TO-MORROW.

LORD, what am I, that, with unceasing care,

Thou didst seek after me, that thou didst wait,
Wet with unhealthy dews, before my gate,
And pass the gloomy nights of winter there?
Oh, strange delusion !—that I did not greet
Thy blest approach; and oh, to Heaven how lost,
If my ingratitude's unkindly frost

Has chilled the bleeding wounds upon thy feet.
How oft my guardian angel gently cried,

'Soul, from thy casement look, and thou shalt see
How He persists to knock and wait for thee!'

And oh! how often to that voice of sorrow, 'To-morrow we will open,' I replied;

And, when the morrow came, I answered still, 'To-morrow.'

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

(from LOPE DE VEGA).

A

MEA CULPA.

T me one night the angry moon,
Suspended to a rim of cloud,
Glared through the courses of the wind.
Suddenly then my spirit bowed
And shrunk into a fearful swoon
That made me deaf and blind.

We sinned-we sin-is that a dream?
We wake-there is no voice nor stir;
Sin and repent from day to day,
As though some reeking murderer
Should dip his hand in a running stream,
And lightly go his way.

Embrace me, fiends and wicked men,
For I am of your crew.

Draw back,

Pure women, children with clear eyes, Let Scorn confess me on his rack,Stretched down by force, uplooking then Into the solemn skies.

Singly we pass the gloomy gate;
Some robed in honour, full of peace,
Who of themselves are not aware,
Being fed with secret wickedness,
And comforted with lies: my fate
Moves fast; I shall come there.

With all so usual, hour by hour,
And feeble will so lightly twirled
By every little breeze of sense,-

Lay'st thou to heart this common world?
Lay'st thou to heart the Ruling Power,
Just, infinite, intense?

Thou wilt not frown, O God. Yet we
Escape not thy transcendent law;
It reigns within us and without.

What earthly vision never saw
Man's naked soul may suddenly see,
Dreadful, past thought or doubt.

WILLIAM ALLINGHAM.

LOST DAYS.

THE lost days of my life until to-day,

What where they, could I see them on the street Lie as they fell? Would they be ears of wheat Sown once for food but trodden into clay? Or golden coins squandered and still to pay? Or drops of blood dabbling the guilty feet? Or such spilt water as in dreams must cheat The throats of men in Hell, who thirst alway?

I do not see them here; but after death

God knows I know the faces I shall see, Each one a murdered self, with low last breath. 'I am thyself,-what hast thou done to me?' 'And I-and I-thyself,' (lo! each one saith,) 'And thou thyself to all eternity!'

DANTE G. ROSSETTI.

MULTUM DILEXIT.

HE sat and wept beside his feet; the weight

SHE

Of sin oppressed her heart; for all the blame And the poor malice of the worldly shame, To her was past, extinct, and out of date,

Only the sin remained, the leprous state;
She would be melted by the heat of love,
By fires far fiercer than are blown to prove
And purge the silver ore adulterate.

She sat and wept, and with her untressed hair
Still wiped the feet she was so blest to touch ;
And He wiped off the soiling of despair

From her sweet soul because she loved so much.
I am a sinner, full of doubts and fears,

Make me a humble thing of love and tears.

HARTLEY COleridge.

'MAY BE THE LORD WILL LOOK UPON MY TEARS.'

DROP, drop slow tears!

And bathe those beauteous feet,

Which brought from heaven

The news and Prince of Peace.

Cease not, wet eyes,

His mercies to entreat:

To cry for vengeance

Sin doth never cease.

In your deep floods

Drown all my faults and fears,

Nor let his eye

See sin but through my tears.

PHINEAS FLETCHER.

Prayer and Aspiration.

SEEKING GOD.

AIN would my thoughts fly up to Thee,

FAIN

Thy peace, sweet Lord, to find;

But, when I offer, still the world
Lays clogs upon my mind.

Sometimes I climb a little way

And thence look down below;
How nothing, there, do all things seem,
That here make such a show!

Then round about I turn my eyes
To feast my hungry sight;

I meet with Heaven in every thing,
In every thing delight.

I see thy wisdom ruling all,
And it with joy admire;

I see myself among such hopes
As set my heart on fire.