My times are in Thy hand!
Many or few my days,

I leave with Thee- this only pray,
That by Thy grace I, every day
Devoting to Thy praise,
May ready be

To welcome Thee,

Whene'er Thou comest to set my spirit free.

My times are in Thy hand!
Howe'er those times may end,
Sudden or slow my soul's release,
'Midst anguish, frenzy, or in peace,
I'm safe with Christ, my friend.
If He be nigh,

Howe'er I die,

'Twill be the dawn of heavenly ecstacy.

FRAGMENTS.

I.

UPON your heart this truth may rise:
Nothing that altogether dies

Suffices man's just destinies.

So should we live, that every Hour
May die as dies the natural flower,
A self-reviving thing of power;

That every Thought and every Deed
May hold within itself the seed
Of future good and future meed;

Esteeming Sorrow, whose employ
Is to develope, not destroy,
Far better than a barren Joy.

II.

O ye! who talk of Death, and mourn for Death,
Why do you raise a phantom of your weakness,
And then shriek loud to see what ye have made?
There is no Death, to those who know of Life-
No Time to those who see Eternity.

RICHARD M. MILNES.

TO THE DANDELION.

My childhood's earliest thoughts are linked with

thee;

The sight of thee calls back the robin's song,

Who, from the dark old tree

Beside the door sung clearly all day long,

And I, secure in childish piety,
Listened as if I heard an angel sing

With news from Heaven, which he did bring

Fresh every day to my untainted ears,

When birds and flowers and I were happy peers.

Thou art the type of those meek charities
Which make up half the nobleness of life,

Those cheap delights the wise

Pluck from the dusty wayside of earth's strife;
Words of frank cheer, glances of friendly eyes,
Love's smallest coin, which yet to some may give
The morsel that shall keep alive

A starving heart, and teach it to behold

Some glimpse of God where all before was cold.

Thy wingéd seeds, whereof the winds take care, Are like the words of poet and of sage

Which through the free heaven fare,

And, now unheeded, in another age

Take root, and to the gladdened future bear
That witness which the present would not heed,
Bringing forth many a thought and deed,

And, planted safely in the eternal sky,
Bloom into stars which earth is guided by.

Full of deep love thou art, yet not more full
Than all thy common brethren of the ground,
Wherein, were we not dull,

Some words of highest wisdom might be found;
Yet earnest faith from day to day may cull
Some syllables, which, rightly joined, can make
A spell to soothe life's bitterest ache,
And ope Heaven's portals, which are near us still,
Yea, nearer ever than the gates of Ill.

How like a prodigal doth nature seem,
When thou, for all thy gold, so common art!
Thou teachest me to deem

More sacredly of every human heart,
Since each reflects in joy its scanty gleam
Of heaven, and could some wondrous secret show,
Did we but pay the love we owe,

And with a child's undoubting wisdom look
On all these living pages of God's book.

JAMES RUSSELL Lowell.

THE LAW OF MERCY.

'Tis written with the pen of heavenly Love
On every heart which skill divine has moulded;
A transcript from the statute book above,

Where angels read their Sovereign's will unfolded.

It bids us seek the holes where Famine lurks,
Clutching the hoarded crust with trembling fingers;
Where Toil in damp unwholesome caverns works,
Or with strained eyeballs o'er the needle lingers.

It bids us stand beside the dying bed

Of those about to quit the world forever, Smooth the tossed pillow, prop the sinking head, Cheer the heart-broken, whom death hastes to sever.

It bids us tell the tempted that the joy

Of guilt indulged, will change ere long to sorrow;

The draft of sickly sweetness soon will cloy,
And pall upon the sated taste tomorrow.

And those who copy thus Christ's life on earth,
Feeding the poor, and comforting the weeper,
Will all receive a meed of priceless worth,
When ripely gathered by the heavenly Reaper.

TRUST IN PROVIDENCE.

WHILST Thee I seek, protecting Power!

Be my vain wishes stilled;
And may this consecrated hour

With better hopes be filled.

Thy love the power of thought bestowed,
To Thee my thoughts would soar;
Thy mercy o'er my life has flowed;
That mercy I adore.

In each event of life, how clear
Thy ruling hand I see!

Each blessing to my soul more dear

In

Because conferred by Thee.

every joy that crowns my days,
In every pain I bear,

My heart shall find delight in praise,

Or seek relief in prayer.