THE OLD MAN'S BIRTHDAY. "My birthday!" what a different sound When first our scanty years are told, Vain was the man, and false as vain, He would do all that he had done. Lavish'd unwisely, carelessly; Of counsel mock'd; of talents made. 66 LOOK ALOFT." 153 But oft, like Israel's incense, laid Upon unholy earthly shrines! All this it tells;-and could I trace The imperfect picture o'er again, With power to add, retouch, efface The lights and shades, the joy and pain, How little of the past would stay, How quickly all would melt away! MOORE. "LOOK ALOFT." IN the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale Are around and above, if thy footing should fail, If thine eye should grow dim, and thy caution depart, "Look aloft," and be firm, and be fearless of heart. If the friend who embraced in prosperity's glow, With a smile for each joy and a tear for each wo, Should betray thee when sorrows like clouds are array'd, "Look aloft" to the friendship which never shall fade. Should the visions which Hope spreads in light to thine eye, Like the tints of the rainbow, but brighten to fly, Then turn, and through tears of repentant regret, "Look aloft" to the sun that is never to set. Should they who are dearest, the loved of thy heart, The friends of thy bosom, in sorrow depart, "Look aloft" from the darkness and dust of the tomb To that soil where "affection is ever in bloom." And oh! when Death comes in his terrors, to cast His fears on the future, his pall on the past, In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy heart, And a smile in thine eye, "look aloft," and depart. LAWRENCE. THE CHILD AND THE SERAPH. A little child, A little meek-faced, quiet village-child, Sat singing by her cottage-door at eve A low sweet Sabbath-song. No human ear Caught the faint melody—no human eye Beheld the upturn'd aspect, or the smile That wreath'd her innocent lips the while they breathed The oft-repeated burden of the hymn, "Praise God! praise God!" A seraph by the throne In the full glory stood. With Well'd forth unceasing. Then with a great voice Lord God Almighty!" and the eternal courts Rose the majestic anthem, without pause, Rang with the "Holy, holy, evermore !”— That blended with the seraph's rushing strain, Was heard the simple burden of the hymn, Had reach'd its close, and o'er the golden lyre Silence hung brooding-when the eternal courts Rung but with echoes of his chant sublime, Still, through the abysmal space, that wandering voice Came floating upward from its world afar, Still murmuring sweet on the celestial air, "Praise God! praise God!" BIBLE CLASS MAGAZINE. |