THE OLIVE.

THERE is not in the world a lovelier tree,
Or more exemplary. Its trunk obeys
A corded net-work, curbing all its ways,
Thrown from within in strong self-mastery.
Its every leaf, on both sides fair to see,

Is best and fairest seen from heaven above;
For choicest green it ever skyward hove,
Yet wore but grey to earth, unboastfully.
And as for fruit,-O bright and clear it flows,
In solemn service, in Jehovah's courts,
And strength and cheer and benediction strows
In hall and hut, wherever man resorts.
Anointing kings, it heals the warrior's sore,
And decks with life and joy the tables of the poor.

THE THREE GREAT SIGHTS OF THE WORLD,

AND THEIR DIFFERING INSPIRATIONS.

WHEN first I saw the foaming sea,
A rare delight was mine;

And storms of thought swept into me,
From off the billowy brine.

66

Arise, and bow thee to thy task,"

I heard the breakers say.

How well the years their fleeting mask!

It seems but yesterday!

Yet then I wrought with lighter pen,

The beardless youths among : My cousin John was with me then, Hence gathered now so long.

In riper years, when first a height,
Which peers within the blue,
Stood out before my climbing sight,
That tempest came anew.

But now mine eyes had seen the woe,
Wherein my fathers toiled ;-
The cloud which darkens all below,
The stain which all hath soiled ;-

And chords of sorrowing note were stirred

Within my graver breast:

"O had I wings as yonder bird,

"To flee and be at rest!"

Long years have passed-eventful years

Diversely clothed and shod,

And now my travelled eye careers
Upon the streets of God;

On streets which are not clouded round,
In skies where none may ken,
But paved with earthly blocks, and found
Beside the streets of men.

I search, and nothing checks my gaze
Of aspect high or strange :

If these became but human ways,

I could not mark the change.

I list, and whispers low and small

Are borne upon the breeze; In mountain olives musical,

And clear by sunny seas;

Unsilenced in the noisy street,
And echoed o'er the rill;

"My Ways and thine at length shall meet: "Be comforted: be still."

D

SUNRISE, AFTER A MOONLIGHT NIGHT ;

SEEN FROM THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.

I SAW the night upon the streets of God
Her tides in beauty shedding; and I saw
The mightier morning wake upon the hills,
And bend his gaze upon the tides of night,
And change them inwardly from good to good,
As Christ the wedding-jars of Galilee,

Till

every

chamber overflowed with day.

As dwells the blessing of the mother lorn
Upon the cradle of her sireless child,
She watching by in widow-pensiveness,
So dwelt the musing moonlight on the roofs;
And court and street, bazaar and hall and hut,
Lay sleeping, subject to a thousand dreams.