Groping no longer in night; she is Faith, she is living assurance.

Faith is enlightened Hope; she is light, in the eye of affection,

Dreams of the longing interprets, and carves their visions in marble.

Faith is the sun of life; and her countenance shines like the Hebrew's,

For she has looked upon God; the heaven on its stable foundation

Draws she with chains down to earth, and the new Jerusalem sinketh

Splendid with portals twelve in golden vapours descending.

There enraptured she wanders, and looks at the figures majestic,

Fears not the winged crowd, in the midst of them all is her homestead.

Therefore love and believe; for works will

follow spontaneous

Even as day does the sun; the Right from the Good is an offspring,

Love in a bodily shape: and Christian works are no more than

Animate Love and Faith, as flowers are the animate spring-tide.

Words do follow us all unto God; there stand and bear witness

Not what they seemed,-but what they were only. Blessed is he who

Hears their confession secure; they are mute upon earth until death's hand Opens the mouth of the silent. Ye children, does death e'er alarm you

Death is the brother of Love, twin-brother is he,

and is only

More austere to behold. With a kiss upon lips

that are fading

all transfigured,

Vested in white, and with harps of gold, and are singing an anthem;

Writ in the climate of heaven, in the language spoken by angels.

You, in like manner, ye children beloved, he one day shall gather,

Never forgets he the weary:-then welcome, ye loved ones, hereafter!

Meanwhile forget not the keeping of vows, forget not the promise,

Wander from holiness onward to holiness; earth shall ye heed not;

Earth is but dust and heaven is light; I have pledged you to heaven;

God of the Universe, hear me! thou Fountain of Love everlasting,

Hark to the voice of thy servant! I send up my prayer to thy heaven!

Let me hereafter not miss at thy throne one spirit of all these,

Whom thou hast given me here! I have loved them all like a father.

May they bear witness for me, that I taught them the way of salvation, Faithful, so far as I knew of thy word; again may they know me,

Fall on their Teacher's breast, and before thy face may I place them,

Pure as they now are, but only more tried, and exclaiming with gladness, Father, lo! I am here, and the children, whom thou hast given me!"

Weeping he spake in these words; and now at the beck of the old man

Knee against knee they knitted a wreath round the altar's enclosure.

Kneeling he read then the prayers of the con secration, and softly

With him the children read; at the close, with tremulous accents,

Asked he the peace of heaven, a benediction upon them.

Now should have ended his task for the day; the following Sunday

Was for the young appointed to eat of the Lord's Holy Supper.

Sudden, as struck from the clouds, stood the Teacher silent and laid his

Hand on his forehead, and cast his looks up ward; while thoughts high and holy Flew through the midst of his soul, and his eyes glanced with wonderful brightness. "On the next Sunday, who knows! perhaps I shall rest in the graveyard!

Some one perhaps of yourselves, a lily broken untimely,

Bow down his head to the earth; why delay 1? the hour is accomplished.

Warm is the heart:-I will so! for to-day grows the harvest of heaven.

What I began accomplish I now; for what failing therein is,

I,

.

the old man, will answer to God and the

reverend father,

say to me only, ye children, ye denizens new

come in heaven,

Are ye ready this day to eat of the bread of Atonement?

What it denoteth, that know ye full well, I have told it you often.

Of the new covenant a symbol it is, of Atonement a token,

'Stablished between earth and heaven. Man by his sins and transgressions

Far has wandered from God, from his essence. "Twas in the beginning

Fast by the Tree of Knowledge he fell, and it hangs its crown o'er the

Fall to this day; in the Thought is the Fall; in the Heart the Atonement.

Infinite is the Fall, the Atonement infinite likewise.

See! behind me, as far as the old man remembers, and forward,

Far as Hope in her flight can reach with her wearied pinions,

Sin and Atonement incessant go through the lifetime of mortals.

Brought forth is Sin full-grown; but Atonement sleeps in our bosoms

Still as the cradled babe; and dreams of heaven and of angels.

Cannot awake to sensation; is like the tones in the harp's strings,

Spirits imprisoned, that wait evermore the deliverer's finger.

Therefore, ye children beloved, descended the Prince of Atonement,

Woke the slumberer from sleep, and she stands now with eyes all resplendent.

Bright as the vault of the sky, and battles with Sin and o'ercomes her.

Downward to earth he came and transfigured, thence reascended,

Not from the heart in like wise, for there he still lives in the Spirit,

Loves and atones evermore. So long as Time is, is Atonement.

Therefore with reverence receive this day her visible token,

Tokens are dead if the things do not live. light everlasting

The Unto the biind man is not, but is born of the eye that has vision.

Neither in bread nor in wine, but in the heart that is hallowed

Lieth forgiveness enshrined; the intention alone of amendment

Fruits of the earth ennobles to heavenly things, and removes all

Sin and the guerdon of sin. Only Love with his arms wide extended,

Penitence weeping and praying; the Will that is tried, and whose gold flows

Purified forth from the flames; in a word, mankind by Atonement Breaketh Atonement's bread, and drinketh

Atonement's wine-cup.

But he who cometh up hither, unworthy, with hate in his bosom,

Scoffing at men and at God, is guilty of Christ's blessed body,

And the Redeemer's blood! To himself he eateth and drinketh

Death and doom! And from this preserve us, thou heavenly Father!

Are ye ready, ye children, to eat of the bread of Atonement ?"

Thus with emotion he asked, and together answered the children

Yes! with deep sobs interrupted. Then read he the due supplications,

Read the Form of Communion, and in chimed the organ and anthem:

O Holy Lamb of God, who takest away our transgressions.

Hear us! give us thy peace! have mercy, have mercy upon us!

Th' old man, with trembling hand, and heavenly pearls upon his eyelids,

Filled now the chalice and paten, and dealt round the mystical symbols.

Oh!

then seemed it to me, as if God, with the broad eye of mid-day,

Clearer looked in at the windows, and all the trees in the churchyard

Bowed down their suminits of green, and the grass on the graves 'gan to shiver.

But in the children (I noted it well; I knew it) there ran a

Tremor of holy rapture along through their icycold members.

Decked like an altar before them, there stood the green earth, and above it

Heaven opened itself, as of old before Stephen; they saw there

Radiant in glory the Father, and on his right hand the Redeemer.

Under them hear they the clang of harpstrings, and angels from gold clouds

Beckon to them like brothers, and fan with their pinions of purple.

Closed was the Teacher's task, and with heaven in their hearts and their faces, Uprose the children all, and each bowed him, weeping full sorely, Downward to kiss that reverend hand, but all of them pressed he,

Moved to his bosom, and laid with a prayer, his hands full of blessings,

Now on the holy breast, and now on the innocent

tresses.

And scattered here and there, with these,
The knarred and crooked cedar knees;
Brought from regions far away,
From Pascagoula's sunny bay,

And the banks of the roaring Roanoke!
Ah! what a wondrous thing it is
To note how many wheels of toil

One thought, one word, can set in motion!
There's not a ship that sails the ocean,
But every climate, every soil,
Must bring its tribute, great or small,
And help to build the wooden wall!

The sun was rising o'er the sea,
And long the level shadows lay,
As if they, too, the beams would be
Of some great, airy argosy,

Framed and launched in a single day.
The silent architect, the sun,

Had hewn and laid them every one,
Ere the work of man was yet begun.
Beside the Master, when he spoke,
A youth, against an anchor leaning,
Listened, to catch his slightest meaning,
Only the long waves, as they broke
In ripples on the pebbly beach,
Interrupted the old man's speech.
Beautiful, they were, in sooth,
The old man and the fiery youth!
The old man, in whose busy brain
Many a ship that sailed the main
Was modelled o'er and o'er again;-
The fiery youth, who was to be
The heir of his dexterity,

The heir of his house, and his daughter's hand,
When he had built and launched from land
What the elder head had planned.

Thus," said he, "will we build this ship;
Lay square the blocks upon the slip,
And follow well this plan of mine.
Choose the timbers with greatest care;
Of all that is unsound beware;
For only what is sound and strong

To this vessel shall belong,
Cedar of Maine and Georgia pine
Here together shall combine.

A goodly frame, and a goodly fame,
And the UNION be her name!

For the day that gives her to the sea
Shall give iny daughter unto thee !"

The Master's word

Enraptured the young man heard;
And as he turned his face aside,

With a look of joy and a thrill of pride,
Standing before

Her father's door,

Was the restless, seething, stormy sea!

Ah, how skilful grows the hand
That obeyeth Love's command!
It is the heart, and not the brain,

That to the highest doth attain,

And he who followeth Love's behest
Far exceedeth all the rest!

Thus with the rising of the sun

Was the noble task begun,

And soon throughout the ship-yard's bounds Were heard the intermingled sounds

Of axes und of mallets, applied

With vigorous arms on every side!
Plied so deftly and so well,

That, ere the shadows of evening fell,
The keel of oak for a noble ship,

Scarfed and bolted, straight and strong,
Was lying ready, and stretched along
The blocks, well placed upon the slip.
Happy, thrice happy, every one
Who sees his labour well began,
And not perplexed and multiplied,
By idly waiting for time and tide!
And when the hot long day was o'er,
The young man at the Master's door
Sat with the maiden calm and still.
And within the porch, a little more
Removed beyond the evening chill,
The father sat and told them tales,
Of wrecks in the September gales,
Of pirates upon the Spanish main,
And ships that never came back again,
The chance and change of a sailor's life,
Want and plenty, rest and strife,

His roving fancy, like the wind,

That nothing can stay and nothing can bind,
And the magic charm of foreign lands,
With shadows of palms and shining sands,
Where the tumbling surf,

O'er the coral reefs of Madagascar,
Washes the feet of the swarthy Lascar,
As he lies alone and asleep on the turf.'
And the trembling maiden held her breath
At the tales of that awful pitiless sea,
With all it terror and mystery,

The dim, dark sea, so like unto Death,
That divides and yet unites mankind!
And whenever the old man paused, a gleam

From the bowl of his pipe would awhile illume
The silent group in the twilight gloom,
And thoughtful faces, as in a dream;

And for a moment one might mark
What had been hidden by the dark,
That the head of the maiden lay at rest,
Tenderly on the young man's breast!

Day by day the vessel grew,
With timbers fashioned strong and true,
Stemson and keelson and sternson-knee,
Till, framed with perfect symmetry,
A skeleton ship rose up to view!

And around the bows and around the side
The heavy hammers and mallets plied,
Till after many a week, at length,
Wonderful for form and strength,
Sublime in its enormous bulk,

Loomed aloft the shadowy hulk!

And around it columns of smoke upwreathing, Rose from the boiling, bubbling, seething Cauldron that glowed,

And overflowed

With the black tar, heated for the sheathing.
And amid the clamours

Of clattering hammers,

He who listened heard now and then

The song of the Master and his men :

"Build me straight, O worth Master,
Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel,
That shall laugh at all disaster,

And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!"
With oaken brace and copper band,
Lay the rudder on the sand,

That, like a thought should have control

Over the movement of the whole;

And near it the anchor whose giant hand

Would reach down and grapple with the land,
And immovable and fast

Hold the great ship against the bellowing blast?
And at the bows an image stood,
By cunning artist carved in wood,
With robes of white that far behind
Seemed to be fluttering in the wind,
It was not shaped in a classic mould,
Nor like a Nymph or Goddess of old,
Or Naïad rising from the water,

But modelled from the master's daughter!
On many a dreary and misty night,
"Twill be seen by the rays of the signal light,

And everywhere

The slender, graceful spars

Poise aloft in the air,

And at the mast-head,

White, blue, and red,

A flag unrolls the stripes and stars.

Ah! when the wanderer, lonely, friendless,

In foreign harbours shall behold

That flag unrolled,

"Twill be as a friendly hand

Stretched out from his native land,

Shakes the brown hand of his son,
Kisses his daughter's glowing cheek
In silence, for he cannot speak,
And ever faster

Down his own the tears begin to run.
The worthy pastor-

The shepherd of that wandering flock,
That has the ocean for its wold,
That has the vessel for its fold,
Leaping ever from rock to rock-
Spake, with accents mild and clear,
Words of warning, words of cheer.
But tedious to the bridegroom's ear.
He knew the chart

Of the sailor's heart,

All its pleasures and its griefs;
All its shallows and rocky reefs,
All those secret currents, that flow
With such resistless undertow,

And lift and drift, with terrible force,
The will from its moorings and its course,
Therefore he spake, and thus said he:--

"Like unto ships far off at sea,
Outward, or homeward bound, are we.
Before, behind, and all around,
Floats and swings the horizon's bound,
Seems at its distant rim to rise

And climb the crystal wall of the skies,
And then again to turn and sink,

As if we could slide from its outer brink.
Ah! it is not the sea,

It is not the sea that sinks and shelves,
But ourselves

That rock and rise

With endless and uneasy motion,
Now touching the very skies,
Now sinking into the depths of ocean.
Ah! if our souls but poise and swing
Like the compass in its brazen ring,
Ever level and ever true

To the toil and the task we have to do,

less;

The Fortunate Isles, on whose shining beach The sights we see, and the sounds we hear, Will be those of joy and not of fear!"

Then the Master

With a gesture of command,

Waved his hand;

And at the word,

Loud and sudden there was heard,

All around them and below,

The sound of hammers, blow on blow,
Knocking away the shores and spurs.
And see! she stirs!

She starts, she moves,-she seems to feel
The thrill of life along her keel.

And, spurning with her foot the ground,
With one exulting, joyous bound,
She leaps into the ocean's arms!

And lo! from the assembled crowd
There rose a shout, prolonged and loud,
That to the ocean seemed to say,-
"Take her, O bridegroom, old and grey,
Take her to thy protecting arms,
With all her youth and all her charms."

How beautiful she is! How fair

She lies within those arms, that press
Her form with many a soft caress

Of tenderness and watchful care!

Sail forth into the sea, O ship!

Through wind and wave, right onward steer!
The moistened eye, the trembling lip,
Are not the signs of doubt or fear.

Sail forth into the sea of life,

O gentle, loving, trusting wife,
And safe from all adversity
Upon the bosom of that sea
Thy comings and thy goings be!
For gentleness and love and trust
Prevail o'er angry wave and gust!