The ray is Truth. O soul, aspire
To bask in its celestial fire;

So shalt thou quit the glooms of clay,
So shalt thou flourish into day.

So shalt thou reach the dungeon grate
No longer dark and desolate;
And look around thee and above,
Upon a world of light and love.

C. MACKAY.

LESSONS OF LOVE AND Trust.

Charitie.

HE beams of morning are renewed,

The valley laughs their light to see,
And earth is bright with gratitude,
And heaven with Charitie.

O dew of heaven, O light of earth,

Fain would our hearts be filled with Thee!

Because nor darkness comes nor death

About the house of Charitie.

God guides the stars their wandering way:
He seems to cast their courses free;
But binds unto Himself for aye,-

And all their chains are Charitie.

When first He stretched the signed zone,

And heaped the hills, and barred the sea, The Wisdom sat beside His throne;

But His own word was Charitie!

And still through every age and hour

Of things that were and things that be, Are breathed the presence and the power Of everlasting Charitie.

By noon and night, by sun and shower,
By dews that fall, and winds that flee,-
On
grove and field, on fold and flower,

Is shed the peace of Charitie.

The violets light the lonely hill,

The fruitful furrows load the lea;

Man's heart alone is sterile still,
For lack of lowly Charitie.

He walks a weary vale within,—

No lamps of love in heart has he;
His steps are death, his thoughts are sin,
For lack of gentle Charitie.

Daughter of heaven! we have not left
The dimness of our eyes to thee;
Oh, pure and God-descended gift!
Oh, spotless, perfect Charitie!

Yet, for as much thy brow is crossed

With blood-drops from the deathful tree, We take thee for our only trust,

O, dying Charitie !

Ah Hope, Endurance, Faith,

Ye fail, like death;

But love an everlasting crown receiveth,—
For she is Hope, and Fortitude, and Faith,
Who all things hopeth, beareth, and believeth.

J. RUSKIN.

The Jby: Charity.

"Charity shall cover the multitude of sins."

H

OW busily thou weav'st thy emerald vest,
Unfading climber, round the fabric frail

Of man's uprearing; still with ceaseless toil

Striving to hide Time's envious ravages

And bind together the dissolving ruin.

Thou lendest beauty to decay and death,

And throw'st a loveliness 'round loveless things.
Yes, I will learn from thee. My neighbour's sin
I, if I cannot cure, at least may
hide :
If he want goodness, why should I want love?

He that died for me, hid my sinful heart
From the keen glances of my fellow-men,
Lest they should hate me. Shall I dare to strip
My brother's bosom, so much like my own,
And hold him up to hatred or to scorn?
Shall I unveil a fellow-sinner's heart
With fiendish industry, his foibles tell,

And find delight in his depravity?

No God forgive us both! All, all have sinned,

:

And need, and should show mercy: each should hide

His brother's failings, as he hopes from God

For mercy in his turn, and strive to veil
The sin-born ruin of his neighbour's soul
With the broad loving leaf of Charity.

S. W. PARTRIDGE.

W

To the Nautilus.

THERE Ausonian summers glowing,
Warm the deep to life and joyance,
And gentle zephyrs nimbly blowing
Wanton with the waves, that flowing
By many a land of ancient glory,
And many an isle renowned in story,
Leap along with gladsome buoyance,
There marinere

Dost thou appear

F