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So may'st thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, drop

Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease Gathered, not harshly plucked, for death mature.

MILTON.

As those we love decay, we die in part; String after string is severed from the heart; Till loosened life, at last, but breathing clay, Without one pang is glad to fall away.

THOMSON.

But age has felt those ties unbound
Which fixed him to that spot of ground
Where all his household comforts lay;
He feels his freezing heart grow cold,
He thinks of kindred in the mould,
And cries amid his grief untold,
"I would not live alway."

WM. KNOX.

On he moves to meet his latter end, Angels around befriending virtue's friend; Sinks to the grave with unperceived decay, While resignation gently slopes the way; And, all his prospects brightening to the last, His heaven commences ere the world be past. GOLDSMITH.

Lets in new light through chinks that time has made.

Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become
As they draw near to their eternal home;
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view,
That stand upon the threshold of the new.
WALLER.

The aged Christian stands upon the shore
Of time, a storehouse of experience,
Filled with the treasures of rich heavenly lore;
I love to sit and hear him draw from thence
Sweet recollections of his journey past,
A journey crowned with blessings to the last.
MRS. ST. LEON LOUD.

Why should old age escape unnoticed here,
That sacred era to reflection dear?
That peaceful shore where passion dies away,
Like the last wave that ripples o'er the bay?
O, if old age were cancelled from our lot,
Full soon would man deplore the unhallowed
blot!

Life's busy day would want its tranquil even, And earth would lose her stepping-stone to heaven.

CAROLINE GILMAN.

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ANCESTRY ANGELS.

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Woe to thee, wild ambition! I employ

Despair's low notes thy dread effects to tell; Born in high heaven, her peace thou couldst destroy,

And but for thee there had not been a hell. Through the celestial domes thy clarion pealed, Angels, entranced, beneath thy banners ranged,

And straight were fiends; hurled from the shrinking field,

They waked in agony to wail the change. Darting through all her veins the subtle fire, The world's fair mistress first inhaled thy breath;

To lot of higher beings learned to aspire; Dared to attempt, and doomed the world to death.

MARIA A. BROOKS. The sons of earth

Who, vexed with vain disquietude, pursue Ambition's fatuous light through miry pools That yawn for their destruction, stray, foredoomed,

Amid delusive shadows, to their end.

HERBERT.

Ambition, when the pinnacle is gained
With many a toilsome step, the power it sought
Wants to support itself, and sighs to find
The envied height but aggravates the fall.
GEORGE BALLY.

ANCESTRY-(See BIRTH.)

LILLY.

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ANGELS.

From heaven fair beings come at night
To watch o'er mortals while they sleep;
Angels are they, whose sole delight

It is to comfort those who weep.
How softly on the dreamer's head

They lay their soft and snow-white hands! One smile! then, in a moment fled, They melt away to happier lands.

JOHN WILSON.

Who knows how near, each holy hour,
The pure and childlike dead
May linger, where in shrine or bower
The mourner's prayer is said?

JOHN KEBLE.

From you the vail of midnight darkness rending, Came the rich mysteries to the sleeper's eye, That saw your hosts ascending and descending, On those bright steps between the earth and sky; Trembling he woke, and bowed o'er glory's trace,

And worshiped, awe-struck, in that fearful place.

And may ye not unseen around us hover,
With gentle promptings and sweet influence yet?
Though the fresh glory of those days be over,
When, midst the palm-trees, man your footsteps
met?

Are ye not near when faith and hope rise high,
When love by strength o'ermasters agony?
Are ye not near, when sorrow, unrepining,
Yields up life's treasures unto him who gave?
And martyrs, all things for his sake resigning,
Lead on the march of death serenely brave?
MRS. HEMANS.

Thou angel spirit, who so oft didst sing
My infant cares to sleep upon thy breast,
Let me but hear the rustling of thy wing,
Around thy child its guardian influence fling!
O come thou from the island of the blest,
And bear my weary soul up to thy sainted
rest!

"HEAVENLY RECOGNITION."

Angels of life and death alike are his;

Without his leave they pass no threshold o'er; Who, then, would wish or dare, believing this, Against his messengers to shut the door?

LONGFELLOW.

Thou! who alone thyself dost deem,

A solitary in thy grief,

List! soft as footfall of a dream,

Comes one to bear thee sweet relief; And fled is all thy hoarded care, The passing Seraph's wing is there. WM. B. TAPPAN.

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Sure, to the mansions of the blest
When infant innocence ascends,
Some angel, brighter than the rest,
The spotless spirit's flight attends.
On wings of ecstasy they rise,

Beyond where worlds material roll, Till some fair sister of the skies

Receives the unpolluted soul.

Hark! in such strains as saints employ, They whisper to thy bosom peace; Calm the perturbed heart to joy,

And bid the streaming sorrow cease. Then dry, henceforth, the bitter tear;

Their part and thine inverted see; Thou wert their guardian angel here, They, guardian angels now to thee.

JOHN Q. ADAMS.

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They dwell with thee-the dead; Pavilioned in the auroral tents of light; Their spheres of heavenly influence round thee spread,

They are God's minist'ring spirits, and are sent,
His messengers of mercy, to fulfill
Good for salvation's heirs. For us they still
Grieve when we sin, rejoice when we repent;
And on the last dread day they shall present
The severed righteous at his holy hill,
With them God's face to see, to do his will,
And bear with them his likeness.

BISHOP MANT.

Holy angels in their flight
Traverse over earth and sky;
Acts of kindness their delight,
Winged with mercy as they fly.
"CHILD'S HYMN."

So parted they; the angel up to heaven,
And Adam to his bower.
MILTON.

Elysian race! while o'er their slumbering flocks

Their pure transparence vailing them from The Galilean shepherds watched, ye came sight.

Angelic ministers of love and peace,
Whose sweet solicitudes will never cease.
"TESTIMONY OF THE POETS."

And is there care in heaven? And is there love
In heavenly spirits to these creatures base,
That may compassion of their evils move?
There is; else much more wretched were the

case

Of men than beasts; but O! the exceeding
grace

Of highest God, that loves his creatures so,
And all his works with mercy doth embrace,
That blessed angels he sends to and fro,
To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked foe.
How oft do they their silver bowers leave,
To come to succor us that succor want!
How oft do they with golden pinions cleave
The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant,
Against foul fiends to aid us militant!
They for us fight, they watch and duly ward,
And their bright squadrons round about us
plant;

And all for love and nothing for reward;
O! why should heavenly God to men have such
regard?

Times of joy and times of woe,
Each an angel-presence know.

SPENSER.

MRS. E. OAKES SMITH.

To sing hosannas to the heaven-born Babe,
And shed the brightness of your beauty round:
Nor have ye left the world, but still, unseen,
Surround the earth, as guardians of the good,
Inspiring souls, and leading them to heaven!

ROBERT MONTGOMERY.

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we sleep and when we
wake.
MILTON.

Beautiful thing! thou art come in peace,
Bidding our doubts and our fears to cease,
Wiping the tears which unbidden start
From that bitter fount in the broken heart,
Cheering us still on our lonely way,
Lest our spirits should faint, or our feet should
stray,

Till, risen with Christ, we come to be,
Beautiful thing, with our boy and thee.
BISHOP DOANE.

When by a good man's grave I muse alone,
Methinks an angel sits upon the stone;
Like those of old, on that thrice hallowed night,
Who sat and watched in heavenly raiment
bright;

And with a voice inspiring joy, not fear,
Said, pointing upward, that He is not here,
That he is risen!

SAMUEL ROGERS.

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'Tis your office, spirits bright,
Still to guard us night and day,
And before your heavenly might
Powers of darkness flee away.
Ever doth your unseen host

Camp around us, and avert
All that seek to do us hurt,
Curbing Satan's malice most.
And ye come on ready wing,

When we drift toward sheer despair,
Seeing naught where we might cling,
Suddenly, lo, ye are there!

And the wearied heart grows strong,
As an angel strengthened Him,
Fainting in the garden dim
'Neath the world's vast woe and wrong.
From the German of RIST.

·APOSTASY- APOSTLES.

No cloud was visible, but radiant wings
Were coming with a silvery rush to earth;
And as the Saviour rose, a glorious one,
With an illumined forehead, and the light
Whose fountain is the mystery of God
Encalmed within his eye, bowed down to him,
And nerved him with a ministry of strength.
N. P. WILLIS.

In this dim world of clouding cares

We rarely know, till 'wildered eyes See white wings lessening up the skies, The angels with us unawares.

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Full many mischiefs follow cruel wrath,
Abhorred bloodshed, and tumultuous strife,
Unmanly murder, and unthrifty scathe,
Bitter despite, with rancor's rusty knife,
And fretting grief-the enemy of life.
E. SPENSER.

Of all bad things by which mankind are cursed, Their own bad tempers surely are the worst.

CUMBERLAND.

Anger is no attribute of justice.

HENRY KILLEGREW.

Senseless and deformed,

Convulsive anger storms at large; or, pale

And silent, settles into full revenge.

THOMSON.

'Tis all in vain, this rage that tears thy bosom; Like a poor bird that flutters in its cage, Thou beat'st thyself to death.

ROWE.

And to be wroth with one we love
Doth work like madness in the brain.
COLERIDGE.

See also THE PASSIONS.

APOSTASY-(See TREACHERY.)

GERALD MASSEY.

ANGER.

The ocean lashed to fury loud,

Its high waves mingling with the cloud,
Is peaceful, sweet serenity,

To anger's dark and troubled sea.

J. W. EASTBURNE.

Madness and anger differ but in this:
This is short madness, that long anger is.
CHARLES ALEYN.

APOSTLES.

Where is the fire which once descended
On Thy apostles? Thou didst then
Keep open house, richly attended,
Feasting all comers by twelve chosen men.
The sun which once did shine alone,
Hung down his head and wished for night,
When he beheld twelve suns for one,
Going about the world, and giving light.
HERBERT.

In them the Father shone;
In them the Son o'ercame;
In them the Holy Spirit wrought,
And filled their hearts with flame.
"BREVIARY."

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