Go, ask of Him who suffer'd there,
T'impart the spirit of that prayer;
For strength to follow, as He led,
The bless'd example here out-spread;
Behold His all of vengeance shown,
When Calv'ry heard his dying groan!
Then view His love for sinners there,
In that expressive, fervent prayer—
"Father, forgive them."

DEVOTIONAL LOVE.

FRANCES QUARLES.

I love (and have some cause to love) the Earth;
She is my Maker's creature; therefore good,
She is my mother, for she gave me birth;
She is my tender nurse; she gives me food:

But what's a creature, Lord compared with thee?
Or what's my mother or my nurse to me?

I love the Air; her dainty sweets refresh
My drooping soul, and to new sweets invite me;
Her shrill-mouthed choir sustain me with their flesh,
And with their Polyphonian notes delight me;
But what's the air, or all the sweets that she
Can bless my soul withal, compared with Thee?

I love the sea; she is my fellow-creature,
My careful purveyor; she provides me store;
She walls me round; she makes my diet greater;
She wafts my treasure from a foreign shore;

But, Lord of oceans, when compared with Thee,
What is the ocean or her wealth to me?

To Heaven's high city I direct my journey.
Whose spangled suburbs entertain mine eye;
Mine eye, by contemplation's great attorney,
Transcends the crystal pavement of the sky:

But what is heaven, great God, compared to Thee?
Without thy presence, Heaven's no heaven to me.

The highest honors that the world can boast

Are subjects far too low for my desire;
The highest beams of glory are, at most,

But dying sparkles of Thy living fire;

The loudest flames that earth can kindle, be
But nightly glow-worms, If compared with Thee.

:

Without Thy presence, wealth is bags of cares
Wisdom but folly joy, disquiet-sadness;
Friendship is treason, and delights are snares;
Pleasure but pain, and mirth but pleasing madness;
Without Thee, Lord, things be not what they be,
Nor have they being when compared with thee.
In having all things, and not Thee, what have I?
Not having Thee, what have my labors got?
Let me enjoy but thee, what farther crave I?
And having Thee alone, what have I not?
I wish no sea nor land; nor would I be

Possessed of heaven, heaven unpossessed of Thee.

LOVE AND PRAYER.

COLERIDGE.

Farewell, farewell; but this I tell
To thee, thou wedding guest!
He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

THE ACCEPTABLE FAST.

JOHN PRINCE.

Oh how shall I keep the acceptable fast?
On the altar what penitent meed shall I cast?
If my head like a bulrush, in sorrow, I bow,
While Humanity's rights I refuse to allow;
If, still, from the needy, relief I withold,
And gaze on the wretched with sympathies cold,-
Though loudly I utter the penitent's wail,
The service will naught with my Father prevail.
My soul from the bondage of sin I must loose,
And the service of virtue and happiness choose;
Assist in undoing the fetters that bind

The limbs of the body, and cripple the mind;
Remove from the sad and the sin-stricken heart
The burden of grief and the poisonous dart;
Oppression's yoke break, and the bondman set free,
And hasten the dawning of earth's jubilee.

A PRAYER OF LOVE.

BAILEY.

Grant us, oh God! that in thy holy love
The universal people of the world

May grow more great and happy every day ;
Mightier, wiser, humbler, too, towards Thee.
And that all ranks, all classes, callings, states
Of life, so far as such seem right to Thee,
May mingle into one, like sister trees,
And so in one stem flourish :-that all laws
And powers of government be based and used
In good for the people's sake-that each
May feel himself of consequence to all,

And act as though all saw him ;-that the whole,
The mass of every nation may so do

As is most worthy of the next to God;
For a whole people's souls, each one worth more
Than a mere world of matter, make combined,
A something God-like-something like to Thce!

That when wrongs are to be redressed, such may
Be done with mildness, speed, and firmness, not
With violence or hate, whereby one wrong
Translates another-both to Thee abhorrent.
The bells of time are ringing changes fast.
Grant, Lord! that each fresh peal may usher in
An era of advancement, that each change
Prove an effectual, lasting, happy gain.
And we beseech Thee, over-rule, oh God!
All civil contests to the good of all;
All party and religious difference
To honorable ends, whether secure

Or lost; and let all strife, political

Or social, spring from conscientious aims,
And have a generous self-ennobling end,

Man's good and Thine own glory in view always!

We entreat Thee Lord!

In thy great mercy to decrease our wants,
And add autumnal increase to the comforts
Which tend to keep men innocent, and load

The hearts with thanks to Thee as trees in bearing:

The blessings of friends, families, and homes,
And kindnesses of kindred. And we pray

That men may rule themselves in faith in God
In charity to each other, and in hope

Of their own soul's salvation :-that the mass,
The millions in all nations may be trained,
From their youth upwards, in a nobler mode,
To loftier and more liberal ends.
We pray

Above all things, Lord! that all men be free
From bondage, whether of the mind or body ;-
The bondage of religious bigotry,

And bald antiquity, servility

Of thought or speech to rank and power: be all
Free as they ought to be in mind and soul
As well as by state birth-right:-and that Mind,
Time's giant pupil, may right soon attain

Majority, and speak and act for himself!

That all mankind may make one brotherhood,
An I love and serve each other; that all wars
An feuds die out of nations, whether those
Whom the sun's hot light darkens, or ourselves
Whom he treats fairly, or the northern tribes
Whom ceaseless snows and starry winters blench,