'Tis vain to wish for solid happiness,
It cannot live in such a soil as earth;
Experience shews me, that unsullied bliss
Is an exotic of celestial birth.

Then why should objects of a transient date,
Employ these powers design'd for nobler joys;
And why should blessings so divinely great,
Be held in contrast with mere trifling toys?

Time bears me onward to the world above,
'Tis only there that sweet perennials grow,
And from the fountain of eternal love
Refreshing streams through all its borders flow.

O happy land of never fading light!
Would that the warfare of this world was o'er !
How gladly would I take my farewell flight,
Cross the dark flood, and gain thy peaceful shore.

My best affections are already there,

And soon, how soon! th' unshackled soul would be
Released from all disquietude and care,

And rais'd to light and immortality!

Then onward let me press with strength renewed,
Content a little longer here to roam-

Till, every foe o'ercome, and sin subdued

I burst my fetters and reclaim my home!

Lambeth.

CATHERINE.

BLISS.

SAY, where shall bliss be found? in vain we scale
Etherial heights, or tread the lowly vale;
O'er ocean's foaming crest direct our course,
Or track the rushing torrent to its source,
Pace the wild desert o'er, or hardier try
To brave the horrors of a polar sky;
Pierce the thick umbrage of primeval woods,
Or thread the mazes of the silver floods.
In vain Golconda spreads her glittering store
Of adamantine gems renowned of yore,
That, like the spangles on night's glowing vest,
Each in its turn irradiates the rest.

In vain, Arabia spreads her balmy strand,

Ten thousand odours deck her spicy land;

And sable Afric pours her gold in vain, JO7

And spreads her treasures on the arid plain.

In vain we seek it here, in vain we roam,
And find full oft this earth is not our home;
That real bliss, an inmate of the skies,
The scenes of mingled strife and error flies; f
That nought below can satisfy the soul,
And only he who formed can make it whole.

E. S. E.

Secure an interest in the sinner's Friend.

Reader! be this thy first, thy constant care,

Trust thou in Christ alone, and thou shalt share

Pardon and peace on earth, and joys above,
Where nought but praise is heard, nought felt but love.

HEREAFTER.

EAR hath not heard the songs that rise

From heav'n's adoring companies,

Eye hath not dared that burning light
Where saintly myriads "walk in white,"
Nor can the heart's imaginings
Conceive of half these glorious things.

Yet this we know-the straitened heart
Though now we witness but in part,
Ere long will overflow with bliss,
For we shall see Him as he is;
Him, who ascended up on high,
And captive led captivity.

THE

YOUTHS' MAGAZINE;

OR

Evangelical Miscellany.

DECEMBER, 1842.

TEMPLE AT QUOM OMBOS.

THE sacred buildings of Egypt throw very considerable light on the architectural details of the Bible; for it is notorious that not only the inhabitants of that country, but of almost every other, borrowed the idea of their temples from that of Solomon. Nor is it only in the plans of their religious edifices that we have this marked resemblance; their palaces and other buildings being oftentimes strikingly similar in their construction and arrangement.

The subject of our present cut furnishes an illustration of this last remark, as it elucidates, in an exceedingly interesting manner, the account given in the book of Kings, of "the house of the forest of Lebanon," built by Solomon. The description, which possesses all the accuracy necessary to convey a correct idea of its appearance, independently of any graphic aid, is nevertheless brought out more vividly by a reference to the annexed ground-plan and elevation, copied from Norden, and representing what he calls "Les antiquités de Komonbu," or as it is now more usually written, Quom Ombos.