The verdant arch, the garland gay,
Decking each pathway round?"

"Twas thus an aged peasant ask❜d, And thus he was replied:

"Our Prince, good friend, will visit us, Ere morrow's bright noon-tide."

"Oh would," he cried, "as much of time, As much of zeal were giv'n,

That men would thus prepare to meet,
The glorious Prince of Heav'n."

"Prince of a Land where weeds ne'er grow,
But corn a boundless store;
Where streams of milk and honey flow,
And joy's full cup runs o'er."

"What went ye out for to see ?"-MATT. xi. 8.

The morrow dawn'd with sunny beams,
And zephyrs mildly fann'd,
While ev'ry heart beat high to greet
The Prince of Britain's land.

Assembled thousands throng the road,
"God save the Prince!" they cry;

And loyal shouts from loyal hearts,
Resound through earth and sky.

I love my Prince, I love my land,
I love such loyal glee,

But with the peasant thus I mused—
"What went ye out to see?"

A reed, a frail, a mortal reed,

Soon wither'd by the storm:
Oh! wherefore should we homage thus,
"Man of a woman born;"

While yet the heart neglects to pay
The fealty that we owe,

To that bless'd Prince of endless day,
"From whom all blessings flow!”

THE KING OF TERRORS.

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff shall comfort me."-Ps. xxiii. 4.

I NEVER felt the shudd'ring sigh,

The dread of Terror's King,

Though I have thought his presence nigh
And life upon the wing.

I never view his fatal grasp,

And fear as many do:

A few short hours, and we have pass'd
The shaded valley through.

His iron sway is quickly o'er,

It ceases at the tomb:

The pang, the pain, are but the door
To everlasting doom.

And if through Christ victorious,

We can triumphant sing,

And rise to life all-glorious,

Of Death where is the sting?

Why should his short-liv'd presence blanch
The Christian pilgrim's cheek?

Oh! is there not a rod and staff

For all the faint and weak?

"Tis but Death's shadow that we meet,
The substance is not there;

Or well the soul might dread his greet,
And shrink in wild despair!

THE GODLESS.

"What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath day?" "Having no hope and without God in the world."-NEH. xiii. 17.— EPHES. ii. 12.

I SAT in my home, and a sound reach'd mine ear, That told the profane and the Godless were near:

P

Loud accents of mirth and profanity rose
And broke the deep calm of the Sabbath's repose.

"Can this be," I said, "the day of the Lord-
The day He hath hallow'd and bless'd by His word?
The day to the courts of His House to repair,
And honour His name by thanksgiving and pray'r?"

E'en "calling it holy," " delight,” and a praise! "Not speaking our own words" "nor doing our ways;" "Not finding our PLEASURE," but seeking to know The path of the just, and salvation from woe.

Oh! is it a day for "to get and to gain,”*
And bind the soul faster in misery's chain?
Its calm rest disturb with—" to buy" and "to sell” !-
And godless sounds mingle with sweet Sabbath-bell ?"

Then pass'd I his house, there was resting within-
Not rest of the sabbath-not ceasing from sin-
But rest of the eyelids, to hasten away

The wearisome hours of the Lord's hallow'd day.

These cases are neither imaginary nor exaggerated. Frequently a summer Sabbath eve reminds the writer of a village-fair; and loud voices and peals of merriment-the cry of oysters, fruits, &c.-fall harshly and discordantly on the ear, especially and painfully so to one accustomed to the subdued tones, the orderly walking to and fro, the peaceful rest, and stillness of a country Sabbath. "I have been young," observed from the pulpit, the Rev. W. A......h, "and now am old, yet never saw I such desecration of the Sabbath as at the present day. Mark but the suburbs of our own town."

I paus'd to enquire and found poverty deep

In want and its murm'rings its inmates did steep :
In vain they rose early, and late they took rest-
Their Sabbaths were pray'rless-their labours unblest!

I pass'd by another, and revelry's voice

Rose high o'er the bells as they called to rejoice
In courts of the Lord, in the home of His love—
Blest emblem below of His mansions above.

I ask'd-and was told that no blessing was giv'n : Oft sorrow dwelt there, with dissension and leav'n. "Sure fruits," I exclaim'd," of a Sabbath mispent, Deserts of the worldling without God content."

I gazed on the tavern: there stood at its door
A wreck of humanity, ghastly and poor :
The wife of his bosom was urging away,
And as he reel'd onward her arm was his stay.

I pictur'd his home-and saw misery there,
Sad squalid disease, and pale penury's care;
And I said, “a life godless, 'neglect of Lord's day,'
"No blessing e'er brings to the children of clay."

ASSEMBLING TOGETHER.

"Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness."