Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Falls from his grasp better with love a crust, Than living in dishonor: envies not,

Nor loses faith in man: but does his best, Nor ever murmurs at his humble lot,

But with a smile and words of hope gives zest To every toiler: he alone is great,

Who by a life heroic conquers fate.

SARA K. BOLTON.

APART from the woes that are dead and
And the shadow of future care,
The heaviest yoke of the present hour
Is easy enough to bear.

WILL

February

gone

ALICE CARY.

VILL winter never be over?
Will the dark days never go?

Must the buttercup and the clover

Be always hid under the snow?

Ah, lend me your little ear, love!
Hark 'tis a beautiful thing;

The weariest month of the year, love,
Is shortest and nearest the spring!

MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY.

A

Omnipresence

THOUSAND sounds, and each a joyful
sound;

The dragon-flies are darting as they please,
The humming-birds are humming all around,
The clithra all alive with buzzing bees,
Each playful leaf its separate whisper found,
As laughing winds went rustling thro' the grove;
And I saw thousands of such sights as these,
And heard a thousand sounds of joy and love.

And yet so dull I was, I did not know
That He was there who all this love displayed,
I did not think how He who loved us so
Shared all my joy, was glad that I was glad;
And all because I did not hear the word
In English accents say, "It is the Lord."

EDWARD EVERETT HALE.

L

My Lighthouse

IFT up thy light, O soul, arise and shine,

Steadfast while all the storms of life assail!

Immortal spark of the great Light divine,
Against whose power no tempest shall prevail !

Hold high thy lamps above earth's restless tides,
Scatter thy messages of hope afar !

Falsehood and folly pass, but Truth abides;
Thine be the splendor of her deathless star.

When the world's sins and sorrows round thee rave,
Pierce thou the darkness with thy dauntless ray,
Send out thy happy beams to help and save,
"More and more shining to the perfect day!"

CELIA THAXTER.

[ocr errors]

The Right must Win

H, it is hard to work for God,
To rise and take His part

Upon this battle-field of earth,
And not sometimes lose heart!

He hides Himself so wondrously,
As though there were no God;
He is least seen when all the powers
Of ill are most abroad.

Or He deserts us at the hour

The fight is all but lost,

And seems to leave us to ourselves

Just when we need Him most.

Ill masters good; good seems to change To ill with greatest ease,

And, worst of all, the good with good

Is at cross purposes.

Ah! God is other than we think;
His ways are far above,

Far beyond reason's height, and reached
Only by childlike love.

Workmen of God! Oh, lose not heart, But learn what God is like;

And in the darkest battle-field

Thou shalt know where to strike.

Thrice blest is he to whom is given
The instinct that can tell,

That God is on the field when He
Is most invisible.

Blest too is he who can divine

Where real right doth lie;

And dares to take the side that seems
Wrong to man's blindfold eye.

For right is right, since God is God;
And right the day must win;
To doubt would be disloyalty,

To falter would be sin.

FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER.

The Rainy Day

'HE day is cold, and dark, and dreary ;

THE

It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary ;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;

My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,

Some days must be dark and dreary.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFEllow.

« AnteriorContinuar »