GREEN SPOTS IN THE CITY.

Ye fill my heart with gladness, verdant places, That 'mid the city greet me as I pass; Methinks I see of angel steps the traces, Where'er upon my pathway grows the grass. I pause before your gates at early morning, When lies the sward with glittering sheen o'erspread; And think the dew-drops there each blade adorning, Are angels' tears for mortal frailty shed. And ye, earth's firstlings! here in beauty springing, Erst in your cells by careful winter nursed, And to the morning heaven your incense flinging, As at His smile ye forth in joy had burst; How do ye cheer with hope the lonely hour, When on my way I tread despondingly; With thought that He who careth for the flower Will, in His mercy, still remember me. Breath of our nostrils, Thou! whose love embraces, Whose light shall never from our souls depart; Beneath thy touch hath sprung a green oasis Amid the arid desert of my heart. Thy sun and rain awake the bud of promise, And with fresh leaves in spring-time deck the tree; That where man's hand hath shut out nature from us, We by these glimpses may remember Thee.