THE RAME EMANUEL.

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . Mart. i. 23

“God with us—Emmanuel !”

Rightly call the news “good-spell”;*
A good-spell if our fears are gone,

And God Himself our griefs hath borne:
A good-spell if we cast our care,

On One who counteth every hair :
A good-spell if in Him we trust,

When we are smitten to the dust :
A good-spell if our debts are paid,

And on the Lord our guilt is laid :
Of dark despair then rings the knell,
This name of names-Emmanuel !

* Gospel, i.e. good-spell.

CHE SONG OF NATURE AND THE SONG

OF THE SAINTS.*

“ All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord; and Thy saints shall bless Thee.”—Psalm cxlv. 10.

THE SONG OF NATURE AND THE SONG OF THE SAINTS.

And every flash of lightning

That gleams from lurid skies,
And every autumn sunbeam

With glorious, gorgeous dyes,
And many-tinted rainbow,

And daisy-spangled sod,
And brilliant flower with all its power

Glows to the praise of God :

And every lion roaring,

And every humming bee,
And every sighing corn-field,

And every rustling tree,
And every songster warbling,

And every cooing dove,
And prattling child in accents mild

Proclaims Thy might and love.

And every moss and lichen,

And every spray of fern,
And every shape of beauty,

Our wondering eyes discern,
And every stately palm-tree

And every wild gazelle,
By graceful form our minds inform

Thon doest all things well.

And angels and archangels

In wondrous spheres unknown-
Beings to us invisible

Who Thy dominion own;
And spirits whom we see not

But in our hearts we feel,
In lowliest adoration, Lord,

Before Thy presence kneel.

Then, help us swell the chorus,

Our Maker and our King,
And to the Love that's o'er us

Our Hallelujahs sing ;
For while we bless Thy greatness,

Thy majesty and power,
On every hand in every land

Made clear through every hour

Above all things we bless Thee

For Thy surpassing love,
That Thy dear Son has purchased

A home for us above;
And may the world-wide anthem

Onward and upward soar,
And saints on high take up the cry

And shout it evermore.

REDEEMING THE TIME.

“ See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

Ephes. v. 15-16.

I DECADE AND I SEPTENRATE.

DECEMBER THE FOURTEENTH

1861. 1871. 1878. “ She that hath borne seven languisheth : she hath given up the ghost ; her sun is gone down while it was yet day.”—

JER, Xv. 9.
A REMINISCENCE.
O quickly, Alice, time flits by it seems the other day

With loyal hearts and warm God-speed we sent thee on thy way,
Though heavy clouds above thy head across the prospect bright,

Cast shadows on thy bridal robe and mingled black with white.
Yet since the time of bitter grief that saw those clouds arise,

Which filled thy maiden heart with woe, and dulled thy radiant skies,
Seventeen full years have run their course with ever-varying scene,

A decade and a septennate hath joined what once hath been.
A decade and a septennate! strange periods these for thougbt:

For England and the world at large with solemn lessons fraught;
It was no mere coincidence these ten years and these seven,

But ordered for a purpose high by wise decree of Heaven.
How much of joy, how much alloy, how many hopes and fears

Have intertwined through all the web of those seventeen short years !
How many divers colours met in that much-tangled skein-

The roseate dyes of sweetest bliss and sable hues of pain !

THE AGE OF REASON.
P E live in ages when God's truth is openly assailed,

And teaching that there is no God vociferously hailed;
And when a lack of holiness is met by length of tongue,

And want of conscience is made up by large excess of lung :
When those who claim to reason most cast reason's self away,

Denying truths that shine as shine the sunbeams at noonday ;
Or seek to have the ancient creed transformed to some new shape,

Preferring to the Fall of Man the shrewder Rise of Ape!
Wonders of evolution they ! evolving white from black :

Not wholly unlike apes themselves to see the sense they lack;
In reason too unreasoning, the truths revealed they spurn,

And whence they sprang, they may, perhaps, at length some day return.
And some who scorn the laws of God, despise the laws of man,

And, restless, seek to rule the world on some superior plan ;
That all the lofty may come down, and all the base arise,

And each one do what seemeth best in his short-sighted eyes.

The PowerS THAT BE.
OD'S word declare the “ powers that be " are all by Him ordained ;

Therefore it is but right by them their place should be maintained ;
Though who, alas ! shall say how oft the trust is rightly used,

How often grossly misapplied, and grievously abused !