dy, I hear dim sounds afar
Dripping from some diviner star;
Dim sounds of joyous harmony,
It is my mates that sing, and I
Must drink that song or break my heart--
Body, I pray you, let us part.

"Comrade, your frame is worn and frail,
Your vital powers begin to fail;
I long for life, but you for rest;
Then, Body, let us both be blest.
When you are lying 'neath the dew
I'll come sometimes, and sing to you;
But you will feel no pain nor woe--
Body, I pray you, let me go."

Thus strove a Being. Beauty fain,
He broke his bonds and fled amain.
He fled: the Body lay bereft,
But on its lips a smile was left,
As if that spirit, looking back,
Shouted upon his upward track,
With joyous tone and hurried breath,
Some message that could comfort Death.

--Danske Dandridge.

THE THREE FRIENDS

Man in his life hath three good friends--
Wealth, family, and noble deeds;
These serve him in his days of joy
And minister unto his needs.

But when the lonely hour of death
With sad and silent foot draws nigh,
Wealth, then, and family take their wings,
And from the dying pillow fly.

But noble deeds in love respond,
"Ere came to thee the fatal day,
We went before, O gentle friend,
And smoothed the steep and thorny way."

--From the Hebrew, tr. by Frederic Rowland Marvin.

AN OLD LATIN HYMN

How far from here to heaven?
Not very far, my friend;
A single hearty step
Will all thy journey end.

Hold, there! where runnest thou?
Know heaven is _in_ thee!
Seek'st thou for God elsewhere?
His face thou'lt never see.

Go out, God will go in;
Die thou, and let him live;
Be not, and he will be;
Wait, and he'll all things give.

I don't believe in death.
If hour by hour I die,
'Tis hour by hour to gain
A better life thereby.

--Angelus Silesius, A. D. 1620.

The chamber where the good man meets his fate
Is privileged beyond the common walk
Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven.

--Edward Young.

Life-embarked, out at sea, 'mid the wave-tumbling roar,
The poor ship of my body went down to the floor;
But I broke, at the bottom of death, through a door,
And, from sinking, began for ever to soar.

--From the Persian.

Truths that wake to peri