Death of a Child.

1 Life is a span,--a fleeting hour:
How soon the vapor flies!
Man is a tender, transient flower,
That e'en in blooming dies.

2 The once-loved form, now cold and dead,
Each mournful thought employs;
And nature weeps, her comforts fled,
And withered all her joys.

3 Hope looks beyond the bounds of time,
When what we now deplore
Shall rise in full, immortal prime,
And bloom to fade no more.

4 Cease, then, fond nature, cease thy tears;
Thy Saviour dwells on high;
There everlasting spring appears;
There joy shall never die.

585. 7s. & 6s. M. Anonymous.

Children in Heaven.

1 In the broad fields of heaven,--
In the immortal bowers,
By life's clear river dwelling,
Amid undying flowers,--
There hosts of beauteous spirits,
Fair children of the earth,
Linked in bright bands celestial,
Sing of their human birth.

2 They sing of earth and heaven,--
Divinest voices rise
To God, their gracious Father,
Who called them to the skies:
They all are there,--in heaven,--
Safe, safe, and sweetly blest;
No cloud of sin can shadow
Their bright and holy rest.

586. S. M. Wilson.

Death of a Young Girl.

1 What though the stream be dead,
Its banks all still and dry!
It murmurs o'er a lovelier bed,
In air-groves of the sky.

2 What though our bird of light
Lie mute with plumage dim;
In heaven I see her glancing bright,
I hear her angel hymn.

3 True that our beauteous doe
Hath left her still retreat,
But purer now in heavenly snow,
She lies at Jesus' feet.

4 O star! untimely set!
Why should we weep for thee!
Thy bright and dewy coronet
Is rising o'er the sea.

587. 7s. M. Anonymous.

Dirge for an Infant.

1 Lay her gently in the dust;
Grievous task, but oh! ye must!
Hear the sentence, "earth to earth,
Spirit to immortal birth;"
Youthful, gentle, undefiled,
Angels nurture now the child!

2 Upward soaring, like the dove,
Bearing with her chains of love;
Not to draw her spirit back,
But to smooth her upward track:
Her, the youngest of thy fold,
Angels watch with love untold!

3 With the Rock of Ages tru