Yet no dream-furnished phantom vale is here,
For sports of moon-bred nothings carpeted:
'Tis earthly all, that meets or eye or ear,
And all for human incidents is spread.

Its days and nights in common course are shed From common suns, and common moons and stars: Now withering summer smites its garden-bed;

Now blustering winds o'erleap its mountain-bars; And now come wintry storms, with coarse memorial

scars.

High on its west for human feet is piled A grassy gazing-place o'er plain and wood, O'er surging sea, o'er uplands rude and wild, O'er town and field and mountain-solitude : And vocal to the spirit of man, and good, Are all the teachings of that matchless show. The far-spread earth, the never-tiring flood, The untroubled sky, the mountain robed in snow, Its mystic God-hewn way to human souls doth

know.

"Come forth, O Man, from self's sequestering hedge"

(So pleading cries the chequered out-spread earth): "Look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge: "See whether it be well with fold and hearth."

"Bestir thyself, O Man "-(so travels forth The voice of waves which rest not day or night): "Of earnest toil behold the golden worth: "Mark how it spurns corruption's loathsome blight,

"And gathers where it dwells bright health and pure delight."

"Lift up thyself, O Man, and hope the best, "Assured of good in some superior sphere":So flows the call by tranquil skies addrest, High bent o'er clouds, and storms, and winters

sere.

"Prepare thyself, O Man, for days austere "(Thus whispering warns the mountain robed in snow):

"Prepare thyself for chills and hardships here: "Who nearest press to Heaven's unfailing glow, "On them unfailing falls some bleaching shroud of woe."

Nor lacks there, twining with this mingled cry, The voice of ages which have ta’en their flight:"O gird thee with thy sword upon thy thigh, "Nor let thy loneliness thy soul affright. "On yonder hill one Seer of truth and right "Four hundred false ones in their pride withstood:

"With stars of heaven allied in glorious fight, "Yon feeble stream became a conquering flood: "A peasant freed yon vale from Midian's lawless brood." 11 *

Full of the life of God,-the lore unthought, The words unspeakable, the memories vast, The purpose huge, the mighty musings brought From upper kingdoms and the lands that last :Full of the life of Man,-the fears that cast Their network shadowings o'er each golden dream, The yearnings high, the shrinkings from the blast, The impulsive hope, the fondly-laboured scheme, The lessons learnt with toil, the Law's reflected gleam:

Full filled with each, these solemn scenes among The youthful Christ went forth from day to day, And read the flowers, and listened to the song Of birds, and marked the little child at play; Then urged the chirping plane upon its way, And form and order and subservence won From knotted oaks, and blocks that useless lay; And hence, as from an east obscure and dun, He dawned upon the world, its great unsetting Sun.

* 1 Kings xviii.: Judges v. 20, 21: Judges vii. Carmel, Kishon, and the vale of Jezreel, are all included, with other historic spots, in that incomparable panorama.

O Child of His, on whom His Name is named, Before whose feet some mightiest path dilates, On whose great life some vale obscure, or blamed, For consecration and for glory waits:

O Christian Boy, whom goodness captivates, And beckons up the steeps of pain and power: O open wide thy spirit's friendly gates,

In gainful youth's predestinating hour;

And earth and sky and sea shall crowd its halls with dower.

Know thine own worth, and keep thyself with zeal :
See as thine own thy neighbour's fettering curse :
Hear God in all things: give thyself to feel
The long deep sermons of the universe:
And all thou feelest let thy life rehearse.

So men shall come from far, when thou art gone
From all the vale which was thine early nurse,
To scan the scenes which thou hast gazed upon,
And in God's Sight to muse o'er all that thou hast
done.

FOUR BONNY HANDFULS OF EARTH.

FOUR bonny handfuls of earth,

And all as a present for thee.

I have gathered thee four bonny handfuls of earth :
I am bringing them safe to the isle of thy birth:
I am bringing them over the sea.

I culled thee at Bethlehem one,
From Rachel's burial sod;

At Nazareth one, by the village fount;
At Gennesaret one; and one on the Mount,
That was wet with the Tears of God.

O oft in the old old time,

As we stood at the school-dame's knee,
The names I have named in lesson would pass;
And we never supposed, as we read in the class,
I should gather such presents for thee.

E