The Present.

THE PRESENT .

Dim are the clouds above us , As on our patlrway lies ; Stern brows and Avistful glances , Sad faces , tearful eyes , We note in all that toiling creAv ,

Which early ancl Avhich late , Advance with hurrying , halting steps Along the path of fate . All have their load of sorrow ,

All have their claims of care , We see the decadence of man Confronts us everyAvhere ; The weaknesses of earthly stains , The griefs Avhich never end ,

The petty miseries of our race , Base actions , faithless friend . If youth has sometimes jocund smiles , And boasts of spirits high ,

HOAV soon those smiles ancl spirits pass , When darker hours draiv nigh ; HOAV often laughing infancy , How often joyous youth , Yield to tbe sad experience Of age ' s sterner truth .

We once were full of p leasant dreamy The sun could gild the scene , The deep blue sky above us Was cloudless and serene ; To-day the stormy billoAVS

Of life's more boisterous shore , Have driven aAvay that peaceful calm , Which can be ours never more . For fancy ' s cold , and hope is gone ,

Affection's Avaned and dead , The fond pure tones of sympathy Have long since fleetly fled ; The smiles of many a fragrant moment , Our castles in the air ,

Have left us wan and jaded—The svorld is everywhere .

And so our present has for us Often a dim-earth hue , For the colours gleam before us Daily darker to the view ; Around us are confusion ,

And numerous doubts and fears : What else , alas ! is still the sum Of all our life-long years ? Yet for those to whom this present

E'en IIOAV is all-in-all , To whom in sceptic unconcern All scenes of time befall , To whom the changing aspects Of this earth are earthy ever , Vain is tbe solemn sense of truth ,

Kind faith , or fond endeavour . To them this Avorld is nothing But gaud , ancl pomp , and show ; For them this being has no meaning

For us sojurners below ; If life departs , as pass it will , 'Tis hut the end of man , "Tis but the pause of the machine—The closing of the plan .

But those AVIIO look , in love and faith , Beyond the present hour , Beyond the trials which alarm , Beyond the storms which low ' r , They still can find a meaning

In all of human sight . Which tells them aye of better hopes , Eternal , pure , and bright . Tbe ] 5 resent is not all for us ,

Nor is it our all-in-all . Its scenes are only passing , Its pleasures ever pall ; There is a happier hour , When the present ' s gone and past , When life ancl time have vanish'd ,

And God ' s future dawns at last . A . F A . AV .