There is madness about thee, and joy divine In that song of thine: Lift me, guide me, high and high, To thy banqueting-place in the sky.
N the gloaming, when my darlings, In their dainty robes of white, By the mother's knee have murmured, "Jesus, keep us through the night," To their little crib, white-curtained, Where the upper shadows fall, Nestled in my arms, I take them Through the long, unlighted hall.
Swift, in rayless silence, round us Close the deepening shades of night: "Dark!" my blue-eyed Bertie whispers, Half in awe, and half in fright.
"Dark!" the baby-brother echoes, With a hush upon his glee: Then my Bertie, nestling nearer, Whispers softly, "Papa, see!" Blessed, blessed faith of childhood! Father, grant this faith to me: Dark the shadows round me gather; But I know that thou dost see.
22. ASPIRATIONS OF YOUTH.
HIGHER, higher, will we climb,
the mount of glory,
That our names may live through time In our country's story: Happy, when her welfare calls, He who conquers, he who falls.
Deeper, deeper, let us toil
In the mines of knowledge; Nature's wealth and learning's spoil Win from school and college; Delve we there for richer gems Than the stars of diadems.
Onward, onward, may we press, Through the path of duty: Virtue is true happiness; Excellence, true beauty. Minds are of celestial birth : Make we, then, a heaven of earth.
Closer, closer, let us knit
Hearts and hands together, Where our fireside comforts sit In the wildest weather. Oh! they wander wide who roam, For the joys of life, from home.
VERY day some vision rises That confounds the old with new:
Life is full of strange disguises,
And the false may seem the true; And the spirit by the letter Oft is chained with lawless fetter.
Strangely blent are joy and sorrow, Parts alike of God's great plan; Tears to-day, and smiles to-morrow, Reconcile them as we can: We but see how time discloses Thorns to pluck from beds of roses. Hand in hand see age and childhood, Silver locks, and curls of gold: Go they to the grave, or wildwood? Which shall first the shroud infold ? And what matter, when the ages Show how short life's longest stages?
Side by side go want and splendor: On which most shall pity fall? Which has brightest gems to render Unto Him who seeth all? Which, when fades the transitory, Shall behold the fullest glory?
Ah! short-sighted mortals vainly Seek all things to understand: When the veil is lifted, plainly
Shall we see the guiding hand,
Good from evil still awaiting, Life from death emancipating.
24. GOOD FROM EVIL.
OY ripens where the days make night With bitterest draughts of sorrow;
Hope leaps to meet the dancing light That ushers in the morrow.
Through clouds and tears, and angry fears, Dead hopes, and fruit untasted, The resurrected spring appears, Unheralded, unhasted.
We gather flowers too soon to reap The harvest's glad fruition;
We blight the fairest hope, then weep To find it but a vision.
And yet the rainbow's silver sheen Is born of many a sorrow,
And fields that glow in living green Are slumbering in the morrow.
Each star that's lost, and dream that cost Such anguish in its going,
• But builds a bridge of gold across The river's sullen flowing.
These dark, lone days are God's good ways, Revealing sunny places:
Life's dying years have many tears; Yet cloud they angel-faces.
Come on, then, toil and fear and pain, That bar the golden portal : Through suffering, garner we the grain; Through death, become immortal.
25. A CHILD IS BORN.
CHILD is born: now take the germ, and make it
A bud of moral beauty. Let the dews Of knowledge, and the light of virtue, wake it In richest fragrance and in purest hues; For soon the gathering hand of death will break it From its weak stem of life, and it shall lose All power to charm: but if that lovely flower Hath swelled one pleasure, or subdued one pain, Oh! who shall say that it has lived in vain ?
ILT Thou not visit me?
The plant beside me feels Thy gentle dew;
Each blade of grass I see,
From Thy deep earth its quickening moisture drew.
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