GOD draws a cloud over each gleaming morn:

Would we ask why?

It is because all noblest things are born
In agony.

Only upon some cross of pain or woe
"God's son may lie ;

10.4.

Each soul redeemed from self and sin must know Its Calvary.

Yet we must crave neither for joy nor grief,
God chooses best:

He only knows our sick soul's best relief,
And gives us rest.

More than our feeble hearts can ever pine
For holiness,

The Father, in his tenderness divine,
Yearneth to bless.

He never sends a joy not meant in love,
Still less a pain :

Our gratitude the sunlight falls to prove;
Our faith the rain.

In his hands we are safe.

We falter on

Through storm and mire :

Above, beside, around us, there is One

Will never tire.

What though we fall, and bruised and wounded lie,

Our lips in dust?

God's arm shall lift us up to victory :

In Him we trust.

For neither life, nor death, nor things below,

Nor things above,

Shall ever sever us, that we should go

From his great love.

75

Easter.

Frances P. Cobbe.

8.4.4.6.8.6.

YE happy bells of Easter Day!

Ring, ring your joy

Through earth and sky;

Ye ring a glorious word;

The notes that swell in gladness tell

The rising of the Lord.

Ye glory-bells of Easter Day!

The hills that rise

Against the skies

Re-echo with the word

The victor breath that conquers death

The rising of the Lord.

Ye passion-bells of Easter Day!

The bitter cup

He lifted up,

Salvation to afford;

Ye saintly bells, your passion tells

The rising of the Lord.

Ye victor bells of Easter Day!

The thorny crown

He layeth down;

Ring, ring, with strong accord,

The mighty strain of love and pain-
The rising of the Lord.

76

Easter.

8.8.8.4.

PAST are the cross, the scourge, the thorn,
The scoffing tongue, the gibe, the scorn,
And brightly breaks the Eastern morn.

Hallelujah!

Gone are the gloomy clouds of night;
The shades of death are put to flight;
And from the tomb beams heavenly light.

And so, in sorrow dark and drear,

Hallelujah!

Though black the night, the morn is near ;
Soon shall the heavenly day appear.

Hallelujah!

And when death's darkness dims our eyes,
From out the gloom our souls shall rise
In deathless glory to the skies.

Hallelujah!

Then let us raise the glorious strain,

Love's triumph over sin and pain,
Faith's victory over terror's reign.

Hallelujah! A. C. Jewitt.

STANDING on the shore at morning,
I beheld the shining sea,

Saw the wreathing vapours mounting
Into heaven silently.

Standing on the hill at evening,

Clouds stooped gently over me,

Softly from the west ascending,

And the rain fell silently.

8.7.

78

So I cried, my Spirit's incense
Sure returneth unto me;
Upward breathing, falls in blessing
From our Father, silently.

So my life up-striving, soaring,
Where nor eye nor thought can see,
Comes again descending on me,
Filled with immortality.

And the bliss of hope awakens ;
Earth and sky I clearer see;
And I carol, in my gladness,
Joyful hymn and melody.

J. V. Blake.

Easter.

THERE is gladness in the air,
All around and everywhere,
For the spring, so fresh and fair,
Comes again;

And with verdure clad anew,
'Neath a dome of cloudless blue,
Decks with garb of varied hue
Hill and plain.

With an endless beauty rife,
Newly quickened into life,

'Mid the world's discordant strife,

7.7.7.3.

Each night's gloom the morn shall bring,

And its heaviness shall fling

Far away.'

79

80

Easter triumph, Easter joy,
Tell of bliss without alloy;
Life, no death can e'er destroy,
Has begun.

Hear again the welcome word,
Through successive ages heard,
'Christ is risen, Christ the Lord!'
Lo, 'tis done.

S. Childs-Clarke.

THE buds are bursting on the trees,
The earth awakes again,

The birds are singing out their glees,
For Christ again doth reign.
Awake and alleluias sing,

For death is slain, and Christ is king;
Awake and let the chorus swell

With voice and harp and Easter bell.

Come let us all sweet blossoms bring
The risen Lord to greet,

And make our hearts an offering,
And lay them at his feet.
Awake, etc.

No longer death and hopeless gloom
Shall grieve our souls distressed ;

For Christ has trodden through the tomb.
A pathway for the blest.

Awake, etc.

Mabel G. Osgood.

7.6.

Easter.

LET the merry church-bells ring;
Hence with tears and sighing;

Frost and cold have fled from spring;
Life hath conquered dying.