Song of Seven Years Old, a

Spaniel on his killing a bird, to a Cowper

Tell me what the Mill doth say... E. Capern

SELECT POETRY

FOR

CHILDREN.

THE VISIBLE CREATION.

THE God of nature and of grace
In all His works appears;
His goodness through the earth we trace,
His grandeur in the spheres.1

Behold this fair and fertile globe,
By Him in wisdom planned:
'Twas He who girded, like a robe,
The ocean round the land.

Lift to the firmament your eye—
Thither His path pursue;
His glory, boundless as the sky,
O'erwhelms the wondering view.

The forests in His strength rejoice;
Hark! on the evening breeze,
As once of old, Jehovah's voice
Is heard among the trees.2

1 Spheres-heavenly bodies.

2 "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.”—Gen. iii. 8.

B

Here, on the hills, He feeds His herds,
His flocks in yonder plains;
His praise is warbled by the birds;
Oh could we catch their strains,

Mount with the lark, and bear our song
Up to the gates of light!1
Or, with the nightingale, prolong
Our numbers through the night!

His blessings fall in plenteous showers
Upon the lap of earth,

That teems with foliage, fruits, and flowers,
And rings with youthful mirth.

If God hath made this world so fair,
Where sin and death abound;
How beautiful beyond compare 2
Will Paradise be found!

Montgomery.

THE VOICE OF SPRING.

I AM coming, I am coming!—
Hark! the little bee is humming; 3
See, the lark is soaring high

In the blue and sunny sky;

1 Gates of light-the part of the sky from which the light issues in the morning, as if from opening gates. Shakspeare writes

“Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings.”

2 Beyond compare-beyond comparison.

3 Humming-Observe that many words descriptive of the sounds made by animals are imitations of the sounds themselves; thus the serpent and the goose hiss, bees hum, flies buzz, rooks caw, &c.