He is as a bridegroom coming

out of his chamber. He rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it; there is nothing hid from the heat thereof."-Ps. xix. 4, 5, 6.

s giant refreshed with slumber

Strides the Sun o'er the wakening earth, And dewdrops in countless number

Laugh back his mirth.

As he mounts his car of splendour,
Afar in the eastern sky,

The heavens blush roseate, tender,
As he sweeps by.

As bride at her bridegroom's greeting,
They glow 'neath his glance of fire,
His kiss of awakening meeting
With glad desire.

At touch of his magic finger
Shy daisies ope dew-bright eyes,
Where the shades of the forest linger
In sweet surprise.

The deep pools in rocky hollows
Are stirred at his warming breath;
All nature his glad course follows,
That knows no death.

For his steeds know no pausing,
As they circle from shore to shore;
He needs no night of resting,
When day is o'er.

His glad youth knows no ageing,
No touch of dull decay;

No break, his ceaseless praising,
No night, his day.

Unto new lands each moment,
He comes as a bridegroom new,
Trailing in gold his garment,

Besprent with dew:

And he sings in his endless morning,
As he circles from zone to zone,

His praises, whose breath is the dawning

Of Life alone.

JEANIE MORISON.

The Earpenter's Shed.

CHAPTER VIII.

T was some time before Nancy Lee quite forgave Mrs. Grainger for the plain-speaking that had made her feel on less comfortable terms with herself than usual; but one evening as she was sitting in her lonely attic, listening to the rain beating with its dreary sound on both window and roof, Nancy remembered the oft-repeated invitation to the carpenter's shed, and feeling for the moment that anything would be better than longer to remain thus shut up to her own dismal thoughts, she quickly put on both bonnet and shawl, and hastened forth along the street. Not that those hurrying feet were caused by the wet. Nancy had often braved the worst of weathers before, and sun and rain had long ago taken all colour out of her dress, but well she knew that should she linger on the road, her resolution might be broken and her evening be spent in some other way.

But few were in the shed when she reached it that particular night; the rain that had driven her out had kept many another at home, but Nancy had no reason to complain of the warmth of her reception. Joe Macey at once invited her to a seat near the front, where she could hear the best, and Nancy graciously signified her approval with the remark

"Sure, and you know your manners, young man."

Sam caught the words, and laughed to himself as he thought of the uncle who had already counted his more than fifty years; and when soon afterwards Mrs. Lee was troubled with a cough, he handed her a lozenge with a mock gravity of face; but Nancy only thought him "uncommonly civil," and came to the conclusion that now she had fallen among friends indeed.

Nor was she less pleased to discover that the speaker

that evening was a grey-haired man, at least as old as herself, for Nancy had no faith in younger folk; but here was one whose experience might be worth the knowing. And in truth, the aged Mr. Morrison, seeing that so few had ventured out through the wet, and that these were mostly personal friends of Tom, was led to speak of himself far more than was his wont.

"It's my sixtieth birthday," he began, in his quavering voice; "I'm many years older than that, it's true, but there's one day I love to keep much more than the day I was born, and that's the day I first learned to look to One above. I'll tell you how it was. I'd been in a lot of trouble just then, and that morning I went to church as usual, and I suppose I said and did just like the rest, but I'd no sort of recollection of any of it afterwards until we came to the Belief. The minister began, 'I believe in God the Father Almighty,' and then I said the words as well, but I got no farther. For had I been believing in God the Father Almighty? No, no, friends, I hadn't, or I'd never have been so cast down, but after that I kept turning those words over in my mind, and I can't tell you what strength and sweetness I found in them—ay, and what shame I took to myself as well! The Almighty Father! Just think of that. Mighty to do all, yes, all, then how mighty to help me in my small needs; and then a Father besides, and so not merely powerful and great, but loving and tender to hear my feeble cries. Well, the rest of the service went on as usual, but as for me, I kept repeating those words to myself, and feeling all of a sudden as though I knew something of what Moses meant when he said, 'The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.' And all through that week I felt the same, and I was looking forward to the Sunday again, when my master said he wanted to take me to some distant place with him; he'd got a large order from a gentleman, a lord he was, and one of the men must go to hear the instructions as well. Of course I went, though I was disappointed to be away from

home just then, and the master was shown, and I had to go, too, into such a splendid room, I'd never been in the like of it before. Through the windows you could see for miles around, and it all belonged to this same lord. Then after a time he himself came in, and I was standing by listening to the plans, when all of a sudden his little lame boy, who was playing outside, hurt himself and screamed, and then that father forgot all about the improvements on his estate, and was out in a minute, pushing the servant to one side, and picking up his child and comforting him the best way he could: and he didn't come back to us for a long, long time. Then, as I thought of his great riches, joined to his care for that little sickly child, I knew, oh! so gladly, there was some One higher still who was looking after me, even me, for I too had begun to believe in God the Father Almighty."

By this time Nancy Lee was bending forward in her seat, not willing to lose a single word. She had once said there was nothing left for her but "the mercy of the Almighty to look to now;" henceforth she would be likely to attach a deeper meaning to that phrase.

Meanwhile Mr. Morrison went on: "But there was a great deal more yet to learn. That was only the A B C, and as I thought more of God, I thought more of His holiness too, until it came home to me I'd been a sinner, and what was I to do? Then somehow after that whenever I tried to think of the joy of having a Father Almighty, my sins would seem to rise up as a cloud between me and Him, blotting out His face, and I don't wonder at it now. David, you know, after he had sinned, said, 'Let us fall now into the hands of the Lord, for His mercies are very great;' but all the same, the destroying angel caused the death of seventy thousand men. Ah, friends, sin is a little word, only three letters, and quickly said, but it's awfully great in its results, and I'm not surprised that, thinking of my own many shortcomings and failures, I grew more and more afraid.