What though thou tread with bleeding feet
A thorny path of shame and gloom,
Thy God will choose the way most meet,
To lead thee heavenwards, lead thee home.
For this life's long night of sadness
He will give thee peace and gladness,
Soul, forget not in thy pains

God o'er all forever reigns.

ZIHN, 1500.

GOD, O Kinsman loved, but not enough! O man, with eyes majestic after death, Whose feet have toiled along our pathways rough, Whose lips drawn human breath!

By that one likeness which is ours and thine,—

By that one nature which doth make us kin,—

By that high heaven, where sinless thou dost shine To draw us sinners in,—

Come! lest this heart should, cold and castaway,

Die, ere the Guest adored it entertain,—

Lest feet which slip upon the way

Should miss thine heavenly reign.

JEAN INGELOW.

SORE

ORELY tried and sorely tempted
From no agonies exempted,

In the penance of his trial,
And the discipline of pain;
Often by illusions cheated,
Often baffled and defeated
In the tasks to be completed,
He by toil and self-denial,
To the highest shall attain.

From LONGFELLow's " MASQUE OF PANDORA."

It is one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.

SHAKESPEARE.

THE past is mine, as folly, if you please;

'HE past is mine, and I take it all,

Nay, even my sins, if you come to that,
May have been helps, not hindrances.

If I saved my body from the flames
Because that once I had burned my hand;

Or kept myself from a greater sin

By doing a less-you will understand

It was better I suffered a little pain,
Better I sinned for a little time,

If the smarting warned me back from death,
And the sting of sin withheld from crime.

Who knows its strength by trial, will know
What strength must be set against a sin ;
And how temptation is overcome

He has learned who has felt its power within.

"TE

EMPTED in all points like ourselves, was HeTempted, but sinless." Oh, what majesty Of meaning did those precious words convey!

'Twas through temptation, thought I, that the LordThe mediator between God and men

Reached down the hand of sympathetic love

To meet the grasp of lost humanity.

This man kneeling has the Lord in him.

Tempted but sinless;—one hand grasping mine,
The other Christ's.

J. G. HOLLAND.

AND is there care in Heaven? And is there love

In heavenly spirits to these creatures base,

That may compassion of their evils move?

There is, else much more wretched were the case Of men, than beasts:

How oft do they their silver bowers leave

To come to succor us that succor want!

How oft do they with golden pinions cleave
The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant,

Against foul fiends, to aid us militant!

They for us fight, they watch and duly ward, And their bright squadrons round about us plant, And all for love and nothing for reward;

O why should heavenly God to men have such regard?

EDMUND SPENSER.