1.

LESSON CXXXVIII.

VANITY OF EARTHLY TREASURES.

ANON.

NEEL not, O friend of mine! before a shrine
That bears the impress of humanity;

Have thou no idol, lest those hopes of thine

Prove but false lights upon a treacherous sea.
Know'st thou that clouds freighted with storm and rain
Will overspread with darkest gloom again
Yon azure sky'?

Know'st thou that rose that blooms beside thy door
Will waste upon the gale its fragrant store,

And fade and die'?

Know also that the loved and tried for years,
The cynosure of all thy hopes and fears,
May pass thee by.

2. Maiden! upon whose fair, unclouded brow, Half hid by many a curl of clustering hair, I mark the buds of promise bursting now,

Unmingled with a thought of future care,—
Thou for whose sake the bridal wreath is made,
For whom the rose, in spotless white arrayed,
Expands its leaf,

Oh! let me teach thee, as a sister may,
A lesson thou shouldst bear in mind alway,
That life is brief;

That bridal flowers have decked the silent bier,
And smiles of joy been melted with the tear
Of burning grief.

3 Mother! who gazes with a mother's joy,
And all a mother's changeless love and pride,
Upon the noble forehead of thy boy,

Who stands in childish beauty by thy side,
And, gazing through the mists of coming time,
Beholds him standing in the verdant prime

I warn thee! build no castles in the air:
That form, so full of life, so matchless fair,
Is only clay;

That bud, just bursting to a perfect flower,
May, like the treasures of thy garden bower,
Soon pass away.

4. Father! whose days, though in "the yellow leaf,"
Have golden tints from life's rich sunset thrown;
Whose heart, a stranger to the pangs of grief,
Still suns itself within the loves of home;
Who, with thy dear companion by thy side,
Hast felt thy bark adown life's current glide
With peaceful breeze,—

Burn thou no incense here! hast thou not seen
The forest change its summer robe of green.
For leafless trees'?

Believe me, all who breathe the vital breath
Are subjects to the laws of life and death;
And so are these.

5. Ah, yes! beneath the church-yard's grassy mound Too many an early-smitten idol lies,

Too many a star of promise has gone down
The soul's horizon, never more to rise,

For thou to safely rear thy temple here,
And fancy, while the storm-cloud hovers near,
It stands secure.

Oh! trust it not; that flash of brilliant light
Will only from the thorny path of night
Thy steps allure:

One Arm, that never fails, that never tires,
That moves in harmony the heavenly choirs,
Alone is sure.

6. Be this thy spirit's anchor, that when all
Most near and dear to thee shall pass away,
When pride, and power, and human hope, shall fall,
A faith in God shall be thy shield and stay.
Lay up thy treasures where the hand of Time,
The storms and changes of this fickle clime,
Shall seek in vain ;

Where the bright dreams of youth shall know no blight,
The days of love and joy no starless night,

And life no pain ;

And where thou yet shalt find, when cares are o’er,
The loved and lost ones who have gone before
Are thine again.

WHAT

LESSON CXXXIX.

CHOICE EXTRACTS.

I.

THE WIDOW'S TWO MITES.

WEBSTER.

AT more tender, more solemnly affecting, more profoundly pathetic, than this charity, this offer

ing to God of a farthing! We know nothing of her name, her family, or her tribe. We only know that she was a poor woman, and a widow, of whom there is nothing left upon record but this sublimely simple story; that, when the rich men came to cast their proud offerings into the treasury, this poor woman came also, and cast in her two mites, which made a farthing.

2. And the example, thus made the subject of Divine commendation, has been read, and told, and has gone abroad everywhere, and sunk deep into a hundred million of hearts, since the commencement of the Christian era, and has done more good than could be accomplished by a thousand marble palaces; because it was charity mingled with true benevolence, given in the fear, the love, the service, and the honor of God.

II.

THE HONEY-BEE.

THE honey-bee that wanders all day long
The field, the woodland, and the garden o'er,
To gather in his fragrant winter-store,
Humming in calm content his quiet song,
Sucks not alone the rose's glowing breast,
The lily's dainty cup, the violet's lips;
But from all rank and noisome weeds he sips
The single drop of sweetness ever pressed
Within the poison chalice. Thus, if we
Seek only to draw forth the hidden sweet
In all the varied human flowers we meet
In the wide garden of Humanity,
And, like the bee, if home the spoil we bear,

Hived in our hearts, it turns to nectar there.

III.

VIRTUE.

COLTON.

1. THERE are two things which speak as with a voice from Heaven, that He who fills the eternal throne must be on the side of Virtue; and that which He befriends must finally prosper and prevail. The first is, that the BAD are never completely happy and at ease, although possessed of every thing that this world can bestow; and that the GOOD are never completely miserable, although deprived of every thing this world can take away.

2. We are so framed and constituted, that the most vicious can not but pay a secret though unwilling homage to Virtue, inasmuch as the worst men can not bring themselves thoroughly to esteem a bad man, although he may be their dearest friend; nor can they thoroughly despise a good man, although he may be their bitter enemy. From this inward esteem for Virtue, which the noblest cherish, and which the basest can not expel, it follows that Virtue is the only bond of union on which we can thoroughly depend.

IV.

HAPPINESS.

POPE.

O HAPPINESS! our being's end and aim, —

Good, Pleasure, Ease, Content, whate'er thy name;
That something still which prompts the eternal sigh;
For which we bear to live, or dare to die;
Which still so near us, yet beyond us, lies,
O'erlooked, seen double, by the fool and wise,