GENTLY fall the evening shadows
O'er the hills and o'er the plains,
Cattle slumber in the meadows,

Hushed are now the wild birds' strains.

Whispering leaves in light winds quiver,
Moonbeams flush the silent grove,
Stars gleam on the brimming river,
Earth is wrapped in folds of love.

Have we in the day just going

Breathed pure thoughts and purpose high,
Used the hours now past us flowing
Wisely, ere the night draws nigh?

On our hearts sweet peace is falling
Softly, like the shades of night,
And to each a voice is calling,
"Be thou faithful to the right ".

Tozer.

MEN whose boast it is that ye
Come of fathers brave and free,—
If there breathe on earth a slave,
Are ye truly free and brave?

If ye

do not feel the chain

When it works a brother's pain,
Are ye not base slaves indeed,
Slaves unworthy to be freed?

They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak :

They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing and abuse,

Rather than in silence shrink

From the truth they needs must think :
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.

Is true freedom but to break
Fetters for our own dear sake;
And, with leathern hearts, forget
That we owe mankind a debt?
No! true freedom is to share
All the chains our brothers wear,
And, with heart and hand, to be
Earnest to make others free.

Jas. Russell Lowell.

A LITTLE child, in bulrush ark,
Came floating on the Nile's broad water;
That child made Egypt's glory dark,
And freed his tribe from bonds and slaughter.

A little child inquiring stood

In Israel's temple of its sages;
That child, by lessons wise and good,
Made pure the temple of past ages.

Mid worst oppressions, if remain
Young hearts to freedom still aspiring,—
Though nursed in superstition's chain,
If human minds be still inquiring,—

Then let not priest or tyrant dote

On dreams of long the world commanding;

The ark of Moses is afloat,

And Christ is in the temple standing.

W. J. Fox.

'Tis not by dreaming and delay,
But doing something every day,
That wins the laurel and the bay,
And crowns the work of duty.

Be satisfied that thou art right,

And that thy deed will bear the light, Then execute it with thy might, For that will be thy duty.

In nature's boundless universe,

Thou wilt not see that dreadful curse,

An atom to its work averse,
An idler shirking duty.

The planets as they roll on high,
The river as it rusheth by,

For ever and for ever cry,

On, man, and do thy duty!"

All, all is working everywhere,

In earth, in heaven, in sea, and air, And nothing indolent is there

To mar the perfect duty.

Edward Capern.

How little of ourselves we know
Before a grief the heart has felt!
The lessons that we learn of woe
May brace the mind as well as melt.

The energies too stern for mirth,

The reach of thought, the strength of will, 'Mid cloud and tempest have their birth, Through blight and blast their course fulfil.

And yet 'tis when it mourns and fears,
The loaded spirit feels forgiven;
And through the mist of falling tears
We catch the clearest glimpse of heaven.
Lord Morpeth.