While to the fulness of your heart's glad heavings
His fair cheek rose and fell, and his bright hair
Waved softly to your breath! You ne'er kept watch
Beside him till the last pale star had set,

And morn, all dazzling, as in triumph, broke
On your dim weary eye; not yours the face
Which, early faded through fond care for him,
Hung o'er his sleep, and, duly as heaven's light,
Was there to greet his wakening! You ne'er smooth'd
His couch, ne'er sung him to his rosy rest,

Caught his least whisper, when his voice from yours
Had learn'd soft utterance; pressed your lip to his
When fever parch'd it; hush'd his wayward cries
With patient, vigilant, never-wearied love!
No: these are woman's tasks!

O earthly friend can fill a mother's place,
When the dear one is with us here no more;
No smiles so sweet, so loving to the core,
As those which beamed from that faithful face,
Reflecting every meek, angelic grace :

No words so kind, so potent to restore
Joy to the soul, where sadness ruled before,
As hers, who held us in her warm embrace;
But when the vesture visible to sight

Has worn away, to set the spirit free,
Then we behold those looks of love and light
In fadeless lines impressed on memory;

And feel that but one mother e'er is given

To guard us here below, or guide our way to heaven.

'WATER! WATER!

ITHOUT water neither men, nor animals, nor vegetables, could live. It is as necessary to our existence as bread, or air, or light.

Only those in a "dry and thirsty land, where no water is," or in a boat on the salt ocean, can tell how dreadful it is to suffer from want of water.

VAMBERY, the Hungarian traveller, when crossing one of the deserts of Turkestan, thus describes what the caravan of travellers endured :

In this desert the want of water was the greatest privation; the dirtiest puddle became the most welcome. sight, and, if it were only sweet, it was more prized than the finest wine to the thirsty bibber. "Oh! water, dearest of all elements, why did I not earlier appreciate thy worth? Man uses thy blessings like a spendthrift! Yes, in my country man fears thee even; and now what would I not give could I only obtain thirty or twenty drops of thy divine moisture!" Thus does our author speak of this despised beverage in the desert; and again he expresses his disappointment on coming to a sacred well. "I soon perceived the well, which was like a brown puddle. I filled my hands; it was as if I had laid hold of ice. I raised the moisture to my lips. Oh! what a martyrdom! not a drop could I swallow-so

bitter, so salt, so stinking, was the ice-cold draught. My despair knew no bounds: it was the first time that I really felt anxiety for the result." At last the famished and parched travellers heard the sound of thunder at a distance, and a few heavy drops of rain at midnight were the precursors of relief; the next day they found a clear pool of rain-water. "Su! su!' (water! water!) shouted all for joy; and the mere sight, without wetting the lips, satisfied the craving and quieted our uneasiness. In half an hour everybody in a rapture was seated at his breakfast; it is quite impossible to convey an idea of the general delight. In the evening we reached a spot where spring reigned in all its glory.. We encamped in the midst of countless little lakes, surrounded as it were by garlands of meadows; it seemed a dream when I compared it with the encampment of the previous day."

The want of water these travellers had to endure, and the ample supply they afterwards met with, reminds us forcibly of another water, another want, and another supply.

We refer now to that which Jesus Christ called "living water," from want of which he saw how the world was suffering, and came to open for us an ample supply. Men had long drunk nauseous filth from the stagnant muddy pools themselves had digged; he came to "lead them unto living fountains of water."

The last chapter in the Bible, in its first verse, tells us whence this living water comes" And he shewed me a

pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb."

And among the last words God spake to man we find this gracious and universal invitation to every human being to the end of time-" And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let

him take the water of life freely."

Come, then, and drink; come quickly; nay, run, rush, like thirsty travellers to a newly-found fountain—drink, and drink again, and this water shall be in you "a well of water springing up into EVERLASTING LIFE."

HEAVEN'S JEWEL'S.

Malachi iii. 17.

WAS night; a Christian lady slept,
And dreamed a dream of Heaven;

She thought within its pearly gates
To her was entrance given.

She stood upon the sea of glass,

Amid that white-robed throng;

She walk'd the golden streets, and sang
The everlasting song.

The conquering palm was in her hand;
She tasted bliss untold;

And on her radiant head she wore

A crown of shining gold.

Oh! clime of glory, no regret

May ever mar thy rest;

Yet sigh'd the sleeper in her dream-
She was not wholly blest.

She mark'd the flashing diadem
O'er many a lofty brow,
Resplendent with the diamond blaze
And the rich ruby's glow.

O'er torquoise fair and princely pearl
The emerald glory stream'd;
But in her heavenly crown, alas!
No radiant jewel beam'd.

Oh! that to grace her coronet
One gem she yet might win;
Oh! could she but return to earth,
And save one soul from sin.

For well she knew what jewels gave
Those crowns so rich a blaze;
They were the souls of sinners shewn
The error of their ways.

She woke, and lo! 'twas but a dream;
But, in the Book divine,

She read who in the courts of bliss
Shall first in glory shine;

That they who unto righteousness
Do many sinners turn,

Like stars in Heaven's firmament
For evermore shall burn.