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, There the water of life, bursting forth from the throne, Its waves, as they roll, are with melody rife, Oh, who but must pine in this dark vale of tears 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? "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 beams; 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, "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, 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, What perfect way 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 E'en as a skein, when ravelled, 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. |