The Missionary.—W. B. TAPPAN. ONWARD, ye men of prayer! Scatter, in rich exuberance, the seed, Whose fruit is living bread, and all your need To him, child of the bow, The wanderer of his native Oregon, Tell of that Jesus, who, in dying, won The peace-branch of the skies-salvation for His foe. Unfurl the banneret On other shores,-Messiah's cross bid shine O'er every lovely hill of Palestine; Fair stars of glory that shall never set. Seek ye the far-off isle; The sullied jewel of the deep, O'er whose remembered beauty angels weep, Go, break the chain of caste; Go, quench the funeral pyre, and bid no more Look up, thou East, thy night is overpast. To heal the bruised, speed; Oh, pour on Africa the balm Of Gilead, and, her agony to calm, Whisper of fetters broken, and the spirit freed. And thou, O Church, betake Thyself to watching, labour-help these men: God shall thee visit of a surety, when Thou'rt faithful: Church that Jesus bought, awake, awake! Missions.-MRS. SIGOURNEY. LIGHT for the dreary vales Of ice-bound Labrador! Where the frost-king breathes on the slippery sails. And the mariner wakes no more; Lift high the lamp that never fails, Light for the forest child! An outcast though he be, From the haunts where the sun of his childhood smiled, Pour the hope of Heaven o'er his desert wild, Light for the hills of Greece! Where the rage of the spoiler refused to cease If the Moslem hath dealt the gift of peace, Light on the Hindoo shed! On the maddening idol-train, The flame of the suttee is dire and red, And the dying moan on their cheerless bed, Light for the Persian sky! The Sophi's wisdom fades, And the pearls of Ormus are poor to buy Hark! Hark! 'tis the sainted Martyn's sigh Light for the Burman vales! For the islands of the sea! For the coast where the slave-ship fills its sails And her kidnapped babes the mother wails 'Neath the lone banana-tree! Light for the ancient race Exiled from Zion's rest! Homeless they roam from place to place, Benighted and oppressed; They shudder at Sinai's fearful base; Light for the darkened earth! Ye blessed, its beams who shed, Shrink not, till the day-spring hath its birth, Till, wherever the footstep of man doth tread Shall gild the dream of the cradle-bed, From its lingering gloom, For the aged to rest his weary head. The Fear of Madness.*-LUCRETIA MARIA DAVIDSON. THERE is a something which I dread; It steals along with withering tread, That thought comes o'er me in the hour Oh! may these throbbing pulses pause, Be cold, and motionless, and still, * The Matin Hour of Prayer.-ANONYMOUS. THIS cool and fragrant hour of prime, My matin hour of praise shall be, Sweet, solitary praise, and prayer. * These lines, expressing her fears of insanity, were written by this interesting girl while confined to her bed in the last stage of consumption. They were unfinished, and the last she eyer composed.-ED. "Twill gird my spirit for the fight, The glare, the strife, of this world's way; Weak, tempted, weary, lone, and sad,— 'Tis never, never vain to pray. This cool and fragrant hour of prime; The stillness, the repose, the peace, Where breaketh an eternal day. Ere falls the stealing step of dawn, The night's soft dew on her brown wings, Upriseth from her nest the lark, And, soaring to the sunlight, sings. Thus may my soul sing on, and soar Where sight tracks not her flight sublime, Morn, noon, sweet eve, and ever in This cool and fragrant hour of prime. For, though the world enclose me round, Then let my soul sing on, and soar Sing on and soar, sing on and soar, Till, through the crystal gates of heaven, No longer closed in upper skies, Thou enter in to sing, Forgiven! Song.* FROM YAMOYDEN. SLEEP, child of my love! be thy slumber as light > As the dew drops that sparkle around with the ray. O, soft flows the breath from thine innocent breast; He forsakes, or surrounds with his phantoms of dread. I fear for thy father! why stays he so long On the shores where the wife of the giant was thrown, And the sailor oft lingered to hearken her song, So sad o'er the wave, e'er she hardened to stone. He skims the blue tide in his birchen canoe, Where the foe in the moon-beams his path may descry; The ball to its scope may speed rapid and true, And lost in the wave be thy father's death cry! The Power that is round us-whose presence is near, And shield thee, when roughly life's billows shall roll! Solitude.-MRS. SIGOURNEY. DEEP solitude I sought. There was a dell *We cannot determine whether the authorship of this beautiful song belongs to Mr. Eastburn or Mr. Sands. From a comparison of its character with that of some other pieces by Mr. Eastburn, which the reader will find in this volume, we should be inclined to attribute it to him. He and his friend were but youthful poets when Yamoyden was composed; the former being but twenty-two, the latter only eighteen.-ED. |