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SABBATH EVENING TWILIGHT.

It trances every roving thought,

Yet sets the soaring fancy free-
Shuts from the soul the present out,
That all is musing memory.

I love those joyous memories,
That rush, with thee, upon the soul-
Those deep, unuttered symphonies,
That o'er the spell-bound spirit roll.
All the bright scenes of love and youth
Revive, as if they had not fled;
And Fancy clothes with seeming truth
The forms she rescues from the dead.

Yet holier is thy peaceful close,

For vows love left recorded there;
This is the noiseless hour we chose
To consecrate to mutual prayer.
'Twas when misfortune's fearful cloud
Was gathering o'er the brow of heaven,
Ere yet despair's eternal shroud

Wrapped every vision hope had given.

When these deep purpling shades came down,
In softened teints, upon the hills,

We swore, that, whether fate should crown

Our future course with joys or ills

SABBATH EVENING TWILIGHT.

Whether safe moored in love's retreat,
Or severed wide by mount and sea-
This hour, in spirit, we would meet,

And urge to Heaven our mutual plea.

O, tell me if this hallowed hour

Still finds thee constant at our shrine, Still witnesses thy fervent prayer

Ascending warm and true with mine! Faithful through every change of wo,

My heart still flies to meet thee there : "Twould sooth this very heart to know That thine responded every prayer.

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SUNRISE ON THE HILLS.

BY H. W. LONGFELLOW.

I STOOD upon the hills, when heaven's wide arch
Was glorious with the sun's returning march,

And woods were brightened, and soft gales
Went forth to kiss the sun-clad vales.

The clouds were far beneath me:-bathed in light
They gathered midway round the wooded height,
And in their fading glory shone

Like hosts in battle overthrown,

As many a pinnacle with shifting glance,
Through the gray mist thrust up its shattered lance,
And rocking on the cliff was left

The dark pine blasted, bare, and cleft.
The veil of cloud was lifted-and below
Glowed the rich valley, and the river's flow
Was darkened by the forest's shade,
Or glistened in the white cascade,

Where upward in the mellow blush of day
The noisy bittern wheeled his spiral way.

SUNRISE ON THE HILLS.

I heard the distant waters dash

I saw the current whirl and flash

And richly by the blue lake's silver beach
The woods were bending with a silent reach.
Then o'er the vale with gentle swell

The musick of the village-bell

Came sweetly to the echo-giving hills,

And the wild horn, whose voice the woodland fills,
Was ringing to the merry shout

That faint and far the glen sent out,

Where, answering to the sudden shot, thin smoke
Through thick-leaved branches from the dingle broke.

If thou art worn and hard beset

With sorrows that thou wouldst forget―
If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep
Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep,
Go to the woods and hills!· -no tears

Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.

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