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THE INCREDULITY OF THOMAS.

"Lord, we believe, help thou our unbelief."
Let there be hope in toil, and joy in grief;
Teach us on nature's glorious face to look,
As if it were thine own immortal book;
Teach us to read thee in thy works, and find
There evidence of thine Almighty mind.
Keep us, till in the grave, with hope divine,
We sink, rejoicing that we now are thine.

Miss Landon.

The Fishermen of Tiberias.

And he said unto them, "Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye

shall find."-ST. JOHN xxi. 6.

NIGHT, throned on sombrous clouds, sat royally
Ruling the realms of air-alone she sat,
For, pallid with their watch, the stars had sunk
And lay in slumber, curtained by the mists,-
The pallid mists of the awakening day.

The moon had waned: and all was gathering gloom
And solemn silence-silence! still as death,
Save when the moaning of the sleepless sea-

The

sea

that groaned like one who lies alone

Sick, feeble, helpless, petulant with his pain

Arose

monotonously to her quiet ear.

Abark lay rocking on the waves.

The

sea

For hours

had broken on her bow; and lulled

By the eternal sameness of the sound,

Her

Crew lay slumbering.

Slowly in the east

Amellow haze crept o'er the sleeping sky,

Faintly

at first, and gray; but soon it bore

Another aspect, and a roseate blush
Brightened the cheek of morn.

The crew arose,

And sad and wearily put forth their nets,

232

THE FISHERMEN OF TIBERIAS.

For they were fishers; but in vain-in vain—
And they desponded. From the dusk of eve,
And through the night had they pursued their toil
Alone-alone upon that silent sea!

And now day woke, and they had not withal

To break their fasts.

"Come, brothers, once again,"

Said Simon Peter, once again throw forth,

For why should we despond? we can but die;
And dying, we shall sooner claim the crown

For which we strive.

To urge us onward.

Our perils are but spurs

What though we are driven

Like beasts before the hunter, hiding us

In dens like them :-they chasten us, these woes!
And suffering them we shall the worthier be

To suffer like our Master! Once again.

Courage and throw!"""

They rose and threw the nets.

When, as before, they drew them to the land
They were again as empty as before:
And murmuring sorely they sat down in woe.
Day now had risen, and, as from the shore
The floating mists were lifted, wave o'er wave,
To wane in air, upon the sands there stood
A man of stately presence-one, whose brow
Bore on its breadth a more than mortal grace,
And more than mortal seemed he as he stood
There, with the radiance of the rising sun
Trembling and fluttering on his golden hair.
When they beheld him, they in fear beheld,

THE FISHERMEN OF TIBERIAS.

Trembling and pale, for they knew not but that
The stranger was a spy, who sought to give
Their forms to stripes, to prison, and to death.
But when his voice, loud, clear and clarion-like,
Fell on their ears, saying,-" My children, lo!
Have ye of meat?" their fear dropt from them, as
The scales in old fell from the leper's limbs,
And in their joy they spake-joy mixed with grief:
"Alas! no, Master, no: meat we have none.
Once more the stately stranger: "Cast again
Your nets, and on the right side of the ship.
And ye shall find!"

And lo! they cast again,

And, when they strove to raise their nets, they saw

That they

were full, so full they could not lift

233

The unwonted weight, and, pausing for a breath,
They leant in silence, wondering! Then said John,
He whom the Saviour when alive, most loved,

"IT IS

THE

LORD!"

Be not borne down by sorrow; look aloft,

O! suffering souls that strive,

For morn

will come, and with the morn comes joy.

The feeble only fail, the weak in heart,

The soft of soul; the strong are ever strong,
› like the eagle, spread their nervous wings,

And,

And

through the storm, unheeding rain or snow,

The thunder's crashing or the lightning's flash,"
Soar to the skies; so shall it be with ye.

Look

upward, striving ever, and your goal

Is glorious Eden by God's golden throne.

Henry B. Hirst.

"Lavest Thou Me?'

Jesus saith to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?"-ST. JOHN xxi. 15.

"LOVEST thou me?" I hear my Saviour say:
Would that my heart had power to answer-"Yea;
Thou knowest all things, Lord, in heaven above,
And earth beneath; Thou knowest that I love."
But 'tis not so; in word, in deed, in thought,
I do not, can not love thee as I ought;
Thy love must give that power, thy love alone;
There's nothing worthy of thee but thine own;
Lord, with the love wherewith thou lovedst me,
Reflected on thyself, I would love thee.

James Montgomery.