"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever"
HEBREWS xiii. 8.

In life's young morning blue-eyed promise smiled
O'er a fair future of enchanting grace,
And sweet toned love the golden hours beguiled,
And Fortune's radiant smile illumed the place.

But change, dread vulture, swooped upon her prey.
And seized my treasures as Time's car sped on,
Then traitor love took wings, and fled away.
And long ere noon I wept a setting sun.

Then Phoenix-like, beside the smoldering pile,
Kind friendship rose with open, outstretched hands,
But, ere I grasped them, death with icy smile
Had rudely snapp'd in twain the three-fold bands.

E'en while I mourned, I heard a thrilling voice
That said in stirring accents, "Up! arise!
Work, that in harvest time thou mayest rejoice!"
And Fame stood pointing to the brightening skies.

Then dreams, false phantoms, filled the gloaming air
And lured me, spell-bound, by a labyrinth maze,
But morning beams awakened new despair—
The meteor glories passed in mist and haze.

Through shady groves I strayed, and on before
Walked high-browed Knowledge, calm-eyed and severe
Unwearied still, I trod his footprints o'er,
But fainting fell, the longed-for prize anear.

Hard-smitten then, I wept; all woe-all gloom!
The heart-void still unfilled, ached keen and sore,
When through the inky darkness shot a gleam
Of new-born glory, unrevealed before.

Dear Lord! How frail these bauble-toys of Time
When Thy "forever" dawns upon the heart;
Thy perfect fullness, Saviour, how divine,
E'en while we taste its blessedness in part!
Still yesterday, to-day, while ages roll
In grand, eternal vastness, still the same,
Oh! potent Healer! every whit made whole,
I sing glad Hallelujah to Thy name!

THE OLD TRYSTING PLACE.

"Die erste Liebe ist die beste."

Through the green boughs the golden sunshine falling
Glints on the glades and lonely woodland bowers;
Bird answers bird, through the wide woodlands calling,
In the deep hush of the calm summer hours.

The limpid river winding through the meadows,
Laughing and sparkling in the sunny noon,
Takes peaceful tones here, 'neath the beeches' shadows,
And sings sweet idylls in low, fitful tune.

Songs of the olden days, of hopes and pleasures,
Songs of the love of youth's glad morning times,
That sigh around our path like dream-world treasures,
Soothing as music of the vesper chimes.

The rustic bridge, the leaves' soft shadows playing
Down in the water-depths, and from away
'Mong the blue hills, come mingled echoes straying,
The pleasant sounds that fill the summer day.

Aburnum's gold, and quivering beech-leaves blending,
Sway, dancing in the breezes, to and fro;
Wild hyacinths, their blue heads lowly bending,
Listen the secrets of the winds to know.

Oh! quaint old trysting-place! oh! lights and shadows,
And sounds that haunt the dreams of Life's glad May!
Dreams withered like the May-flowers in the meadows
Or roses of the Junes long passed away.

Here, oft in dreams, I see my own true maiden,
The pure flower-face, the rippling golden hair;
Ah! many years have roll'd past, sorrow-laden,
Since blue-eyed Edmee waited for me there!

Ah! murmuring brook, with waving willow fringes,
Ah! woodland picture, all your charmed glow
Is touched and changed by Truth's own sober tinges,
Tints that youth's eager eyes see not, nor know.

Fraught with these gleams of old-time faith and feeling,
Fraught with the memory of "what might have been,"
A still, small voice says all is God's wise dealing,
Behind the clouds is brightness yet unseen.

Young love and hope in all their matchless glory,
Smile on our morning-time, then fade away;
Teaching unwilling hearts the sad, true story,
No lasting joy is here, all knows decay.

"Die erste Liebe ist die beste," leaving
A holy radiance round the scenes we knew;
A potent power to point lone spirits, grieving,
To deathless Love whose charms are ever new.

It ever shows, "in part," in sweet tuition,
What we shall know when we have gained the light,
When all our highest hopes fade in fruition,
Where the Eternal Summer beameth bright.