budding hopes--when Summer with the music of
its birds and the perfume of its flowers, and melancholy Autumn, with
its faded leaf and sighing winds, shall have chased each other down
the tide of time, and the cold blasts of Winter have begun to chill
the life-blood in thy veins--when the hand that penned these lines
shall be mouldering in dust, and the friends of thy youth who
journeyed with thee along the pathway of life, and who cheered thee
with the music of their voices and the light of their smiles have,
perchance, one by one passed away, and left thee to journey on in
loneliness of heart, when the light of thine own eye shall have become
dimmed, and thy sunny hair whitened by the frosts of age--when thy
voice, which was wont to gush forth in melody and song, entrancing
the ear and cheering the heart of the listener, has become weak and
tremulous, and care and sorrow have set their seal upon thy brow.
Oh, then may the recollection of no misspent hours, of no neglected
opportunities for doing good, or wasted privileges, arise like dim
meteors from the tomb to haunt thee with their reproach, but may the
smiles of an approving conscience beam upon thee; may sweet peace and
hope administer the balm of consolation to thy wounded spirit; may
angels hover o'er the couch of thy repose, and fan thee with their
balmy wings, and when thy tired spirit shall burst its prison house of
clay,

May they bear it to mansions of the blest,
There to repose on Jesus' breast;
From every pain and sorrow free,--
This is the boon I ask for thee.

Beauties of Nature.

This is indeed a beautiful world. As we sit by our window, and gaze
out upon the landscape that lies spreads out, diversified by hill and
dale, and and waving tree and murmuring rivulet; as we listen to the
warbling of the birds, the dreamy hum of the insects, and the low
whispering of the soft summer air, as it floats by, redolent with
perfume of flowers, we are deeply impressed with the truth, that the
Being, who could create such a world, must be a great and glorious
Being, before whom we ought to humble ourselves in deep humility.

Yet the little that we are able to behold at one view, is but as a
grain of sand upon the sea-shore, compared with the vast world that
lies stretched out beyond our vision. Diversified by lofty mountains,
whose snow-capped summits tower far up towards the blue vault of
heaven, and are covered with perpetual clouds and mists