star was shining down,
With a soft and silvery light.

A war-worn wanderer was he,
And absent many a year
From the cottage-home he fain would see,
From that resting-place where he would be,
The spot to memory dear.

It rose at last upon his view,
(Old times were thronging round him,)
The lattice where the jasmine grew,
The meadow where he brush'd the dew
When youth's bright hopes were round him.

But faces new, and sadly strange,
Were in that cottage now;
Cold eyes, that o'er his features range,
For time had wrought a weary change
Upon the soldier's brow.

And some there were--the lov'd--the dead--
Whom he no more could see,
From this cold changing world were fled,
And they had found a quiet bed
Beneath the old yew tree.

And thither too--the wanderer hied,
Night-dews were falling fast,
This is my "welcome home" he cried,
And the chill breezes low replied
In murmurs as they pass'd.

They whispering said, or seem'd to say,
No lasting joys to earth are given,
No longer near these ashes stray,
Go, mourner! hence, away! away!
Thy lost ones are in heaven.

_Kirton, Lindsey._ ANNE R.

* * * * *

RELIGIOUS FASTINGS.

From the remotest ages of antiquity most nations have practised
fasting to keep the wrath of God from falling upon them for their
sins. Some celebrated authors even affirm that fasting was originated
by Adam after he had eaten of the forbidden fruit; but this obviously
is carrying their arguments, in favour of fasting, too far, though it
is as certain that the Jewish churches practised it from their first
formation. The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and the Assyrians held the
"solemn fast" in high favour. The Egyptians, according to Herodotus,
before they offered in sacrifice the cow to Isis, to purify themselves
from impurities, fasted and prayed. This custom he also ascribes to
the Cyrenian women. Porphyry relates that the fasts of the Egyptians
were sometimes continued for six weeks, and that the shortest ordained
by their priests was seven days, during which they abstained from
nearly all kinds of food. These rites they communicated to the Greeks,
who observed these fasts more strictly, and with more outward show and
solemnity. The Athenians likewise observed stated fasts, two of which
were named "the Elusinian and Thesmoporian fasts;" the observation
of these f