Rejoice, that human hearts, through scorn,

Through shame, through death made strong, Before the rocks and heavens have borne Witness of God so long!

Mrs. Hemans.

SONG.

Sing beside the cheerful streams !
They are singing as they flow-
Through green shades and golden gleains,
Downward to the sea they go.
From the hill-top blue and high,
While day and night go round the sky,
Through the vales they haste along-
All their life is inerry song!

Rippling, rolling, gliding, winding, Round the hills their courses finding, Caring not to lose their name In the sea from whence they came; Bringing blessings where they may, They laugh and sing along their way, And mingle in the mighty seaLet us sing as merrily!

From "Henry Homeward."

110

PRAYER

THE WORM.

Turn, turn thy hasty foot aside,

Nor crush ihat helpless worin !
The frame thy wayward looks deride,

Required a God to form.
The common Lord of all that more,

From whom thy being lowed,
A portion of his boundless love

On that poor worin bestowed.
The sun, the moon, the stars, he made,

For all his creatures free;
And spread o'er earth the grassy blade,

For worms as well as thee.

Let them enjoy their little day,

Their humble bliss receive ; Oh! do not lightly take

away The life thou canst not give.

Gisborne.

PRAYER.

O sweeter than the marriage feast,

'Tis sweeter far to me, To walk, together to the Kirk

With a goodly company!

To walk together to the Kirk,
And altogether pray,
While each to his great Father bends,
Old inen and babes, and loving friends,
And youths and maidens gay.
Farewell, farewell ! but this I tell
To thee, thou wedding guest :
He prayeth well who loveth well,
Both man, and bird, and beast.

He prayeth best who loveth best,
All things both great and small;
For the dear God that loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

Coleridge.

EXCELSIOR.

ASPIRATION AND PROGRESS.

The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village past,
A youth, who bore, 'midst snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,

Excelsior!

His brow was sad ; his eye

beneath
Flashed like a faulchion from its sheath;
And like a silver clarion rung
The accents of that unknown tongue,

Excelsior!

In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
Above, the spectral glaziers shone,
And from his lips escaped a groan,

Excelsior!
Try not the pass !" the old man said ;
“Dark lowers the tempest over head,
The roaring torrent is deep and wide !"
And loud that clarion voice replied

“Excelsior !"

"O stay,” the maiden said, “and rest
Thy weary

head
upon

this breast!” A tear stood in his bright blue eye But still he answered with a sigh,

“Excelsior!” “Beware the pine-tree's withered branch ! Beware the awful avalanche!” This was the peasant's last GoodnightA voice replied, far up the height,

“Excelsior!”

ASPIRATIONS OF YOUTH.

113

At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of Saint Bernard
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
A voice came through the startled air,

“Excelsior !"
A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,

“Excelsior !"
There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless but beautiful he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell like a falling star,

“Excelsior !!!

Longfellon.

ASPIRATIONS OF YOUTH.
Higher, higher will we climb
Up the mount of glory,
That our names may live through time
In our country's story;
Happy, when her welfare calls,
He who conquers, he who falls.