SILENCE AND SOLITUDE.

"The Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him."

"I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her."

"Who hath the Father and the Son may be left-but not alone."

Above the mist, above the cloud,

Above the darkness and the thunder,
While storms are soaring wild and loud,
Calm shines a world of awe and wonder,
And there is silence o'er the thunder.

HODGSON.

KEBLE.

T

Proberbs.

HE lily with ten tongues can hold its peace;

Wilt thou with one from babbling never cease?

How shall the praise of silence best be told?
To speak is silver,-to hold peace is gold.

Thy word unspoken thou canst any day
Speak, but thy spoken ne'er again unsay.

Oh, babbler, could'st thou but the cause divine
Why one tongue only, but two ears, are thine!

TRENCH.

Silent Working.

N silence mighty things are wrought:
Silently builded thought on thought
Truth's temple greets the sky;

And, like a citadel with towers,

The soul, with her subservient powers,
Is strengthened silently.

Soundless, as chariots on the snow,
The saplings of the forest grow
To trees of mighty girth;

Each mighty star in silence burns,

The silent frost with mighty hand

Fetters the rivers and the land

With universal chain,

And smitten by the silent sun
The chain is loosed, the rivers run,

The lands are free again.

T. T. LYNCH.

T

Joy in Solitude.

HERE is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;

There is society where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar. I love not man the less, but nature more From these our interviews, in which I steal From all I may be or have been before, To mingle with the universe, and feel What I can ne'er express yet cannot all conceal.

There was Silence in Heaven.

AN angel spirits need repose

In the full sunlight of the sky?
And can the veil of slumber close
A cherub's bright and burning eye?

Have seraphim a weary brow,

A fainting heart, an aching breast? No far too high their pulses glow To languish with inglorious rest.

How could they sleep amidst the bliss,
The banquet of delight above?

How bear for one short hour to miss
The vision of the Lord they love?

Oh, not the death-like calm of sleep Could still the everlasting song! Nor fairy dream, nor vision deep, Entrance the high and holy throng.

Yet not the lightest tone was heard
From angel harp or angel hand,
And not one plumed pinion stirred
Among the bright adoring band.

For there was silence in the sky,

A joy that angels could not tell, As from its veiled fount on high

The peace of God in silence fell.

Oh, what is silence here below!
The quiet of concealed despair—
The pause of pain-the dream of woe :
It is the rest of rapture there.

And to the way-worn pilgrim here

More needful seems that perfect peace, Than the full chant of joy to hear

Roll on, and never, never cease.

From earthly agonies set free,

Tired with the path so slowly trod,
May such a silence welcome me
Into the temple of my God!

Moonshine.

HE moon is up! how calm and slow

Tu

She wheels above the hill!

The weary winds forget to blow,
And all the world lies still.

The wayworn travellers, with delight
The rising brightness see,
Revealing all the paths and plains
And gilding every tree.

It glistens where the hurrying stream

Its little ripple leaves;

It falls upon the forest shade,

And sparkles on the leaves.

L