god, -who had inscribed his fame on the very heavens, and had written it in the sun, with a "pen of iron, and the point of a diamond," even this one has perished from the earth; name, age, country, are all swept into oblivion. But his proud achievement stands. The monument reared to his honor stands; and, although the touch of time has effaced the lettering of his name, it is powerless, and can not destroy the fruits of his victory.

LESSON LXXXIII.

THE SONG OF LIGHT.

W. P. PALMER.

1. ROM the primal gloom, like an orb of Doom,

FROM

The sun rolled black and bare,

Till I wove him a vest for his Ethiop breast

Of the threads of my golden hair;

And when the broad tent of the firmament
Arose on its airy spars,

I penciled the hue of its matchless blue,
And spangled it round with stars.

2. I painted the flowers of the Eden bowers,
And their leaves of living green ;

And mine were the dyes in the sinless eyes
Of Eden's virgin queen;

But when the Fiend's art in the trustful heart
Had fastened his mortal spell,

In the silvery sphere of the first-born year,
To the trembling earth I fell.

3. When the waves that burst o'er a world accursed

Their work of wrath had sped,

And the Ark's lone few the faithful and true

Came forth among the dead,

With the wondrous gleams of my bridal dreams,
I bade their terror cease;

And I wrote, on the roll of the storm's dark scroll,
God's Covenant of Peace.

4. Like a pall at rest on a senseless breast, Night's funeral shadow slept,

Where shepherd swains, on Bethlehem's plains,
Their lonely vigils kept,

When I flashed on their sight the herald bright
Of Heaven's redeeming plan,

As they chanted the morn of a Savior born,-
"Joy! joy! to the outcast man!"

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5. Equal favor I show to the lofty and low, On the just and unjust descend;

The blind, whose vain spheres roll in darkness and tears, Tell my smile, the blest smile of a friend;

The flower of the waste by my smile is embraced,
As the rose in the garden of kings;

At the chrysalis bier of the worm I appear,
And lo! the butterfly wings!

6. From my sentinel steep by the night-brooded deep, I gaze with unslumbering eye,

While the cynosure * star of the mariner

Is blotted out of the sky;

* CYN' O SURE, the constellation of the Lesser Bear, to which, as containing the polar star, the eyes of mariners and travelers are often directed.

And guided by me through the merciless sea,
Though sped by the hurricane's wing,
His compassless, dark, lone, weltering bark
To the haven-home safely I bring.

7. I awaken the flowers in their dew-spangled bowers,
The birds in their chambers of green;

And mountain and plain glow with beauty again,
As they bask in my matinal sheen.

Oh! if such be the worth of my presence on earth,
Though fitful and fleeting the while,
What glories must rest on the home of the blest,
Ever bright with the Deity's smile!

LESSON LXXXIV.

CHANT AND CHORUS OF THE PLANETS.

ANNA BLACKWELL.

An excellent effect may be produced by letting ONE PUPIL read the first four lines of each stanza in a clear, distinct tone of voice, and the WHOLE CLASS read the remaining lines in concert, as indicated.

1.

ONE PUPIL.

FATHER of all!

With joy Thy children stand

To bless the bounty of Thy Parent-hand, And on Thy name with loving reverence call.

WHOLE CLASS.

From farthest realms of light

Our grateful strains their choral tide unite,

And, at Thy universal throne, in adoration fall!

2.

3.

4.

ONE PUPIL.

Great Worker! we
Rejoice Thy plans to share;

In Thy wide labors our high part to bear;
Thy ministers, OMNIPOTENT! to be.

WHOLE CLASS.

Thus all the realms of light,

O God! with Thee in sympathy unite, And, in a holy and ennobling friendship, work with THEE!

ONE PUPIL.

'Sovereign Divine!

We glory in the might

Of Thine own uncreated Light, Whose living rays Thy sacred brow intwine!

WHOLE CLASS.

Higher and ever higher,

We soar on tireless wing, all-glorious Sire! Toward the Eternal Throne, whose splendors on all beings shine!

ONE PUPIL.

LOVE! measureless,

Exhaustless, unto Thee

We gravitate eternally!

Thou giv'st existence but that Thou may'st bless.

WHOLE CLASS.

To Thee we ever tend,

Seeking with thee, O Central Life! to blend: Almighty Love, Creation's source, all beings Thee confess!

THO

LESSON LXXXV.

INSIGNIFICANCE OF THE EARTH.

CHALMERS.

HOUGH the earth were to be burned up, though the trumpet of its dissolution were sounded, though yon sky were to pass away as a scroll, and every visible glory which the finger of the Divinity has inscribed on it, were extinguished forever,- an event so awful to us, and to every world in our vicinity, by which so many suns would be extinguished, and so many varied scenes of life and population would rush into forgetfulness, what is it in the high scale of the Almighty's workmanship? A mere shred, which, though scattered into nothing, would leave the universe of God one entire scene of greatness and of majesty.

2. Though the earth and the heavens were to disappear, there are other worlds which roll afar; the light of other suns shines upon them; and the sky which mantles them, is garnished with other stars. Is it presumption to say that the moral world extends to these distant and unknown regions'? that they are occupied with people'? that the charities of home and of neighborhood flourish there'? that the praises of God are there lifted up, and his goodness rejoiced in'? that there piety has its temples and its offerings'? and the richness of the divine attributes is there felt and admired by intelligent worshipers'?

3. And what is this world in the immensity which teems with worlds? and what are they who occupy it? The universe at large would suffer as little in its splendor and variety by the destruction of our planet, as the verdure and sublime magnitude of a forest would suffer by the fall of a single leaf. The leaf quivers on the branch which supports it.