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And I heard a sad voice, whispering, say,
'When the ride goes out, he will pass away,
Pray for a soul's serene release!

That the weary spirit may rest in peace,
When the tide goes out.'

"When the tide goes out from the sea-girt lands,
It bears strange freight from the gleaming sands
The white-winged ships that silent wait
For a foaming wave, and a wind that's late;
The treasures cast on a rocky shore,
From the stranded ships that sail no more
And hopes that follow the shining seas,
Oh the ocean wide shall win all these
When the tide goes out.

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"But of all that drift from the shore to the sea,
Is the human soul to Eternity;

Floating away from a silent shore,
Like a fated ship to return no more.
Saddest, most solemn of all, a soul
Pausing where unknown waters roll.
Where shall the surging current tend,
Slowly dividing friend from friend,
When the tide goes out?

"For our parting spirit, pray, oh! pray,
While the tide of life is ebbing away,
That the soul may pass o'er sunnier seas
Than clasped of old the Hesperides.
A bark whose sails by angel hands,

Shall be furled on a strand of golden sands;
And the friends that stand on a silent shore,
Knowing that we shall return no more,
Shall wish us joy of a voyage so fair,
With calm sweet skies, and a favoring air,
When the tide goes out."

GROWING OLD.

"ALAS! for him who grows old without growing wise, to whom the future World does not throw open its gates, when he is excluded from the present. The eye becomes dim, the ear dull, the tongue falters, the feet loiter. All the senses refuse to do their office.

"Still, old age should be like some quiet chamber, in which, disconnected from the visible world, we can prepare in silence for the clime that is unseen." Tholuck.

AN AUTUMNAL REFLECTION.

WALTER SAVAGE LANDER says: "The damps of autumn sink into the leaves, and prepare them for the necessity of their fall; and thus insensibly are we, as years close round us, detached from our tenacity to life by the gentle pressure of recorded sorrows."

MANIFESTATIONS OF LOVE.

"It was my lot at an early age to go out into the world, and to become a resident in many families, out of which number only three or four could be properly designated as happy ones: and the source of their trouble was not so much the lack of love, as the lack of care to manifest it."

CONVENIENT RULE.

"You wish to knew the length of the day and night. Double the hour of the sun's rising: that is the length of the night. Double the time of the sun's setting; and

that will give you the length of the day, at all seasons of the year."

"HAPPY is he who finds a true friend in extremity; but still more happy is he who finds an extremity whereby to try his friend." - Aristotle.

SELF-ABASEMENT.

It used to be much the habit of the pious writers of a past age, to dwell upon their exceeding sinfulness, and supplicate for the lowest place in heaven, under the feet of its other inhabitants. Henry Vaughan, one of the classic poets, in the time of Charles I., and Cromwell, and twin brother of Thomas Vaughan, also a poet, thus gives utterance to that sentiment, in a volume of sacred

verse:

"And when they all are fed, and have

Drank of the living stream,
Let thy poor ass, with tears I crave,
Drink after them."

HARD TIMES.

"PUBLIC opinion is very largely a manufactured article. Hard times occasion a world of talk; and this world of talk increases the hardness of the times. It is not to be denied that as a people, we are experiencing trouble. Yet, suppose we all set ourselves to work, notwithstanding the struggle, to manufacture a more hopeful, healthful public opinion. Let us look at the best

side of things, cultivate courage and resolution, keep, as far as may be, a sunny countenance, talk cheerfully, help each other, and do good to all men, as we have opportunity, and see how rapidly the hard times' will soften and brighten. This species of manufacture is a legitimate business, and beyond all question, it will 'pay.”

DEW.

"SOMETIMES at early morning, dew may be seen in one flower, and not in another. Why? Because one opens its cup, and receives it, the other closes itself and the drop glides away.

"God spreads his goodness as liberally as the dew. If we fail of it, it is because we will not open a loving heart to its influence."

THE ART OF PLEASING.

"THE power of pleasing, is founded on the wish to please; and the strength of that wish, is the measure of its power."

PERSONAL INFLUENCE.

"BLESSED influence of one true loving human soul on another! Not calculable by algebra, not deducible by logic, but mysterious, effectual, mighty as the hidden. process by which the buried seed is quickened, and burst forth into tall stem and broad leaf, and glowing tasselled flower. Ideas are often poor ghosts; our sunfilled eyes cannot discern them; they pass athwart us

in thin vapor, and cannot make themselves felt. But sometimes they are made flesh; they breathe upon us with warm breath, they touch us with soft responsive hands, they look at us with sad sincere eyes, and speak to us in appealing tones; they are clothed in a living human soul, with all its conflicts, its faith, and its love. Then their presence is a power, they skake us like a passion, and we are drawn after them with gentle compulsion, as flame is drawn to flame."

THE GAIN OF AFFLICTION.

"IT is said that in Nature, that but for occasional seasons of drought, the best lands would soon degenerate; but that these seasons cause them to imbibe strongly from the hidden currents beneath, and with this moisture to suck up those mineral manures that restore and fertilize the soil above.

"Thus it is, with sickness and with sorrow; once surmounted they fertilize the character, and develope from the deepest fountains of the heart, a joy and fruitfulness not otherwise attainable."

"When the wounds of woe are healing,
When the heart is all resign'd,

'Tis the solemn feast of fealing,
'Tis the Sabbath of the mind."

"THEY Who doubt the truth of religion, because they find no Christian who is perfect, might as well deny the existence of the sun, because it is not always noonday."