The splendor of the noontide lies
On other paths than ours;

The dews that lave yon fragrant skies
Will not revive our flowers.

It is not now as in the glow

Of life's impassioned heat,

When to the heart there seemed to flow

All that of earth was sweet.

Something has faded—something died,

Without us and within;

We more than ever need a guide,
Blinded and weak with sin.

The weight is heavy that we bear,
Our strength more feeble grows ;
Weary with toil, and pain, and care,
We long for sweet repose.

Stay with us, gracious Saviour, stay
While friends and hopes depart;
Fainting, on Thee we wish to lay
The burden of our heart.

Abide with us, dear Lord, remain
Our Life, our Truth, our Way,
So shall our loss be turned to gain-
Night dawn to endless day.

THE NEW YEAR.

A Flower unblown ; a Book unread ;
A Tree with fruit unharvested;
A Path untrod; a House whose rooms
Lack yet the heart's divine perfumes;
A Landscape whose wide border lies
In silent shade 'neath silent skies ;
A wondrous Fountain yet unsealed;
A Casket with its gifts concealed;
This is the year that for you waits,
Beyond to-morrow's mystic gates.

Oh, may this Flower unfold to you
Visions of beauty sweet and new ;
This Book on golden pages trace
Your sacred joys and deeds of grace ;
May all the fruit of this strange Tree
Luscious and rosy-tinted be;

This Path through fields of knowledge go;
This House with love's content o'erflow;
This Landscape glitter with the dew
Of blessed hopes and friendships true;
This Fountain's living crystal cheer,
As fail the springs that once were dear;
This Casket with such gems be stored
As shine in lives that love the Lord.

Though unfledged and songless, Birds of paradise;

Heaven looks at us daily

Out of human eyes.

Hand-in-hand with angels,

Oft in menial guise;

By the same straight pathway
Prince and beggar rise.
If we drop the fingers,
Toil-embrowned and worn,
Then one link with heaven

From our life is torn.

Hand-in-hand with angels :
Some are fallen,-alas!
Soiled wings trail pollution
Over all they pass.

Lift them into sunshine!
Bid them seek the sky!
Weaker is your soaring,
When they cease to fly.

Hand-in-hand with angels;

Some are out of sight,

Leading us, unknowing,

Into paths of light.

Some dear hands are loosened

From our earthly clasp,

Soul in soul to hold us

With a firmer grasp.

Hand-in-hand with angels,

"T is a twisted chain,

Winding heavenward, earthward,

Linking joy and pain.

There's a mournful jarring,

There's a clank of doubt,

If a heart grows heavy,
Or a hand's left out.

Hand-in-hand with angels

Walking every day ;

How the chain may lengthen,

None of us can say.

But we know it reaches
From earth's lowliest one
To the shining seraph,
Throned beyond the sun.

Hand-in-hand with angels !
Blessed so to be!

Helped are all the helpers;
Giving light, they see.
He who aids another
Strengthens more than one;
Sinking earth he grapples
To the great white throne.

A THANKSGIVING.

For the wealth of pathless forests,

Whereon no axe may fall;

For the winds that haunt the branches,

The young bird's timid call;

For the red leaves dropped like rubies

Upon the dark green sod;

For the waving of the forests,

I thank Thee, O my God!

For the sound of waters gushing
In bubbling beads of light;
For the fleets of snow-white lilies
Firm anchored out of sight;