sure that every unkind look, every ungracious word, every ungentle action, will come thronging back upon thy memory, and knocking dolefully at thy soul; then be sure that thou wilt lie down sorrowing and repentant on the grave, and utter the unheard groan, and pour the unavailing tear more deep, more bitter, because unheard and unavailing.

Then weave thy chaplet of flowers, and strew the beauties of nature about the grave; console thy broken spirit, if thou canst, with these tender, yet futile tributes of regret; but take warning by the bitterness of this thy contrite affliction over the dead, and henceforth be more faithful and affectionate in the discharge of thy duties to the living.

W. IRVING.

AGONY; extreme pain of mind or body. REVELRY; noisy festivity. ASSIDUITIES; services rendered with zeal and constancy. UNREQUITED; not repaid. DOLEFULLY; sorrowfully, sadly.

ALL THINGS ARE HASTENING TO DECAY.

HEARTS; hârts; sound rts. MOMENTS; ĕnts, not unse. ONWARD; ÖU wêrd; wêrd, not wud. DARK; sound r. WORLD; wêrld; sound rhi REALMS; rělmz; sound Imz.

SWIFTLY our pleasures glide away,
Our hearts recall the distant day
With many sighs;

The moments that are speeding fast
We heed not, but the past, the past
More highly prize.

Onward its course the present keeps,

Onward the constant current sweeps,
Till life is done;

And did we judge of time aright,

The past and future, in their flight, Would be as one.

Let no one fondly dream again

That Hope and all her shadowy train Will not decay;

Fleeting as were the dreams of old, Remembered like a tale that's told, They pass away.

Our lives are rivers, gliding free
To that unfathomed, boundless sea,
The silent grave.

Thither all earthly pomp and boast
Roll to be swallowed up, at last,
In one dark wave.

Thither the mighty torrents stray,
Thither the brook pursues its way,
And tinkling rill.

There all are equal; side by side,
The poor man and the son of pride
Lie calm and still.

This world is but the rugged road
Which leads us to the bright abode
Of peace above;

So let us choose that narrow way
Which leads no traveller's foot astray
From realms of love.

Our cradle is the starting-place;

In life we run the onward race,

And reach the goal,

g e 270

When, in the mansions of the blest,

Death leaves to its eternal rest
The weary soul.

Did we but use it as we ought,

This world would school each wandering thought

To its high state.

Faith wings the soul beyond the sky,

Up to that better world on high,

For which we wait.

LONGFELLOW.

SPEEDING; making haste, moving with celerity. FATHOMED; sounded, tried with respect to the depth. UNFATHOMED; un means not. RILL, a little streamlet. RUGGED; rough, uneven. GOAL; the post or mark set to bound a race, the end. SCHOOL; instruct, train, tutor.

GOODNESS OF GOD TO HIS RATIONAL CREATURES.

Mo

BE

DOES; duz. POSSESS; short ŏ, not й. FIRST; er like er in her. MENT; ěnt, not unt. OBJECTS; kts, not ks. WANTS; nts, not nse. FORE; be, not bif, nor buf. Bosoms; bo like boo. YEARS; sound the r; do not call it yē-uz. INNOCENCE; give o its long sound.

We cannot turn in any direction where the Creator's love does not smile around us. In him we live, and move, and have our being; and all that we possess flows entirely from the exhaustless source of his bounty. From the first moment of our existence, his guardian arm surrounded us, and at this instan we are the objects of his providential care.

He listened to our helpless cries, and supplied all our infant wants before our hearts had learned to acknowledge their Benefactor, or our tongues to pronounce his name. It was he who opened the bosoms of our parents to impressions of tenderness, and taught them to experience a nameless

delight in those little attentions which our tender years required.

To secure the good offices of the generous, he clothed our countenances in the smiles of innocence; and to soften the hearts of the cruel, he caused our eyes to overflow with tears. He strengthened our bodies, and enlarged our minds. Through all the slippery paths of youth, his hand, unseen, conducted us, guarding us from temptation, delivering us from danger, and crowning our days with his goodness. And whatever period of life we have now reached, we owe our continued lives to his preserving care, and our blessings, both past and present, to his paternal bounty.

Let us look at particulars. If we turn to our connection with surrounding nature, it is God's air which we breathe, and God's sun that enlightens us. The grateful vicissitudes of day and night, the revolutions of the seasons, marked by the regular return of summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, are all appointed by his unerring wisdom.

It is his pencil which paints the flower and his fragrance which it exhales. By his hand the fields are clothed in beauty, and caused to teem with plenty. At his command the mountains rose, the valleys sank, and the plains were stretched out. His seas surrounded our coasts, and his winds blow to waft to us the treasures of distant lands, and to extend the intercourse of man with man.

But we are made capable of more exalted enjoyments than can be derived from external nature; and He who formed us with these capacities has not left us without the means of exercising them. Originally created in the image of God, the human soul, as if conscious of its celestial origin, finds permanent enjoyment only in the cultivation of those faculties which prove its resemblance to its Creator. Nor has the Father of mercies left us without means of such enjoyment.

r 47.

d 302.

lt 166-254.

In society, the pleasures of beneficence, and the movements of compassion; in friendship, the interchange of good offices, and the balm of sympathy; in domestic life, the tenderness of conjugal affection, and the endearments of filial and parental duty; and, to crown all, in religion, the sublime enjoyments of devotion, and the blessed hopes of immortality, give an unspeakable charm to existence, and prove the divine Being who bestowed these gifts to be full of condescending kindness to his rational offspring.

How gracious, indeed, the care which has provided a remedy for our spiritual wants, and an answer for those longings and fears which look beyond our present dwelling, and make earnest inquiries of eternity! How precious that divine word which bears assurance of pardon to the sincerely repentant, and promises of peace and pardon to the sorrowful and broken-hearted; which tells of a merciful Savior, who was wounded for our transgressions, who was acquainted with our griefs, and who died that we might live! These blessings change not with the changing seasons, nor pass away with the rolling years. When the believer thinks of them, his heart overflows with gratitude; and the deep emotion which they excite finds no language more suitable for its expression than the short but emphatic exclamation of an apostle, "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!"

VICISSITUDE; a regular change, or succession of one thing to another. EXHALE; to send out, to emit as vapor or minute particles of a fluid or other substance. INTERCOURSE; connection by reciprocal dealings between persons or nations. CONSCIOUS; possessing the power or faculty of knowing one's own thoughts or mental operations. SYMPATHY; the quality of being affected by the affection of another.