When the tapers now burn blue, And that number more than true, When the priest his last hath prayed, 'Cause my speech is now decayed, When the judgment is revealed, LESSON LXXIV. Thoughts at Midnight.-COLERIDGE. DEAR babe, that sleepest cradled by my side, Whose gentle breathings, heard in this deep calm, Fill up the interspersed vacancies And momentary pauses of the thought! Of that eternal language which thy God Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee, Or if the secret ministry of frost Shall hang them up in icicles, Quietly shining to the quiet moon. LESSON LXXV. Look not upon the Wine when it is red.—WILLIS. Look not upon the wine when it Is red within the cup! Stay not for Pleasure when she fills Her tempting beaker up! Though clear its depths, and rich its glow, A spell of madness lurks below. They say 'tis pleasant on the lip, Its rosy lights will turn to fire, Its coolness change to thirst; And, by its mirth, within the brain There's not a bubble at the brim Then dash the brimming cup aside, LESSON LXXVI. America to Great Britain.-WASHINGTON ALLSTON. ALL hail! thou noble land, Our fathers' native soil! O'er the vast Atlantic wave to our shore; For thou, with magic might, Canst reach to where the light Of Phoebus travels bright The world o'er! Though ages long have passed Since our fathers left their home, Their pilot in the blast, O'er untravelled seas to roam, Yet lives the blood of England in our veins! That blood of honest fame, Which no tyranny can tame While the language, free and bold, How the vault of heaven rung, From rock to rock repeat Round our coast; While the manners, while the arts, That mould a nation's soul, Between let ocean roll, Our joint communion breaking with the sun; Yet still, from either beach, The voice of blood shall reach, LESSON LXXVII. Memoir of Lady Huntingdon.-CHRISTIAN OFFERING. SELINA, Countess of Huntingdon, a descendant of the house of Shirley, was the daughter of Washington, earl Ferrers, and was born August 24, 1707. In early life, when only nine years old, seeing the corpse of a child about her own age carried by to the grave, she was led to attend the funeral. There she received the first impressions of deep concern respecting an eternal world; and with many tears she cried earnestly to God on the spot, that, whenever he should be pleased to call her hence, he would deliver her from all her fears, and give her a happy departure. She frequently after visited the grave, and always re tained a lively sense of the affecting scene.. Though no views of evangelical truth had hitherto opened on her mind, yet, in her juvenile days, she often retired to her closet, and, in all her little troubles, found relief in pouring out her requests unto God. When she grew up, and was introduced into the world, she constantly prayed that she might marry into a serious family. No branch of the peerage maintained more of the ancient dignity of English nobility, or was more amiable in a moral point of view, than the house of Huntingdon, which, as well as the house of Shirley, bore the royal arms of England, as descendants from her ancient monarchs. With the head of that family, Theophilus, earl of Huntingdon, she became united on the third of June, 1723. In this high estate, she maintained a deportment peculiarly serious. Though sometimes at court, and visiting in the highest circles, she took no pleasure in the fashionable follies of the great. And when in the country, she delighted to scatter her bounty among her neighbors and dependants, with a liberal hand, endeavoring, by prayer, and fasting, and alms-deeds, to commend herself to the favor of the Most High, and to establish her own righteousness before him. Lady Betty and lady Margaret Hastings, lord Huntingdon's sisters, were women of singular excellence. Lady Margaret was brought to the saving knowledge of the gospel under the preaching of the zealous Methodists of that time. Conversing one day with lady Margaret on the subject of religion, lady Huntingdon was very much struck with one expression which she uttered, that "since she had known the Lord Jesus Christ, and believed in him for life and salvation, she had been as happy as an angel." To happiness like this, arising from the favor of God, lady Huntingdon felt that she was as yet a total stranger. Soon after this circumstance, a dangerous illness brought her to the brink of the grave: the fear of death excited terrors in her mind, and her conscience was greatly distressed. |