ing,
And, in the winds from unsunned spaces blown,
I hear far voices out of darkness calling
My feet to paths unknown;

Thou who hast made my home of life so pleasant,
Leave not its tenant when its walls decay;
O Love Divine, O Helper ever present,
Be thou my strength and stay!

Be near me when all else is from me drifting:
Earth, sky, home's pictures, days of shade and shine,
And kindly faces to my own uplifting
The love which answers mine.

I have but Thee, my Father! let thy spirit
Be with me then to comfort and uphold;
No gate of pearl, no branch of palm I merit,
Nor street of shining gold.

Suffice it if--my good and ill unreckoned,
And both forgiven through thy abounding grace--
I find myself by hands familiar beckoned
Unto my fitting place.

Some humble door among thy many mansions,
Some sheltering shade where sin and striving cease,
And flows forever through heaven's green expansions
The river of thy peace.

There, from the music round about me stealing,
I fain would learn the new and holy song,
And find at last, beneath thy trees of healing,
The life for which I long.

--John Greenleaf Whittier.

READY

I would be ready, Lord,
My house in order set,
None of the work thou gavest me
To do unfinished yet.

I would be watching, Lord,
With lamp well trimmed and clear,
Quick to throw open wide the door,
What time thou drawest near.

I would be waiting, Lord,
Because I cannot know
If in the night or morning watch
I may be called to go.

I would be waking, Lord,
Each day, each hour for thee;
Assured that thus I wait thee well,
Whene'er thy coming be.

I would be living, Lord,
As ever in thine eye;
For whoso lives the nearest thee
The fittest is to die.

--Margaret J. Preston.

THALASSA! THALASSA!

I stand upon the summit of my life,
Behind, the camp, the court, the field, the grove,
The battle and the burden; vast, afar
Beyond these weary ways, behold the Sea!
The sea, o'erswept by clouds and winds and waves;
By thoughts and wishes manifold; whose breath
Is freshness and whose mighty pulse is peace.

Palter no question of the horizon dim--
Cut loose the bark! Such voyage, it is rest;
Majestic mot