BEREAVEMENT.

Holding our little lamb asleep;
And, like the burden of the sea,
Sounded that voice along the deep,
Saying, "Arise and follow me!"

BEREAVEMENT.

KEBLE. LYRA INNOCENTIUM.

"The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before."

I MARKED When vernal meads were bright,
And many a primrose smiled,

I marked her, bright as morning light,
A dimpled three years' child.

A basket on one tender arm

Contained her precious store

Of spring-flowers in their freshest charm,
Told proudly o'er and o'er.

The other wound with earnest hold

About her blooming guide,

A maid who scarce twelve years had told :
So walked they side by side.

One a bright bud, and one might seem
A sister flower half blown.

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Full joyous on their loving dream

The sky of April shone.

The summer months swept by: again
That loving pair I met.

On russet heath, and bowery lane.
The autumnal sun had set,

And chill and damp that Sunday eve Breathed on the mourners' road, That bright-eyed little one to leave Safe in the saints' abode.

Behind, the guardian sister came,
Her bright brow dim and pale: -
O cheer thee, maiden! in His name
Who stilled Jairus' wail!

Thou mourn'st to miss the fingers soft
That held by thine so fast,
The fond appealing eye, full oft
Toward thee for refuge cast.

Sweet toils, sweet cares, for ever gone!
No more from stranger's face,
Or startling sound, the timid one
Shall hide in thine embrace.

Thy first glad earthly task is o'er,
And dreary seems thy way;

DEATH OF THE NEW-BAPTIZED.

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But what if nearer than before

She watch thee even to-day?

What if henceforth, by Heaven's decree,
She leave thee not alone,

But in her turn prove guide to thee
In ways to angels known?

O yield thee to her whisperings sweet:
Away with thoughts of gloom!

In love the loving spirits greet,

Who wait to bless her tomb.

In loving hope with her unseen
Walk as in hallowed air.

When foes are strong, and trials keen,
Think, "What if she be there?"

DEATH OF THE NEW-BAPTIZED.

KEBLE. LYRA INNOCENTIUM.

WHAT purer, brighter sight on earth, than when
The sun looks down upon a drop of dew,
Hid in some nook from all but angels' ken,

And with his radiance bathes it through and through,

Then into realms too clear for our frail view Exhales and draws it with absorbing love?

And what if Heaven therein give token true Of grace that new-born dying infants prove, Just touched with Jesus' light, then lost in joys above?

ON THE DEATH OF A BEAUTIFUL GIRL.

MRS. E. L. FOLLEN.

THE young, the lovely, pass away,
Ne'er to be seen again;

Earth's fairest flowers too soon decay,
Its blasted trees remain.

Full oft we see the brightest thing
That lifts its head on high

Smile in the light, then droop its wing,

And fade away and die.

And kindly is the lesson given;

Then dry the falling tear:

They came to raise our hearts to heaven,

They go to call us there.

ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG LADY. 301

ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG LADY.

S. G. BULFINCH.

ALAS, Sweet maid! hast thou so soon departed? Thou of the bright smile and the speaking eye, The good, the cheerful, and the gentle-hearted, Who could have thought that thou so soon shouldst die?

To die so young, when all was bright before thee, When fond affection strewed thy path with flowers!

Who could have thought so dark a doom was o'er thee,

Fair being, formed for life's most radiant hours?

How shall we miss thee where thy voice was heard!

How, where thy smile hath shed its light

around!

And where we listened to the holy word,

Dear friend, with thee, on yonder hallowed ground!

Yes; in the hour of happiness, a sigh,

Sweet girl! shall witness that thou still art

near;