!

And yet a deeper woe,

For the watchers by the bed,
Where the fondly lov'd, in pain lay low,
And rest forsook the head.

For the mother, doom'd unseen to keep
By the dying babe her place,
And to feel its flitting pulse, and weep,
Yet not behold its face!

Darkness, in chieftain's hall !
Darkness, in peasant's cot!

While Freedom, under that shadowy pall,
Sat mourning o'er her lot.

Oh! the fireside's peace we well may prize,
For blood hath flow'd like rain,
Pour'd forth to make sweet sanctuaries
Of England's homes again!

Heap the yule-faggots high,

Till the red light fills the room!

It is home's own hour, when the stormy sky
Grows thick with evening gloom.

Gather ye round the holy hearth,

And by its gladdening blaze,

Unto thankful bliss we will change our mirth,
With a thought of the olden days.

HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS.

OH! lovely voices of the sky

Which hymn'd the Saviour's birth,

Are ye not singing still on high,

Ye that sang,

"Peace on earth"?

To us yet speak the strains
Wherewith, in time gone by,
Ye bless'd the Syrian swains,
Oh! voices of the sky!

Oh! clear and shining light, whose beams
That hour Heaven's glory shed,
Around the palms, and o'er the streams,
And on the shepherd's head,

Be near, through life and death,
As in that holiest night

Of hope, and joy, and faith

Oh clear and shining light!

Christ Stilling the Tempest.

Oh! star which led to IIim, whose love
Brought down man's ransom free-
Where art thou?-'midst the host above,
May we still gaze on thee?

In heaven thou art not set,

Thy rays earth may not dim;
Send them to guide us yet,

Oh! star which led to Him!

197

CHRIST STILLING THE TEMPEST.

"BUT the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves; for the wind was contrary."-St. Matthew, xiv. 24.

FEAR was within the tossing bark,
When stormy winds grew loud;
And waves came rolling high and dark,
And the tall mast was bow'd.

And men stood breathless in their dread,
And baffled in their skill—

But One was there, who rose and said
To the wild sea, "Be still!"

And the wind ceased-it ceased!-that word
Pass'd through the gloomy sky;

The troubled billows knew their Lord,

And sank beneath his eye.

And slumber settled on the deep,
And silence on the blast,

As when the righteous falls asleep,
When death's fierce throes are past.

Thou that didst rule the angry hour,
And tame the tempest's mood-
Oh! send thy spirit forth in power,
O'er our dark souls to brood!

Thou that didst bow the billow's pride,
Thy mandates to fulfil-

Speak, speak to passion's raging tide,
Speak and say-"Peace, be still!

CHRIST'S AGONY IN THE GARDEN.

He knelt the Saviour knelt and pray'd,
When but His Father's eye

Look'd through the lonely garden's shade,
On that dread agony!

The Lord of all, above, beneath,

Was bow'd with sorrow unto death.

The sun set in a fearful hour,

The skies might well grow dim,
When this mortality had power

So to overshadow Him!

That He who gave man's breath might know,
The very depths of human woe.

He knew them all-the doubt, the strife,
The faint perplexing dread,
The mists that hang o'er parting life,
All darken'd round his Head!
And the Deliverer knelt to pray-
Yet pass'd it not, that cup, away.

It pass'd not-though the stormy wave
Had sunk beneath His tread;

It pass'd not-though to Him the grave
Had yielded up its dead.

But there was sent Him from on high

A gift of strength, for man to die.*

And was His mortal hour beset

With anguish and dismay?—

How may we meet our conflict yet,

In the dark, narrow way?

How, but through Him, that path who trod?

Save, or we perish, Son of God!

"And there appeared an angel unto Him from Heaven, strengthening

Him."- St. Luke xxii. 43.

THE SUNBEAM.

THOU art no lingerer in monarch's hall,
A joy thou art, and a wealth to all'
A bearer of hope unto land and sea-
Sunbeam! what gift hath the world like thee?

Thou art walking the billows, and Ocean smiles-
Thou hast touch'd with glory his thousand isles-
Thou hast lit up the ships and the feathery foam,
And gladden'd the sailor, like words from home.

To the solemn depths of the forest-shades,
Thou art streaming on through their green arcades,
And the quivering leaves that have caught thy glow,
Like fire-flies glance to the pools below.

I look'd on the mountains-a vapour lay
Folding their heights in its dark array;
Thou brakest forth-and the mist became
A crown and a mantle of living flame.

I look'd on the peasant's lowly cot-
Something of sadness had wrapt the spot;
But a gleam of thee on its casement fell,
And it laugh'd into beauty at that bright spell.

To the earth's wild places a guest thou art,
Flushing the waste like the rose's heart;
And thou scornest not, from thy pomp to shed
A tender light on the ruin's head.

Thou tak'st through the dim church-aisle thy way,
And its pillars from twilight flash forth to-day,
And its high pale tombs, with their trophies old,
Are bathed in a flood as of burning gold.

And thou turnest not from the humblest grave,
Where a flower to the sighing winds may wave;
Thou scatterest its gloom like the dreams of rest,
Thou sleepest in love on its grassy breast.

Sunbeam of summer! what is like thee?
Hope of the wilderness, joy of the sea!--
One thing is like thee, to mortals given,-
The faith, touching all things with hues of Heaven.

THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS.

YES, thou hast met the sun's last smile,
From the haunted hills of Rome;

By many a bright Ægean isle,

Thou hast seen the billows foam;

From the silence of the Pyramid

Thou hast watch'd the solemn flow Of the Nile, that with its waters hid The ancient realm below:

Thy heart hath burn'd as shepherds sung
Some wild and warlike strain,
Where the Moorish horn once proudly rung
Through the pealing hills of Spain:

And o'er the lonely Grecian streams
Thou hast heard the laurels moan,
With a sound yet murmuring in thy dreams
Of the glory that is gone.

For o'er the snows, and round the pines,
Hath swept a noble flood;

The nurture of the peasant's vines
Hath been the martyr's blood!

A spirit, stronger than the sword,
And loftier than despair,

Through all the heroic region pour'd,
Breathes in the generous air.