No. 330.]

[Monday.

THE SURRENDER OF THE HEART.

ACT but the gentle infant's part,
Give up to love thy willing heart;
No fondest parent's melting breast

Yearns, like thy God's, to make thee blest :

Taught its dear mother soon to know,
The tenderest babe its love can shew;
Bid the base servile fear retire,
This task no labour will require.

The sov'reign Father, good and kind,
Wants to behold his child resign'd;
Wants but thy yielded heart-no more-
With his large gifts of grace to store.

No. 331.]

[Tuesday.

SURRENDER OF THE HEART (continued).

HE to thy soul no anguish brings,
From thy own stubborn will it springs;
But crucify that cruel foe,

Nor pain, nor care, thy breast shall know.

Shake from thy soul, o'erwhelm'd, opprest,
Th' encumbering load that galls thy rest,
That wastes thy strength in bondage vain ;
With courage break th' enthralling chain:

Let prayer exert its conquering power;
Cry, in the tempted, trembling hour,

My God, my Father, save thy son!" 'Tis heard, and all thy fears are gone.

No. 332.]

THE STARS.

[Wednesday.

Mine is the night, with all her stars; I pour
Myriads, and myriads I reserve in store.
Appoint their seasons, and direct their course,
Their lustre brighten, and supply their force.'

How beauteous, how wond'rous! fain, fain would
I see,

Your myriads unrob'd of their mystery;

Fain would I cleave the dark doom of the night, Soaring up, like thought, to your islands of light; Fain would I rifle your secret divine,

With what forms ye are peopled, and wherefore ye shine;

By what laws ye are govern'd, and framed on what plan?

This would I know, but I may not-it is not to man! Great-glorious the day, when the Author of all, Having spake ye from nought-and ye sprung at the call!

Through the regions of space from his hand ye were hurled,

Dark myriads of atoms-each atom a world!

No. 333.]

THE STARS (continued).

[Thursday.

WHEN sped to His point in the boundless expanse,
And ye caught your first light from the light of
His glance,

His power in one moment fix'd each in his spot;
One moment remitted, ye sink and are not.
What a dot in this earth, 'mid ye orbs of the sky!
And compared with this earth, what a nothing
am I!

Yet I with my mind's futile plummet would sound,

THAT mind that hath known nor creation nor bound;

Would fathom the depths of His wondrous de

cree ;

Can the fly grasp a world-a shell compass the sea? No-this to weak man is allow'd, and no moreHe may wonder and worship-admire and adore.

No. 334.]

[Friday.

INSTRUCTION FROM THE HEAVENS.

"Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge."-Psl. xix. 2.

STARS, that on your wondrous way

Travel through the evening sky,

Is there nothing you can say
To such a little child as I?

Tell me for I long to know,
Who has made you sparkle so?

Yes, methinks I hear you say,
"Child of mortal race, attend;
While we run our wondrous way,
Listen; we would be your friend;
Teaching you that name Divine,
By whose mighty word we shine.

Child, as truly as we roll

Through the dark and distant sky,

You have an immortal soul,

Born to live, when we shall die.

Suns and Planets pass away:
Spirits never can decay.

No. 335.]

[Saturday.

INSTRUCTION FROM THE HEAVENS (continued).

WHEN Some thousand years, at most,

All their little time have spent,
One by one our sparkling host
Shall forsake the firmament:
We shall from our glory fall;
You must live beyond us all.

Yes, and God, who bade us roll,
God, who hung us in the sky,
Stoops to watch an infant's soul,
With a condescending eye;

And esteems it dearer far,

More in value, than a star!

Oh, then, while your breath is given
Let it rise in fervent prayer;
And beseech the God of heaven,
To receive your spirit there;
Like a living star, to blaze
Ever to your SAVIOUR's praise.

No. 336.]

EARLY PIETY.

[Sunday.

Eccles. xii. 1.

"Remember thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth."

In the soft season of thy youth:
In nature's smiling bloom;
Ere age arrive, and trembling wait
Its summons to the tomb.

REMEMBER THY CREATOR, God;
For Him thy pow'rs employ;
Make Him thy fear, thy love, thy hope,
Thy confidence, thy joy.

He shall defend and guide thy course
Through life's uncertain sea,

Till thou art landed on the shore
Of bless'd eternity.