EVERY merely human joy hath its last day, but it is not so with spiritual and divine joys, for theirs is an eternal day.

We often look with regret on past joys, as they depart from us, but we forget that every new day has a joy, which is continually advancing to meet us.

Clowes.

HOPE, with uplifted foot, set free from earth,
Pants for the place of its ethereal birth,
On steady wing flies thro' th' immense abyss,
Plucks amaranthine joys from bowers of bliss,
And crowns the soul, while yet a sufferer here,
With wreaths like those angelic spirits wear.

Cowper.

It often happens that those are the best people whose characters have been injured by slanderers, as we usually find that to be the sweetest fruit which the birds have been pecking at.

Swift.

EVERY possible change in our natural and social position and circumstances must be intended by Providence to afford us a fuller opportunity of advancing in the regenerate life. Surely this ought to content us; even though it be a change from wealth to poverty, from

health to sickness, from joy to sorrow, or from possession to privation of any kind.

"Hints to Moral Culture."-Intellectual Repository.

THE TEAR.

'Tis more than it seems; for a soul that dwells
In man, sent it forth from her secret cells;
And who art thou, who with scornful eye,
Passest aught of her deep-hid treasure by?
Tho' pale the watery brilliant may shine,
Go thou and search in its native mine :
For there are jewels that may not be sold,
For all the wealth of Potosi's gold;
Choicer than fairest pearls that be,
In the coral caves of the deep blue sea;
And above the price of the brightest gem,
That flames in Golconda's diadem.
Tell not of diamonds, go number all
The changing tints of that tremulous ball;
As light or dark o'er that mirror they fly,
While the shadows of life are fleeting by.
"Tis tender joy! hast thou seen it start,
Thro' fair young eyes, from a warm young heart?
As the sweetest flower sheds from petals of gold,
One nectar drop more than its breast can hold.
"Tis balm that has dropped from a wounded tree,
In some eastern grove so fragrantly,—
For another's wound that balm is blest,
And pity's home is the stricken breast.
'Tis spray, in an ocean's mystic roar,
A far-coming wave has flung it ashore;

Ah! who that billow shall call by name?
Or fathom the deep from whence it came?
'Tis essence, exhaled from a spirit that lies
In the furnace wherein heaven purifies;
A drop that clings to a vessel of clay,
Ere it higher rise and dissolve away.

"Tis the silent rain of a penitent shower,
There's joy in Heaven in that mournful hour,
And every drop how holy and fair!
Lo! the covenant bow is glowing there,
And the Eden the dove is hovering o'er,
Rises to sink in the deluge no more.

S. M. Waring, Esq.

WE should always be kind to any attempt at amendment. An idle sneer or look of incredulity has often been the death of many a good resolve.

Bulwer.

ADHERE always rigidly and undeviatingly to the truth, but while you express what is true, express it in a pleasing manner. Truth is the picture; the manner is the frame which displays it to advantage.

Si vous voulez que la lampe d'amitié reste allumée, ayez soin d'y mettre de l'huile.

THEY who are in charity, that is, in love towards their neighbor, from which love is delight in pleasures, which is living delight, do not regard the enjoyment of pleasures except for the sake of use; for charity is no charity unless there be works of charity, inasmuch as charity consists in exercise or use; wherefore a life of charity is a life of uses; such is the life of the whole heaven; for the kingdom of the Lord, because it is a kingdom of mutual love, is a kingdom of uses, therefore every pleasure which is from charity receives its delight from use, and the more distinguished the use is, so much the greater is the delight; hence it is that the angels receive happiness from the Lord according to the essence and quality of use.

Swedenborg.

ON A SUN DIAL.

As o'er the dial flits the rapid shade,

So speed the hours of life's eventful day;

As from the plate thou see'st the shadows fade,
Time unimproved flies tracelessly away.

Let thy bright hours like sun-beams call forth flowers,
Truth, mercy, justice, holiness and love,

Here they may droop beneath affliction's showers,

Doubt not their fragrance shall ascend above.

Lady Flora Hastings.

THE LUNAR RAINBOW.
THOU moonlit arch of softest light,
That on the tearful clouds of night,
Restest so tranquilly;

I love to see thy fragile form,
Bending in beauty o'er the storm,
And smiling from on high.

The watery clouds that float on high,
Shrouding in gloom the midnight sky,
Are brightened by thy bow!

And thus in sorrow's darkest hour,
Some light of heaven breaks thro' with power,
And gilds the tears of woe.

There is no lot in life below,

No scene of anguish and of woe,
To us poor mortals given;

However dark and dull the hue,
But has its bow of promise too,

Its ray of light from heaven.

J. H.

AFFLICTIONS are messengers sent from heaven to wean us from indulging too much in the joys of this world.

Mutability of Human Life.

THE mind sheds its own hue on everything around it, and, as it were, with the wand of a magician, converts a paradise into a desert and a desert into a paradise.

Ely Bates.