ALTIORA PETAMUS, CHRISTO DUCE.

"If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above." - COL. iii. 1-3.

I

SAW the mountain oak with towering form

Fall in his pride, the whirlwind's chosen prey,

The lily of the vale outrode the storm,

Shining the lovelier, as it passed away. Friend, seek not happiness in high estate,

To Mary's heart she flies from Herod's palace-gate.

I marked a spendthrift moth, squalid and lone,
With shivering wings; his summer flowers were dead :
While the blithe bee, making their sweets her own,
Sang in her home of honey, richly fed.

Friend, seek not happiness in fleeting pleasure,
In each good work of life the good God hides her

treasure.

Jewelled with morning dew, the new-blown rose

Brings to the enamoured eye her transient dower; The live sap still runs fresh, the sound root grows, When all forgotten fades the red-lipped flower. Friend, seek not happiness in the bloom of beauty, But in the soul of truth and steadfast life of duty.

Lo! the red meteor startles with his blaze

The gazing, awe-struck earth, and disappears; While yon true star, with soft, undazzling rays,

Shines in our sky through circling months and years.
Friend, seek not happiness in worldly splendor,
But in the light serene of home-joys, pure and tender.

Power has its thorns; wealth may be joyless glitter;
Belshazzar's feast grows dark with fear and sadness;
Friends die, and beauty wanes,
and cares embitter

The gilded cup; grief lurks behind our gladness.

Then seek not happiness in shows of earth,

But learn of Christ betimes the secret of her birth.

Child of the soul, twin-born with Faith and Love,
In the clear conscience, and the generous heart,
Twin-lived with them, with them she soars above

The earthly names which man from man do part.
Seek thou God's kingdom; there unsought she's found,
High in a heavenly life, not creeping on the ground.

Hearts set on things above, not things beneath,

Find what they crave around them day by day;
Souls risen with Christ, quick with his Spirit, breathe
The air of heaven, e'en while on earth they stay.
Bearing the cross, the hidden crown they bring,
And at the tomb they hear the Easter angels sing.

A NEW-YEAR'S HYMN.

Written by Dr. Newell for a young friend staying in his family, on her birthday, and contributed by him to this volume on the day when he himself was just seventy years of

age.

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.''- Ps xxiii. 6.

ALL the days of my life, be they many or few,
The Father of Spirits will lead me unseen;
His goodness and mercy my steps will pursue,
By his rod I am led, on his arm I would lean.

All the days of my life, be they shadowed or bright,
His love, meeting mine, will fall full on my soul;
His voice, if I hear it, will guide me aright,

And his uplifting hand bear me on to the goal.

All the days of my life, days of light or of gloom,
I will trust the wise love of that merciful Friend,
As I climb through the dark to my heavenly home,
Still with me to comfort, to cheer and defend.

Let the days of my life, be they many or few,
Be hallowed by duty, made lovely by love;
And every New Year with good works flower anew,
While Christ at the root feeds the fruitage above.

Then, if many or few, if clouded or clear,

My days on the earth will have glimpses of heaven, And the last day's last hour of the last happy year Will of all be the best by the good Father given.

SERVE GOD AND BE CHEERFUL.*

"SERVE God and be cheerful." The motto
Shall be mine, as the bishop's of old;

On my soul's coat-of-arms I will write it
In letters of azure and gold.

"Serve God and be cheerful," self-balanced,
Whether fortune smile sweetly or frown.
Christ stood king before Pilate. Within me
I carry the sceptre and crown.

"Serve God and be cheerful." Make brighter
The brightness that falls to your lot;

The rare or the daily sent blessing

Profane not with gloom and with doubt.

"Serve God and be cheerful." Each sorrow
Is with your will in God's - for the best.
O'er the cloud hangs the rainbow. To-morrow
Will see the blue sky in the west.

"Serve God and be cheerful." The darkness
Only masks the surprises of dawn;

And the deeper and grimmer the midnight,
The brighter and sweeter the morn.

* The motto of an English Bishop of the 17th century. SOBRIE, JUSTE, PIE, LAETE, was the kindred and comprehensive motto over the mantel-piece of one of his Puritan contemporaries, the witty minister of Ipswich, "our St. Hilary," as Mather calls him, or, as he calls himself in his own book, "The Simple Cobler of Agawam."

"Serve God and be cheerful." The winter
Rolls round to the beautiful spring,
And o'er the green grave of the snowdrift
The nest-building robins will sing.

"Serve God and be cheerful." Look upward!
God's countenance scatters the gloom;
And the soft summer light of his heaven
Shines over the cross and the tomb.

"Serve God and be cheerful." The wrinkles
Of age we may take with a smile;
But the wrinkles of faithless foreboding
Are the crow's-feet of Beelzebub's guile.

"Serve God and be cheerful." Religion
Looks all the more lovely in white;
And God is best served by his servant
When, smiling, he serves in the light,

And lives out the glad tidings of Jesus
In the sunshine he came to impart,
For the fruit of his word and his Spirit
"Is love, joy, and peace" in the heart.

"Serve God and be cheerful." Live nobly,
Do right and do good. Make the best
Of the gifts and the work put before you,
And to God without fear leave the rest.

CAMBRIDGE, Jan. 1, 1872.

ORDINATION

HYMN.

Sung at the ordination of Mr. Francis Greenwood Peabody as the successor of Dr. Newell in the pastorate of the First Congregational (Unitarian) Church, in Cambridge, March, 31, 1874.

FATHER of the living Christ,

Fount of the living Word!

Pour on the shepherd and the flock
The Spirit of the Lord.

Amid this mingled mystery

Of good and ill at strife,

Help them, O God, in him to find
The Way, the Truth, the Life.

That way together may they tread,
That truth with joy receive,
That life of heaven, on earth begun,
Through cloud and sunshine live.

Not chained to creeds, or cramped by forms,
With eyes that hail the light,

In holy freedom keep their souls,
Loyal to truth and right.

One may they be in faith and hope,
As one in works of love,

Till all be one in Christ and thee
In the Great Church above.

A. R. ST. JOHN.

(1805.)

MRS. A. R. ST. JOHN was born in Boston, Mass., Feb. 24, 1805. Left an orphan at a very early age, she passed under the care and into the family of her brother, the late Colonel Isaac Monroe, of Baltimore, Md. He was at that time living in Boston, where he had established and was editing the "Boston Patriot." In a few years thereafter, he removed to Baltimore, and there, carrying with him his professional predilections, established and edited the "Baltimore Patriot." This paper early became one of the leading political and literary journals of the day, marked by great ability in its editorial conduct, and by the soundness of its views upon the great topics which agitated the country previous to, during, and immediately following the War of 1812; while it continued, through the long period of its founder's personal care, and by the talent and culture he was able to command, to sustain its high reputation throughout the Union.

Colonel Monroe, faithful to the guardianship he had from the first assumed, did not forget to provide the best education for his sister which