I.

Light from Beyond.

B

.

LEAD kindly, Light, amid the encircling gloom,

Lead Thou me on.

The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on.

Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene-one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
Should'st lead me on.

I loved to choose and see my path-but now
Lead Thou me on.

I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.

So long Thy power hath blessed me, sure it still
Will lead me on,

O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone.

And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

J. H. NEWMAN.

I.

LIGHT FROM BEYOND.

OF all things, men dislike most being gloomy.

Rightly so, for the most fortunate have

Animal

troubles enough to need some counterpoise of pleasure. Our first thought is living; our next, living happily. None of us like cloudy weather if we can get blue sky. The difficulty is, to find happiness worth the name. spirits only serve in health and sunshine; let the body droop, or affairs get wrong, or trials enter our circle, and they leave us when we need them most. Competence, or wealth, are as unsatisfying, for they, too, fail us, when the heart is overshadowed. They can do much to soothe and temper pain, but only within certain limits, and are wholly worthless when the soul is sick. An embroidered slipper will not ease an aching foot, nor a costly ring an ailing finger. A crown may make the temples throb,

but cannot cure them, and a velvet robe may hide a heavy heart, but cannot touch its sorrow. Pleasure, sought for its own sake, is only a mocking shadow-a dream that serves us till it break, but leaves us the lonelier after all. Companions, amusements, study, dissipation, are only diversions of our thoughts from cares and heaviness that wait till we return again into ourselves, to burden us afresh. After all, it is not what is round, but what is in us; not what we have, but what we are, that makes us really happy. We want a cheery fire on the hearth of our own spirits; a fire always clear-always at our command. Without that, we have to go abroad for comfort, and we return only to find our bosoms dark and cold. The mind is its own place, and must find its happiness in itself, or remain discontented, whatever its outward lot.

Thank God, we are not left to vain regrets. and disappointments. What this life fails to give, is richly furnished by the life beyond. He who made us knows our wants, and has provided for them. Comfort, encouragement, and support, in every change and circumstance of our condition, are ever near us in the great and