1833.

Yet fail it must, for it comes of earth,
And it may not shame its place of birth,
Where the best can bloom, but a single day,
And the fairest, is first to fade away.

But oh! there's a changeless world above,
A world of peace, and joy, and love,
Where, gathered from the tomb,

The holy hopes, that earth has crost,

And the friends, so dear, we have loved and lost,
Shall enjoy immortal bloom.

Who will not watch, and strive, and pray,
That his longing soul may soar away,

On faith's untiring wing,

To join the throng, of saints in light,
In that world, forever fair and bright,
Of endless, cloudless, Spring.

THE AMULET OF GRACE.

Written in "the Amulet."

DEAREST, Could thy husband get,

With his blood, an amulet,

That could charm away thy woe,

From his heart the stream should flow.

But from mortal misery,

Such redemption may not be;

Vain before the holy God,

Oceans filled with human blood.

Yet let heaven and earth resound,

Such a ransom has been found,
God's atoning Lamb has died,
Jesus has been crucified.

Dearest, let that fountain be,
Opened, not in vain, for thee:
It alone can soothe, can save;
Seek, by faith, its precious wave.

Seek it, sweet one, while you may,
Seek it, while 'tis called to day.
Seek the Lamb, for sinners slain—
None who seek Him, seek in vain.
January 1, 1833.

TO MY DEAR SISTER.

My sister, I remember,

How lonely was my heart,

Till thou, in all its joys and griefs,
Wert born, to bear a part :-
And well do I remember

The pleasure and the pride,
That filled my boyish bosom,
When thou wert by my side.

My sister, since you joined me,
Upon life's rugged way,

Through what vicissitudes, we've passed,

Of darkness and of day.

Yet still, thy love has steadfast been,

Unchanged in cloud, or shine,
And thy own sorrow, been forgot,
To sympathize with mine.

My sister, to repay thee

Is only, with the Lord,

And He can make thy love, its own
Exceeding great reward.

O! ever may His sheltering shield,
Outstretched above thee, lie,

And brightest beams of light, direct
Thy footsteps, to the sky.

PHILADELPHIA, March 2, 1834.

TO WILLIAM CROSWELL.

"Perennis et Fragrans."

WILLIAM, my brother and my bosom friend!

For thrice ten years, the sun, this blessed day,
Has lighted thee along life's chequered way,
Serene and placid, towards thy journey's end.
One third the distance, we have trod together,

Hand grasping hand, and heart enclosed in heart,
Each of the other's life, breath, being, part;
Breasting as one, time's rough and rugged weather.
Poet and Priest, as in thy face I look,

So full of thought, so tranquil, so benign,

With pride of soul, to hail thee friend of mine, I greet thee, with the legend of this book:"Fragrant and lasting," be thy memory here,

And then a fadeless crown, through heaven's immortal year! BURLINGTON, Nov. 7, 1834.

A PRAYER.

GRANT me, great Lord, Thy graces three,

Faith, and Hope, and Charity;

Faith, that on the cross relies,
And trusts, but in Thy sacrifice.
Hope, that, when by woe opprest,
Points upward to a heavenly rest;
And last, the greatest of the three,
O give me gentle Charity:

To suffer all; to know no pride;
To strive, another's faults to hide;
To answer with a soothing smile,
When men, with angry words, revile;
To envy not that happiness,
Thy hand denies me, to possess ;
The rich man's wealth to covet not,
Though poverty should be my lot.

Teach me, through every earthly ill,
To be submissive, to Thy will;
And let me of Thy grace, receive,

As I, my enemies, forgive.

Then Faith, and Hope, and Charity

Will lead me on, to Heaven, through Thee.

THE GERANIUM LEAF.

"It grew and blew, in my little room, and I pressed it in my Bible."

TEN thousand thanks, my dearest, for this precious little leaf, Henceforth, to bear me company, in pleasure and in grief; Still breathing to my heart, its fragrant memories of thee, And consecrating all the past, with natural piety.

I

gaze upon its greenness, and I think of where it blew,
Till all that charméd atmosphere grows radiant to my view,
And I felt it was a happy lot, to live, and grow, and bloom,
Beneath thy light of loveliness, in that enchanted room.

Be ever thus, my gentle one, the Bible at thy side,
And every joy and every grief, shall thus be sanctified;

Nor trust the love, that only drinks at fountains of the earth,
To satisfy the longings, of a soul of heavenly birth.

1838.

SPRING THOUGHTS.

DEAREST, those purple flowers,

They seem to me to spring,

From the grave of him, whose loving breast

Was wont to be the living nest

Of each beautiful thought and thing.

Dearest, those early flowers,

They speak to me of him,

With the youthful mind, so richly stored
With loftiest thoughts, and as freely poured,

As from fountain's bubbling brim.

Dearest, those fragrant flowers
Are odours of his life,

The gentle-hearted, the heavenly-willed,
With the choicest grace of the Holiest, filled,
Where loveliest deeds, were rife.

Dearest, they breathe, those flowers,
Of the land, where he takes his rest,
Where the river of immortality flows,

With our White, and Hobart, and Jebb, and Rose,
And all, that he loved, the best.

Dearest, they say, those flowers

Earth's winter womb's first born"So shall the dead in Christ arise, Heirs of the world, beyond the skies, On the resurrection morn."

1839.

TO MY WIFE.

My only, and my own one,
How dark and drear, the day
That drags its lingering hours along;

When thou art far away,

The loveliness, that lighted up

My life, no longer nigh,

And hushed the voice, that used to fill

My soul with melody.

High, in the broad blue firmament,
Among those worlds of light,
The faithful witness holds her place,
Constant, serene, and bright;
My aching heart in sadness sinks,

For so, her placid eye

Looked down, when heart to heart, we walked,
In hours of joy, gone by.