XVIII. THE COMPLAINTS OF THE POOR. "THERE is one's trade and one's family, and beyond it seems as if the great demon of worldly-mindedness would hardly allow one to bestow a thought or care."- Arnold. AND wherefore do the poor complain? The rich man asked of me,- 'Twas evening, and the frozen streets We met an old bareheaded man, His locks were few and white; We met a young barefooted child, And therefore was it she was sent We saw a woman sitting down And another at her breast. I asked her why she loitered there, She told us that her husband served And therefore to her parish she Was begging back her way. "THOU turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth."-Psalm xc. 3-6. I WALKED the fields at morning's prime, "And thus," I cried, "the ardent boy, I wandered forth at noon :-Alas! The scythe had left the withering grass, And thus, I thought with many a sigh, Like flowers which blossom but to die, Once more, at eve, abroad I strayed, The perfumed air, the hush of eve, O'er thoughts perchance too prone to grieve, For thus "the actions of the just," Their odour leave behind them. BERNARD BARTON. XX. THOU, GOD, SEEST ME.; "WHITHER shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."-Psalm cxxxix. 7-13. AMONG the deepest shades of night Can there be one who sees my way ? Yes; God is like a shining light, On every side there would be God. He smiles in heaven; He frowns in hell; Yet I may flee, He shows me where; MRS. GILBERT. UNIVERSAL PRAYER. 341 XXI. UNIVERSAL PRAYER. "OUR Father, which art in Heaven; hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. Amen."-Matt. vi. 9—13. "When Abraham sat at his tent door, according to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old man stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with age and travel, coming towards him, who was a hundred years of age. He received him kindly, washed his feet, provided supper, caused him to sit down; but observing that the old man eat, and prayed not, nor begged for a blessing on his meat, he asked him why he did not worship the God of heaven. The old man told him that he worshipped the fire only, and acknowledged no other God. At which answer Abraham grew so zealously angry that he thrust the old man out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the night, and an unguarded condition. When the old man was gone, God called to Abraham, and asked him where the stranger was. He replied, I thrust him away because he did not worship thee.' God answered him, 'I have suffered him these hundred years, although he dishonoured me; and couldst not thou endure him one night?'" Jeremy Taylor. FATHER of all! in every age, In every clime adored, By saint, by savage, and by sage, Thou Great First Cause, least understood: Who all my sense confined To know but this-that thou art good, Yet gave me, in this dark estate, What conscience dictates to be done, Or warns me not to do, 'This,' teach me more than hell to shun, What blessings thy free bounty gives Let me not cast away; For God is paid when man receives, Yet not to earth's contracted span Let not this weak, unknowing hand If I am right, thy grace impart, Save me alike from foolish pride, At aught thy wisdom has denied, Teach me to feel another's wo, Mean though I am, not wholly so, Through this day's life or death. This day be bread and peace my lot: To thee, whose temple is all space, 1. This refers to tne nearest or lastmentioned thing, that to the more remote. 2. "A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which POPE. is but saying in other words, that he is wiser to-day than he was yesterday."Pope. 3. Meaning of quickened? |