Worship .... ......J. G. Whittier 393 | | On the Death of the Poet Drake The Vision of a Temple ........ Robert Browning 394 Autumn--and Life's Autumn .. John Barleycorn ........ Burns 396 The First Grief .... Mrs. Hemans 397 The Spirit-Land .. Mrs. Hemans 413 Burial of the Dead ........ Keble 398 Noon .......... ....F. Tennyson 414 Hymn to the Nativity ,... Milton 399 Home and Friends .... C. Swain 415 Human Life ............ Rogers 405 To a Withered Tree in June .... The Two Angels...... Longfellow 406 NOTICE.—This work is designed to form a collection of the choicest Poetry in the English Language. Nothing but what is really good Aamu Many parts being out of print, a SECOND EDITION of BEAUTIFUL POETRY, revised, is now in course of publication. It will be issued in weekly numbers, at 3d. and monthly parts, at 1s., until it overtakes the current number. The first number is now ready. SACRED Poetry is now complete in one vol., price 38. cloth, 5s. handsomely bound. WIT and Humour, a Collection of the best things of the kind, is now ready, complete in one vol., price 48. 6d., cloth. SELECTIONS IN FRENCH LITERATURE is now complete in one vol., price 1s. 6d.. ADVERTISEMENTS. As BEAUTIFUL Poetry is a good medium for Advertisements, and as only a few can be inserted, the following is the Scale of Charges:— 8. d. Under 20 words ........... ..... 2 0 For every 10 words above 20...... 0 6 Shortly will be published, demy 8vo., price 58. NHURCH FURNITURE and DECORATIONS, being a Descriptive Guide in the selection and arrangement of Church Fittings and Ornaments, extracted from the Clerical Journal and Church and University Chronicle. With additional Engravings and Plates. By the Rev. EDWARD L. CUTTS. B. A., Honorary Secretary of the Essex Archæological Society: Author of "The Manual of Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses," published under the sanction of the Central Committee of the Archeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, &c. Copies may be obtained, postage free, direct from the publisher, or by order of any bookseller. Jonn CROCKFORD, 29, Essex-street, Strand. WORSHIP. A fine composition by John G. WHITTIER, a poet of America. “Pure religion, and undefiled, before God and the Father, is this: To visit the widows and the fatherless in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”—James i. 27. THE Pagan's myths through marble lips are spoken, And ghosts of old Beliefs still flit and moan Round fane and altar overthrown and broken, O'er tree-grown barrow and grey ring of stone. Blind Faith had martyrs in those old high places, The Syrian hill-grove and the Druid's wood, With mothers offering to the Fiend's embraces Bone of their bone, and blood of their own blood. Red altars, kindling through that night of error, Smoked with warm blood beneath the cruel eye Of lawless Power and sanguinary Terror, Throned on the circle of a pitiless sky; Beneath whose baleful shadow, overcasting All heaven above, and blighting earth below, And man's oblation was his fear and woe! Of dirge-like music and sepulchral prayer ; Pale wizard priests, o'er occult symbols droning, Swung their white censers in the burden'd air : As if the pomp of rituals, and the savour Of gums and spices, could the Unseen please ; As if His ear could bend, with childish favour, To the poor flattery of the organ keys ! Feet red from war-fields trod the church-aisles holy With trembling reverence; and the oppressor there, Kneeling before his priest, abased and lowly, Crush'd human hearts beneath his knee of prayer. Not such the service the benignant Father Requireth at his earthly children's hands : Not the poor offering of vain rites, but rather The simple duty man from man demands. VOL II. For Earth he asks it: the full joy of Heaven Knoweth no change of waning or increase; Untroubled flows the river of His peace. He asks no taper lights, on high surrounding The priestly altar and the saintly grave. No dolorous chant nor organ music sounding, Nor incense clouding up the twilight nave. For he whom Jesus loved hath truly spoken: The holier worship which he deigns to bless Restores the lost, and binds the spirit-broken, And feeds the widow and the fatherless! Types of our human weakness and our sorrow! Who lives unhaunted by bis loved ones dead ? Who, with vain longing, seeketh not to borrow From stranger eyes the home lights which have fled ? Oh, brother man ! fold to thy heart thy brother; Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there; To worship rightly is to love each other, Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer. Follow with reverent steps the great example Of Him whose holy work was “ doing good;" So shall the wide earth seem our Father's temple, Each loving life a psalm of gratitude. Then shall all shackles fall; the stormy clangor Of wild war music o'er the earth shall cease ; Love shall tread out the baleful fire of anger, And in its ashes plant the tree of peace! THE VISION OF A TEMPLE. A passage from a reinarkable poem by ROBERT BROWNING, entitled Christmas Eve and Easter Day, a work in his quaintest style, strangely mingling comedy with pathos and the purest poetry with the vilest doggerel. How well he can write this will show. What is it, yon building, |