She struck another hastily, and now she seemed to see
Within the same warm chamber a glorious Christmas tree.
The branches were all laden with things that children prize,
Bright gifts for boy and maiden she saw them with her eyes.

And she almost seemed to touch them, and to join the welcome shout,
When darkness fell around her, for the little match was out.

8.

Another, yet another, she has tried- they will not light;

. Till all her little store she took, and struck with all her might:
And the whole miserable place was lighted with the glare,
And she dreamed there stood a little child before her in the air.
There were blood-drops on his forehead, a spear-wound in his side,
And cruel nail-prints in his feet, and in his hands spread wide.
And he looked upon her gently, and she felt that he had known
Pain, hunger, cold, and sorroway, equal to her own.

9.

And he pointed to the laden board and to the Christmas tree,
Then up to the cold sky, and said,
"Will Gretchen come with me?"
The poor child felt her pulses fail, she felt her eyeballs swim,
And a ringing sound was in her ears, like her dead mother's hymn :
And she folded both her thin white hands, and turned from that bright board
And from the golden gifts, and said, "With thee, with thee, O Lord '"'
The chilly winter morning breaks up in the dull skies

On the city wrapt in vapor, on the spot where Gretchen lies.

10.

In her scant and tattered garment, with her back against the wall,
She sitteth cold and rigid, she answers to no call.

They have lifted her up fearfully, they shuddered as they said,

"It was a bitter, bitter night! the child is frozen dead."

The angels sang their greeting for one more redeemed from sin;

Men said, "It was a bitter night; would no one let her in?”

And they shivered as they spoke of her, and sighed. They could not see How much of happiness there was after that misery.

Anon.*

XXVII. · DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS ON SPRING.

1. PRAISE the Lord, O my soul! Adore his holy name! For who is mightier than he, the Creator of the universe, who spread

*A prose narrative by Andersen, the Danish poet, has furnished the groundwork for this poem.

eth before us the feasts of the earth, and foundeth the glories of the heavens? Who is more inexhaustible* in goodness and compassion than he, who giveth alike the happiness of the worm and the hallelujah" of rejoicing angels?

2. Praise the Lord, O my soul! For he is thy God, who, through the riches of the universe, foreshadoweth the joys of heaven; who giveth to the blade of grass the refreshing dew,18 and to the eye of man the tears of joy; he is thy God and thy Father.

3. Praise the Lord, O my soul! For he strewed 52 upon thee the blossoms of spring, as, full of child-like innocence, thou didst smile in thy mother's arms; and this day he surrounds thee with his wonders, that thou mayest adore him with rapturous love.

4. Praise the Lord, O my soul!- People and nations, princes and principalities, change; the earth alters its form, and the countless stars glitter and vanish he only is immutably great, for he liveth in majesty from everlasting to everlasting. His compassion knoweth no change, and his love endureth forever.

5. Ye fountains, shaded by blossoming shrubs; ye willowbordered108 brooks,146 that murmur along your pebbly paths; ye rivers, whose mighty billows bear ships, laden with the riches of the world, join louder in the anthems to the Lord!

6. Ye woods, on green hills and mountains; ye leafy branches, ye shrubs, laden134 with the blossoms of spring, — wave and rustle, and reëcho to your Maker the grateful warbling of birds!

7. From the gladsome valleys rise the voices of the flocks that graze on pastures blooming with flowers in all the colors of the rainbow. In the wilderness the joyful lion roars.

8. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and let all creation praise his holy name! Ye nations within the circle of the earth, fall upon your knees in adoration of your Creator, and render thanks for his inexhaustible goodness! The dead and living, man and beast, and the spirits of brighter worlds—the whole immensity of the universe - all stars, all suns - proclaim : Holy, holy is the Lord our God, whose love endureth forever!

9. For who can behold the works of God without emotion?

*The h in this word should be sounded. See T 72.

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who the majesty of creation without rapture? The world is as a sunbeam out of Eden; a fleeting dream of the future paradise of bliss! Where is the fearful skeptic, contending against his reason? Let him step forth and look on nature, clad in her festive livery, who, an eternal bride, joyous and beautiful, points him to God. Let him step forth, and a fresh and balmy fra grance from millions of blossoms will greet him, and declare that "Here there is no death; all is life, and life is from God."

-

10. Doubter! if now the beauty of smiling nature hath warmed thy heart; if now the convincing power of reality hath purified thy dreams; if thy reason no longer doubts what it is too impotent to fathom; if thy soul longs to depend, in childlike innocence, upon thy Heavenly Father, then sink down and bury thy blushing face and gushing tears in the flowers of the meadow; and thy sigh-perhaps the first thou hast for many years offered up to thy God will be no discordant sound in the glad anthem of nature. From the German.

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1. A VESSEL that sailed between Whitehaven, in England, and the island of Jamaica, being on her homeward voyage, carried, among other passengers, a female who was the mother of an infant only a few weeks old. One beautiful afternoon, the captain perceived a distant sail, and after he had gratified his curiosity, he politely offered his spy-glass to his passenger, that she might obtain a clear view of the object.

2. Having the baby in her arms, she wrapped the shawl about it, and placed it on a sofa126 upon which she had been sitting. Scarcely had she applied her eye to the glass, when the helmsman exclaimed, "See! see what the monkey has done!" The reader may judge of the mother's feelings, when, on turning round, she beheld the mis'chievous animal in the act of transporting her beloved and helpless child apparently to the very top of the mast!

3. The monkey was a large one, and so strong and active that while it grasped the infant firmly with one arm, it climbed

the shrouds nimbly by the other, totally unembarrassed by the weight of its burden. One look was sufficient for the terrified mother, and that look had well-nigh been her last; and, had it not been for the assistance of those around her, she would have fallen prostrate on the deck, where she was soon afterwards stretched, apparently lifeless.

4. The sailors could climb almost as well as the monkey; but the latter watched their motions narrowly; and as it ascended higher up the mast the moment they attempted to put a foot on the shrouds, the captain became afraid that it would drop the child, and endeavor to escape by leaping from one mast to another.

5. In the mean time the infant was heard to cry; and though many thought it was suffering pain, their fears on this point were speedily dissipated, when they observed the monkey imitating exactly the motions of a nurse, by dandling, soothing and caressing, its charge, and even endeavoring to hush it to sleep.

6. From the deck the lady was conveyed to the cabin, and gradually restored to her senses. In the mean time, the captain, having ordered every man to conceal himself below, quietly took his own station on the cabin-stairs, where he could see all that passed without being seen.

7. This plan happily succeeded: the monkey, on perceiving that the coast was clear, cautiously descended from his lofty perch, and replaced the infant on the sofa, cold, fretful, and perhaps frightened, but in every other respect as free from harm as when he took it up. The humane captain had now a most grateful task to perform: the babe was restored to its mother's arms, amidst tears, and thanks, and blessings.

Anon.

1. Ir is a terrible thought to remember that nothing" can be forgotten. I have somewhere read that not an oath is uttered that does not vibrate through all time, in the wide-spreading current of sounds - not a prayer lisped that its record is not also to be found stamped on the laws of nature, by the indelible scal of the Almighty's will.

2. The fountain of content must spring up in the mind; and he who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek hap. piness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove.

3. A man's reputation has been very aptly compared to a sheet of white paper, which if it be once ever be made to look as spotless as before. ful immoralities should think of this.

blotted can hardly Apologists of youth

4. If a man would keep both his integrity and independence free from temptation, let him keep out of debt. Dr. Franklin says, "It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright."

5. An old miser kept a tame jackdaw, that used to steal pieces of money, and hide them in a hole; which the cat observing, asked why he should hoard up those round shining things, that he could make no use of. 66 Why," said the jackdaw, "my master has a whole chest full, and makes no more use of them than I."

6. He that never changed any of his opinions never coirected any of his mistakes; and he who was never wise enough to find out any mistakes in himself will not be charitable enough to excuse what he reckons mistakes in others.

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7. The expansion of mind which rises in us at the sight of the starry sky, the cloud-capt mountain, the boundless ocean, scems intended to direct our thoughts, by an impressive though indefinite feeling, to the Infinite Author of all.

8. Good sense and Christian principle must be in a very lan guid state, when a disrelish or weariness of life is the predomi nant feeling.

9. A profligate young fellow seeing an aged hermit go barefoot by him, "Father " says he, "you are in a very miserable condition, if there is not another world.". "True, son," said the hermit, "but what is thy condition if there be?"

10. Idle and indecent applications of sentences taken from the Scriptures, is a mode of merriment which a good man dreads for its profaneness, and a witty man disdains for its easiness and vulgarity.