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At length I got unto a gladsome hill,
Where lay my hope —

Where lay my heart; and climbing still,
When I had gained the brow and top,
A lake of brackish waters on the ground,
Was all I found.

With that abashed, and struck with many a sting

Of swarming fears,

I fell, and cried "alas! My King,

Can both the way and end be tears ?”
Yet, taking heart, I rose, and then perceived
I was deceived.

My hill was farther, so I slunk away,

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;

It is the Lord hath led me
Throughout this wilderness
His providence had fed me,
And still he deigns to bless.
His power and love have broken,
Full oft, the secret snare ;

And giv'n a daily token

Of his paternal care.

And shall I not adore him,

With hymns of new-born praise;

And while I bow before him,

My Ebenezer raise ?

The providential story,

Which here I feebly sing,

Shall wake my harp in glory,

On every tuneful string.

HERBERT.

DR. COLLYER.

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THE

YOUTHS' MAGAZINE;

OR,

EVANGELICAL MISCELLANY.

MARCH, 1845.

THE OSTRICH.

It would not be easy to furnish a more striking, because undesigned, illustration of Scripture, than that supplied by our present engraving, copied from a French print. Had it been intended for the express purpose of elucidating the beautiful description furnished in Job xxxix. 13—18, it could not have been more complete. We have indicated by italics those points where the coincidence is most striking between the written and the pictorial representation.

"Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? "Or wings and feathers unto the ostrich ?

Which leaveth her eggs in the earth,

"And warmeth them in dust,

“And forgetteth that the foot may crush them,

"Or that the wild beast may break them.

"She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were "Her labour is in vain without fear;

"Because God hath deprived her of wisdom,

"Neither hath he imparted to her understanding;

[not her's;

"What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.”

There are two names by which this bird is mentioned in Scripture, renonim, and bath-hayyanah, or the daughter of screeching; a designation highly characteristic of the doleful noise made by the female in her native deserts.

F

It

may possibly be inferred from the text, that the eggs of this bird are hatched without the cares of incubation; though no such assertion is contained in the passage: they are certainly left upon the bare earth, and warmed in the dust; but the latter act requires the intervention of the parent birds as in most other cases. The nest is scooped in the bare ground, the excavated sand forming a raised border around it, and the eggs are generally arranged with instinctive sagacity, so as to form a series of radii around the centre, their smaller ends being turned inwards. As many as sixty of these eggs have been found in a single nest, though the number seldom exceeds thirty.

THE PARSON'S CHOICE MEMORIES.

CHAP. III.-THE SOURCE OF LOVE.

OUR next meeting was at the house of a perpetual curate, a man who, not being ashamed of living beneath his very contracted means, was passing rich, not exactly on forty, but on a hundred pounds a year.

His house was small-so small indeed, that his only reception room was his study: but, being a bachelor, he was contented; and indeed needed no more, as it had been at his own option he had given up the other apartments to a laboring man and his wife, who were also his attendants.

It was a stormy evening in the month of March; the snow and sleet beat most disagreeably upon the face; great gusts of wind met one as it were from all quarters; and owing to the density of the discharging clouds, the night had set in before its wonted hour. I was the first to reach the hospitable shelter, and most inviting did the blazing fire look in that cheerful, bright apartment. The large easy chair was placed on one side for our friend Paternus, and other chairs were arranged in front of the fire. Soon the sound of many steps was heard, as our expected party reached the house within five minutes of each other. Oh! what a taking off of great-coats, cloaks, mackintoshes, comforters, and boas, overalls and buskins; and one old

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