If pearls, her teeth be pearls, both pure and 220. BEING, Support of, round;

All are but parts of one stupendous whole, If ivory, her forehead ivory ween;

| Whose body Nature is, and God the soul ; If gold, her locks are finest gold on ground; That changed through all, and yet in all the If silver, her fair hands are silver sheen:

same, But that which fairest is, but few behold, Great in the earth as in th' ethereal frame, Her mind, adorned with virtues manifold.

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,

Edmund Spenser. Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees; 217. BEAUTY, Troth and.

Lives through all life, extends through all

extent, Thus was Beauty sent from heaven, Spreads undivided, operates unspent ; The lovely mistress of Truth and Good [one, Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part. in this dark world, tor Truth and Good are As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart; And Beauty dwells in them, and they in her, | As full. as perfect, in vile man that mourns. With like participation. Wherefore, then,

As the rapt seraph that adores and burns : O sons of earth, would ye dissolve the tie?

dissolve the tie? To him no high, no low, no great, no small; O wherefore, with a rash, impetuous aim,

He fills, He bounds, connects, and equals all ! Seek ye those flowery joys with which the

Alexander Pope. hand Of lavish Fancy paints each flattering scene

| 221. BENEFICENCE, Blessing on. Where Beauty seems to dwell, nor once in- “ Come, blessed of my heavenly Father, quire

come! Where is the sanction of eternal Truth, In the high heaven your kingdom is prepared; Or where the seal of undeceitful good, sthese, / Your's is the sceptre and the rich reward; To save your search from folly! wanting Haste, for your Saviour calls you to your Lo! Beauty withers in your void embrace,

home: And with the glittering of an idiot's toy

For I was hungry and ye brought me bread, Did Fancy mock your vows.

I thirsted, and your cooling draughts were Mark Akenside.

mine;

O'er my cold limbs the needed vest ye spread, 218. BEAUTY, Youthful.

A stranger was I, and ye took me in; Lo! when the buds expand, the leaves are I pined in sickness, and ye brought relief; green,

In the deep dungeon and ye soothed my grief; Then the first opening of the flower is seen; For these, my brethren, these, the lowly poor, Then come the honeyed breath and rosy smile, Ye sent not cold and empty from your door; That with their sweets the willing sense be- But ye relieved their wants, and heard their guile;

(praise, plea; But as we look, and love, and taste, and 'Twas done for my sake and 'tis done for And the fruit grows, the charming flower | 222. BENEFICENCE, Demand for.

decays; Till all is gather'd, and the wintry blast

The pilgrim and stranger, who, through the

day, Moans o'er the place of love and pleasure

" Holds over the desert his trackless way, past.

Where the terrible sands no shade have So 'tis with Beauty,—such the opening grace known, And dawn of glory in the youthful face; No sound of life save the camel's moan, [all, Then there are charms unfolded to the sight, Hears, at last, through the mercy of Allah to Then all is loveliness and all delight; From his tent-door, at evening, the Bedouin's The nuptial tie succeeds, the genial hour,

call : And, lo! the falling off of Beauty's flower; “Whoever thou art, whose need is great, So through all Nature is the progress made

In the name of God, the Compassionate The bud, the bloom, the fruit—and then we And Merciful One, for thee I wait!" fade. . George Crabbe.

For gifts, in His name, of food and rest, 219, BEING, Chain of.

The tents of Islam of God are blest.

Thou, who hast faith in the Christ above, Vast chain of being! which from God began; Nature's ethereal, human, angel, man,

Shall the Koran teach thee the Law of Love? Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,

O Christian l-open thy heart and door, No glass can reach ; from infinite to thee;

Cry, east and west, to the wandering poorFrom thee to nothing.–On superior powers

“Whoever thou art, whose need is great, Were we to press, inferior might on ours;

In the name of Christ, the Compassionate

And Merciful One, for thee I wait!” Or in the full creation leave a void,

E. J. Whittier. Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd;

strike. 223. BENEFICENCE, Monument of. From Nature's chain whatever link you But all our praises why should lords engross ? Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain Rise, honest muše! and sing the Man of alike. Alexander Pope.

Ross;

[me!” gives.

Pleased Vaga echoes through her winding. Then the beggar, “See your sins !
bounds,

Of old, unless I err,
And rapid Severn hoarse applause resounds./ Ye had brothers for inmates, twins,
Who hung with woods yon mountain's sultry Date and Dabitur.

brow?
From the dry rock who bade the waters flow ? |

“ While Date was in good case Not to the skies in useless columns tost,

Dabitur flourished too: Or in proud falls magnificently lost,

For Dabitur's lenten face, But clear and artless, pouring through the

No wonder if Date rue. plain

“Would ye retrieve the one ? Health to the sick, and solace to the swain.

Try and make plump the other! Whose causeway parts the vale with shady

When Date's penance is done,
rows ?

Dabitur helps his brother.
Whose seats the weary traveller repose ?
Who taught that heaven-directed spire to “Only, beware relapse !”
rise ?

[replies.

The Abbot hung his head.
“ The Man of Ross ! ” each lisping babe "This beggar might be, perhaps,
Behold the market-place with poor o'erspread! An angel,” Luther said.
The Man of Ross divides the weekly bread;

Robert Browning. He feeds yon almhouse, neat, but void of state,

225. BEREAVEMENT, Benefit of. Where age and want sit smiling at the gate : Land first

t smiling at the gate: And first, of dying friends—what fruit from Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans |

these? blest, The young who labor, and the old who rest.

It brings us more than triple aid; an aid

To chase our thoughtlessness, fear, pride, and Is any sick ? the Man of Ross relieves,

guilt. Prescribes, attends, the medicine makes and Our dying friends come o'er us like a cloud.

To damp our brainless ardors, and abate Is there a variance ? enter but his door,

That glare of life which often blinds the Balked are the courts, and contest is no

wise. more.

Our dying friends are pioneers, to smooth Despairing quacks with curses fled the place, lo

ace, Our rugged pass to death; to break those And vile attorneys, now a useless race.

bars B. Thrice happy man! enabled to pursue of terror and What all so wish, but want the power to do! Cross our obstructed way; and thus to make

to pursue, of terror and abhorrence nature throws O say, what sums that generous hand supply? wol

| Welcome, as safe, our port from every storm. What mines to swell that boundless charity ?lta

Each friend by fate snatched from us is a P. Of debts and taxes, wife and children

plume clear,

Lyear. Plucked from the wing of human vanity. This man possessed-five hundred pounds a which makes us stoop from our aërial Blush, grandeur, blush ; proud courts, with

heights, draw your blaze!

| And, damp'd with omen of our own decease, Ye little stars, hide your diminished rays!

On drooping pinions of ambition lower'd, B. And what ? no monument, inscription, Just skim earth's surface ere we break it up; stone ?

TO'er putrid earth to scratch a little dust, His race, his form, his name, almost un

form, nis name, almost un. And save the world a nuisance. Smitten known?

friends P. Who builds a church to God, and not

Are angels sent on errands full of love, to fame,

For us they languish, and for us they die. Will never mark the marble with his name:

And shall they languish, shall they die in Go, search it there, where to be born and die,

vain?

{shades, Of rich and poor makes all the history;

Ungrateful, shall we grieve their hovering Enough that virtue filled the space between,

| Which wait the revolution in our hearts? Proved by the ends of being to have been.

Shall we disdain their silent, soft address, Alexander Pope.

Their posthumous advice, and pious prayer ?

Senseless as herds that graze their hallow'd 224. BENEFICENCE, Repayment of.

graves, A beggar asked an alms

Tread under foot their agonies and groans ? One day at an abbey-door,

Frustrate their anguish, and destroy their Said Luther; but seized with qualms

deaths ?

Edward Young. The Abbot replied, “We're poor!

226. BEREAVEMENT, Faith in. “ Poor who had plenty once

In hope of that immortal crown,
When gifts fell thick as rain:

I now the cross sustain,
But they give us nought for nonce,

And gladly wander up and down,
And how should we give again?"

And smile at toil and pain:

I suffer on my threescore years,

Not as a child shall we again behold her ;
Till my deliverer come,

For when with raptures wild
And wipe away his servant's tears, In our embraces we again enfold her,
And take his exile home.

She will not be a child :
O, what hath Jesus bought for me!

But a fair maiden, in her Father's mansion,
Before my ravish'd eyes

Clothed with celestial grace; Rivers of life, divine, I see,

| And beautiful with all the soul's expansion And trees of Paradise:

Shall we behold her face.
I see a world of spirits bright,
Who taste the pleasure there;

And though, at times, impetuous with emo-
They all are robed in spotless white,

And anguish long suppressed, [tion

The swelling heart heaves moaning like the And conq'ring palms they bear.

That cannot be at rest.

[ocean, O what are all my suff'rings here, If, Lord, thou count me meet

We will be patient, and assuage the feeling With that enraptured host t' appear,

• We may not wholly stay; And worship at thy feet!

By silence sanctifying, not concealing, Give joy or grief, give ease or pain,

The grief that must have way.

H. W. Longfelloro. Take life or friends away, But let me find them all again

228. BEREAVEMENT, Parable of. In that eternal day.

We clutch our joys as children do their Charles Wesley. flowers;

[ours, 227. BEREAVEMENT, Lessons of.

We look at them, but scarce believe them

Till our hot palms have smirched their colors There is no flock, however watched and rare,

But one dead lamb is there! [tended, And crushed their dewy beauty unaware. There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended, But the wise Gardener, whose they were, But has one vacant chair!

comes by The air is full of farewells to the dying,

At hours when we expect not, and with eye

Mournful yet sweet, compassionate though And mournings for the dead ;

Takes them. The heart of Rachel, for her children crying,

[stein, Will not be comforted !

Then in a moment we discern Let us be patient! These severe afflictions

By loss, what was possession, and half-wild

With misery, cry out like an angry child : Not from the ground arise, But oftentimes celestial benedictions

“O cruel! thus to snatch my posy fine!” Assume this dark disguise.

He answers tenderly, “Not thine, but mine,"

And points to those stained fingers which do We see but dimly through the mists and prove

Amid these earthly damps (vapors ; Our fatal cherishing, our dangerous love; What seem to us but sad, funereal tapers At which we, chidden, a pale silence keep; May be heaven's distant lamps.

Yet evermore must weep, and weep, and . weep.

[brakes, There is no Death! What seems so is transi- So on through gloomy ways and thorny This life of mortal breath,

[tion : Quiet and slow, our shrinking feet he takes, Is but a suburb of the life elysian,

Led by the soiled hand, which, laved in tears, Whose portal we call Death.

More and more clean beneath his sight ap

pears. She is not dead—the child of our affection, at

At length the heavy eyes with patience shine: But gone unto that school

[tion,
on, “I am content.
T.

Thou took'st but what was Where she no longer needs our poor protec

thine." And Christ himself doth rule.

And when he us his beauteous garden shows, In that great cloister's stillness and seclusion,

u seciusIon, Where bountiful the Rose of Sharon grows : By guardian angels led,

Where in the breezes opening spice-buds Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollu

swell: She lives whom we call dead. (tion, and th

And the pomegranate yields a pleasant smell: Day after day we think what she is doing

While to and fro peace-sandalled angels move In those bright realms of air;

In the pure air that they-not we-call Love: Year after year, her tender steps pursuing,

| An air so rare and fine, our grosser breath Behold her grown more fair.

Cannot inhale till purified by death.

And thus we, struck with longing joy, adore, Thus do we walk with her, and keep un- And, satisfied, wait mute without the door,

The bond which nature gives, [broken Until the gracious Gardener maketh sign, Thinking that our remembrance, though un- “Enter in peace. All this is mine and May reach her where she lives. (spoken,

thine.

D. M. Muloch Craik.

229. BEREAVEMENT, Parental.'

I thought but yesterday, Child, by God's sweet mercy given to thy

My will was one with God's dear will; mother and to me,

And that it would be sweet to say, Entering this world of sorrows, by His grace,

- Whatever ill —so fair to see :

My happy state should smite upon, Fair as some sweet flower in summer, till “Thy will, my God, be done ! ”

Death's hand on thee was laid, Scorched the beauty from my flower, made

But I was weak and wrong, the tender petals fade.

Both weak of soul and wrong of heart;

And Pride alone in me was strong, Yet I dare not weep nor murmur, for I know the King of kings

With cunning art Leads thee to His marriage-chamber,—to the

To cheat me in the golden sun, glorious bridal brings.

To say, “God's will be done !" Nature fain would leave me weeping, love

Oh shadow drear and cold, asserts her mournful right;

That frights me out of foolish pride; But I answer, they have brought thee to the

O flood, that through my bosom rolled happy world of light !

Its billowy tide; And I fear that my lamentings, as I speak thy

I said, till ye your power made known, cherished name,

"God's will, not mine, be done !" Desecrate the Royal dwelling,-fear to meet deserved blame,

Now, faint and sore afraid, If I press with tears of anguish into the

Under my cross, heavy and rude, abode of joy ;

My idols in the ashes laid, Therefore will I, meekly bowing, offer thee

Like ashes strewed, to God, my boy!

The holy words my pale lips shun, Yet thy voice, thy childish singing, soundeth

“O God, thy will be done!" ever in my ears; And I listen, and remember, till mine eyes

Pity my woes, O God, will gather tears,

And touch my will with thy warm breath; Thinking of thy pretty prattlings, and thy Put in my trembling hand thy rod, childish words of love;

That quickens death; But when I begin to murmur, then my spirit That my dead faith may feel thy sun, looks above,

And say, “ Thy will be done !".. Listens to the songs of spirits ; listens, longing, wondering,

232. BESETTING SIN, Power of. To the ceaseless glad hosannas angels at thy Lord, with what care hast thou begirt us bridal sing.

round, Ephræm Syrus, tr. by Mrs. Charles.

Parents first season us; then schoolmasters

Deliver us to laws; they send us bound 230. BEREAVEMENT, Revelations of.

To rules of reason, holy messengers, Lift up thine eyes, afflicted soul!

Pulpits and Sundays, sorrow dogging sin, From earth lift up thine eyes !

Afflictions sorted, anguish of all sizes, Though dark the evening shadows roll,

Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in, And daylight beauty dies,

Bibles laid open, millions of surprises, One sun is set,-a thousand more

Blessings beforehand, ties of gratefulness, Their rounds of glory run,

The sound of glory ringing in our ears; Where science leads thee to explore

Without, our shame; within, our conIn cvery star a sun.

sciences;

Angels and grace, eternal hopes and fears, Thus, when some long-loved comfort ends, Yet all these fences and their whole array And nature would despair,

One cunning bosom-sin blows quite away. Faith to the heaven of heaven ascends,

George Herbert. And meets ten thousand there; First faint and small, then clear and bright,

233. BIBLE, A Living They gladden all the gloom,

A living, breathing Bible; tables where As stars that seem but points of light Both covenants, at large, engraven were ; The rank of suns assume.

Gospel and law in heart had each its col. James Montgomery.

umn, 231. BEREAVEMENT, Trial of.

His head an index to the sacred volume;

His very name a title-page; and next,
I cannot, cannot say,

His life a commentary on the text.
Out of my bruised and breaking heart, O, what a monument of glorious worth,
Storm-driven along a thorn-set way, When in a new edition he comes forth,
While blood-drops start

Without erratas, may we think he'd be
From every pore, as I drag on,

In leaves and covers of Eternity! “Thy will, o God, be done! "

Benjamin Woodbridge.

234. BIBLE, Blessed.

The utterance of heavenly lips Blessed Bible! how I love it!

In every sacred line. How it doth my bosom cheer!

Across the ages they What hath carth like this to covet?

Have reached us from afar,
O, what stores of wealth are here!

Than the bright gold more golden they,
Man was lost and doomed to sorrow;
Not one ray of light or bliss

Purer than purest star. Could he from earth's treasures borrow, More durable they stand 'Till his way was cheered by this?

Than the eternal hills;

Far sweeter and more musical
Yes, I'll to my bosom press thee,
PRECIOUS WORD, I'll hide thee here;

Than music of earth's rills.
Sure my very heart will bless thee,

Fairer in their fair hues For thou ever sayest “good cheer: "

Than the fresh flowers of earth, Speak, my heart, and tell thy ponderings,

More fragrant than the fragrant climes
Tell how far thy rovings led, sings,

Where odors have their birth.
When TUIS BOOK brought back thy wander-
Speaking life as from the dead.

Each word of Thine a gem

From the celestial mines, Yes, sweet Bible! I will hide thee

A sunbeam from that holy heaven · Deep, yes, deeper in this heart;

Where holy sunlight shines.
Thou, through all my life will guide me,
And in death we will not part.

Thine, Thine, this book, though given
Part in death? No! never! never!

In man's poor human speech, Through death's vale I'll lean on thee; Telling of things unseen, unheard, Then, in worlds above, for ever,

Beyond all human reach, Sweeter still thy truths shall be !

Phæbe Palmer.

No strength it craves or needs

From this world's wisdom vain; 235. BIBLE, Contents of the.

No filling up from human wells,
If thou art Derry, here are airs;

Or sublunary rain.
If melancholy, here are prayers;
If studious, here are those things writ

No light from sons of time,
Which may deserve thy ablest wit;

Nor brilliance from its gold, If hungry, here is food divine;

It sparkles with its own glad light, If thirsty, nectar, heavenly wine.

As in the ages old. Read, then; but, first, thyself prepare

A thousand hammers keen To read with zeal and mark with care;

With fiery force and strain, And when thou read'st what here is writ,

Brought down on it in rage and hate, Let thy best practice second it:

Have struck this gem in vain. So twice each precept read shall be

Against this sea-swept rock
First in the book, and next in thee.

Ten thousand storms their will
Peter Heylyn.

Of foam and rage have wildly spent; 236. BIBLE, Esteeming the.

It lifts its calm face still.
This holy book I'd rather own

It standeth and will stand,
Than all the gold and gems

Without or change or age,
That e'er in monarchs' coffers shone,

The word of majesty and light,
Than all their diadems.

· The church's heritage. Nay, were the seas one chrysolite,

Horatius Bonar.
The earth one golden ball,

238. BIBLE, Family, And diadems all the stars of night,

What household thoughts around thee, as This book outweighs them all.

their shrine,

(guiled, Ah, no, the soul ne'er found relief

Cling reverently !_Of anxious looks beIn glittering hoards of wealth;

My mother's eyes upon thy page dıyine Gems dazzle not the eye of grief,

Were daily bent; her accents, gravely mild, Gold cannot purchase health.

Breathed out thy love;—whilst I, a dreamy

child, But here a blessed balm appears

On breeze-like fancies wandered oft away, To heal the deepest woe,

To some lone tuft of gleaming spring-flowers And those who read this book in tears,

wild,

[play, Their tears shall cease to flow.

Some fresh-discovered nook for woodland

Some secret nest; yet would the solemn word, 237. BIBLE, Excellence of the.

At times, with kindlings of young wonder Thy thoughts are here, my God,

heard, Expressed in words divine,

| Fall on my wakened spirit, there to be