Oh, ye who would tell to the trusting and true,

How false are the visions that gleam on their view;
How hope will grow dim, and how love's glowing light
Will go
out like a meteor that startles the night;

That glory and fame are but bubbles of air,
And earth's brightest promise deceitful as fair;

Leave the morning its freshness, the rose-bud its bloom,
And to death the dark cypress that shadows the tomb.

'Twere cruel to wake them. Too soon will they know
How fair the deceit and how real the woe;

Then touch not the picture! Rude spoiler, begone;
They dream, and are happy; still let them dream on.

THE ANSWER.

Oh chide me not thus, though I waken from sleep,
The spirit whose rest seems so calm and so deep!
Tho' earth's visions be fair, I would bid them depart,
There are fairer than these for the young broken heart.

Oh chide me not thus though I whisper to youth,
That earth will deceive if we trust in its truth:

I would quench not the hope in the young beaming eye,
But would bid it look up to what never can die.

Lo, the past and the future lie fair to the view,

But their visions and promises never are true;

Shall these dreams then be cherish'd, these fond hopes be nursed,
While the poor longing spirit is dying of thirst?

Oh waken the sleepers! Too late may they know,
There is duty and trial wherever they go ;
And that happiness only can smile on the way,
Which leads them, through grief, to Eternity's day.

Oh waken the sleepers! Their talents lie by,

And their lamps have no oil, though the Bridegroom draws nigh. When the harvest is past and the summer is gone;

Oh vain then to say to the dreamers, dream on!

EVA.

THE WILL OF GOD.

HE WILL OF GOD!-How many there are among professing Christians, who say, "Thy will be done;" how few, alas! who feel the desire which they express. Some dreadful calamity, perhaps, overtakes us. Our dearest relative is removed from us, or perhaps our little all of earthly possessions is rent from our grasp. Here, the Christian can look up, under the great blow, and say, and feel, "The will of my Father be done." Such trials carry on the face of them such a plain manifestation of providence, that no one, not even the worlding, can mistake their import. They evidently come direct from God; and it requires little faith, and little Christian knowledge, to recognize them and to acquiesce in them; not, perhaps, seeing the wherefore; but willing to trust, and wait.

But the small trials are those under which we smart, and fret, and chafe, and strive. It has pleased God perhaps, in his providence, to bring us by a series of little events, (all foreordained, but, to our weak sight, appearing to arise from man's mismanagement,) to some place of abode, unsuited apparently to our wants. All the reasons why we should have gone elsewhere; all the desagrémens belonging particularly to this place, rise to our own minds. Why did we come? Why should we be detained here against our wishes? At length God whispers to our hearts, MY WILL." Look no further, Christian! strive no more to break thy chain. The will of thy Father be done; simply because it is His will. Look not for reasons; trust in Him; and acquiese in his will as a child.

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Temptations come thickening on; outward trials; it may be, from friends; real companions in Christ, who yet, from want of sympathy, and due appreciation of character, are constantly jarring upon our minds. Why is our course thus hindered? Why must stumblingblocks be thrown in our way by those from whom they might least be expected? Ah! Christian, inquire not; rest in the love of thy Father; and believe that it is HIS WILL. That is enough for thee; enough to support thee in temptation, enough to bring thee safely through.

Other trials too assail us; trials hardest of all to bear; the trials of the inward life. Even this, paradoxical as it may appear, is the will

"This is the How is sanctifi

of God. We cannot now enter on the subject of the origin of evil. Sufficient for us to know, that God permits these trials; and that now they work His will in us. What says His holy Word? will of God, even your sanctification," 1 Thess. iv. 3. cation to be brought about? Are we to fall like Adam into a deep slumber, and only awake when our heart's blood has been drawn, our sin entirely taken out? Ah no! The Christian life is a conflict; a race; a strife; a work; whatever denotes energy, activity, diligence. Every struggle with a heart-sin, strengthens us for the next we may have to engage in. And bitter as our heart-sins may be, and should be, to us, let us ever remember, that our struggle is the will of God; a trial sent to prove us; to work "our sanctification."

Lastly, let us not suppose, that when we have said "Thy will be done," in any trial, our wills are therefore altogether right with God's. It is not submission, it is not resignation, that is required of us. We hear, perhaps, of a dying person, that "He is quite resigned to go." What ! resigned to go to heaven! resigned to exchange sorrow, and misery, and sin, for joy, and holiness, and hope in fruition, and riches unfading, and the immediate presence of GOD HIMSELF. Oh no! my Christian sisters, let us not rest in a passive acquiescence in God's will. Let our wills be actually in unison with His. Our wills are the strongest portions of our mind. Let them then move and act willingly in God's service. Let them give a hearty welcome to each and every dispensation of His providence, great or small. Let us will exactly what He wills. Let us ever desire that which He has appointed, because He appoints it. So shall we find peace. St. Augustine has said, "The heart is restless, till it rest in Thee." Even so of the will. It roves to and fro; it seeks its own; it desires to be ruler in everything for itself, until it learns to rest in God. Then with our own most hearty consent can we welcome affliction, for it comes from God; welcome pleasure, for He has ordained it; welcome every state in life in which we may be placed, for it comes from the Father of Lights, among his other good gifts; for ALL his gifts are good. Then, (and not till then, acceptably,) shall we not content ourselves with saying, Thy will be done, but we shall set ourselves resolutely to DO IT.

LILY OF THE Valley.

GENEVA AND LAKE LEMAN.

BY MRS. BUSHBY.

MID the number of beautiful lakes for which Switzerland is so justly celebrated, there is none perhaps which so much deserves the attention and admiration of the traveller, as the lake of Geneva, or, as it is often called,

Lake Leman. The theologian and the historian, the naturalist, the poet, and the painter, may each find here matter of deep interest; and even those superficial tourists who seek for nothing but amusement, will meet with much to delight them. Situated between the High Alps on the one side, and the Jura on the other, this crescentshaped lake is about nineteen leagues in length; and at the widest part, between Rolle and Thonon, three and a quarter in breadth. Near the town of Geneva it is very shallow, probably in consequence of the existence, there, of a bank of mud and sand; whereas, near the rocks of Meillerie its depth is said to be about 950 feet.

This lake receives several rivers that flow from the Glaciers; and the "blue Rhone" entering it at one extremity from the canton of Le Valais, emerges from it at Geneva; whence, wandering towards, and escaping beyond the Jura, it takes its rapid course through the southeastern districts of France, and falls into the Mediterranean below Arles.

Every variety of prospect may be enjoyed around Lake Leman, Richly studded on its northern shore with smiling vineyards, picturesque towns, lovely villages, and romantic country-seats, beyond which spread the fertile plains and slopes of the Pays de Vaud, skirted by the dark pine-forests and naked rocks of the Jura; the southern side of this lake exhibits scenery of a very different character. "There,” says a pleasing writer, "the Dent d'Oche, and the lofty mountains of Savoy, broken into deep chasms by torrents, rise almost perpendicularly; their base, covered with vast forests of chesnut trees, is overlooked by immense inaccessible rocks, and these are reflected in the lake with that azure tint, which pure and deep water imparts to the objects pictured in it." Above these mountains, again, tower the snow-capped