And the mother gave, in tears and pain,
The flowers she most did love;
She knew she should find them all again
In the fields of light above.

O, not in cruelty, not in wrath,
The Reaper came that day;

"Twas an angel visited the green earth
And took the flowers away.

LONGFELLOW.

THE HOLY INNOCENTS.

"These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits

unto GOD and to the Lamb."-Rev. xiv. 4.

SAY, ye celestial guards who wait

In Bethlehem, round the Saviour's palace gate,
Say, who are these on golden wings,
That hover o'er the new-born King of kings,
Their palms and garlands telling plain
That they are of the glorious martyr train,
Next to yourselves, ordain'd to praise
His name, and brighter as on him they gaze?

But where their spoils and trophies? Where
The glorious dint a martyr's shield should bear?
How chance no cheek among them wears
The deep-worn trace of penitential tears;
But all is bright and smiling love,

As if, fresh borne from Eden's happy grove,
They had flown here, their king to see,
Nor ever had been heirs of dark mortality!

Ask, and some angel will reply,—

"These, like yourselves, were born to sin and die; But ere the poison root was grown,

GOD set His seal, and mark'd them for His own.
Baptized in blood for Jesus' sake,

Now underneath the cross their bed they make;
Not to be scared from that sure rest

By frightened mother's shriek, or warrior's waving crest."

Mindful of these, the first-fruits sweet,

Borne by the suffering Church her Lord to greet;
Bless'd Jesus ever loved to trace

The "innocent brightness" of an infant's face;
He raised them in His holy arms,

He bless'd them from the world and all its harms:
Heirs though they were of sin and shame,

He bless'd them in His own, and in His Father's

name.

These, as each fond unconscious child

On th' everlasting Parents sweetly smil'd,
(Like infants sporting on the shore,

That trembled not at ocean's boundless roar,)
Were they not present to thy thought,

All souls that in their cradles thou hast bought?

But chiefly these who died for Thee,

That Thou might'st live for them a sadder death

to see.

And next to these, Thy gracious word
Was a pledge of benediction stored
For Christian mothers, while they moan

Their treasured hopes, just born, baptized, and gone.
Oh joy for Rachael's broken heart!

She and her babes shall meet no more to part;
So dear to Christ her pious haste

To trust them in His arms, for ever safe embraced.

She dares not grudge to leave them there,
Where to behold them was her heart's first
She dares not grieve-but she must weep,
As her pale placid martyr sinks to sleep,
Teaching so well and silently,

prayer;

How at the Shepherd's call the lamb should die : How happier far than life, the end

Of souls that infant-like beneath their burthen bend.

The Rev. J. KEBLE'S "Christian Year."

AN INFANT'S DEATH.

"Be-rather than be called-a child of GOD," Death whispered. With ascending nod, Its head upon its mother's breast,

The baby bowed without demur;

Of the kingdom of the blest,

Possessor-not inheritor.

COLERIDGE.