Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: DEDICATION HYMN. The perfect world by Adam trod, Was the first temple—built by God— His fiat laid the corner stone, And heav'd its pillars, one by one. He hung its starry roof on high— The broad illimitable sky ; He spread its pavement, green and bright, And curtain'd it with morning light. The mountains in their places stood— The sea—the sky—and " all was good ;" And, when its first pure praises rang, The " morning stars together sang." Lord ! 'tis not ours to make the sea And earth and sky a house for thee; But in thy sight our off'ring stands— A humbler temple, " made with hands." THE BAPTISM. She stood up in the meekness of a heart Resting on God, and held her fair young child Upon her bosom, with its gentle eyes Folded in sleep, as if its soul had gone To whisper the baptismal vow in Heaven. The prayer went up devoutly, and the lips Of the good man glowed fervently with faith That it would be, even as he had pray'd, And the sweet child be gather'd to the fold Of Jesus. As the holy words went on Her lips mov'd silently, and tears, fast tears Stole from beneath her lashes, and upon The forehead of the beautiful child lay soft With the baptismal water. Then I thought That, to the eye of God, that mother's tears Would be a deeper covenant, which sin And the temptations of the world, and death Would leave unbroken, and that she would know In the clear light of heaven, how very strong The prayer which press'd them from her heart had been In leading its young spirit up to God. THE TABLE OF EMERALD. Deep, it is said, under yonder pyramid, has for ages lain concealed the Table of Emerald, on which the thrice-great Hermes engraved, before the flood, the secret of Alchemy that gives gold at will. Epi...