And draws our dim glances to skyward, away from thy laurels of black:

Thank God that whatever the darkness that covers his crea

ture's dim sight,

He always vouchsafes some deliverance, throws some one a sweet ray of light;

Thank God that the strength of His goodness from dark depths ascended on high,

And carried the souls of the suffering away to the realms of the sky;

Thank God that his well-tempered mercy came down with the clouds from above,

And saved one from out the destruction, and him by the angel of love.

James Freeman Clashe

"

NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH.

I.

New heavens! new earth! where are ye? Evermore
Cold skies, hard land, oppress the weary heart!

O seer, who gazed from Patmos' island-shore
Into the future, when shall these depart?

II.

Earth, in her circular path among the stars,
Bears the same burden still of sin and woe;

And through an orbit of recurring wars

The disunited church must falter slow.

III.

O, for new heavens! new light our mind to lead,
New strength from God to nerve the palsied arm,

New life from Christ to animate our dead,

New love our souls to enlarge, our hearts to warm!

IV.

Must we forever tread this barren way

Repeat the fruitless round of old routine,
Where no new dawn proclaims the advancing day,
No tender spring clothes earth anew with green?

V.

Believe we rather in the coming sweet

Of Christ on earth, the living Christ, to reignWhen saints, by creeds divided now, shall meet, And his one church all churches shall contain.

VI.

The lofty portals of these heavens expand,
The everlasting doors are lifted high;
And troops of angels at the gateway stand,

To welcome in redeemed humanity.

VII.

How long, dear mother! holy church, how long!

From Austrian prison, Alabama's shore,

The oppressed, with fainting hearts their cries prolong :
Come, city of our God, nor leave us more!

HOW TO JUDGE.

"Judge the people by their actions"-'tis a rule you often get— "Judge the actions by their people" is a wiser maxim yet. Have I known you, brother, sister? have I looked into your heart?

Mingled with your thoughts my feelings, taken of your life my part?

Through the warp of your convictions sent the shuttle of my

thought,

Till the web became a Credo, for us both, of Should and

Ought?

Seen, in thousand ways, your nature, in all act and look and speech?

By that large induction only, I your law of being reach.
Now I hear of this wrong action—what is that to you and me?
Sin within you may have done it-fruit not nature to the tree.
Foreign graft has come to bearing-mistletoe grows on your
bough-

If I ever really knew you, then my friend I know you now.
So I say "He never did it "-or "He did not so intend"—
Or, "Some foreign power o'ercame him "-so I judge the
action, friend!

Let the mere outside observer note appearance as he can;
We, more righteous judgment passing, test each action by its

man.

RIVIERA DI PONENTE.

On this lovely Western shore, where no tempests rage and roar,
Over olive-bearing mountains, by the deep and violet sea,
There, through each long, happy day, winding slowly on our

way,

Travelers from across the ocean, toward Italia journeyed we,—
Each long day that, richer, fairer,
Showed the charming Riviera.

Where black war-ships doze at anchor, in the bay or VillaFranca,

Eagle-like, gray Esa, clinging to its rocky perch, looks down; And upon the mountain dim, ruined, shattered, stern, and grim, Turbia sees us through the ages, with its austere Roman frown,

While we climb where cooler, rarer

Breezes sweep the Riviera.

Down the hillside steep and stony, through the old streets of Mentone,

Quiet, half-forgotten city of a drowsy prince and time,

Through the mild Italian midnight, rolls upon the wave the

moonlight,

Murmurs in our dreams the cadence of a strange Ligurian rhyme,―

Rhymes in which each heart is sharer,
Journeying on the Riviera.

When the morning air comes purer, creeping up in our vettura,
Eastward gleams a rosy tumult with the rising of the day;
Toward the north, with gradual changes, steal along the moun-

tain ranges

Tender tints of warmer feeling, kissing all their peaks of gray, And far south the waters wear a

Smile along the Riviera.

Helmed with snow, the Alpine giants at invaders look defiance,
Gazing over nearer summits, with a fixed, mysterious stare,
Down along the shaded ocean, on whose edge in tremulous
motion

Floats an island, half-transparent, woven out of sea and air;-
For such visions, shaped of air, are
Frequent on our Riviera.

He whose mighty earth-quake tread all Europa shook with dread,

Chief whose infancy was cradled in that old Tyrrhenic isle,

Joins the shades of trampling legions, bringing from remotest

regions

Gallic fire and Roman valor, Cimbric daring, Moorish guile,

Guests from every age to share a

Portion of this Riviera.