THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

FATHER of all! in every age,

In every clime adored, By saint, by savage, and by sage, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!

Thou great First Cause, least understood,

Who all my sense confined To know but this, that Thou art good, And that myself am blind;

Yet gave me, in this dark estate,
To see the good from ill;
And binding nature fast in fate.
Left free the human will.

What conscience dictates to be done, Or warns me not to do,

This, teach me more than hell to shun,

That, more than heaven pursue.

What blessings Thy free bounty gives,

Let me not cast away;

Let not this weak, unknowing hand
Presume thy bolts to throw,
And deal damnation round the land
On each I judge Thy foe.

If I am right, Thy grace impart
Still in the right to stay;
If I am wrong, oh, teach my heart
To find that better way!

Save me alike from foolish pride,
Or impious discontent,
At aught Thy wisdom has denied,
Or aught Thy goodness lent.

Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see:
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.

Mean though I am, not wholly so,
Since quickened by Thy breath;
Oh, lead me wheresoe'er I go,

Through this day's life or death!

This day, be bread and peace my lot: All else beneath the sun,

Yet not to earth's contracted span
Thy goodness let me bound,
Or think Thee Lord alone of man,
When thousand worlds are round.

And let Thy will be done.

To Thee, whose temple is all spaee,
Whose altar, earth, sea, skies!
One chorus let all Being raise!
All Nature's incense rise!

THE OLD STORY.

By the pleasant paths we know
All familiar flowers would grow,
Though we two were gone;
Moon and stars would rise and set,
Dawn the laggard night forget,

And the world move on.

Spring would carol through the wood, Life be counted sweet and good, Winter storms would prove their While the seasons sped; [might, Winter frosts make bold to bite, Clouds lift overhead.

Still the sunset lights would glow,
Still the heaven-appointed bow
In its place be hung;

Not one flower the less would bloom,
Though we two had met our doom,
No song less be sung.

Other lovers through the dew
Would go, loitering, two and two,

When the day was done;
Lips would pass the kiss divine,
Hearts would beat like yours and
mine,

Hearts that beat as one.

JUST when we think we've fixed the golden mean,

The diamond point, on which to balance fair

Life and life's lofty issues, weighing there,

With fractional precision, close and keen,

Thought, motive, word and deed, there comes between

Some wayward circumstance, some jostling care,

Some temper's fret, some mood's unwise despair,

To mar the equilibrium, unforeseen, And spoil our nice adjustment! Happy he,

Whose soul's calm equipoise can know no jar,

Because the unwavering hand that holds the scales,

OURS.

NATURE'S LESSON.

PAIN is no longer pain when it is past;

And what is all the mirth of yesterday,

More than the yester flush that paled away,

Leaving no trace across the landscape

cast

Whereby to prove its presence

there? The blast

Been frustrate, had not Patience stood between,

Divinely meek: Ánd let us learn that man,

Toiling, enduring, pleading, — calm,

serene,

For those who scorn and slight, is likest God.

THE SHADOW.

its sway,

And rent the lissome ash, the forest

thyst

no less Than bliss of beauty, passionately Through rush of tears that leaves the landscape dim,—

aspirations viewless

As yon cloud-blotted hills: hopes that shone bright

world be sad?"

II. NIGHT.

I PRESS my cheek against the window-pane,

And gaze abroad into the blank, black space

night

Are gulfed, the impenetrable mists

before:

"O weary world!" I cry, "how

dare I think

Thou hast for me one gleam of gladness more ?"