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LESSON LXXVI.

LOOK ALOFT.

J. LAWRENCE.

1. In the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale Are around and above, if thy footing should fail,If thine eye should grow dim, and thy caution depart,"Look aloft," and be firm, and be fearless of heart.

2. If the friend who embraced in prosperity's glow, With a smile for each joy, and a tear for each woe, Should betray thee when sorrows, like clouds, are arrayed, "Look aloft" to the friendship which never shall fade.

3. Should the visions which hope spreads in light to thine eye, Like the tints of the rainbow, but brighten to fly,. Then tirn, and, through tears of repentant regret, "Look aloft" to the Sun that is never to set.

4. Should they who are nearest and dearest thy heart,— Thy friends and companions,-in sorrow depart, "Look aloft" from the darkness and dust of the tomb, To that soil where "affection is ever in bloom."

5. And, O! when Death comes in his terrors, to cast
His fears on the future, his pall on the past,

In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy heart,
And a smile in thine eye, "LOOK ALOFT," and depart.

LESSON LXXVII.

MONUMENTS OF HUMAN GRANDEUR PERISH.

COLLYER.

1. THE monuments of human greatness yield in succession to the destroying influence of time. Whatever is magnificent, or beautiful, or excellent, possesses only a temporary influence, and commands only a transient admiration; in the course of a few years, or, at most, a few ages, imagination is required to

supply departed graces, and genius mourns over extinguished glory.

2. To man, in his collective strength, nothing seems impossible, and few things appear even difficult. He has dared every thing; and he has achieved so much as amply to repay him for his labors. The extent of sovereignty which he grasped, when he stretched his scepter over numberless provinces, and planted the line of his dominion from sea to sea, demonstrated the unbounded character of his ambition, and the incalculable variety of his resources.

3. The stupendous productions of art, on which he inscribed his victories, and which he intended as the pillars of his fame, have combined and exhibited all that is sublime in conception, and all that is graceful in execution. Could he have attached durability to these, his triumph would have been complete,— he would have bound time to his chariot wheels, and rendered the monuments of his greatness coëval with the existence of the heavenly bodies.

4. But that irresistible power has dissolved all the associations which he formed, and overthrown all the structures which he raised. He touched the seats of empire with his commanding scepter, and the thrones of the earth crumbled into dust. Scarcely was the head of the monarch laid beneath the sod, before his dominion perished. Scarcely the active hand of the warrior stiffened in death, ere the provinces which he had won, revolted, and another hero arose to run the same career of danger and oppression, to mark out the globe for himself, and to resign, in his turn, a crown so hardly achieved.

5. Of Nineveh,-of Babylon,-we have few remains. Of Egypt we have only characters of degradation. Of Rome there exist but the melancholy fragments of ruined grandeur. With the respective empires, the monuments of their power have been defaced or destroyed. Time has wasted the gardens, prostrated the Colossus, dilapidated the Temples, unraveled the Labyrinth, broken down the Mausoleum upon its dead, and left the Pyramids to mark the progress of his effacing hand, and to deride the folly of human ambition.

6. When these exhibitions of human ability are swept away from the earth, or so much of them only remains as to awaken sentiments of pity, more lively than those of admiration, History restores the empire, and Science rears the fallen cities anew. Again Palmyra rises from among her ruined temples and tottering pillars;-again Rome assumes the scepter of the world, and binds distant nations to her throne. The work of the destroyer is but half effected, while the record of former times remains. The heroes of antiquity live over again; and the great monarchjes burst forth afresh in all their primeval splendor. awaken

7. Letters seem to promise that immortality which neither arms could command, nor arts acquire. The blaze of war is quickly extinguished. It is, indeed, a devouring fire; but it is short-lived in proportion to its fierceness. Like the beacon which is kindled to affright the nations, it burns for a night, and expires upon its own ashes. But the inspiration of the poet is a lambent flame, playing around the imagination from age to age, and shedding its mild and brilliant light upon distant lands and times, when the consuming element of discord is forgotten.

8. The magic pen of the historian raises, from their restingplaces, the departed shades of princes and warriors, and embodying them in their proper forms, brings them again to act their part upon the stage of time; while we feel ourselves sheltered from the miseries, at the same time that we ascertain the extent of their policy and achievements. Yet, this mausoleum of former greatness rears its majestic head only for a

season.

9. In vain the poet and the historian promise themselves, or the subjects of their eulogy, immortality ;—in vain they flatter themselves that they have erected a monument, more durable than brass, loftier than the royal elevation of the pyramids, which neither the wearing shower, the unavailing tempest, the innumerable succession of years, nor the flight of seasons, shall be able to demolish;-they dream but of a fame that shail move round the circles of time.

10. Many such a fond enthusiast has floated down the stream, without leaving even the wreck of his name as a memorial. And of those who have stood highest on the records of renown, a part of their works has perished. Time has not spared even science. The precious fragments of ancient writings resemble the ruins of some great empire;-enough remains to delight, to impress, to instruct. But these remnants cause us to lament the more bitterly that which is lost to us, as an evil irreparable, and afford a lesson more ample of human vanity than of human distinction.

LESSON LXXVIII.

THE GLORY OF MAN PASSETH AWAY.

WATSON.

1. MARK the glory of collective man. United, he puts on *he appearance of strength. He founds empires; he builds cities; he guards by his armies; he cements by his policy. Ah! vain attempt! Still, "all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." Trace the track of civilized and powerful man through the world, and you will find it coered with the wreck of his hopes; and the very monuments of his power have been converted into the mockery of his weakness. His eternal cities molder in their ruins; the serpent hisses in the cabinet, where he planned his empires.

2. Echo itself is startled by the foot which breaks the silence that has reigned for ages in his hall of feast and song. Columns stand in the untrodden desert; and the hut of the shepherd, or the den of the robber, shelters the only residence of his palaces. And the glory which now exists, is crumbling everywhere, where it has not the cement of Christianity, and where it takes not something of perpetuity from the everlasting word. All heathen glory, all Mohammedan pride, creak in the blast, and nod to their fall. The withering wind or the raging tempest shall pass over them in turn; and men shall sit upon the ruins of their proudest grandeur.

LESSON LXXIX.

THE ETERNITY OF GOD.

BIBLE.

1. LORD, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth,

Or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world,

Even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art GOD.
Thou turnest man to destruction;

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For a thousand years in Thy sight

Are but as yesterday when it is past,
And as a watch in the night.

2. Thou carriest them away as with a flood;

They are as a sleep;

In the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up;

In the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
For we are consumed by Thine anger,

And by Thy wrath are we troubled.
Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee,
Our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance.

3. For all our days are passed away in Thy wrath;
We spend our years as a tale that is told.

The days of our years are three-score years and ten; And if, by reason of strength they be four-score years, Yet is their strength labor and sorrow;

For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

Who knoweth the power of Thine anger ?
Even according to Thy fear, so is Thy wrath.
So teach us to number our days,

That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

4. Return, O Lord, how long?

And let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants.
O satisfy us early with Thy mercy;

That we may rejoice and be glad all our days!

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