His youthful brow was touch'd with thought,
And life had lost its morn,
When glad again the wanderer sought
The soil where he was born.
Alas! that long expected shore
Denied the wonted joy,
And the man felt not, as of yore
Had felt the happier boy.
For formal friends scarce grasp'd his hand—
The friends he knew of old;
What cared he for a sunny land,
If human hearts were cold?
Again he cast his alter'd lot
'Mid alien tribes to roam;
And fail'd to find another spot
So foreign as his home.
His heavy grief no bosom shared,
No eye would weep his fall;
What matter if his life were spared,
Who lived unloved by all!
And when had ceased his earthly toil
Upon that distant shore,
His bones were gather'd to the soil—
His heart had died before.
JOHN BATHURST DICKSON.
An able theologian and accomplished writer of verses, John Bathurst Dickson was born on the 25th December 1823, in the town of Kelso, Roxburghshire. His father was a respectable writer or attorney in that place. Having studied at the University of Edinburgh, and passed through a theological curriculum at the New College of that city, he became, in 1851, a licentiate of the Free Church. In June 1852, he was ordained to the ministerial charge of the Free High Church, Paisley.
During the period of his attendance at college, Mr Dickson was an extensive contributor to Tait's Magazine, and different religious periodicals. In 1855, he published "Theodoxia; or, Glory to God an Evidence for the Truth of Christianity;" and in 1857 appeared from his pen "The Temple Lamp," a periodical publication. He has written verses on a variety of topics. His song, "The American Flag," has been widely published in the United States.
THE AMERICAN FLAG.
Float forth, thou flag of the free;
Flash far over land and sea,
Proud ensign of Liberty—
Hail, hail to thee!