And, when the rose-bud's virgin breath LESSON XXV. Thoughts of a young man in the prospect of death.HENRY K. WHITE. SAD, solitary Thought, who keep'st thy vigils, The tender bond that binds my soul to earth. And though, to me, life has been dark and dreary, The shuddering void, the awful blank-futurity. Ay, I had planned full many a sanguine scheme Will hold him in remembrance. I shall sink Henceforth, O world, no more of thy desires! LESSON XXVI. The Grave.-BERNARD BARTON. I LOVE to muse, when none are nigh, It seems a mournful music, meet Sad though it be, it is more sweet I know not why it should be sad, To nature it seems just as dear The showers descend as softly there "Ay! but within-within, there sleeps And what of that? The frame that feeds The reptile tribe below, As little of their banquet heeds, As of the winds that blow. LESSON XXVII. The Fall of the Leaf-MILONOV.* THE autumnal winds had stripped the field Of all its foliage, all its green; The winter's harbinger had stilled That soul of song which cheered the scene. With visage pale, and tottering gait, As one who hears his parting knell, I saw a youth disconsolate : He came to breathe his last farewell. "Thou grove! how dark thy gloom to me! Thy glories riven by autumn's breath! * From Bowring's Russian Anthology, Vol. II In every falling leaf I see A threatening messenger of death. "O Esculapius!* in my ear Thy melancholy warnings chime :- "Thy spring will winter's gloom o'ershade, "I hear the hollow murmuring- How swift! how sorrowful! how vain! "O wave, ye dancing boughs, O wave! "I see, with loose, dishevelled hair, "Then, in the autumn's silent eve, And hover o'er the mourner's head." Then he was silent:-faint and slow Beneath the aged oaks he sleeps:- No watch around his tomb-stone keeps; In the Greek mythology, the cock was one of the animals consecrated to Asculapius, the god of medicine The woodman, to his cottage bound, LESSON XXVIII. Obedience to the Commandments of God rewarded.-MOODIE. THE heathen, unsupported by those prospects which the Gospel opens, might be supposed to have sunk under every trial; yet, even among them, was sometimes displayed an exalted virtue: a virtue, which no interest, no danger, could shake a virtue, which could triumph amidst tortures and death a virtue, which, rather than forfeit its conscious integrity, could be content to resign its consciousness forever. And shall not the Christian blush to repine ?-the Christian, from before whom the veil is removed; to whose eyes are revealed the glories of heaven? : Your indulgent Ruler doth not call you to run in vain, or to labour in vain. Every difficulty, and every trial, that occurs in your path, is a fresh opportunity, presented by his kindness, of improving the happiness, after which he hath taught you to aspire. By every hardship which you sustain in the wilderness, you secure an additional portion of the promised land. What though the combat be severe? A kingdom, an everlasting kingdom,-is the prize of victory. Look forward to the triumph which awaits you, and your courage will revive. Fight the good fight, finish your course, keep the faith: there is laid up for you a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give unto you at that day. What though, in the navigation of life, you have sometimes to encounter the war of elements? What though the winds rage, though the waters roar, and danger threatens around? Behold, at a distance, the mountains appear: your friends are impatient for your arrival: already the feast is prepared, and the rage of the storm shall serve only to waft you sooner to the haven of rest. No tempests assail those blissful regions which approach to view: all is peaceful and serene:-there you shall enjoy eternal comfort; and the recollection of the hardships which you now encounter shall heighten the felicity of better days. |