FEEDING. 341 



tens of thousands too, shall never more behold their once 

 happy homes. Bibles and Sabbaths, altars and firesides, 

 parents and friends, wife and children, how often have all 

 these been wantonly abandoned, in the accursed greed for 

 gain, by those who might have been happy and prosperous 

 at home, and who wandered from its sacred precincts only 

 because Ihey were determined to make the possession of 

 wealth, the chief object of life, but whose bones now lie 

 amid the coral reefs of the ocean, or moulder in the howling 

 wastes of tlie " overland passage ;" just as the bones of the 

 unbelieving Israelites whitened the sands of the desert. Of 

 those who have reached the " land of" golden " promise," 

 how many have died in despair, or worse still, are living so 

 besotted by vice, so lost to all power of virtuous resolutions, 

 that they shall never more see the happy homes from which 

 they so thoughtlessly wandered, never more hear the soft 

 accents of loving friends ; never more worship God, in a 

 peaceful Sanctuary, or ever again behold an opened Bible ! 



"Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! 

 Bright and yellow, hard and cold, 

 Molten, graven, hammer'd, and roli'd ; 

 Heavy to get, and light to hold ; 

 Hoarded, barter'd, bought, and sold,' 

 Stolen, borrow'd, squander'd, doled : 

 Spurn'd by the young, but hngg'd by the old 

 To the very verge of the churchyard mould ; 

 Price of many a crime untold ; 

 Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! 

 Good or bad a ihousand-fold ! 



How widely its agencies vary- 

 To save — to ruin — to curse — to bless — 

 As even its minted coins express, 

 Now stamp'd with the image of Good Queen Bess, 



And now of a Bloody Mary ! " Hood. 



29* 



