Old TIME lays down his scythe and glass,
In gay good humour smiling:

With ermine beard and forelock grey,
His reverend front adorning,

He looks like Winter turn'd to May,
Night soften'd into morning!

How grand in age, how fair in youth,

Are holy"FRIENDSHIP, LOVE, and TRUTH!"

From these delightful fountains flow

Ambrosial rills of pleasure :

Can man desire, can Heaven bestow,
A more resplendent treasure?
Adorn'd with gems so richly bright,
We'll form a Constellation,

Where every Star, with modest light,

Shall gild his proper station.

How grand in age, how fair in youth,

Are holy"FRIENDSHIP, LOVE, and TRUTH!”

13

RELIGION,

AN OCCASIONAL HYMN.

THROUGH shades and solitudes profound The fainting traveller winds his way; Bewildering meteors glare around,

And tempt his wandering feet astray.

Welcome, thrice welcome, to his eye, The sudden moon's inspiring light, When forth she sallies through the sky, The guardian angel of the night!

Thus mortals, blind and weak, below
Pursue the phantom Bliss, in vain ;

The world's a wilderness of woe,

And life a pilgrimage of pain!

E

Till mild RELIGION, from above,

Descends, a sweet engaging form, The messenger of heavenly love, The bow of promise in a storm!

Then guilty passions wing their flight,
Sorrow, remorse, affliction cease;
RELIGION'S yoke is soft and light,
And all her paths are paths of peace.

Ambition, pride, revenge depart,

And folly flies her chastening rod; She makes the humble contrite heart A temple of the living GOD.

Beyond the narrow vale of time,
Where bright celestial ages roll,

To scenes eternal, scenes sublime,

She points the way, and leads the soul.

At her approach the Grave appears
The Gate of Paradise restored;

Her voice the watching Cherub hears,

And drops his double-flaming sword.

Baptized with her renewing fire,

May we the crown of glory gain; Rise when the Host of Heaven expire,

And reign with God, for ever reign!

"THE JOY OF GRIEF."

OSSIAN.

SWEET the hour of tribulation,

When the heart can freely sigh; And the tear of resignation

Twinkles in the mournful eye.

Have you felt a kind emotion

Tremble through your troubled breast;

Soft as evening o'er the ocean,

When she charms the waves to rest?

Have

you

lost a friend, or brother?

Heard a father's parting breath?

Gazed upon a lifeless mother,

Till she seem'd to wake from death?