Lovely the form of absent friend,

Lovely the maiden's spell-fraught name, Lovely the pledge the distant send, Lovely the good man's humble fame, Lovely the unconquer'd patriot's bier,

Lovely the ground by martyr trod, Lovelier the Christ's millennial year,

Loveliest the eternal sight of God.

Mighty Britannia's guarded coast,

Mighty the Gaul's imperial lord, Mighty the proud Assyrian's host,

Mightier the slaying angel's sword; Mighty the monarch prophet's song, Mighty the unrespecting grave, Mightier the soul that knows no wrong, Almightiest He that died to save.

Dear are the mother's accents mild,
Dear the responsive infant's smile,

Dear is the father's only child,

And dear the promise void of guile;

Dear is the tress of braided hair,

Dearer the farewell fondly spoken, Dearest the sacrifice of prayer,

From hearts subdued and spirits broken?

Weep then-thy Saviour bids thee weep! As all have wept-of woman born, While seraph's in their glory keep,

A blessed watch o'er them that mourn.

Newfoundland, 1819.

THOUGHTS ON SPRING.

THIS beautiful vernal season, what a gloomy unpromising season it arises out of! It is almost like creation from chaos, life from a state of death. If we might be allowed in a supposition so wide from probability as that a person should not know what a season is to follow, while contemplating and feeling the rigours of winter, how difficult would it be for him to comprehend, we believe, the darkness-dreariness-bleakness-cold-the bare, desolate, and dread aspect of nature; and if he could then, in some kind of vision, behold such a scene as that now spread over the earth. It cannot be that were absolutely a new creation or another world: and might we not take instruction from this to correct the judgment we are prone to form of the divine government? We are placed within one limited scene and period of the great succession of the divine dispensations—a dark and gloomy one-a presence of evil. We do not see how it can be that so much that is offensive and grievous should be introductory to something that is delightful and glorious. Look how fixed-now inveterate-how absolute-how unchangingis not this a character of perpetuity?

If a better, nobler scene to follow, is intimated by the Spirit of prophecy, in figures analogous to the beauties of spring, we regard it with a kind of despondency, as if prophecy were but a kind of sacred poetry-beheld rather as something to aggravate the gloom of the present than to draw the mind forward in delightful hope. And so we allow our judgments of the divine government, of the mighty field of it, and of its progressive periods, to be founded very much upon an exclusive view of the limited dark portion of his dispensations which is immediately present to us. But such judgment should be corrected by the spring blooming around us so soon after the gloomy desolation of winter.

Y

And

The man whom we were supposing so ignorant and incredulous, what would he now think of what he thought then? again, how welcome are the early signs and precursory appearances of spring-the earlier dawn of day—a certain cheerful cast in the light, even though still shining through an expanse of desolation-it has the appearance of a smile-softer breathing of the air at intervals-the bursting of the buds-the vivacity of the animal tribes-the first flowers of the season, and by degrees a delicate, dubious tint of green. It needs not that a man should be a poet or a sentimental worshipper of nature to be delighted with all this and may we not suggest one analogy to all this. The operation of the divine Spirit in renovating the human soul -effecting its conversion from the natural state-it is sometimes displayed in this gentle, gradual manner, especially in youth.

In many cases certainly it seems violent and sudden, resembling the sudden transition from winter to spring in the northern climates, but in the more gradual instances, whether in youth or farther on in life, it is most gratifying to perceive the first indications,-serious thoughts and emotions-a growing sensibility of conscience-distate for vanity and folly-deep solicitude for the welfare of the soul-a disposition to exercises of piety—a progressively clearer, more grateful and more believing apprehension of the necessity and sufficiency of the work and sacrifice of Christ for human redemption. To a pious friend, a parent, this is more delightful than if he could have a vision of Eden as it bloomed on the first day that Adam beheld it. And we may carry the analogy into a wider application. It is most gratifying to perceive the signs of change in the great field of society. How like the early flowers-the more benignant light, the incessant verdure, are—the new desires of knowledge, and schemes and efforts to impart it-the rising, zealous, and rapidly enlarging activity to promote true religion.

A MISSIONARY'S MEDITATION AT "THE PLACE OF PRAYER."

66

BY THE EDITOR OF THE PARTING GIFT."

THOU Consecrated spot,

To me how dear!

Be sunshine or be clouds my lot,

Wandering by the world forgot,

I meet my Saviour here!

Where distant hills faint shadows seem to give
Of worlds above,

And where the bounteous hand of love
Has decked the ground,

And spread enchantment round,

I chose the scene, thy suppliant, Lord! to be, And, casting care away, to stay my soul on thee!

When rising clouds obscure my view

Of that delightful land

In which the sainted band

Their crowns of honour at thy feet for ever strew,

And evermore the glorious song renew,

I hasten here, to seek the smile benign

Which all my woe transmutes to joy divine,

And seals me thine!

Or if I mourn the early lost,
My heart's once cherished boast,
And scarce for tears can mark,

Amid this world so dark,

The shining course by which they rose on high; (And memory's vivid hues express

The smile of love,

That still the power of earthly ties would prove, Although the eye was fixed on things abovewhich beamed with tenderness

That eye

That hand which seemed outstretched to save,

Even while its faithful touch the wounds of friendship gave

Hither I come for sympathy,

To him who can affliction's utmost need supply.

Ah surely oft, the spirits of the blest

On my lone pathway rest,

And all the love they can bestow

On those who linger yet below

Flows in celestial streams,

Inspiring high and heavenly themes!

Once more we meet,

And in the Saviour hold communion sweet,

While the adoring ecstacies I share,

Though their's ascend in praise, and mine in prayer.

When thought in fond anxiety would stray

To the home boundary far away,

And fears of exiled loneliness

My heart oppress,

As images beloved across my fancy glide,

And forms unreal summon at their side,