The bards of old bewail'd their birth, And, shuddering, trac'd their future doom; And doubt and dread beyond the tomb. No hope but in eternal gloom, express Not thus when death itself appears, Such mercies to thy saints are given ; Such let thy grace accord to me The cross on earth, the crown in heaven. DALE. 14. God is love! To it we owe the blessed gospel; that testimony of love to all, and love in every thing. Love when he chastens, and love when he hides himself behind dark clouds and afflictive dispensations. Here is the ground of a firm faith. By bereavements we are more strongly attracted to that blessed world; we find a richer interest in the heavenly inheritance. Our future journey will be cheered by the hope of reunion with those who are gone before, and the blissful assurance that our loved ones are in the glory and smile of our divine Lord. Let this assurance induce us, while yet here below, to cherish the delightful feeling that our God is ever with us, about our path, and about our bed, and spiest out all our ways; then shall we pass through things temporal, with things eternal fully and constantly in view. For what is life? How unsubstantial until filled with those feelings and acts which connect it with the perfection of eternity, and convert it into the vestibule of the future spacious temple of being, through which we cannot pass, and from which we can never be excluded! CHRISTIAN CONSOLATION. THE Voice that I did more esteem All earthly comforts vanish thus Yet we are neither just nor wise, Or mind not how there may be made WITHER. HYMN TO HESPERUS. FRAGMENT. "The stars, Man's heavenly friends." BRIGHT Solitary beam! fair speck ! Blent with the season and the scene, And bloom afresh young flowers around, With scent as rich, and hues as splendid. Fair star! with calm repose and peace, Star of the mourner! 'mid the gloom, Star of declining day, farewell! Ere liv'd the patriarchs, thou wert yonder; Ere Isaac, 'mid the piny dell, Went forth at eventide to ponder : And when to death's stern mandate bow, |