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the Great God helps those?Who feel to help themselves and others bound.
What blest results are following in thy train,?To physical as well as mental wealth,?Through sanitation, in its myriad forms,?By which it now promotes the nation's health.
Well regulated physical as mental work?Opens rich sources of enjoyment sweet;?And mind and body strengthened, thus delight?New difficulties to withstand and greet.
Few know how strengthening is resisting power,?In mind and body as in physics too,?And what accumulating force it lends?To man his life work daily to renew.
The richest happiness comes from within,?From duties well accomplished blessings flow,?And precious fruits of action, thought and deed?That will not give rude switch grass place to grow.
Thou teachest that a form to be a square?Must have its lines of length, breadth, depth, exact,?Without the least divergence right or left,?And with its due proportions clear, compact.
What helpful lessons might not this form teach,?If testing thus the lines of motives, thought,?Which make the sum of action square or false,?Each would discern the application taught.
When truth as the soul's standard is set up,?Making the inner life exact and square,?With love to God producing love, to all,?What will not man for man and duty dare?
True brotherhood consists in making each,?As far as may be, just another self;?The priceless sequence of such action would?Exceed the greatest riches men call wealth.
Then might the blest commandment, do to all?As to ourselves we would that they should do,?Flow as a natural sequence, and such act?Would bring its own reward and comfort, too.
For truest happiness is known to those?Who learn to know themselves through struggles brave.?Such conquerors steer serenely o'er the calm,?Clear sea of life, as o'er its troubled wave.
Knowing that the Great Father wills that man?Should, through much strife and suffering win that prize, Whose precious fruits of knowledge wait for all?Who use full well each moment as it flies.
Then let us strive to form each thought, word, deed,?On the exact, undeviating square,?Seeking to learn and discipline ourselves,?And win rewards which all who will may share.

CHRISTMAS MORN.
Dear, happy Christmas! once again?We joy to welcome thee,?With all thy glad surroundings, grouped?For world-wide jubilee.
We'll crown thy peace-illumined brow?With holly burnished bright,?Entwined with glowing crimson buds,?And mystic berries white.
Then the sly bough of mistletoe?We must not, cannot miss,?For, privileged beneath its shade,?We hope for many a kiss.
Kisses of joy from those we love,?Kisses of pardon, too,?That chase all anger from the heart,?And feelings seared renew.
E'en as the song of peace on earth?Flows lovingly from heaven,?Should men forgive their foes, as they?Expect to be forgiven--
Burying all painful bygones deep,?Far out of thought and sight,?Sweet peace possessing, reconciled,?In new love-bonds unite.
And round the merry Christmas board?Pledges of good-will give,?That they can, once a year, at least,?Old grudges quite forgive.
And let the poor, the blind, the maimed?Be kindly feted, too;?In blessing others all are bathed?In blessings rich and new.
Thus, peace-proclaiming, loving friend,?Time-honoured Christmas dear,?Thou wilt, indeed, have well fulfilled?Thy love-fraught mission here.

A VICTIM TO MODERN INVENTIONS.
(_Founded on a tale which appeared in Chambers' Journal, 4th series, No. 630, Saturday, January 22nd, 1876, page 69_.)
Since quite a boy Hal Gradient had been?Noted for ingenuity--between?The hours when not on active duty he?Immersed in some new scheme was sure to be;?So, by the age of twenty-five he grew?Absorbed in plans, constructive, rare and new.?We both in engineering works were then,?On contract work engaged in France, when?He the gratifying news received,?That some unknown rich relative had died,?Leaving him sole executor and heir?To an estate both lucrative and fair.
Prior to leaving for his native land,?He said to me, Now, Mark, my friend, you understand,?I shall expect to see you at my home?As soon as your engagement here is done;?And such a home, my boy, as you shall see,?You cannot well conceive what it may be,?For I intend to exercise my skill,?Its precincts with inventions new to fill,?And have things so arranged that work and time?Shall reap rich harvests in their course sublime.
Time passed; my contract done, I hastened home,?Unwilling longer from its joys to roam,?When Harry, hearing that I had returned,?To have me by him with impatience burned;?So, to his pressing lines that I should pay?A visit to his country home next day,?I cordially assented, for I, too,?Was anxious our prized friendship to renew.
Descending at the station I espied?The dear old boy, with dog-cart at his side,?Waiting to welcome me with heart and hand,?To all we prize most in our native land;?For howsoe'er or wheresoe'er we roam,?We find no joys like those of home, sweet home!
We bowled along the pleasant country lanes,?By wooded heights and blossom-covered plains.?See! said he, there's my house among the trees,?Sheltered, yet open to the southern breeze.?In that beyond, with other two, you see,?Whose grounds close round my own so pleasantly,?Live valued friends of whom I never tire;?With each abode a telegraphic wire?Communicates, so, when we feel inclined?For whist or billiards, after we