Uoices from Silent Teachers.

THE BOOK OF NATURE.

MORE Sweet than odours caught by him who sails
Near spicy shores of Araby the blest:
A thousand times more exquisitely sweet
The freight of holy feeling which we meet
In thoughtful moments, wafted by the gales
From fields where good men walk,

Or bowers wherein they rest.

WORDSWORTH.

"The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made."

HERE is a book, who runs may read,

THERE

Which heavenly truth imparts;
And all the lore its scholars need,
Pure eyes and Christian hearts.

The works of God, above, below,
Within us and around,

Are pages in that book, to show

How God Himself is found.

B

The glorious sky embracing all

Is like the Maker's love,

Wherewith encompassed, great and small In peace and order move.

The moon above, the Church below,
A wondrous race they run ;

But all their radiance, all their glow,
Each borrows of its Sun.

The Saviour lends the light and heat
That crowns His holy hill;

The saints, like stars, around His seat,
Perform their courses still :

The saints above are stars in heaven.
What are the saints on earth?

Like trees they stand whom God has given,
Our Eden's happy birth.

Faith is their fixed unswerving root,

Hope their unfading flower,

Fair deeds of charity their fruit,—

The glory of their bower.

The dew of heaven is like Thy grace,

It steals in silence down;

But where it lights, the favoured place
By richest fruit is known.

One Name above all glorious names,
With its ten thousand tongues,
The everlasting sea proclaims,
Echoing angelic songs.

The raging fire, the roaring wind,
Thy boundless power display;
But in the gentler breeze we find
Thy Spirit's viewless way.

Two worlds are ours: 'tis only sin
Forbids us to descry

The mystic heaven and earth within,
Plain as the sea and sky.

Thou who hast given me eyes to see,
And love this sight so fair,

Give me a heart to find out Thee,

And read Thee everywhere.

KEBLE.

Nature's Voices of Order.

"Thou hast set a bound, that they may not pass." "He appointeth the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down."

RDER is heaven's first law: a glorious law,
Seen in those pure and beauteous isles of light
That come and go, as circling months fulfil

Their high behest: nor less on earth discerned
'Mid rocks snow-clad, or wastes of herbless sand
Throughout all climes, beneath all-varying skies,
Fixing for e'en the smallest flower that blooms
Its place of growth.

MILTON.

Lobe and Discipline.

INCE in a land not barren still,
Because Thou dost Thy grace distil,
My lot is fallen,-blest be Thy will.

And since those biting frosts but kill
Some tares in me, which choke or spill
That seed Thou sowest,―blest be Thy skill!

Blest be Thy dew, and blest Thy frost,
And happy I to be so crost,

And cured by crosses at Thy cost.

The dew doth cheer what is distrest,
The frost ill weeds nip and molest:
In both Thou work'st unto the best.

Thus while Thy several mercies plot
And work on me,-now cold, now hot,
Thy work goes on, and slacketh not.

For as Thy hand the weather steers,
So thrive I best 'twixt joy and tears,
And all the year have some green ears.

HENRY VAUGHAN.

The Mystery of Nature.

W

́HY roam'st thou sad and downward-eyed,
Pale pilgrim, sable-clad?

While earth bedecks her like a bride

In vernal sunshine glad.

"The snowdrop's reign is almost gone,

And gayer flowers unfold,Narcissus, with its clusters fair, And crocus, gleaming gold.

"But thou the while dost paler grow ;

More sadness hangs o'er thee,

As if this pomp of loveliness

It sickened thee to see."

"There was a time when I drank in

The sunshine of the spring,

Which now upon my faded brow

Doth baneful shadows fling.