shore

Where the dreams of our childhood are van

ished and o'er!

Calmness is great advantage: he that lets Another chafe, may warm him at his fire: Mark all his wanderings, and enjoy his frets, As cunning fencers suffer heat to tire.

Truth dwells not in the clouds: the tower that's there

Doth often aim at, never hit, the sphere.
George Herbert.

143. ARGUMENT, Vain.

It is in vain,
I see, to argue against the grain,
Or like the stars, incline men to
What they're averse themselves to do;
For when disputes are wearied out,
'Tis interest still resolves the doubt.
A man convinced against his will
Is of the same opinion still.

Samuel Butler.

144. ARMOR, Christian.
Christian to arms! behold in sight
To arms! or thou art put to flight;
The treacherous threatening sons of night;

Attest thy glorious chivalry.
Each moment's respite sees thy wrong,
Supinely thou hast dwelt too long.
Thy foes, alas! they grow more strong.
Arise! acquit thee valiantly.
Armor thou hast, oh! haste to use,
Ere thou the skill to use it lose;
Powerless thou art if thou refuse

To arm thee with this panoply.
Against a mighty three-fold foe,
Though called to wrestle here below
Perpetual conquests thou shalt know

Equipp'd thou art invincible. Great, great shall thy rejoicing be, Ceaseless thy boast of victory, 'Till thou thy King in glory see, Through whom thou art omnipotent. Phabe Palmer.

145. ARMOR, Dying in.

Oh, is it not a noble thing to die
What is the hero's clarion, though its blast
As dies the Christian, with his armor on!-
Ring with the mastery of a world, to this?—
The lore of vanish'd ages?—What are all
What are the searching victories of mind—
The trumpetings of proud humanity,
To the short history of him who made
His sepulchre beside the King of kings?
N. P. Willis.
146. ARMOR, Ministerial.

When first my soul enlisted,
My Saviour's foes to fight,
Mistaken friends insisted

I was not armed aright;
So Saul advised David

He certainly would fail,
Nor could his life be savèd
Without a coat of mail.

But David, though he yielded

To put the armor on,
Soon found he could not wield it,
And ventured forth with none.
With only sling and pebble
He fought the fight of faith:
The weapons seemed but feeble,
Yet proved Goliath's death.
Had I by him been guided,

And quickly thrown away
The armor men provided,

I might have gained the day;
But armed as they advised me,
My expectations failed;
My enemy surprised me,

And had almost prevailed.
Furnished with books and notions,
And arguments and pride,
I practised all my motions,
"And Satan's power defied:

But soon perceived with trouble That these would do no good;Iron to him is stubble,

And brass like rotten wood.

I triumphed at a distance,

While he was out of sight; But faint was my resistance, When forced to join in fight ;He broke my sword in shivers,

And pierced my boasted shield; Laughed at my vain endeavors,

And drove me from the field.

Satan will not be bravèd

By such a worm as I;
Then let me learn with David
To trust in the Most High;
To plead the name of Jesus,

And use the sling of prayer:
Thus armed, when Satan sees us,
He'll tremble and despair.
John Newton.

147. ART, Impression of.

Art may tell a truth Obliquely, do the thing shall breed the thought, [ate word. Nor wrong the thought, missing the mediSo may you paint your picture, twice show truth,

O fate of fools! officious in contriving;
In executing, puzzled, lame, and lost.
Wm. Congrere.

150. ASCENSION, Christ's.

It was a golden eventide. The sun
Was sinking through the roseate clouds to rest
Beneath the Western waves. But purer light
And vestments woven of more glorious hues,
Albeit invisible to mortal eyes, [of God,
Gladden'd the heavens. For there the hosts
Ten thousand times ten thousand, tier on tier,
Marshall'd by Gabriel, fill'd the firmament;
The lowest ranks, horses and cars of fire,
Circling Mount Olivet; and next to these
A body-guard of flaming seraphim,

And hierarchal thrones; and after them
Celestial armies without number stretch'd
In infinite ascent aloft, their swords [scared,
Sheathed by their side (for, like an eagle
No foe on that great triumph moved the wing,
Open'd his mouth, or peep'd), and in their
hand

The palm of victory and the harp of praise: While through their thronging multitudes there oped

148. ART, Votaries of What is thy worship but a vain pretence, Spirit of beauty, and a servile trade, A poor and an unworthy traffic made With most sacred gifts of soul and sense; If they who tend thine altars, gathering thence No strength, no purity, may still remain Selfish and dark, and from life's sordid stain Find in their ministrations no defence? -Thus many times I ask, when aught of mean Or sensual has been brought unto mine ear, Of them whose calling high is to insphere Eternal beauty in forms of human art-[been Vexed that my soul should ever moved have By that which has such feigning at the heart. Richard Chenevix Trench.

149. ARTIFICE, Shallow. Shallow artifice begets suspicion, And like a cobweb veil but thinly shades The face of thy design: alone disguising What should have ne'er been seen; imperfect mischief!

Thou like the adder, venomous and deaf, Hast stung the traveller, and, after, hear'st Not his pursuing voice; c'en when thou think'st

To hide, the rustling leaves and bended grass Confess and point the path which thou has't crept.

[rose,
No wind, no car, no cherubim of fire
His hands and bless'd them, and in blessing
Ministrant, in His Father's might self-moved,
Into the glowing sky; until a cloud
Far floating in the zenith, which had drunk
Of the last sunbeams, wrapt His radiant form,
And instantly became like light itself,
Then melted into viewless air. But we,
Closing around His path, with shouts of joy
Rose with Him through the subjugated
heavens,

The desolate domains of Lucifer,
And through the starry firmament, whose orbs,
Vibrating with the impulse of our march,
Resounded Hallelujahs and flash'd fires
Of welcome-a procession such as carth
Saw never, nor had heaven beheld till now—
Observing each his place, yet each one near
The Prince of glory, who was near to each,
His Omnipresent Eye on every face
Shedding His rapture; ever soaring higher,
And singing as we soar'd, until we reach'd
The confines of the third celestial sphere,
Shut in by gates of pearl, transcending these
Of Paradise, as these surpass the porch
Of the first Eden. There aloof, around,
Thronging the arch on this side and on that,
Was Michael with a host equal to ours,
Sent from the heavenly Zion. Onward still
We swept like clouds over an azure sky,
And to the sound of martial trumpets sang
Exultingly, 'Lift up your heads, ye gates!
Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors!
Up, and the King of glory shall come in.'
Immediate, like an echo from those ranks
Guarding the heavenly citadel, the voice

Of myriads perfectly attuned as one,
Came back the peal of joyful challenge, 'Who,
Who is the King of glory?'-and from ours
The jubilant response, 'The Lord of hosts,
Mighty in battle against the powers of hell,
Jehovah, King of glory! Lift your heads!
Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors!
Up, and the King of glory shall come in.'
'Who is the King of glory?' yet again
Peal'd from those opening gates. The Lord
of hosts;

host

He is the King of glory,' broke once more
In waves of thunder on those jasper walls,
Which never shook till now. And, host with
[swept,
Commingling, through the portals on we
And through the city of the King of kings,
The streets of golden crystal tremulous
Beneath the nimble tread of seraphim,
And eager principalities and powers,
And cohorts without number, till we came
Into the heavenly temple (space enough
Beneath its comprehensive dome for all
God's ministries and more than all twice told
In order ranged): and then the Great High
Priest

Alone advancing with His precious blood
Touch'd, as it seem'd, the spotless mercy-seat;
And lo, the Everlasting Father rose,
Diffusing beams of joy ineffable,
Which centred on His Son, His only Son,
And rising to His bosom folded Him
(If acts of Him the Increate can thus
Be duly in our language shadow'd forth)
And set Him at His own right hand: while
clouds,

Breathing Divine ambrosial fragrance, fill'd
The temple, and awoke in every heart
Bliss inconceivable of silent praise.
E. H. Bickersteth.

151. ASCENSION, Hymn of.
“Bright portals of the sky,
Embossed with sparkling stars;
Doors of eternity,
With diamantine bars,

Your arras rich uphold;

Loose all your bolts and springs,
Ope wide your leaves of gold;

That in your roofs may come the King of kings.

The choirs of happy souls,
Waked with that music sweet,
Whose descant care controls,
Their Lord in triumph meet;
The spotless spirits of light
His trophies do extol,

And, arched in squadrons bright,
Greet their great Victor in his capitol.

O glory of the Heaven!
O sole delight of Earth!
To thee all power be given,
God's uncreated birth;
Of mankind lover true,
Endurer of his wrong,

Who dost the world renew,

Still be thou our salvation and our song."
From top of Olivet such notes did rise,
When man's Redeemer did transcend the
skies.
William Drummond.

152. ASCENSION, Results of the.

And did he rise?

Hear, O ye nations! Hear it, O ye dead!
He rose! He rose! He burst the bars of death.
Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates,
And give the King of glory to come in!
Who is the King of glory? He who left
His throne of glory for the pang of death!
Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates,
And give the King of glory to come in!
Who is the King of glory! He who slew
The rav'nous foe that gorg'd all human race!
The King of glory, He, whose glory fill'd
Heaven with amazement at his love to man;
And with divine complacency beheld
Powers most illumined wilder'd in the theme.
The theme, the joy, how then shall man
sustain !

O, the burst gates! crush'd sting! demolish'd throne !

Last gasp of vanquish'd death. Shout, earth and heaven,

This sum of good to man; whose nature then Took wing, and mounted with him from the tomb!

Then, then, I rose! Then first humanity
Triumphant pass'd the crystal ports of light,
(Stupendous guest!) and seized eternal
youth-
[mous
Seized in our name. E'er since, 'tis blasphe-
To call man mortal. Man's mortality
Was then transferred to death; and heaven's
duration

Unalienably seal'd to this frail frame,
This child of dust. Man, all-immortal, hail!
Hail, Heaven! all lavish of strange gifts to

I deem not arduous; but must needs confess
That 'tis a thing impossible to frame
Conceptions equal to the soul's desire;
And the most difficult of tasks to keep
Heights which the soul is competent to gain.
Man is of dust: ethereal hopes are his,
Which, when they should sustain themselves
aloft,

Want due consistence; like a pillar of smoke,
That with majestic energy from earth
Rises; but, having reached the thinner air,
Melts and dissolves, and is no longer seen.
William Wordsworth.

155. ASPIRATION, Heavenward.

The bird, let loose in eastern skies,

When hastening fondly home,
Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies
Where idle warblers roam;

But high she shoots through air and light,
Above all low delay,

Where nothing earthly bounds her flight,
Nor shadow dims her way.

So grant me, God, from every care
And stain of passion free,
Aloft, through Virtue's purer air,
To hold my course to Thee!
No sin to cloud, no lure to stay

My Soul, as home she springs ;-
Thy Sunshine on her joyful way,
Thy Freedom in her wings!

Thomas Moore.

156. ASPIRATION, Higher. Higher, yet, and higher,

Ever nigher, ever nigher,

soars and sings,

Up! higher yet, and higher,
Fainting nor retreating,

Beyond the sun, beyond the stars, to the far, bright realm of meeting!

Robert Buchanan.

157. ASPIRATION, Sympathy in.
Countless chords of heavenly music,
Struck ere earthly time began,
Vibrate in immortal concord

To the answering soul of man.
Countless rays of heavenly glory

Shine through spirit pent in clay,
On the wise men at their labors,
On the children at their play.
Man has gazed on heavenly secrets,
Sunned himself in heavenly glow,
Seen the glory, heard the music;
We are wiser than we know.
Charles Mackay.

158 ASPIRATION, Worth of Beauty and Truth, tho' never found, are worthy to be sought,

The singer, upward-springing,
Is grander than his singing,

And tranquil self-sufficing joy illumes the dark of thought. Robert Buchanan.

159. ASSOCIATION, Adjustment of.

Who, think'st thou, in the courts of Heaven reside?

They, who with malice burn, with envy

pine,

strive and strain !—

The agonized yearning

The imploring and the burning,

Grown awfuller, intenser, at each vista we

attain,

And clearer, brighter, growing,

Up the gulf of heaven wander,

Its plaints unheard; and bow at Mammon's shrine, [vine, Moloch's or Bel's; and, blind to truth diNeglect God's mercy, and His power deride'? If such Heaven's inmates, well thou runn'st

thy race,

tery we ponder!

Yea, higher yet, and higher,
Ever nigher, ever nigher,

While men grow small by stooping and the

reaper piles the grain,— Can it then be bootless, Profitless, and fruitless,

The weary, aching, upward search for what we never gain ?

Is there no waiting

Rest and golden weather,

Where, passionately purified, the singers may meet together?

Up! higher yet, and higher,

Ever nigher, ever nigher,

Thro' voids that Milton and the rest beat still

with seraph-wings;

Out thro' the great gate creeping Where God hath put his sleeping

[tell, [well,

What part hast thou therein; and ponder
Yea, ponder well betimes that other place,
And who its tenants, and with whom they
dwell.
Bp. Mant.

160. ASSOCIATION, Influence of.
A fragrant piece of earth salutes
Each passenger, and perfume shoots,
Unlike the common earth or sod,
Around through all the air abroad.
A pilgrim near it once did rest,
And took it up, and thus addressed:
"Art thou a lump of musk? or art
A ball of spice this smell t' impart
To all who chance to travel by
The spot where thou, like earth, dost lie?"
Humbly the clod replied: "I must
Confess that I am only dust.
But once a rose within me grew:
Its rootlets shot, its flowerets blew,

And all the rose's sweetness rolled
Throughout the texture of my mould;
And so it is that I impart
Perfume to thee, whoe'er thou art!"
Oriental, tr. by W. R. Alger.

161. ASSOCIATION, Lesson of.
Those evening bells! those evening bells!
How many a tale their music tells

Of youth, and home, and that sweet time
When last I heard their soothing chime!

Those joyous hours have passed away
And many a heart that then was gay
Within the tomb now darkly dwells,
And hears no more those evening bells.

And so 't will be when I am gone,-
That tuneful peal will still ring on;
While other bards shall walk these dells
And sing your praise, sweet evening bells.
Thomas Moore.

162. ASSOCIATION, Local. And who, that walks where men of ancient days [praise, Have wrought with godlike arm the deeds of Feels not the spirit of the place control, Or rouse and agitate his laboring soul? Say, who, by thinking on Canadian hills, Or wild Aosta lulled by Alpine rills, On Zutphen's plain; or on that highland dell, Through which rough Garry cleaves his way, can tell

What high resolves rivets to the spot, Where breathed the gale that caught Wolfe's happiest sigh,

And the last sunbeam fell on Bayard's eye; Where bleeding Sidney from the cup retired, And glad Dundee in "faint huzzas" expired. William Wordsworth.

163. ASSOCIATION, Ties of

Two faithful needles, from the informing touch

Of the same parent-stone, together drew
Its mystic virtue, and at first conspir'd
With fatal impulse quivering to the pole:
Then, tho' disjoin'd by kingdoms, tho' the
main

[stars

Roll'd its broad surge betwixt, and different Beheld their wakeful motions, yet preserv'd The former friendship, and remember'd still The alliance of their birth: whate'er the line

Which one possess'd, nor pause nor quiet

knew

The sure associate, ere with trembling speed
He found his path, and fix'd unerring there.
Such is the secret union where we feel
A song, a flower, a name, at once restore
Those long-connected scenes where first they
The attention.

164. ASSOCIATION, Wise.

[mov'd Mark Akenside.

As the rose doth its fragrance impart
To the basket in which it is laid,
Whether wrought of pure gold or of braid;

So, receiving wise men in thy heart,
Thou shalt find, when their persons depart,
That their wisdom behind them hath stayed.
Oriental, tr. by W. R. Alger.

165. ASSURANCE, Blessing of
Not from the dust my sorrows spring,
Nor drop my comforts from the lower skies;
Let all the baneful planets shed

Their mingled curses on my head,

How vain their curses, if the eternal King
Look through the clouds, and bless me with
his eyes!
Isaac Watts.

166. ASTRONOMY, Devotional.

One sun by day, by night ten thousand shine,
And light us deep into the Deity.
How boundless in magnificence and might!
O, what a confluence of ethereal fires,
From urns unnumbered, down the steep of
heaven,

Streams to a point, and centres in my sight!
Nor tarries there. .. I feel it at my heart,
My heart at once it humbles and exalts-
Lays it in dust, and calls it to the skies.
Who sees it unexalted? or unawed?
Who sees it, and can stop at what is seen?
Material offspring of Omnipotence!
Inanimate, all animating birth! [praise!
Work worthy Him who made it! worthy
All praise! praise more than human! nor
denied
[in sleep,
Thy praise divine! But though man, drowned
Withholds his homage, not alone I wake:
Bright legions swarm unseen, and sing (un-
By mortal ear) the glorious Architect, [heard
In this his universal temple, hung
With lustres, with innumerable lights,
That shed religion on the soul--at once,
The temple, and the preacher! O, how loud
It calls devotion! genuine growth of night.
Devotion! daughter of astronomy!
An undevout astronomer is mad.
True, all things speak a GOD; but in the small,
Men trace out Him-in great, He seizes man;
Seizes, and elevates, and wraps, and fills
With new inquiries, 'mid associates new.
Edward Young.

167. ATHEISM, Blight of.

They eat Their daily bread and draw the breath of Heaven, Heaven's

Without or thought or thanks.

roof, to them,

Is but a painted ceiling hung with lamps,
No more, that lights them to their purposes.
They wander loose about; they nothing see,
Themselves except, and creatures like them-