NATURE OF HEAVEN.

THERE SHALL BE NO MORE SEA.

A

MARIANNE FARNINGHAM.

LL day sigh on the shore the surging billows

That steal with greedy lips our joys away; All night roll on the ever-shifting pillows

On which the weary breathe their lives alway.

Awhile the waves are bright with flashing sunlight,
There are dark silent graves far, far below;
And while they darkly toss, 'mid gloom of midnight,
Our treasures heavily beneath them go.

We are not safe! The foe too near us glideth,
Serenely, silently, insidiously;

And all the safeguards passionate love provideth
It sweeps from clinging grasps relentlessly.

All round the island of our lives it surges,
Enwraps us closely-there is no escape;
And while the syren's voice our ruin urges,
The restless billows far beneath us gape.

Thus rolls the sea of care and sorrow ever
Above our very hearts, close to our homes;
We deprecate its rule with vain endeavor,

The heavy roaring wave still nearer comes.

"There shall be no more sea." O, golden city,
The loved, the longed for, the eternal blest;
The waves shall touch not those who have God's pity,
In thy fair homes of perfect peace and rest.

"There shall be no more sea." O God, our Father, When sorrow's waters beat us ceaselessly,

Help us to bear the grief till thou shalt gather
Thy loved, thy cared for, where is no more sea.

LIFE'S QUESTIONS.

D

HENRY ALFORD.

RIFTING away

Like mote on the stream,

To-day's disappointment

Yesterday's dream;

Ever resolving—

Never to mend

Such is our progress;
Where is the end?

Whirling away

Like leaf in the wind;

Points of attachment

Left daily behind;
Fixed to no principle,

Fast to no friend

Such our fidelity;

Where is the end?

Floating away

Like clouds on the hill,
Pendulous, tremulous,
Migrating still;

Where to repose ourselves?
Whither to tend?

Such our consistency;

Where is the end?

Crystal the pavement,

Seen through the stream; Firm the reality

Under the dream.

We may not feel it,

Still we may mend— How we have conquered Not known till the end.

Bright leaves may scatter,
Sport of the wind;

But stands to the winter
The great tree behind.
Frost shall not wither it,
Storms cannot bend;

Roots firmly clasping

The Rock at the end.

Calm is the firmament

Over the cloud;

Clear shine the stars through

The rifts of the shroud.

There our repose shall be;
Thither we tend-

Spite of our waverings,
Approved at the end.

O

TALK TO ME OF HEAVEN.

Mrs. SOUTHEY.

H! talk to me of heaven! I love

To hear about my home above; For there doth many a loved one dwell In light and love ineffable.

Oh! tell how they shine and sing,
While every harp rings echoing,
And every glad and tearless eye
Beams, like the bright sun, gloriously.
Tell me of that victorious palm
Each hand in glory beareth;
Tell me of that celestial calm
Each face in glory weareth.

Oh! happy, happy country! where
There entereth not a sin;

And death, who keeps its portals fair,

May never once come in.

No grief can change their day to night-
The darkness of that land is light.

Sorrow and sighing God has sent
Far thence to endless banishment.

And never more may one dark tear
Bedim their burning eyes;

For every one they shed while here,
In cheerless agonies,

Glitters a bright and dazzling gem,
In their immortal diadem.

Oh! lovely, blooming country! there
Flourishes all that we deem fair,
And though no fields nor forests green,
Nor bowery gardens there are seen,
Nor perfumes load the breeze,
Nor hears the ear material sound,
Yet joys at God's right hand are found-

The archetypes of these.

There is the home, the land of birth

Of all we highest prize on earth;

The storms that rack this world beneath

Must forever cease;

The only air the blessed breathe

Is purity and peace.

Oh! happy, happy land! in thee

Shines the unveiled Divinity,

Shedding through each adoring breast

A holy calm, a halcyon rest,

And those blessed souls, whom death did sever,

Have met to mingle joys forever.

Oh! soon may Heaven unclose to me!

Oh! may

I soon that glory see!

And my faint, weary spirit stand
Within that happy, happy land!