THE FOUNTAIN OPENED.

"In that day there shall be a tountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness."-Zechariah, xiii. 1.

FROM Zion's holy mountain
The tidings loud proclaim;
The Lord hath op'd a fountain,
Salvation is its name.

Its purifying waters,

The house of David know,

And Salem's sons and daughters,

There wash'd, are white as snow.

From sin and from uncleanness
That fountain can redeem;
There age may find fresh greenness,
Thence youth with wisdom teem.

The blind and deaf, there drinking,
At once both see and hear;
The lame, with feet unshrinking,
Are swift, as is the deer.

The dumb, who seek in sadness
That water's living spring,
In grateful songs of gladness
Its hallow'd praises sing.

Breaking each chain asunder,
That fount can freedom give;
And, all-surpassing wonder,

Hath caus'd the dead to live!

"Whence flows this tide of healing, That does such wond'rous things?

Oh haste, its source revealing,
That I may seek its springs."

Sinner, thy prayer is granted,
It flows from Jesu's side;
Thence, whatsoe'er is wanted,
To man must be supplied.

GOD CHALLENGETH

THE PROOF OF HIS

GOODNESS.

Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."-Malachi, iii. 10.

THUS, though to many a doubtful ear,
Spoke the divinely gifted seer;

And such, to many a faultering will,
May be Truth's living language still.

Are there not, gracious Lord, whom thou
Hadst crown'd with blessings long ere now,
Had but obedience to thy grace
With knowledge kept proportion'd pace?

But disobedience, like a blight,

Hath made us dwarfish in thy sight,
Nipt bud and blossom, leaf and shoot,

And robb'd thee of thy promis'd fruit.

And hence of word, of deed, of thought, We to thy house no tithes have brought, "Till, keeping back thy just demand, We dwell as in a thirsty land.

Yet e'en from us, so far, aloof,

Thy goodness deigns to challenge proof; Still thou art calling for thine own, Only to make Thy bounty shown.

Your tithes into my storehouse bring,

Confess me as your Priest and King;

The riches of my grace shall prove
The plenitude of pardoning love.

Heav'n's windows I will open wide,
Pour blessings down on every side,
"Till, in your overflowing store, |
Your hearts can find no room for more.

Such was the challenge from on high,
Of Him whose word can never lie;
Not only, Lord! that word renew,
But give the faith to prove it true.

A REFLECTION.

OH! were I borne in spirit to the time

Which now the progress of my task hath won;
That era long foretold by seers sublime,
When, born of woman, God's incarnate Son

Came to atone for folly, sin, and crime,
And ransom man, without his aid undone;
Fulfilling in himself each sign and rite,
And making known his gospel's glorious light!

Who, plac'd on such ideal eminence,

But many a thoughtful glance must round him cast?

Viewing, as with an eye of faith intense,

Now the more shadowy glories of the past,
Sublimely grand in dark magnificence,
And splendidly imposing to the last;—

Then, turning from them, trembling, to survey
The gentler dawning of the gospel day.