.....

Some murmur when their Sky is clear,.R. C. Trench,.

SWEET HOME.

THE HOME ALTAR.

'Twas early day

and sunlight stream'd

Soft through a quiet room,

That hushed, but not forsaken seemed

Still, but with nought of gloom;
For there, secure in happy age,
Whose hope is from above,
A father communed with the page
Of Heaven's recorded love.

Pure fell the beam, and meekly bright,

On his gray, holy hair,

And touched the book with tenderest light,
As if its shrine were there;

But O, that patriarch's aspect shone
With something lovelier far-

A radiance, all the spirit's own,
Caught not from sun or star.

Some word of life e'en then had met
His calm, benignant eye;