MONDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK.

So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.-GENESIS xi. 8.

SINCE all that is not heaven must fade,
Light be the hand of Ruin laid
Upon the home I love:
With lulling spell let soft Decay
Steal on, and spare the giant sway,
The crash of tower and grove.

Far opening down some woodland deep
In their own quiet glade should sleep
The relics dear to thought,

And wild-flower wreaths from side to side
Their waving tracery hang, to hide
What ruthless Time has wrought.

Such are the visions green and sweet
That o'er the wistful fancy fleet
In Asia's sea-like plain,
Where slowly, round his isles of sand,
Euphrates through the lonely land
Winds toward the pearly main.

Slumber is there, but not of rest;
There her forlorn and weary nest

The famished hawk has found,
The wild dog howls at fall of night,
The serpent's rustling coils affright
The traveller on his round.

What shapeless form, half lost on high,
Half seen against the evening sky,
Seems like a ghost to glide,

And watch, from Babel's crumbling heap,
Where in her shadow, fast asleep,

1

Lies fallen imperial pride? 1

With half-closed eye a lion there
Lies basking in his noon-tide lair,
Or prowls in twilight gloom.
The golden city's king he seems,
Such as in old prophetic dreams?
Sprang from rough ocean's womb.

But where are now his eagle wings,
That sheltered erst a thousand kings,
Hiding the glorious sky

From half the nations, till they own
No holier name, no mightier throne ?
That vision is gone by.

Quenched is the golden statue's ray,3
The breath of heaven has blown away
What toiling earth had piled,
Scattering wise heart and crafty hand,
As breezes strew on ocean's sand
The fabrics of a child.

Divided thence through every age
Thy rebels, Lord, their warfare wage,
And hoarse and jarring all

Mount up their heaven assailing cries
To thy bright watchmen in the skies
From Babel's shattered wall.

1 See Sir R. K. Porter's Travels, ii. 387. "In my second visit to Birs Nimrood, my party suddenly halted, having descried several dark objects moving along the summit of its hill, which they construed into dismounted Arabs on the look out: I took out my glass to examine, and soon distinguished that the causes of our alarm were two or three majestic lions, taking the air upon the heights of the pyramid."

Thrice only since, with blended might
The nations on that haughty height
Have met to scale the heaven:
Thrice only might a Seraph's look
A moment's shade of sadness brook-
Such power to guilt was given.

Now the fierce Bear and Leopard keen1
Are perished as they ne'er had been,
Oblivion is their home:

Ambition's boldest dream and last
Must melt before the clarion blast
That sounds the dirge of Rome.

Heroes and Kings, obey the charm,
Withdraw the proud high-reaching arm,
There is an oath on high,

That ne'er on brow of mortal birth
Shall blend again the crowns of earth,
Nor in according cry

Her many voices mingling own
One tyrant Lord, one idol throne:
But to His triumph soon

He shall descend, who rules above,
And the pure language of His love2
All tongues of men shall tune.

Nor let ambition heartless mourn;
When Babel's very ruins burn,

Her high desires may breathe;-
O'ercome thyself, and thou mayest share
With Christ his Father's throne,3 and wear
The world's imperial wreath.

KEBLE.

1 Daniel vii. 5, 6.

2 Then will I turn the people to a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent.-Zeph. iii. 9. 8 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne.-Rev. iii. 21.

ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?-2 KINGS v. 26.

Is this a time to plant and build,

Add house to house, and field to field,
When round our walls the battle lowers,
When mines are hid beneath our towers,
And watchful foes are stealing round
To search and spoil the holy ground?

Is this a time for moonlight dreams
Of love and home by mazy streams,
For Fancy with her shadowy toys,
Aerial hopes and pensive joys,

While souls are wandering far and wide,
And curses swarm on every side?

No-rather steel thy melting heart
To act the martyr's sternest part,
To watch, with firm unshrinking eye
Thy darling visions as they die,
Till all bright hopes, and hues of day,
Have faded into twilight gray.

Yes-let them pass without a sigh,
And if the world seem dull and dry,
If long and sad thy lonely hours,
And winds have rent thy sheltering bowers,
Bethink thee what thou art, and where,
A sinner in a life of care.

KEBLE.

SAINT MATTHEW'S DAY.

And after these things, He went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He said unto him, Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed Him.-ST. LUKE V. 27, 28.

YE hermits blest, ye holy maids,
The nearest heaven on earth,
Who talk with God in shadowy glades,
Free from rude care and mirth;
To whom some viewless teacher brings
The secret lore of rural things,

The moral of each fleeting cloud and gale,
The whispers from above, that haunt the twilight vale:

Say, when in pity ye have gazed

On the wreathed smoke afar,

That o'er some town, like mist upraised,
Hung hiding sun and star,
Then as ye turned your weary eye

To the green earth and open sky,

Were ye not fain to doubt how Faith could dwell

Amid that dreary glare, in this world's citadel?

Go

But Love's a flower that will not die
For lack of leafy screen,

And Christian Hope can cheer the eye
That ne'er saw vernal green :

Then be ye sure that Love can bless
Even in this crowded loneliness,

Where ever-moving myriads seem to say,

thou art nought to us, nor we to thee

There are, in this loud stunning tide
Of human care and crime,

With whom the melodies abide

Of the everlasting chime;

away!