If there be some weaker one, Let me guide him nearer Thee. Until all things sweet and good Seem my natural habitude. JOHN G. WHittier. M SONNET ON NIGHT AND DEATH. YSTERIOUS Night! when our first parent knew Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, This glorious canopy of light and blue? Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, And lo! creation widened in man's view. Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed Within thy beams, O Sun! or who could find, While fly, and leaf, and insect stood revealed, That to such countless orbs thou madest us blind! Why do we then shun Death with anxious strife? If Light can thus deceive, wherefore not Life? J. BLANCO WHITE, 1775-1841. THE FUTURE. WHAT may we take into the vast Forever? That marble door Admits no fruit of all our long endeavor, No garnered lore. What can we bear beyond the unknown portal? Of all our toiling in the life immortal Nor gilds, nor stains. Naked from out that far abyss behind us No word came with our coming, to remind us No hope, no fear. Into the silent, starless Night before us, No hand has mapped the constellations o'er us, No chart, no guide. Yet fearless toward that midnight, black and hollow, Our footsteps fare: The beckoning of a Father's hand we follow His love alone is there, No curse, no care. EDWARD ROWLAND SILL. ATHANASIA. HE ship may sink, THE And I may drink A hasty death in the bitter sea; But all that I leave In the ocean-grave Can be slipped and spared, and no loss to me. What care I, Though falls the sky, And the shrivelling earth to a cinder turn? No fires of doom Can ever consume What never was made nor meant to burn. Let go the breath! There is no death To the living soul, nor loss, nor harm. Not of the clod Is the life of God: Let it mount, as it will, from form to form. CHARLES G. AMES. MISCELLANEOUS. A THANKSGIVING. "Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.' LORD, in this dust Thy sovereign voice First quickened love divine; I am all Thine, — Thy care and choice, I praise Thee, while Thy providence For blessings given, ere dawning sense Blessings in boyhood's marvelling hour, Yet, Lord, in memory's fondest place When, looking up, I saw Thy face I would not miss one sigh or tear, And such Thy tender force be still, Deny me wealth; far, far remove The lure of power or name; Hope thrives in straits, in weakness love, And faith in this world's shame. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, 1829. THE INWARD WITNESS OF GOD. "WHERE is your God?" they say: Answer them, Lord most Holy ! Reveal Thy secret way Of visiting the lowly : Not wrapped in moving cloud, Or nightly-resting fire; But veiled within the shroud Of silent high desire. Come not in flashing storm, Or bursting frown of thunder: Come in the viewless form Of wakening love and wonder; |