WHEN first thy eyes unveil, give thy soul leave
To do the like; our bodies but forerun

The spirit's duty; true hearts spread and heave
Unto their God, as flowers do to the sun:
Give Him thy first thoughts then, so shalt thou keep
Him company all day, and in Him sleep.

Yet never sleep the sun up; prayer should

Dawn with the day, there are set awful hours "Twixt Heaven and us; the manna was not good After sun-rising, for day sullies flowers.

NEW, every morning, is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove;

HENRY VAUGHAN.

Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life, and power, and thought.

New mercies each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray;

New perils past, new sins forgiven,

New thoughts of God, new hopes of Heaven.

THE waking cock, that early crows
To wear the night away,

Puts in my mind the trump that blows

Before the latter day;

And as I rise up lustily,

When sluggish sleep is past,

So hope I to rise joyfully

To judgment, at the last,

GEORGE GASCOIGNE.

*AND heavenly day, now night is past,

Doth show his pleasant face,

So must we hope to see God's face,

At last, in Heaven on high,

When we have changed this mortal place

For immortality.

GEORGE GASCOIGNE.

THE day that only springeth from on high,
That high day-light wherein the heavens do live;
The life that loves but to behold that eye
Which doth the glory of all brightness give,
And from the enlightened doth all darkness drive:
Where saints do see, and angels know to see
A brighter light than saints or angels see.

In this light's love, O, let me ever live!
And let my soul have never other love
But all the pleasures of the world to give,
The smallest spark of such a joy to prove,
And ever pray unto my God above,

To grant my humble soul good Simeon's grace,
In love to see my Saviour in the face.

NICHOLAS BRETON.

PRIME cheerer, Light!

Of all material beings, first and best!
Efflux divine! Nature's resplendent robe!
Without whose vesting beauty, all were wrapt
In unessential gloom! and thou, O Sun!

Soul of surrounding worlds, in whom, best seen,
Shines out thy Maker!

THOMSON.

HEARD as each morn relumes the eastern cloud,

Thy voice of holiest comfort cries aloud,

Bidding us rise, the night-like past above,

And soar on morning's wing to thoughts of light and love!

ANONYMOUS.

MOSES.

By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's laughter;

Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. HEBREWS, Xi, 24–26.

So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.

And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Baal-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. DEUTERONOMY, xxxiv, 5, 6.

ON the Mount

Of Sinai, whose foundations shook, whose top
Was lost in smoke and fire, while seraphim
At distance gazed, full forty days and nights,
Guest of terrestrial mould, did he sojourn,
Within the dread pavilion, and the veil
Of cloud and tempest; there as face to face,
In visions of beatitude rejoice

Past utterance, till his countenance imbibed
Transcendant splendours.

CHARLES HOYLE.

IN his hand

The rod which blasted, with strange plagues, the realm
Of Mizraim, and from its time-worn channels

Upturned the Arabian Sea. Fair was his broad
High front, and forth from his soul-piercing eye,
Did legislation look.

MOSES, the patriot fierce, became

The meekest man on earth,

To show us how love's quickening flame
Can give our souls new birth.

HILLHOUSE.

Moses, the man of meekest heart,

Lost Canaan by self-will,

To show, where Grace has done its part,

How sin defiles us still.

LYRA APOSTOLICA,

WHAT lofty obsequies were rendered

That hour, when darkness held the pall:
What pomp, when stood, in clouds pavilioned,
The silent, present Lord of all!

How blest the man whose dust Jehovah
Hid in a grave that's yet untrod!
Thrice blessed he, that soul most happy,
Whose life is hid, with Christ, in God.

W. B. TAPPAN

GOD made his grave, to men unknown,
Where Moab's rocks a vale infold;
And laid the aged seer alone,

To slumber while the world grows old.
Thus still, where'er the good and just

Close the dim eye on life and pain, Heaven watches o'er their sleeping dust, Till the pure spirit comes again.

WM. C. BRYANT.

THE son of Amram spurns the regal prize,

From the rich scene the zealous hero flies,

And dwells 'mongst Israel's sons. Resigned he bears The servile yoke, and every burden shares;

Rather than violate Jehovah's trust,

And live the pampered slave of sordid lust,

He quits the Egyptian court, and, undismayed,
Seeks poverty's inhospitable shade.

SAMUEL HAYES.

MURDER.

247

MURDER-CAIN.

I'HE voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. GENESIS, iv 10. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of Gchade He man. GENESIS, ix, 6.

Thou shalt not kill. ExoDUS, XX, 13.

Whosoever hateth his brother, is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal love abiding in him. I. JOHN, iii, 15.

THE voice of blood

Passes Heaven's gates, ev'n ere the crimson flood

Sinks through the greensward!

MRS. HEMANS.

FIRST Envy, eldest born of Hell, imbrued
Her hands in blood, and taught the sons of men
To make a death which Nature never made,
And God abhorred; with violence rude to break
The thread of life ere half its length was run,
And rob a wretched brother of his being.

BP. PORTEUS

OTHER sins only speak; murder shrieks out.
The element of water moistens the earth,
But blood mounts upwards.

JOHN WEBSTER.

THE earliest death a son of Adam died
Was murder, and that murder fratricide.

JAMES MONTGOMERY

HE told how murderers walked the earth
Beneath the curse of Cain;

With crimson clouds before their eyes,

And flames about their brain:

For blood has left upon their souls
Its everlasting stain!

THOMAS HOOD.