Eternity

The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.-I COR. IV. 18.

ETERNITY! Eternity!

How wonderful Thou art,

Wide as the Sea of Deity,
And narrow as a heart!

The pulses of Eternity

Are throbbing everywhere:
Time holds Eternity in fee,
And thus becomes so fair.

Each moment is Eternity,

Mother of mighty years,

Whose chariot is Infinity,

Whose steeds are smiles and tears.

Eternity! Eternity!

The Present, Future, Past,

Forever are but one to Thee,—
Thou art the First, the Last.

All life contains Eternity,

Where sight through truth abounds :
Clothed, clothed with Christ's humility,
I see His pleading wounds.

Illumined by Eternity,

How very new they are,
Those wounds as of Humanity,
No more, no more afar!

The mansion of Eternity

Is built in every breath;

And into it despairingly

Look the great eyes of Death.

Eternity! Eternity!

How prodigal Thou art,
Calm, uncreated Mystery,

The WHOLE in every part!

It is not by our feet or change of place that we leave Thee, or return to Thee. Nor did that younger son of Thine look out for horses or chariots, or ships, and fly with visible wings, or journey by the motion of his limbs, that he might in a far country waste in riotous living all Thou gavest at his departure. A loving Father Thou wert when Thou gavest; but more loving unto him wert Thou when he returned empty.

We forget that Thou art everywhere, whom no place encompasseth! that Thou alone art near even to those that remove far from Thee. O Lord, help us to turn and seek Thee; for not as we have forsaken our Creator hast Thou forsaken Thy creation.

Our good only lives with Thee; when we

turn away from Thee we are perverted. Let us, then, O. Lord, return, that we may not be overturned; because with Thee good lives without any decay, for Thou art good; nor need we fear lest there be no place whither to return, because we fell from it; for our mansion-Thy Eternityfell not when we left Thee.-ST. Augustine.

In my solitary and retired imagination, I remember that I am not alone, and therefore forget not to contemplate Him and His attributes who is ever with me, especially those two mighty ones, His wisdom and eternity: with the one I recreate, with the other I confound my understanding; for who can speak of eternity without a solecism, or think thereof without an ecstacy?

St. Peter speaks modestly, when he saith, a thousand years to God are but as one day; for to speak like a philosopher, those continued instances of time which flow into a thousand years, make not to Him one moment: what to us is to come, to His eternity is present, His whole duration being but one permanent point, without succession, parts, flux or division. SIR THOMAS BROWNE,

Part Third.

Wey-Notes.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.-ST. MATTHEW V. 16.

Every man has two educations,-one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives himself.-GIBBON.

Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed; be anything else and you will be ten thousand times worse than nothing.

-SIDNEY SMITH.

The mill-streams that turn the clappers of the world arise in solitary places. SIR ARTHUR HELPS.

I never was anything, dearest, till I knew you; and I have been a better, happier, and more prosperous man ever since. Lay by that truth in lavender, sweetest, and remind me of it when I fail.

- HOOD (to his wife).

The paternal hearth, that rallying-place of the affections.

-WASHINGTON IRVING.

The body has its rights and it will have them. They cannot be trampled upon or slighted without peril. The body ought to be the soul's best friend, and cordial, dutiful helpmate.-HARE BROTHERS.

( 152 )