DEVOTIONAL POETRY.

A HYMN OF PRAISE.

[Montgomery

O God, thou art my God alone,
Early to thee my soul shall cry,
A pilgrim in a land unknown,

A thirsty land whose springs are dry.

Oh, that it were as it hath been,
When, praying in the holy place,
Thy power and glory I have seen,
And mark'd the footsteps of thy grace!

Yet, through this rough and thorny maze,
I follow hard on thee, my God;
Thine hand, unseen, upholds my ways,
I safely tread where thou hast trod.

Thee, in the watches of the night,
Will I remember on my bed;

Thy presence makes the darkness light, Thy guardian wings are round my head

Better than life itself thy love,

Dearer than all beside to me; For whom have I in heaven above,

Or what on earth compar'd with Thee?

Praise with my heart, my mind, my voice,
Will I for all thy mercies give;
My soul shall still in God rejoice,
My tongue shall bless thee whilst I live

THE ETERNITY OF GOD.

[Rowe

THOU didst, O Mighty God, exist

Ere time began its race;

Before the ample elements
Filled up the voids of space:

Before the ponderous earthly globe
In fluid air was stayed;

Before the ocean's mighty springs
Their liquid stores displayed.

Ere men adored, or angels knew,
Or praised thy wondrous name;

1

Thy bliss, O sacred Spring of life
And glory were the same.

And when the pillars of the world,
With sudden ruin, break;
And all this vast and goodly frame
Sinks in the mighty wreck :

When from her orb the moon shall start,
The astonish'd sun roll back;
While all the trembling starry lamps
Their ancient course forsake:

For ever permanent and fixed,
From agitation free;
Unchanged, in everlasting years,
Shall thy existence be.

GOD EVERY WHERE.

[Anonymous.

ABOVE-below-where'er I gaze,
Thy guiding finger, Lord, I view,
Traced in the midnight planets' blaze,
Or glistening in the morning dew;
Whate'er is beautiful or fair,
Is but thine own reflection there.

I hear thee in the stormy wind,

That turns the ocean-wave to foam; Nor less thy wondrous power I find,

When summer airs around me roam; The tempest and the calm declare Thyself, for thou art every where.

I find thee in the noon of night,
And read thy name in every star,
That drinks its splendour from the light
That flows from mercy's beaming car:
Thy footstool, Lord, each starry gem
Composes not thy diadem.

And when the radiant orb of light

Hath tipped the mountain-tops with gold, Smote with the blaze my weary sight Shrinks from the wonders I behold: That ray of glory bright and fair, Is but thy living shadow there.

Thine is the silent noon of night,

The twilight eve-the dewy morn;
Whate'er is beautiful and bright,

Thine hands have fashioned to adorn:
Thy glory walks in every sphere,
And all things whisper, "God is here!"

THE BIBLE OUR ONLY TRUE
GUIDE.

[Montgomery

WHAT is the world ?-a wildering maze, Where sin hath tracked ten thousand ways,

Her victims to insnare;

All broad, and winding, and aslope,
All tempting with perfidious hope,
Ali ending in despair.

Millions of pilgrims throng these roads,
Bearing their baubles or their loads
Down to eternal night;
One only path that never bends,
Narrow, and rough, and steep, ascends
From darkness into light.

Is there no guide to show that path?
The Bible! He alone who hath
The Bible need not stray;
But he who hath, and will not give
That light of life to all that live,
Himself shall lose the way.