EXERCISE VIII. Flowers, the Gift of Divine Benignity.-MRS. HEMANS. Yes, there shall still be joy, Where God hath poured forth beauty; and the voice Over His glorious gifts! O Father, Lord! The All-Beneficent! I bless Thy name, That Thou hast mantled the green earth with flowers, Of their wild blossoms, our young footsteps first Her minster cells dark glen and forest bower: Where, thrilling with its earliest sense of Thee, And shivery leaf-sounds of the solitude, Thy living temple. By the breath of flowers, Back to the woods, the birds, the mountain streams, That sing of Thee! back to free childhood's heart, The glowing rose attests it, the beloved Of poet hearts, touched by their fervent dreams Of heaven-ascending thoughts. E'en to faint age The old man's eye Falls on the kindling blossoms, and his soul Shall, at Thy summons, from the grave spring up Thanks, blessings, love, for these, Thy lavish boons, 35 40 EXERCISE IX. "Show us the Father."-MRS. SIGOURNEY. 1. Have ye not seen Him, when through parted snows When the wild rose, that asks no florist's care, 2. Have ye not seen Him, when the infant's eye, Through its bright sapphire window, shows the mind? When in the trembling of the tear or sigh Floats forth that essence, trembling and refined? Saw ye not Him, the Author of our trust, Who breathed the breath of life into a frame of dust? 3. Have ye not heard Him, when the tuneful rill In thunders, echoing loud from hill to hill? Or in the Ocean's everlasting roar, Battling the old gray rocks, that sternly guard his shore? 4. When in the stillness of the Sabbath morn, The week's dread cares in tranquil slumber rest, When in the heart the holy thought is born, And Heaven's high impulse warms the waiting breast, Have ye not felt Him, when your voiceless prayer Swelled out in tones of praise, announcing God was there? 5. Show us the Father! If ye fail to trace His chariot, when the stars majestic roll, His pencil, 'mid earth's loveliness and grace, His presence, in the Sabbath of the soul, How can ye see Him, till the day of dread, When to the assembled worlds the Book of Doom is read? EXERCISE X. The Thoughts of the Dumb.-J. H. CLINCH. From words we gain ideas;—there are some, The shadowy thoughts which wander through such minds, From those ideal pictures, fresh and warm Pass through his brain in bright depicted facts, 5 10 One, to whom Heaven, in wisdom infinite, But to our sense inscrutable, had locked The gates of Sound and Speech, was asked to tell 15 The meaning of "forgiveness." Pausing then A moment, with the eye of memory "To glance from Heaven to Earth, from Earth to Heaven," For fitting thoughts, he seized the ready pen And wrote, The odor which the trampled flower Gives out to bless the foot which crushes it! 20 EXERCISE XI. Old Age and Death.-WALLER. 1. The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er; 2. The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, As they draw near to their eternal home! Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, That stand upon the threshold of the new. Three poets, in three distant ages born, EXERCISE XII. Death of Adam and Eve.-MONTGOMERY. The sun in summer majesty on high, Darted his fierce effulgence down the sky; His orb expanded through a dreary haze ; 5 10 And stretched him, pillowed with his latest sheaves, 15 Eve, Seth, and I. In vain he sighed for rest, Those sorrowing faces fill my soul with gloom; We prayed to strengthen him he grew not strong. In vain from every herb, and fruit, and flower, Of cordial sweetness or of healing power, |