A SUMMER DAY IN WINTER.

THE winter wears a summer hue

The sun is on the wave;

The sky is one unclouded blue;
The winds forget to rave;

The feathery frost melts fast away
From every glittering stem;

And cottage eaves in morning's ray
Are dropping gold and gem.

That ray

the silver feet unlocks,

Of all the tiny floods ;

They leap again down o'er their rocks,

And prattle through the woods.

The cattle in the field rejoice,
The birds upon the wing,

And from the brake a doubtful voice
Half warbles, Welcome Spring!

The wave that flew o'er yester cliff,
Is sleeping 'neath it now;

And from its creek the summer skiff

The anchored ships, their voyage o'er, Shake out their sails to dry :

The fisher spreads his nets on shore, Beneath the glowing sky.

The old man from his chimney nook

Creeps out into the sun :

All Nature wears her own sweet look

Of spring-tide just begun.

O earth, all fallen as thou art,

How soon thy darkest day

Can into life and beauty start
Beneath thy monarch's ray!

Nor less the contrast that awakes

The wintry soul within,

When, Lord, thy gladdening Gospel breaks On nature's night of sin?

The Sun of Righteousness ascends;

The clouds and storms depart;

And heaven..born Grace implants and tends

Her Eden in the heart.

Yet earth's best joys are brief and base
To those which Heaven supplies;

A summer smile on winter's face,
A gleam through clouded skies.

I would not spurn these wayside flowers, That strew my pathway home;

But look through all to heavenly hours, And bid their fulness come.

G

"JESUS WEPT."

ENLARGED FROM BEDDOME.

DID Christ o'er sinners weep ?

And shall our cheeks be dry?

Let floods of penitential grief

Burst forth from every eye.

The Son of God in tears

The angels wondering see:

Hast thou no wonder, O my soul?
He shed those tears for thee!

He wept that we might weep, Might weep our sin and shame, He wept to shew His love for us, And bid us love the same.