Drunk at the Schoolhouse Door.
DRUNK AT THE SCHOOLHOUSE DOOR.
[On seeing a Sunday School Scholar drunk outside the door
of the School on the Sabbath.]
RUNK! yes, drunk at the schoolhouse door;
The boy we had watched and pondered o'er!
Drunk on the Sabbath, crouching here
Like a scolded hound, or a stricken deer.
Leaning helplessly 'gainst the wall;
Only fourteen, yet he fears to fall;
Sick and sad with his drunken spree;
What will the end of this young life be?
An orphan boy, yet no pitying thought
Stayed the hand which the mischief wrought!-
Money from orphans, money from wives,
Money's the goal of the publicans' lives.
On a Sabbath day in this Christian land,
The shops are shut by the law's command,
Save those wherein strong drink is sold-
The drinksellers needs must earn much gold.
Only a terrible lust for gain,
Could blind these men to the judgment, plain,
Which falls on the guilty, cruel head
Of him who will rob the orphan's bread.
Alas! poor erring, fallen youth,
Wandering far from hope and truth,
How shall we win thee back once more,
To enter in at the schoolhouse door?
Lord, for Thy straying lambs and sheep,
Teach us to work as well as to weep;
Help us to quench the distillery fires-
We shall shout for joy as the last expires.
Help us to rescue thy priceless grain
From hands that would spoil it to poison the brain;
Help us to shut upon each Sabbath day
The shops that entice men from worship away.
Help us to banish from corner and street
Dreadful temptations Thy little ones meet;
Help us to teach men to conquer this foe,
Onward, and upward, and heavenward, to go.
THE MERRY HEART.
CHARLES SWAIN.
'TIS However short we stay:
IS well to have a merry heart,
There's wisdom in a merry heart,
Whate'er the world may say.
Philosophy may lift its head
And find out many a flaw,
But give me the philosophy
That's happy with a straw.
If life but bring us happiness,
It brings us, we are told,
What's hard to buy, though rich ones try
With all their heaps of gold.
Then laugh away, let others say
Whate'er they will of mirth;
Who laughs the most may truly boast
He's got the wealth of earth.
There's beauty in a merry laugh,
A moral beauty, too:
It shows the heart's an honest heart,
That's paid each man his due;
And lent a share of what's to spare,
Despite of wisdom's fears,
And made the cheek less sorrow speak,
The eye weep fewer tears.
The sun may shroud itself in cloud,
The tempest-wrath begin;
It finds a spark to cheer the dark,
Its sunlight is within.
Then laugh away, let others say
Whate'er they will of mirth;
Who laughs the most may truly boast
He's got the wealth of earth.
WITHIN AND WITHOUT.
BRYAN WALLER PROCTER.
HE winds are bitter; the skies are wild;
From the roof cones plunging the drowning
Without,-in tatters, the world's poor child
Sobbeth abroad her grief, her pain!
No one heareth her, no one heedeth her :
But Hunger, her friend, with his bony hand
Grasps her throat, whispering huskily—
66 What dost Thou in a Christian land?"
The skies are wild, and the blast is cold;
Yet riot and luxury brawl within :
Slaves are waiting, in silver and gold,
Waiting the nod of a child of sin.
The fire is crackling, wine is bubbling
Up in each glass to its beaded brim :
The jesters are laughing, the parasites quaffing
Happiness,"-"honour,”—and all for him!
She who is slain in the winter weather,
Ah! she once had a village fame;
Listened to love on the moonlit heather;
Had gentleness-vanity-maiden shame:
Now, her allies are the tempest howling;
Prodigals' curses; self-disdain;
Poverty; misery: Well,-no matter;
There is an end unto every pain!
He who yon lordly feast enjoyeth,
He who doth rest on his couch of down,
He it was who threw the forsaken
Under the feet of the trampling town; Liar-betrayer,-false as cruel,
What is the doom for his dastard sin?
His peers, they scorn?-high dames, they shun him -Unbar yon palace, and gaze within.
There, yet his deeds are all trumpet-sounded,
There, upon silken seats recline
Maidens as fair as the summer morning,
Watching him rise from the sparkling wine.
Mothers all proffer their stainless daughters;
Men of high honour salute him "Friend;"
Skies! oh, where are your cleansing waters?
World! oh, where do thy wonders end?
(Fron "English Songs and Other Small Poems."
London: Chapman & Hall.)
"What I spent, I had; what I kept,
I lost; what I gave, I have!"
EVERY coin of earthly treasure
We have lavished, upon earth,
For our simple worldly pleasure,
May be reckoned something worth;
For the spending was not losing,
Though the purchase were but small;
It has perished with the using;
We have had it, that is all!
All the gold we leave behind us
When we turn to dust again,
(Though our avarice may blind us),
We have gathered quite in vain;
Since we neither can direct it,
By the winds of fortune tossed,
Nor in other worlds expect it;
What we hoarded, we have lost.
But each merciful oblation-
(Seed of pity wisely sown),
What we gave in self-negation,
We may safely call our own;
For the treasure freely given
Is the treasure that we hoard,
Since the angels keep in heaven
What is lent unto the Lord!
[SUPPOSED TO BE SPOKEN BY AZARIAH, A PRINCE OF ISRAEL.] JOSEPH DARRAH.
H the heart of a mother is sad when her son
the heart of a to captivity's pains,
But far sadder our hearts were when Babylon's king
From our fatherland bore us in chains.
And we gazed on the hills of our lovely Judea,
As they slowly grew dim to the view;
And our eyes filled with tears, and our voices were low, As we bade them a loving adieu !
And we thought of bright Jordan, our beautiful stream,
On whose banks groweth ev'ry fair tree;
And of Lebanon's cedars, of Zion's blest mount,
And the waves of our loved Galilee.
"Fare-thee-well! O thou land of our fathers," we cried, "But thy fields we can never forget!"
And we breathed a deep prayer that the sun of her power Might arise bright and glorious yet.
For the Lord had withdrawn from His people His smile,
And our armies like corn were mown down;
All the strength that defied the invader had fled,
And our monarch was robbed of his crown.
Yet our captor, great Nebuchadnezzar, desired
That the princes before him should stand;
And he ordered his eunuchs to give us to eat
Of the daintiest meat in the land;
And to drink of the choicest and costliest wine,
That our cheeks might be comely and red;
"But we never will eat of the king's dainty meat,
Neither drink of his wine," Daniel said.
Then the chief of the eunuchs (who loved him right well) Strove to alter this holy design;
"For your faces," he said, "will be ruddy and bright, If ye drink of the pure sparkling wine.
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