Love only laughs when sunshine floods the air,
 When winds flute summer music through the trees,
 When nature’s masquers are attired to please
 And Flora holds gay gala everywhere;
 But now Heaven’s brow is underknit with care,
 Low clouds burst forth a-weeping, flowery leas
 Are drowned with runnels and the ponds grow seas,
 Leaves droop beneath the dripping loads they bear,
 And silence reigns in each late lute-filled bough;
 The cricket chorus and the humming crowd
 That tell how labour lightens earth’s hard way
 Are all—all gone. Love hears no music now—
 Only an endless falling, sharp and loud,
 The dreary rhythm of a rainy day.

HYMN.

When the calm of night is falling
 And the cares of day are o’er,
 Hear the voice of Jesus calling;—
 Go to Him and sin no more.
When the heart is sad and troubled
 He alone can peace restore,
 By his love is life ennobled;—
 Go to Him and sin no more.
When the soul in grief and anguish
 Mourns the evil done before,
 Let your faith no longer languish;—
 Go to Him and sin no more.
Go to Him! for He can only
 Soothe the pain and heal the sore,
 All who are distressed and lonely;—
 Go to Him and sin no more.
Go to Him! lay down your burden,
 At His feet His love implore,
 Ask in penitence for pardon;—
 Go to Him and sin no more.
Go to Him! He hath invited
 All to enter Heaven’s door,
 Sinners by His love united;—
 Go to Him and sin no more.

THE GREAT PLAY.

There is a playwright older than the years,
 Who maketh all men actors in his play,
 And, though they know not what they do or say,
 The purpose of the plot in all appears.
 Each in his turn, beset with inborn fears,
 Enters unseen, youth’s comedy so gay,
 Laughs through the hours that glide too soon away
 Beneath the clouds of soul-consuming tears.
 Then manhood’s tragedy with perils fraught,
 Pursues its fickle fortunes to the end,
 When Fate, the villain of the piece doth send
 By whom the last exciting scene is wrought;
 A timely stab from Death’s sure-falling knife
 Brings down the curtain o’er the play of life.