THE SUMMER BROOK.

BY MISS SARAH STICKNEY.

IN vain I watch, thou summer brook,
With weary brow and anxious look,
To see thy streams gush forth again,
And dance along the verdant plain,
Gladd'ning the flowers, the trees, the grass,
With liquid music as they pass.

In vain I watch; the sun is high,
The burnish'd leaves are bright and dry,
And, drooping o'er thy vacant bed,

Thy silent couch where weeds are spread,
Implore thee in their utmost need,

To come once more, and come with speed.

In vain, the dark and distant cave
Now hides, and holds thy silver wave,
And neither drooping leaves nor flowers,
Nor smiling earth, nor sunny hours,
Can lure thee from thy cool retreat,
To bathe the mountain's burning feet.

Are there not streams of human love,
Once pure as fountains fill'd above,
That, shrinking from their course like thee,
The wanderer pines in vain to see,
That neither grief, nor want, nor pain,

Shall ever more bring forth again?

And is there not a love divine,

Whose streams, ah, how unlike to thine!
Come smiling forth in suffering's hour,
Nor need the aid of dew nor shower,
But ever through the wilderness,
Flow on, to beautify and bless?

"THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS."

JEREMIAH ii. 13.

BY THE REV. JOHN ALEXANDER.

AROUND thy throne, in peaceful streams,
O God! celestial pleasure glides;
The brightened wave thine image beams,
Untinged by sorrow's darkened tides.

That stream my fainting spirit cheers,
When sultry suns pour down their heat;

And when I cross the vale of tears,
It makes the cup of sorrow sweet.

To Thee, the fountain-head, I rise,

No joy below Thee sooths my mind;

My spring of bliss is in the skies,
My heaven in Thee alone I find.

*

MOSES ON PISGAH.

BY T. GRINFIELD, M.A.

THE painful pilgrimage is past; and Moses,
His
eye undimm'd by age, his force unbated,
Climbs the lone brow of Pisgah, there reposes,
And views the land for which so long he waited.

Didst thou, dear saint, thy wondrous journey ponder, While miracles of mercy throng'd remembrance? No! to glad hope the scene, expanded yonder, Portray'd a substance that eclips'd the semblance.

Oh, lovely scene! it speaks the glorious Giver;
Vine-verdur'd vales, and cedar-mantled mountains;
Border'd afar by glistering Jordan's river,

And freshen'd, where he lies, by gushing fountains.*

Sudden, the scene is changed;-sublime transition:
Rapt in prophetic trance to far-off ages,

He sees of Hebrew kings a long-drawn vision
Of Salem's glory, with her sainted sages.

And, lo, the heavenly man, e'en then expected,
So grand, so gracious in his human station,
Comes to his own, and, by his own rejected,
Dies and ascends, a guilty world's oblation.

"The springs of Pisgah," Deut. iv. 49.

Where, Moses, now thy ritual burdens ?—banish'd; The Lamb of God from ritual burdens frees us: Where now thy law's precursive shadows?—vanish'd; The Sun of Righteousness has ris'n in Jesus.

That eye, undimm'd by age, now gleams with gladness, The gleam is gone; for death has o'er him hover'd; That last smile bids a bright farewell to sadness,

His Father, Saviour, heaven, at once discover'd.

And can we, meek majestic man, deplore thee,
Forbid to die within thy Canaan's border?
Thou but resign'st it for the life of glory,

The better country of thy great Rewarder!

Buried by God, repose from all thy labour,
In full beatitude his love rehearsing;

And, with Elijah, reappear on Tabor,

Both, in your glory, with your Lord conversing.

Deplore thee! No: we covet thy dismission;
Be Pisgah, views of heaven, to us extended!
Our spirits wafted where, in God's fruition,

The songs of Moses and the Lamb are blended!

Clifton, 1834.

RECOLLECTIONS

OF THE LATE

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, ESQ

MR. WILBERFORCE was born at Kingston-upon-Hull, in the county of York, August 24th, 1759, at the same period, and almost the same year, with Mr. Pitt, Lord Grenville, Mr. H. Thornton, Lord Sidmouth, Sir George Rose, the late Bishop of Winchester, Welbore Ellis, (Lord Clifden,) T. Babington, formerly member for Leicester, and other leading persons of his time. His natural character was, perhaps, the most purely benevolent that has been known in any public man; certainly the most benevolent of all who have had any claims to talent as statesmen, and made any impression upon their age. And when the principles and feelings of genuine Christianity were superadded to his natural amiableness, so as to guard it from cowardice, from yielding to solicitations on the part of the world, and acting against the dictates of duty, he became one of the most devoted, consistent, loveable public persons of his day. For a short time after his entrance on public life in 1780, as member for Hull, he was, like too many others of his rank, worldly, and careless as to religion; admired indeed by every one-his company sought-admitted into all the fashionable societies and clubs—but in danger of sinking, as many other amiable men have done, under the fascination