MY GOD, I LOVE THEE.

My God, I love thee! not because I hope for heaven thereby ;

Nor because those who love thee not Must burn eternally.

Thou, O my Jesus, thou didst me
Upon the cross embrace !

For me didst bear the nails and spear,
And manifold disgrace.

And griefs and torments numberless,
And sweat of agony,

Yea, death itself, — and all for one
That was thine enemy.

Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ,

Should I not love thee well?
Not for the hope of winning heaven,

Nor of escaping hell!

Not with the hope of gaining aught,
Not seeking a reward;

But as thyself hast loved me,
O everlasting Lord!

E'en so I love thee, and will love,

And in thy praise will sing, Solely because thou art my God, And my eternal King.

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER (Latin). Translation of EDWARD CASWELL.

EMPLOYMENT.

Ir as a flowre doth spread and die, Thou wouldst extend me to some good, Before I were by frost's extremitie

Nipt in the bud,

The sweetnesse and the praise were thine; Put the extension and the room

Which in thy garland I should fill were mine At thy great doom.

For as thou dost impart thy grace,
The greater shall our glorie be.

The measure of our joyes is in this place,
The stuffe with thee.

Let me not languish, then, and spend
A life as barren to thy praise

As is the dust, to which that life doth tend,
But with delaies.

All things are busie; only I
Neither bring hony with the bees,

Nor flowres to make that, nor the husbandrie
To water these.

I am no link of thy great chain, But all my companie is a weed. Lord, place me in thy consort; give one strain To my poore reed.

GEORGE HERBERT.

THE NEW JERUSALEM.

O MOTHER dear, Jerusalem,

When shall I come to thee?
When shall my sorrows have an end,
Thy joys when shall I see?

O happy harbor of God's saints!
O sweet and pleasant soil!
In thee no sorrow can be found,
Nor grief, nor care, nor toil.

No dimly cloud o'ershadows thee,
Nor gloom, nor darksome night;
But every soul shines as the sun,
For God himself gives light.

Thy walls are made of precious stone, Thy bulwarks diamond-square, Thy gates are all of orient pearl,

O God! if I were there!

O my sweet home, Jerusalem!

Thy joys when shall I see?The King sitting upon thy throne, And thy felicity?

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 to 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?