God most free.

ANONYMOUS.

love among mortals Is but an endless sigh! He longs, and endures, and stands waiting,

worn frame and mind,

Alike confess thy sweet control, O love of God

most kind!

ANONYMOUS.

"God is love," saith the Evangel; And our world of woe and sin Is made light and happy only When a love is shining in.

WHITTIER.

As yonder faint and glimmering star
Receives its luster from the sun,
Though from its fiery splendors far;
So from thy love, Almighty One,
My spirit drinks immortal light;

O never may that light decay,
But, like yon diamond of the night,
In heaven's own beauty melt away.
PARK BENJAMIN.

Love, pure and holy, is a deathless fire; Its object heavenly, it must ever blaze; Eternal love, a God must needs inspire,

on his eyelids.

From the Swedish of BISHOP TEGNER.

Love's holy flame forever burneth;

From heaven it came, to heaven returneth;
Too oft on earth a troubled guest,
At times deceived, at times opprest.

It here is tried and purified,

Then hath in heaven its perfect rest;
It soweth here with toil and care,
But the harvest time of love is there.
SOUTHEY.

They sin who tell us love can die:
With life all other passions fly,
All others are but vanity.
In heaven ambition cannot dwell,
Nor avarice in the vaults of hell;
Earthly these passions, as of earth,
They perish where they have their birth;
But love is indestructible!

SOUTHEY.

Why travel over seas to find what is so near?

For thee and thine, this world were all too fair! How could we thence be weaned to die without despair?

MRS. HEMANS.

O love! thy essence is thy purity!
Breathe one unhallowed breath upon thy
flame,

And it is gone forever, and but leaves
A sullied vase, its pure light lost in shame.
MISS LANDON.

They err, who deem love's brightest hour in blooming youth is known,

Its purest, tenderest, holiest power in after life is shown;

When passions chastened and subdued, to riper And earth and earthly things are viewed in years are given, light that breaks from heaven.

BARTON.

Through gloom and night the hand of love
Can lead to realms of life and rest;
Love can loose and love can bind,
Love will seek and love will find

Its way to every human breast.
Hate and fury strive in vain

To crush or chill his magic power;
At his touch the wintry plain
Lone and dreary, blooms again,
Radiant as a summer bower;
Ever beautiful and bright,

Still on earth he deigns to roam,
But in yonder realms of light,
Where happy spirits wing their flight,
Is his birth-place and his home.

From the German of KORNER.

Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy will our nature be,
When love is an unerring light,
And joy its own security.
And blest are they who in the main
This faith, even now, do entertain.
WORDSWORTH.

There is a comfort in the strength of love; "Twill make a thing endurable, which else Would break the heart.

WORDSWORTH.