And deeper than the sound of seas, more soft than falling flake,

Amidst the hush of wing and song the Voice Eternal spake:

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Welcome, my angels! ye have brought a holier joy to heaven;

Henceforth its sweetest song shall be the song of sin forgiven!"

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.

THE SELF-EXILED.

THERE came a soul to the gate of Heaven
Gliding slow-

A soul that was ransomed and forgiven,
And white as snow:

And the angels all were silent.

A mystic light beamed from the face
Of the radiant maid,

But there also lay on its tender grace
A mystic shade:

And the angels all were silent.

As sunlit clouds by a zephyr borne
Seem not to stir,

So to the golden gates of morn
They carried her:

And the angels all were silent.

"Now open the gate, and let her in,
And fling it wide,

SIR GALAHAD.

"My strength is as the strength of ten,

Because my heart is pure."

-TENNYSON.

From a photogravure after the painting by
George Frederick Watts.

"If I enter heaven I may not speak

My soul's desire

For them that are lying distraught and weak
In flaming fire: "

And the angels all were silent.

"I had a brother, and also another
Whom I loved well;

What if, in anguish, they curse each other
In the depths of hell?"

And the angels all were silent.

"How could I touch the golden harps,
When all my praise

Would be so wrought with grief-full warps
Of their sad days?"

And the angels all were silent.

"How love the loved who are sorrowing,
And yet be glad?

How sing the songs ye are fain to sing,
While I am sad?"

And the angels all were silent.

"Oh, clear as glass in the golden street
Of the city fair,

And the tree of life it maketh sweet
The lightsome air: "

And the angels all were silent.

"And the white-robed saints with their crowns

and palms

Are good to see,

And oh, so grand are the sounding psalms! But not for me:"

And the angels all were silent.

"I come where there is no night," she said, "To go away,

And help, if I yet may help, the dead
That have no day."

And the angels all were silent.

Saint Peter he turned the keys about,
And answered grim:

"Can you love the Lord and abide without, Afar from Him?"

And the angels all were silent.

"Can you love the Lord who died for you, And leave the place

Where His glory is all disclosed to view,
And tender grace?"

And the angels all were silent.

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They go not out who come in here;
It were not meet:

Nothing they lack, for He is here,
And bliss complete."

And the angels all were silent.

"Should I be nearer Christ," she said, "By pitying less

The sinful living or woful dead

In their helplessness?"

And the angels all were silent.