them excite a temporary sorrow and regret. If these things can affect us with uneasiness, how great must be the affliction when stretched on that bed from which we shall rise no more, and looking about, for the last time, on the sad circle of our weeping friends;-how great must be the affliction to dissolve at once all the attachments of life; to bid an eternal adieu to the friends whom we long have loved, and to part for ever with all that is dear below the sun! But let not the Christian be disconsolate. He parts with the objects of his affection, to meet them again; to meet them in a better world, where change never enters, and from whose blissful mansion sorrow flies away. At the resurrection of the just in the great assembly of the sons of God, when all the family of heaven are gathered together, not one person shall be missing that was worthy of thy affection or esteem. And if among imperfect creatures, and in a troubled world, the kind, the tender, and the generous affections have such power to charm the heart, that even the tears which they occasion delight us, what joy unspeakable and glorious will they produce when they exist in perfect minds, and are improved by the purity of the heavens!

LOGAN.

"I WOULD NOT LIVE ALWAY."

EARTH is the spirit's rayless cell; But then, as a bird soars home to the shade Of the beautiful wood, where its nest was made, In bonds no more to dwell;

So will its weary wing

Be spread for the skies, when its toil is done,
And its breath flow free, as a bird's in the sun,
And the soft, fresh gales of spring.

O, not more sweet the tears
Of the dewy eve on the violet shed,
Than the dews of age on the "hoary head,"
When it enters the eve of years.

Nor dearer, 'mid the foam
Of the far-off sea, and its stormy roar,
Is a breath of balm from the unseen shore,
To him that weeps for home.

Wings, like a dove, to fly !—

The spirit is faint with its feverish strife;—
O, for its home in the upper Life!

When, when will Death draw nigh!

B. B. THATCHER.

DETACHED THOUGHTS.

WE are forbidden to murmur, but we are not forbidden to regret; and whom we loved tenderly while living, we may still pursue with an affectionate remembrance, without having any occasion to charge ourselves with rebellion against the sovereignty that appointed a separation.

COWPER.

How naturally does affliction make us Christians! and how impossible is it when all human help is vain; and the whole earth too poor and trifling to

furnish us with one moment's peace,-how impossible is it then to avoid looking at the Gospel.

Ibid.

WE would always withhold from the skies those who alone can reach them; at least till we are ready to bear them company.

THE TEARS OF THE AGED.

Ibid.

"WHY should a tear be in an Old Man's eye?
Why should we thus, with an untoward mind,
And in the weakness of humanity,

From natural wisdom turn our hearts away,
To natural comfort shut our eyes and ears,
And, feeding on disquiet, thus disturb

The calm of nature with our restless thoughts?"
WORDSWORTH.

MOURNFUL THOUGHTS FRIENDLY TO VIRTUE.
WE have known that there is often found
In mournful thoughts, and always might be found
A power to virtue friendly.

WORDSWORTH.

GRIEVE NO MORE.

My Friend! enough to sorrow you have given,
The purposes of wisdom ask no more;
Be wise and cheerful; and no longer read
The forms of things with an unworthy eye:
They sleep in the calm earth, and peace is there.

WORDSWORTH.

SERENITY IN SORROW.

He that suffers most, he outwardly,

And inwardly perhaps, the most serene, with most undaunted eye!

Oh! blest are they who live and die like these, Loved with such love, and with such sorrow mourned !

WORDSWORTH.

HOPE IN SORROW.

Nor without hope we suffer and we mourn.

WORDSWORTH.

SOURCES OF COMFORT.

WHAT though the radiance which was once so bright

Be now for ever taken from my sight;

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind,
In the primal sympathy

Which, having been, must ever be,
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering,

In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.

WORDSWORTH.

SECURE IN HOPE.

SURE, when the separation has been tried,
That we, who part in love, shall meet again.

WORDSWORTH.

THE TRUE CONSOLER.

OH! there is never sorrow of heart
That shall lack a timely end,

If but to God we turn and ask

Of Him to be our friend!

WORDSWORTH.

OBEDIENCE CONDUCTS TO PEACE OF MIND.

TIME flies; it is his melancholy task
To bring, and bear away, delusive hopes,
And reproduce the trouble he destroys.
But, while his blindness thus is occupied,
Discerning Mortal! do thou serve the will
Of Time's eternal Master, and that peace,
Which the world wants, shall be for thee confirmed.
WORDSWORTH.

HOPE.

THE food of hope

Is meditated action; robbed of this
Her sole support, she languishes and dies.
We perish also; for we live by hope
And by desire; we see by the glad light,
And breathe the sweet air of futurity,
And so we live, or else we have no life.
To-morrow-nay perchance this very hour,
(For every moment hath its own to-morrow.)
WORDSWORTH.