posed, and pushing back with
her hand a stray ringlet that had fallen over her cheek, said, with a
forced but sad smile,

"Forgive my weakness, dear--I could not help it. A full heart will at
times run over. But, good-night--good-night!"

And Edith hurried away.

A few years more and the history of a hopeless, weary life was closed.
Is the moral of this history hard to read? No; all may comprehend it.

STANZAS.

Vain our hopes with pleasure glowing,
False the light ambition burns,
Swift the tide of time is flowing,
And the dial quickly turns.

Mark the flowers how they wither,
As the north winds pass them by,
And the sparrow passing thither
At the falcon's luring cry:

So our movements straight are bearing
Courses to the silent grave,
All alike its terrors sharing,
E'en the monarch and the slave.

From its verge there's no retreating,
Wayward, helpless masses throng;
Nature's wheels are still repeating
Revolutions swift and strong.

Onward with the current rushing
Atoms and their kindred blend;
Worlds to dust in fragments crushing,
As they proximate the end.

Thus all things, in perfect keeping,
Point direct to that dread day
When the trump shall wake the sleeping,
And this orb shall fade away:

When the planets wildly rolling,
As by Heaven's fierce lightnings hurled,
Thunders deep, like curfew's tolling
Requiems of the dying world:

Then shall join, in quick succession,
Stars, celestial bodies, all,
Form the trembling, vast procession
At their Maker's final call. S. S. HORNOR.

A DAY OR TWO IN THE OLDEN TIME.

BY A NEW CONTRIBUTOR.

[It is related of Justin Martyr that, while a young
man, walking upon a certain occasion on the seashore
near Alexandria, and meditating doubtfully on the
immortality of the soul, he met a stranger of
venerable appearance, who accosted him, and
discovering the subject of his thoughts, revealed to
him the doctrines of the Gospel on that subject.
Justin shortly after embraced Christianity--became one
of the brightest ornaments of the church--and suffered
martyrdom at Rome, at a very advanced age. From this
text the following sketch was produced, which may be
considered rather as a fanciful outline of what might