he laborer walks abroad, and turns to see,
With favoring look, the toilings of his hand,
And fruits of labor rising from the land;
The rustic lovers saunter in the fields,
To talk of love and reap the joy it yields.
The tower-clock now the worship-hour relates,
And every church the worshipper awaits.
Then thither come the cottar and his wife,
(Once fair, now furrowed with the cares of life,)
With sons and daughters; and, behind them near,
The jovial farmer and his wife appear.
Then comes the county squire; till the seats,
One after one, are full. Then shortly meets
The people's eager eye the tranquil face
Of their beloved pastor, in his place.
He kneels to God, and in deep fervour prays
A sweet and powerful prayer; then he lays
The open Bible down, and well expounds
The message of the Saviour's love, till bounds,
For truths so hallowed, every tending heart
In joy. Then praise is sung; a ready part
Takes every voice to raise a worthy song,
Which breaks from seat to seat the aisle along.
Then kneel the people by the throne of grace
To take the blessing, ere they part to pace
Again the world's besetting path. It falls
Among them like as dew upon the palls
Of parched flowers, to raise and nourish in
The hour of need the vital spark within.

* * * * *

Sweetest and fairest, hallowed day of rest!
"Peace" is thy banner and thy mottoed crest--
An open boon to all. The weary wait--
The weary wait and sigh to see the gate
Of dawn admit thee forth in eastern sky.
The merchant's daughter, as each morn goes by,
Looks on the scenes without, and counts the days
That fly--six, five, four, three, two, one--and lays
A hopeful joy upon the day to come,
When she shall by her father sit, and some
Inspiring volume read, or, in a walk
Through wood or vale, employ the time in talk,
Sweet and instructively. The widow waits
To see her son come home, and anxious gets
When near the hour has drawn that she shall hear
The step of her sole comforter draw near,
With whom on earth she findeth sweetest joy.
The orphans wait, and every night employ
A time in prayer, that God be pleased to spare
Their elder brother, and bestow him fair
And happy days. They long the Sabbath day;
For then he comes among them, and doth lay
A cheerful spirit to the humble home;
Pure and delicious truths he tells them from
A flowing heart, and they all love him well.
All people love the Sabbath--they who