing sympathies,

Like leaves together blown!

A little while such joy was cast

Over the deep's repose,
Till the loud singing winds at last
Like trumpet music rose,

And proudly, freely on their way

The parting vessels bore ;
In calm or storm, by rock or bay,
To meet-Oh, never more!
Never to blend in victory's cheer,
To aid in hours of woe;

And thus bright spirits mingle here,

Such ties are form'd below.-Mrs Hemans.

1402. FRIENDSHIP; denied to the great.

FRIENDSHIP'S the privilege

Of private men; for wretched greatness knows
No blessing so substantial.- Tate.

1403. FRIENDSHIP. Different kinds of
BEWARE of sudden friendship,-'tis a flower
That thrives but in the sun; its bud is fair,
And it may blossom in the summer hour,

But winter's withering tempests will not bear. 'Tis like the gilded insect through the air

That flits, on fragile wing, from sweet to sweet, Yet stays on none, still fluttering onward, where Fresh hues, fresh forms, and fragrance it may meet. True friendship is a tree, whose lasting strength

Is slow of growth, but proves, whate'er befall, Through life our hope and haven, and at length Yields but to death-the power that conquers all.

1404. FRIENDSHIP. Duties of

A FRIEND should bear a friend's infirmities;
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are,
Shakespeare.

He who, malignant, tears an absent friend,
Or, when attack'd by others, don't defend,
Who friendship's secrets knows not to conceal-
That man is vile.-Francis.

1405. FRIENDSHIP. Effect of absence on

WE need the clasp of hand in hand,

The light flash'd warm from neighbouring eyes ; Or else as weary seasons pass―

Alas! alas!

Our tenderest love grows wan and dies.