ILLUSTRATIONS.

" 'T is sweet to Him who treasures love divine,

The coasts with zeal of palmer old to trace, Hills, vales and streams of holy Palestine,

And mark in every ancient hallowed place What rays of glory wont of old to shine,

What acts of wonder, and what words of grace : How here the mourner heard glad news of rest,

Here the deaf ear the Saviour's presence blest, The sightless eye beheld, the speechless tongue confest.

" And sweet to them whose bounded lot at home

Constrains their steps in quietude to stay, Yea, sweet it is to them, afar to roam

In thought, companions of the palmer's way,– And to the other land of Christendom,

The debt of more than patriot fondness pay,–
If Judah's palmy hills their sojourn be,

Or Jordan's flood, or lone Tiberias sea,
Or thy once glorious towns, thrice fuvored Galilee ? "

Bishop Mant.

POETICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

BIRTH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.

“ The day-spring from on high hath visited us."-Luke i. 78.

I.

TOILING through the livelong night,
Faint, uncertain of his

way, How the traveller hails the light,

Herald of the coming day.

Thus, when fraud and rapine threw

O'er the world their cloud afar, On the good man's raptured view

Broke the dawn of Judah's star.

Tears of joy and gratitude

Hailed the Baptist's natal morn, For the heavenly light renewed,

For another prophet born.

Born to go before the face

Of Judea's Saviour king;
Tidings of celestial grace
To the mourning land to bring.

Thus began the song of praise

For the day-spring's earliest ray. How should we the anthem raise For the Gospel's perfect day!

S. G. Bulfinch.

II.

THv servants in the temple watched

The dawning of the day,
Impatient with its earliest beams

Their holy vows to pay;
And chosen saints far off beheld

That great and glorious morn,
When the glad day-spring from on high

Auspiciously should dawn.
On us the Sun of Righteousness

Its brightest beams hath poured ;
With grateful hearts and holy zeal,

Lord, be thy love adored ;
And let us look with joyful hope

To that more glorious day,
Before whose brightness, sin and death,
And grief, shall flee away.

Spirit of the Psalms. BIRTH OF JESUS.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace; good will toward men." - Luke ii. 14.

I.
No war or battle's sound

Was heard the world around,
No hostile chiefs to furious combat ran;

But peaceful was the night

In which the Prince of light
His reign of peace upon the earth began.

The shepherds on the lawn,

Before the point of dawn,
In social circle sat, while all around

The gentle fleecy brood

Or cropped the flowery food,
Or slept, or sported on the verdant ground.

When lo! with ravished ears,

Each swain delighted hears
Sweet music, offspring of no mortal hand;

Divinely warbled voice,

Answering the stringed noise, With blissful rapture charmed the listening band.