"THY WORD IS A LAMP UNTO MY FEET." 41 My trembling soul and Thou, my God, How much Thy holy Law I love! My lamp and light In the dark night. REV. R. M. M'CHEYNE. Ω DIFFERING AGES-DIFFERING DUTIES. WONDER not at those, who first Forsook the crowded walks of men, And in the cloister and the glen, Their days in contemplation nurst; The monk, the lonely eremite, Whose lives to solitude were given, That naught of earth might cloud the heaven To which they journeyed from their sight. In rocky cave, in convent cell, They hid, their fear, lest aught should win Their steps again to walk, with sin, The smooth, enticing path to hell. DIFFERING AGES-DIFFERING DUTIES. 43 Yet not remote from human ill, Nor shut secluded from the strife, The Christian truly lives his life Or does the Master's hallowed will; 1 But in the tumult and the throng, Where hunger, want, and moans distress, Nor turns from common tasks aside, Be mine within the Master's field The round of Christian work to lead, That faith made manifest by deed, May fruitage to the gleaning yield. Yet would I not those monks condemn, 44 DIFFERING AGES-DIFFERING DUTIES. They nursed the sick, they fed the poor, And through long mediæval night, Not ours to mete their life's award, Their life, that age !-perchance 'twas best; Nor without hope their ashes rest, Till that great day which brings the Lord. But in these days of restless mind, When to and fro the many run, And knowledge circles with the sun, My labour lies among mankind. Those tasks my Lord will have me do, Making life beautiful and still, For pattern, keeping Him in view. REV. W. T. MATSON. THE HUMAN HEART. HOU hast been call'd to God, rebellious heart, By many a joy which came and did depart, Mocking thy weeping, frail worm that thou art, For that thou didst not fear to call them thine. Thou hast been call'd, when o'er thy trembling head The storm in all its fury hath swept by; When the loud ocean rose within its bed, And whelmed, with greedy roar, the struggling dead, Who never more may greet thine anxious eye. Thou hast been call'd, when, beautiful and bright, Where thy God's presence beams eternal day. |