Do yet in its disdain endure the footing Of your armed legions, 't is because it labors The signal of your scattering. Lo! the mountains Of Him that shall avenge. And there is scorn, Yea, in hell's deep and desolate abode, Where dwell the perished kings, the chief of earth; The Holy City, and the chosen people; They wait for thee, the associate of their hopes And fatal fall, to join their ruined conclave. 30 35 40 He whom the Red Sea 'whelmed with all his host, Even on the hill where gleam your myriad spears, * Before the avenging God of Israel! 45 50 *The camp of Titus comprehended the space called the "Assyrian's Camp." 2* 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 The All-Beneficent! I bless Thy name, 5 : 10 That Thou hast mantled the green earth with flowers, Thy living temple. By the breath of flowers, 15 Back to the woods, the birds, the mountain streams, Of poet hearts, touched by their fervent dreams 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 And filled with immortality. Receive Thanks, blessings, love, for these, Thy lavish boons, O Thou that gav’st us flowers! 35 · 40 EXERCISE IX. "Show us the Father."-MRS. SIGOURNEY. 1. Have ye not seen Him, when through parted snows When 'neath its modest veil the arbutus blows, 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, 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 Pausing then A moment, with the eye of memory 15 "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, Threė poets, in three distant ages born, › |