GEMS, POETIC SELECTIONS.-THE CHILDREN'S CORNER.

Gems.

In giving alms, let us rather look at the need of the poor than his claim to our charity.

Those blessings which we are for ever expecting are the only ones which never deceive us.

It is easier to do justice to those who are no longer alive than to those who are only absent.

Those people whom we do know flatter our pride less than those whom we pretend to know.

The envious man feels as if the praise which is granted to others was taken away from his own.

To bring forward the bad actions of others to excuse our own, is like washing ourselves in mud.

Men resemble the gods in nothing so much as in doing good to their fellow creatures.

Poetic Selections.

ONLY A WORD.

A FRIVOLOUS word, a sharp retort,
A parting in angry haste-
The sun that rose on a bower of bliss,
The loving look, and the tender kiss,
Has set on a barren waste,

Where pilgrims tread, with weary feet,
Paths destined never more to meet.

A frivolous word, a sharp retort,
An arrow at random sped,

It has cut in twain the mystic tie
That had bound two souls in harmony;
Sweet Love lies bleeding or dead!
Has done a mischief sad as shame.
A poisoned shaft, with scarce an aim,

A frivolous word, a sharp retort,

Alas! for the loves and lives
So little a cause has rent apart;
Tearing the fondest heart from heart
Never to reunite again,
As a whirlwind rends and rives,

But live and die in secret pain.
A frivolous word, a sharp retort,
Alas! that it should be so!

The petulant speech, the careless tongue,
Have wrought more evil, and done more
wrong,

Have brought to the world more woe,
Than all the armies age to age
Records on history's blood-stained page.

SILENCE.

IN silence mighty things are wrought;
Silently builded, thought on thought,
Truth's temple greets the sky.
And like a citadel with towers,
The soul, with her subservient powers,
Is strengthened silently.

Soundless as chariots on the snow,
The saplings of the forest grow
To trees of mighty girth;
Each nightly star in silence burns,
And every day in silence turns

The axle of the earth.

The silent frost, with mighty hand,
Fetters the rivers of the land

With universal chain:
And, smitten by the silent sun,
The chain is loosed, the rivers run,
The lands are free again.

The Children's Corner.

THE LAST QUESTION.

A LITTLE Sabbath school boy, on his death-bed, was urging his drunken father to love the Saviour; and, fearing he had made no impression, said, "Father, I am going to heaven! What shall I tell Jesus is the reason why you don't love him ?" The father burst into tears; but before he could give the answer, his dear boy had fallen asleep in death. We hope the question sank deeply in his heart, causing him to renounce bad habits, and love the Saviour who died for all.

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