There is a Day of Sunny Rest. OH, deem not they are blest alone

Whose lives a peaceful tenor keep ; The Power who pities man, has shown

A blessing for the eyes that weep.

The light of smiles shall fill again

The lids that overflow with tears ; And weary hours of woe and pain

Are promises of happier years.

There is a day of sunny rest

For every dark and troubled night; And grief may bide an evening guest,

But joy shall come with early light. And thou, who, o'er thy friend's low bier,

Sheddest the bitter drops like rain, Hope that a brighter, happier sphere

Will give him to thy arms again.

Nor let the good man's trust depart,

Though life its common gifts deny,Though with a pierced and broken heart,

And spurned of men, he goes to die.

For God has marked each sorrowing day

And numbered every secret tear,
And heaven's long age of bliss shall pay
For all his children suffer here.

W. C. BRYANT. The Blessing of Early Rising. SOFT slumbers now mine eyes forsake, w My powers are all renewed ; May my freed spirit too awake,

With heavenly strength endued. Thou silent murderer, Sloth, no more

My mind imprisoned keep; Nor let me waste another hour

With thee, thou felon Sleep. Think, O my soul, could dying men

One lavished hour retrieve, Though spent in tears, and passed in pain,

What treasures would they give!
But seas of pearls, and mines of gold,

Were offered then in vain;
Their pearl of countless price is sold,

And where's the promised gain ?
Lord, when thy day of dread account,

For squandered hours shall come,
Oh! let not this increase th' amount,

And swell the former sum.
Teach me in health each good to prize,

I dying shall esteem ;
And every pleasure to despise,

I then shall worthless deem.
For all thy wondrous mercies past

My grateful voice I'll raise, While thus I quit my bed of rest, Creation’s Lord to praise.

HANNAH MORE.

The Summer Shower. TWAS so— I saw thy birth : that drowsy lake

From her faint bosom breath'd thee, the

disease Of her sick waters and infectious ease;

But now, at even,

Too gross for heaven, Thou fall’st in tears, and weep’st for thy mistake. Ah! it is so with me! oft have I pressed Heaven with a lazy breath, but fruitless this Pierc'd not ; love only can with quick access

Unlock the way,

When all else strayThe smoke and exhalations of the breast. Yet, if as thou doest melt, and with thy train Of drops make soft the earth, my eyes could weep O’er my hard heart, that's bound up and asleep;

Perhaps at last

(Some such showers past,) My God would give a sunshine after rain.

HENRY VAUGHAN.

The Spirit of Truth. T DREAMED that I saw, on the fair brow of 1 heaven, The star-jewelled veil of a midsummer even; I looked, and, as quick as a meteor's birth, A beautiful Spirit descended to earth.

Her brow wore a halo of light, and her eye
Was bright as the stars, and as blue as the sky;
Her low, silvery voice trembled soft as a spell,
To the innermost chords of the heart, as it fell.
One hand held a banner inscribed with “ACCORD,"
The other, the glorious word of the Lord :
Then, softly, the beautiful vision did glide
To the palace a rich man had reared in his pride.
Through curtains of crimson the sun's mellow

beam
Fell, soft as the tremulous light of a dream,
On all that was gorgeous in nature and art-
On all that could gladden the eye or the heart.
The rich man was clad in fine purple and gold,
The wealth in his coffers might never be told;
The brows of the servants that waited around
Grew bright when he smiled, and grew pale

when he frowned. Then did that proud nobleman tremble and start, As the bright Spirit whispered these words to

his heart: * If thou wouldst have wealth when life's journey

is o'er, Sell all that thou hast, and divide with the poor.” She stood in the cell, where the death-breathing

air Was rife with the groans of the prisoner's despair, As sadly he looked, through the long lapse of time, To days when his soul was unstained by a crime.

She pointed away to his Father above-
She soothed him in accents of pity and love,
And said, as she severed the links of his chain,
“Thy sins are forgiven, transgress not again."

She came in her strength, and the gallows that

stood For ages, all reeking and blackened with blood, Like a lightning-scared fiend, pointing up to the

sky, Fell prostrate to earth, at the glance of her eye.

She spoke! old earth heard, and her pulses were

still : “God's holy commandment forbiddeth to kill.” That spirit of beauty, that spirit of might, Went forth, till the earth was illumined with

her light.

The strong one relenting, was fain to restore
The spoil he had wrenched from the hand of the

poor :
Injustice, oppression, and wrong, fled away,
Before the pure light of millennial day.

The turbulent billows of faction grew calm;
The lion laid down in the fold with the lamb;
The ploughshare was forged from the sabre and

sword, And the mighty bowed down to the sway of the Lord.