A CHAIN.

THE bond that links our souls together;

Will it last through stormy weather?

Will it moulder and decay
As the long hours pass away?
Will it stretch if Fate divide us,
When dark and weary hours

have tried us?

O, if it look too poor and slight, Let us break the links to-night!

It was not forged by mortal hands,

Or clasped with golden bars and bands;

Save thine and mine, no other eyes

The slender link can recognize : In the bright light it seems to fade

And it is hidden in the shade; While Heaven nor Earth have never heard,

Or solemn vow, or plighted word. Yet what no mortal hand could make,

No mortal power can ever break; What words or vows could never

do,

No words or vows can make un

true;

And if to other hearts unknown The dearer and the more our own, Because too sacred and divine For other eyes, save thine and mine.

And see, though slender, it is made

Of Love and Trust, and can they fade?

While, if too slight it seem, to bear

The breathings of the summer air,

We know that it could bear the weight

Of a most heavy heart of late, And as each day and hour flew The stronger for its burden grew.

And, too, we know and feel again It has been sanctified by pain, For what God deigns to try with

sorrow

He means not to decay to-mor

row;

But through that fiery trial last When earthly ties and bonds are

past;

What slighter things dare not endure

Will make our Love more safe

and pure.

Love shall be purified by Pain, And Pain be soothed by Love again :

So let us now take heart and go Cheerfully on, through joy and

woe;

No change the summer sun can bring,

Or the inconstant skies of spring, Or the bleak winter's stormy weather,

For we shall meet them, Love, together!

THE PILGRIMS.

THE way is long and dreary,
The path is bleak and bare;
Our feet are worn and weary,
But we will not despair.
More heavy was Thy burden,
More desolate Thy way;-
O Lamb of God who takest
The sin of the world away,

Have mercy on us.

The snows lie thick around us In the dark and gloomy night; And the tempest wails above us, And the stars have hid their light;

But blacker was the darkness Round Calvary's Cross that

day;

O Lamb of God who takest The sin of the world away, Have mercy on us.

A Tyrol maid had fled,
To serve in the Swiss valleys,

And toil for daily bread;
And every year that fleeted
So silently and fast,
Seemed to bear farther from her
The memory of the Past.