Emmie turned round to look into the western sky. There was a break in the line of houses; and beyond, the crimson blood-red glow resting on the horizon, the purple bars of cloud, edged with gold, the pink reflection fading away upwards, fainter and fainter into the cloudless zenith among the stars. "It is lovely," she said; "thank you for telling me. I always like to look at the sunset." She had never liked it so much, she thought, as this evening. That sky was so full of rest, so far away, so high above the little cares and vexations of the day! It made her think, she hardly knew why, of the old history she had been listening to, and the picture of the martyred girl, and the verses that Bertha had shown her in her little square, treasured book, all blended into a pleasant restful thought: "The light that hath no evening, That knows no moon nor sun, The light so new and golden, The sunlit Land that recks not Each happy Israelite." Emmie's remark must have seemed an unconnected one to her com panion : "Poor Bertha ! I can understand her better than I used to!" FUNERAL CHORALE. (From the German.) Full choir. ENTOMB the body in the earth; The Judge's voice shall call it forth : Single voice. My mouldering dust, my mortal frame Full Choir. Then earth to earth and dust to dust Single voice. Corruption's hand doth lay me low; Full Choir. The righteous souls with GOD shall live : Single voice. The Almighty on the Judgment throne To open Mercy's portals wide. Full choir. In death's dark vale thou wanderest now: Much grief and woe here sufferedst thou: Thy SAVIOUR'S yoke thou barest well; Now art thou dead, yet livest still. Single voice. With you hath sorrow me opprest, In death's dark vale I wandered too, Full choir. He suffered most who won the prize, Single voice. I bore His yoke; and now mine eyes Full choir. Sleep, thou Redeemed, in peace. We go Single voice. Yea, leave me in my peace: and go Full choir. O Lamb of GOD, Thy Passion's power DESIDERIUS. THE ANGEL OF LIFE IN DEATH. A SKETCH FOR THE NEW YEAR. A HEAVENLY messenger was sent from GOD to the ancient city, the old home of S. Augustine and of S. Alphege. This messenger was the angel of life in death. He came when winter had laid its iron hand upon everything, binding in its stern grasp the earth and the water, throwing many a man out of his daily work, and thus calling forth the sympathy of those who, surrounded by comforts themselves, opened their hearts to feel for sufferings endured keenly by others. How many were then shivering under the north-east blast! how many were pierced by the bitter frost! how many were longing for sunshine and warmth as the angel sped down on his errand of love. He came to a suffering world and rejoiced at being sent to carry away one from it, to the home of bliss from whence he came. He had but to stoop, to breathe his message, to raise the redeemed one on his wings and to bear him away to where countless angels sang Hallelujah as they welcomed one more, brought safely through the gates of death into the presence of his SAVIOUR.-Hallelujahs in Heaven-weeping on earth! The angel wondered that what was cause of joy above, should produce such sorrow below, that the church bells should toll so mournfully when one who was loved so deeply by all was freed for ever from suffering, and more—had entered upon perfect bliss. Again and again the angel was sent, each time mourning and sadness followed upon his visit. Unwearied he came as the summer sun was ripening the early harvest on this earth, and this time his message was to one who for a long time had received tokens from him that he might be coming very soon to fetch her; and that all might be prepared, he came with slower flight and showed himself ere he finally stooped and bore her away on his wings of love, and he paused, "They will rejoice now, I will hear their rejoicing," and there was weeping with solemn sounds of mourning, and the angel wondered. Once more he came. A pure and innocent spirit had his abode in a child in that old city, and was loved as a heavenly guest by all who knew him. There were dark forms in the air longing to seize that child, but a Mighty Arm kept him safe from them, there were suffering, sorrow, and care ready to claim him for their own,-but One who had borne these for the child would have him brought into His immediate presence free from all stain of earth and at His Word the fever left him, and the glad angel bore him upward into Paradise,-and the father and the mother "believed the word that JESUS had spoken," and they mourned not as those that have no hope. Yet throughout the city was there sadness and the garb of woe. Other flights from heaven to earth did the angel take, and each time as he sped upwards he heard the sounds of lamentation, and he wondered thereat; for he knew of the sufferings from which he took each one, and of the bliss to which he bore them,—for he was the angel, not of death, but of life in death. At length he was sent to carry away the Old Year,-laden heavily with sins, shortcomings, forgotten blessings, unnoticed mercies. Was that all that the Old Year had? No, there were also remembered blessings, accepted mercies, deeds of love. The angel mourned now, for he thought, "they will be sorrowful at parting with the Old Year, who has been a friend to them all, has injured none, and whom they will never seen again." And lo, the bells rang joyously, peal after peal, till they had rung the Old Year out and the angel had borne it away wondering, "They mourn when one whom GOD sends for, is taken into joy and rest,-they rejoice when a roll of evidence, it may be testifying against them, is carried up and laid before GOD." And yet was the city altogether wrong? They mourned, as each was taken away, that more love had not been felt and shown towards that one, that it could no more be drawn forth, that the time for love so far as that one was concerned was over. They mourned because so much that might have been done had not been done. They mourned in obedience to that awful decree which made death the penalty of sin, for though its sting and terror be gone it is full of awe until the Resurrection Day. They rejoiced that the Old Year, laden with sins and weaknesses, was dead, because they knew that over each sin and shortcoming a wounded Hand had passed, blotting it all out; and that over every deed of love the same wounded Hand had passed and covered it with Blood, so that GOD could look upon it and accept it and that this last twelvemonths' blessings and mercies were stored up for them in Heaven and would not die with the Old Year. Therefore ring out, ye bells, for the death of the Old, and for the birth of the New, Year, in which we hope for "the early and the latter rain," for the blessings which GOD bountifully bestows upon us, and for His grace to enable us to abound in those good works which He has prepared for us to walk in. H. G. EPIPHANY-TIDE. PSALM XCVIII. A PSALM proper for the season, for the season is the Epiphany, and this is an Epiphany Psalm-one of the many sublime, inspired songs in which the "man after GOD's own heart," and others who derived their high poetic and prophetic gifts from the same Divine source, spake in the ages that seem now to us so dim and distant, of that Manifestation of our GOD and SAVIOUR, of which without presumption, but in simple faith and hope, surely we may think we see the "fig-tree" signs and tokens. That many of these Psalms prophesy with the clearness of contemporaneous history of the First Appearing-that they tell of "the mystery of the Holy Incarnation," of "the Cross and Passion," of "the precious Death and Burial," the "glorious Resurrection and 1 S. Luke xxi. 29. |