THE VANITY OF LIFE IMPROVED. I've seen the lovely garden flowers In all their beauty glow ; I've seen the stormy hailstone showers I've seen the youth in beauty's pride, A breathless lump of clay. Then what's our life? a vapour sure; A way it swiftly flies; The joys of life, how insecure, The hastening day will soon arrive, And close the scene of this vain life In darkness and the tomb. O! may the Living Word, the Light, In that dread hour dispel the night And in the dark and dismal road, His word, who died upon the tree, Can fortify the heart, And, even in death, our minds can free, And bid all fear depart. The work He finished on the cross, Salvation must insure; And his unspotted righteousness For ever will endure. Watts. THE SHORTNESS AND MISERY OF Our days, alas! our mortal days, 'Tis but at best a narrow bound And pains and sins run through the round Well, if ye must be sad and few, Let heavenly love prepare my soul, Where years of long salvation roll, And glory never dies. Anon. WARNINGS, FOREBODING THE FATE OF ROSABELLE. O listen, listen, ladies gay! No haughty feat of arms I tell; Soft is the note, and sad the lay, That mourns the lovely Rosabelle. Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant, crew! And gentle ladye, deign to stay! Rest thee in Castle Ravensheuch, Nor tempt the stormy firth to-day. The blackening wave is edged with white; To inch and rock the sea-mews fly; The fishers have heard the water-sprite, Whose screams forebode that wreck is nigh. Last night the gifted seer did view A wet shroud swathed round ladye gay; Then stay thee, Fair, in Ravensheuch ; Why cross the gloomy firth to-day ?' < 'Tis not because Lord Lindesay's heir, ''Tis not because the ring they ride, O'er Roslin all that dreary night A wonderous blaze was seen to gleam; "Twas broader than the watch-fire light, And brighter than the bright moon-beam. It glared on Roslin's castled rock, Seemed all on fire that chapel proud, Each baron for a sable shroud, Sheathed in his iron panoply. |