STANZAS.

A mother's love! oh who may breathe-
Oh, who may tell its worth!
Its patient suffering until death,

E'en from our childhood's birth?

'T is changeless, fathomless, and deep;
It is its lot to sigh,

To wake, and watch our feverish sleep,
When none save God is nigh.

STANZAS

[Suggested by a drawing of Felix Neff's Alpine Church.]

Thou dwellest not in temples made

By human hands alone,

Earth is thy footstool, thou hast said,

And Heaven above thy throne;

Yet grateful is it, Lord! to see

Each house of prayer built up to thee.

Amid the crowded city's din,

Such, when they meet our gaze, Inviting all to enter in,

To offer prayer or praise ;— These wheresoever they may be Are silent witnesses for thee.

31

For mid the toil, and care, and strife,
In which we breathe and live,
These speak of that more hidden life
Which thou alone canst give;
And touch of thought a holier key
Which bids the spirit turn to thee.

If such their charms met in the maze
Of this world's full career;

Are they less vocal to thy praise
In scenes to silence dear,

Where thought is hush'd and feeling free

In quietness to worship thee?

Hence is this humble temple rear'd

In Alpine solitude,

By one who loved thy name and fear'd,
With eloquence imbued

To touch the heart and bend the knee
In praise and thankfulness to thee.

Thy word of gracious promise shews,
That in a day to come,

Deserts shall blossom as the rose,

And lonely places-dumb,

Should shout and sing with joyful glee,
Gladden'd and glorified by thee.

THE FREED BIRD.

Hasten, O Lord, that happy day!
And may each house of prayer,
Built up thy goodness to display,

Thy blessing richly share;
Till as the waters fill the sea

Earth may be full of praise to Thee.

B. BARTON.

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I have dress'd thy cage with flowers,

'Tis lovely as a violet bank

In the heart of forest bowers.

"I am free, I am free, I return no more!
The weary time of the cage is o'er!

Through the rolling clouds I can soar on high,
The sky is around me, the blue bright sky!

"The hills lie beneath me spread far and clear,

With their glowing heath flowers and bounding deer;

I see the waves flash on the sunny shore

Woo me not back, I return no more!"

D

34

THE FREED BIRD.

Alas, alas, my Bird!

Why seek'st thou to be free?

Wert thou not blest in thy little bower,

When thy song breathed nought but glee?

"Did my song of the summer breathe nought but glee?
Did the voice of the captive seem sweet to thee?
O! hadst thou known its deep meaning well,
It had tales of a burning heart to tell!

"From a dream of the forest that music sprang,
Through its note the peal of a torrent rang,
And its dying fall, when it soothed thee best,
Sigh'd for wild flowers and a leafy nest."

Was it with thee thus, my Bird?

Yet, thine eye flash'd clear and bright;
I have seen the glance of sudden joy
In its quick and dewy light.

"It flash'd with the fire of a tameless race

With the soul of the wild wood, my native place! With the spirit that panted through heaven to soarWoo me not back-I return no more!

"My home is high amid rocking trees,

My kindred things are the star and the breeze,
And the fount uncheck'd in its lonely play,

And odours that wander afar away."

THE WINTER WALK AT NOON.

35

Farewell, farewell, then Bird!

I have call'd on spirits gone,

And it may be they joyed like thee to part-
Like thee that wert all my own!

"If they were captives and pined like me,

Though love may guard them, they joy'd to be free

They sprang from the earth with a burst of power,

To the strength of their wings, to their triumph's hour.

"Call them not back when the chain is riven,
When the way of the pinion is all through heaven!
Farewell! With my song through the clouds I
I pierce the blue skies-I am earth's no more!"

soar

HEMANS.

THE WINTER WALK AT NOON.

The groans of Nature in this nether world,
Which Heaven has heard for ages, have an end.
Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung,
Whose fire was kindled at the prophets' lamp,
The time of rest, the promised Sabbath, comes.
Six thousand years of sorrow have well-nigh
Fulfill'd their tardy and disastrous course