"MEN ought always to pray and not to fain+ ”

LUKE Xviii. 1.

Be not afraid to pray-to pray is right.
Pray if thou canst, with hope; but ever pray,
Though hope be weak, or sick with long delay;
Pray in the darkness, if there be no light.
Far is the time, remote from human sight,
When war and discord on the earth shall cease;
Yet every prayer for universal peace

Avails the blessed time to expedite.

Whate'er is good to wish, ask that of Heaven,
Though it be what thou canst not hope to see :
Pray to be perfect, though material leaven
Forbids the spirit so on earth to be:
But if for any wish thou darest not pray,
Then pray to God to cast that wish away.

HARTLEY COLERIDGE. 1796.

WHEN Wilt thou save the people?
Oh, God of mercy! when?
Not kings and lords, but nations !

Not thrones and crowns, but men !
Flowers of thy heart, oh God, are they !
Let them not pass, like weeds, away!
Their heritage a sunless day!

God, save the people!

Shall crime bring crime for ever,
Strength aiding still the strong?
Is it thy will, O Father,

That men should toil for wrong?
"No!" say thy mountains; "No!" thy skies :
"Man's clouded sun shall brightly rise,
And songs be heard, instead of sighs."
God, save the people!

When wilt thou save the people?

Oh, God of mercy! when?
The people, Lord, the people !

Not thrones and crowns, but men !

God, save the people; thine they are,

Thy children, as thy angels fair :

Save them from bondage, and despair!
God, save the people!

EBENEZER ELLIOTT.

Peterloo Massacre ; so called because the soldiers attacked a vast and peaceful meeting of men and women held in St. Peter's fields, Manchester, to protest against the refusal of their rights-1819.

BRETHREN, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one.

I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

I JOHN ii. 7-17.

ABIDE with me; fast falls the eventide ;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide ;
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day ;
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see ;

O Thou, Who changest not, abide with me.

I need Thy Presence every passing hour;
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's power?
Who like Thyself my guide and stay can be ?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe with Thee at hand to bless ;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness ;
Where is death's sting? Where, Grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy Cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies ;
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows

flee;

In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

HENRY FRANCIS LYTE. 1793.

ALL prosaic, and all bitter, disenchanted people are apt to talk as if poets and novelists made romance. They do, just as much as craters make volcanoes, -no more. What is romance? Whence comes it? Plato spoke to the subject wisely, in his quaint way, some two thousand years ago when he said: "Man's soul, in a former state, was winged and soared among the gods, and so it comes to pass that, in this life, when the soul, by the power of music or poetry, or by the sight of beauty, hath her remembrance quickened, forthwith there is a struggling and a pricking pain as of wings trying to come forth,-even as children in teething." Let us look up in fear and reverence, and say: God is the great maker of romance. He, from whose hand came man and woman-He, who strung the great harp of Existence with all its wild, and wonderful, and manifold chords, and attuned them to one another-He is the great poet of life. Every impulse of beauty, of heroism, and every craving for purer love, fairer perfection, nobler type, and style of being, than that which closes like a prison-house around us, in the dim, daily walk of life, is God's breath, God's impulse, God's reminder to the soul that there is something higher, sweeter, purer, yet to be attained.

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.