THE INFINITY OF SPACE. This earth, with all its dust and tears, The rock, the wave, the little flower, And is this all that man can claim? no more Than pebbles cast on Time's gray shore? Can man, no more than beast, aspire Not this our doom, thou God benign! We view those halls of painted air, 27 MELODIES AND MYSTERIES. CHARLES MACKAY. WOULDST thou know what the blithe bird pipeth High in the morning air? Wouldst thou know what the blithe stream sing eth, Rippling o'er pebbles bare? Sorrow the mystery shall teach thee And the words declare. Wouldst thou find in the rose's blossom More in the fragrance of the lily Than odor on the wind? Love Nature, and her smallest atoms Wouldst thou know what the moon discourseth To the docile sea? Wouldst hear the echoes of the music Of the far infinity! Sorrow shall ope the founts of knowledge, Wouldst thou see through the riddle of Being CORRESPONDENCES. Sorrow shall give thine eyes new lustre And love of God and thy kind shall aid thee To Love and Sorrow all Nature speaketh; They the best can see through darkness Of its mazy texture, and discover Love and Sorrow are sympathetic 29 Their touch from the harp of Nature bringeth To them the eternal chords for ever CORRESPONDENCES. C. P. CRANCH. ALL things in Nature are beautiful types to the soul that will read them ; Nothing exists upon earth, but for unspeakable ends. Every object that speaks to the senses was meant for the spirit: Nature is but a scroll, God's handwriting thereon. - Ages ago, when man was pure, ere the flood overwhelmed him, While in the image of God every soul yet lived, Everything stood as a letter or word of a language familiar, Telling of truths which now only the angels can read. Lost to man was the key of those sacred hieroglyphics, Stolen away by sin,- till with Jesus restored. Now with infinite pains we here and there spell out a letter; Now and then will the sense feebly shine through the dark. When we perceive the light which breaks through the visible symbol, What exultation is ours! we the discovery have made! Yet is the meaning the same as when Adam lived sinless in Eden, Only long-hidden it slept, and now again is restored. Man unconsciously uses figures of speech every moment, Little dreaming that everything has its own correspondence Folded within it of old, as in the body the soul. Gleams of the mystery fall on us still, though much is forgotten, And through our commonest speech illumines the path of our thoughts. Thus does the lordly sun shine out a type of the Godhead; Wisdom and Love the beams that shine on a darkened world. Thus do the sparkling waters flow, giving joy to the desert, And the great Fountain of Life opens itself to the thirst. Thus does the word of God distil like the rain and the dew-drops, Thus does the warm wind breathe like to the Spirit of God, And the green grass and the flowers are signs of the regeneration. O thou Spirit of Truth! visit our minds once more! Give us to read, in letters of light, the language celestial, |