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THE LAND WHICH NO MORTAL MAY KNOW.

THOUGH earth has full many a beautiful spot,
As a poet or painter may show ;

Yet more lovely and beautiful, holy and bright,
To the hopes of the heart, and the spirit's glad sight,
Is the land which no mortal may know.

There the water of life, bursting forth from the throne,
Flows on, and for ever will flow;

Its waves, as they roll, are with melody rife,
And its waters are sparkling with beauty and life,
In the land which no mortal may know.

Oh, who but must pine in this dark vale of tears
From its clouds and its shadows to go!
To walk in the light of the glory above,
And to share in the peace, and the joy, and the love,
Of the land which no mortal may know?

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"I WOULD, BUT YE WOULD NOT."

ST MATTHEW xxiii. 37; ST LUKE xix. 41.

'Tis evening-over Salem's towers a golden lustre gleams,

And lovingly and lingeringly the sun prolongs his beanis;

He looks as on some work undone, for which the time

was past;

So tender is his glance and mild, it seems to be his last. But a brighter Sun is looking on, more earnest is His

eye,

For thunder-clouds will veil Him soon, and darken all the sky;

O'er Zion still He bends, as loath His presence to remove, And on her walls there lingers yet the sunshine of His love.

"Tis Jesus-with an anguished heart, a parting glance He throws;

For mercy's day she has sinned away, for a night of dreadful woes;

"Oh, would that thou hadst known," He said, while down rolled many a tear,

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My words of peace, in this thy day! but now thine

end is near:

Alas! for thee, Jerusalem, how cold thy heart to Me! How often in these arms of love, would I have gathered

thee!

My sheltering wing had been thy shield, My love thy happy lot;

I would it had been thus with thee! I would, but Ye would not."

He wept alone, and men passed on-the men whose sins

He bore;

They saw the man of sorrows weep; they had seen Him weep before;

They asked not whom those tears were for, they asked not whence they flowed;

Those tears were for rebellious man; their source, the heart of God.

They fell upon this desert earth, like drops from heaven on high,

Struck from an ocean-tide of love, that fills eternity; With love and tenderness divine, those crystal cells o'erflow;

'Tis God that weeps, through human eyes, for human guilt and woe.

That hour has fled; those tears are told; the agony is

past;

The Lord has wept, the Lord has bled, but has not loved His last.

His eye of love is downward bent, still ranging to and fro,

Where'er in this wide wilderness there roams the child

of woe;

Nor His alone, the Three in One, who looked through Jesu's eye;

Could still the harps of angel bands, to hear the suppliant's sigh;

And when the rebel chooses wrath, God mourns his hapless lot,

Deep breathing from His heart of love-" I would, but ye would not."

GOD'S FREEMAN.

HE is the freeman, whom the truth makes free,
And all are slaves beside. There's not a chain
That hellish foes, confederate for his harm,
Can wind around him, but he casts it off
With as much ease as Samson his green withes.
He looks abroad into the varied field

Of Nature, and, though poor perhaps, compared
With those whose mansions glitter in his sight,
Calls the delightful scenery all his own.
His are the mountains, and the valleys his,
And the resplendent rivers. His to enjoy
With a propriety that none can feel,
But who with filial confidence inspired,
Can lift to heaven his unpresumptuous eye,
And smiling say-" My Father made them all!"

COWPER.

THE FUTURE.

"What I do, thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter."-ST JOHN xiii. 7.

Oн, how the future will reveal

What now our hearts refuse to feel!

That depths of love

Flow from above;

And all is bright,

Which seems like night.

For when Eternity shall be,

And time and earth away shall flee,
We then shall say
What perfect way
Obscured the light

To our dim sight.

Let us then trust in that Friend,

Who alone can see the end;

And we shall raise

Through endless days

Songs of praise

O'er all His ways.

EMMA MOODY.

THE CORD OF LOVE.

WE cannot see the twinings
Of God's long cord of love,
We cannot see the windings
By matchless wisdom wove.

E'en as a skein, when ravelled,
Still holds the hidden end,
So love's mysterious windings
Around our chastenings blend.

That cord can ne'er be broken,
'Tis held by God alone;
The Lord's seal is the token,

He knows, He keeps His own.

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