, though ne'er so dim,
In all that walk, or fly, or swim.

All Father! who on Mercy's throne
Hear'st thy dumb creatures' faintest moan,--
Thy love be ours, and ours shall be
Returned in deeds to thine and Thee.

REV. H. BERNARD CARPENTER.

* * * * *

EXULTING SINGS.

Sweet morn! from countless cups of gold
Thou liftest reverently on high
More incense fine than earth can hold,
To fill the sky.

_The lark by his own carol blest_,
From thy green harbors eager springs;
And his large heart in little breast
Exulting sings.

The fly his jocund round unweaves,
_With choral strain the birds salute
The voiceful flocks_, and nothing grieves,
And naught is mute.

To thousand tasks of fruitful hope,
With skill against his toil, man bends
And finds his work's determined scope
Where'er he wends.

From earth, and earthly toil and strife,
To deathless aims his love may rise,
Each dawn may wake to better life,
With purer eyes.

JOHN STERLING.

* * * * *

IN HOLY BOOKS.

In holy books we read how God hath spoken
To holy men in many different ways;
But hath the present worked no sign nor token?
Is God quite silent in these latter days?

The word were but a blank, a hollow sound,
If He that spake it were not speaking still;
If all the light and all the shade around
Were aught but issues of Almighty Will.

So, then, _believe that every bird that sings_,
And every flower that stars the elastic sod,
And every thought the happy summer brings,
To the pure spirit is a word of God.

HARTLEY COLERIDGE.

* * * * *

THE BELL OF ATRI.

At Atri in Abruzzo, a small town
Of ancient Roman date, but scant renown,
One of those little places that have run
Half up the hill, beneath a blazing sun,
And then sat down to rest, as if to say,
"I climb no farther upward, come what may,"--
The Re Giovanni, now unknown to fame,
So many monarchs since have borne the name,
Had a great bell hung in the market-place
Beneath a roof, projecting some small space,
By way of shelter from the sun and rain.
Then rode he through the streets with all his train,
And, with the blast of trumpets