"Pray without ceasing!"—pray A little moment more, And thou shalt find thy way To heaven's eternal shore! Then prayer shall end in praise, And thou shalt blend thy lays With angels round the Throne! Praise without ceasing then thy work shall be To Him who chose, and call'd, and ransom'd thee. (Original.) A MOTHER'S BIRTHDAY SONG TO HER FIRST-BORN. REV. THOMAS DALE. BEAUTEOUS and most beloved! The year that dawn'd upon thy birth On rosy wings hath lightly moved, And still thy healthful hue, thy buoyant mirth Gladden thy mother's anxious heart : Oh! couldst thou ever be what now thou art! But vain the wish and wild! The stroke of suffering or of wo Must reach the mother through the child: And thou, unconscious babe! thou too must know The general doom-thou too must share Man's common heritage of toil and care. Dear as thou art, and dear As to thy father's heart and mine Thou ever must be, yet the tear From which we cannot shield, may soon be thine; And pain on that sweet open brow May set a seal, though all is sportive now. But oh! thou loveliest flower! Though blasts may bruise thy gentle stem, Or winter's bleak ungenial shower Weigh to the dust thy scarce expanding gem, Still is the root secure in earth, Still lives the promise of a brighter birth. Hence at thy natal hour, 'Tis not the anxious mother's prayer That far from thee may fall the shower, The cloud sail o'er thee, and the tempest spare ; Or that thy life may glide away, Unmoved by cares, a cloudless summer day. The path to heavenly light Through darkness leads; a wreath divine Succeeds the struggle and the strife. Oh, may that light, sweet babe! that wreath be thine; And to the mother's prayer be given To hail her first-born child an heir of Heaven! THE ANCHOR OF HOPE. HEB. VI. 19, 20. REV. T. GRINFIELD. THAT hope be mine! that anchor of the soul, And binds us to that blest and boundless shore, Heb. ii 10 THE POOL OF BETHESDA. BERNARD BARTON. AROUND Bethesda's healing wave, Among them there was one, whose eye Νο power had he; no friendly aid To him its timely succour brought; But, while his coming he delay'd, Another won the boon he sought; Until the Saviour's love was shown, Which heal'd him by a word alone! |