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. BY THE SEASIDE AND THE FIRESIDE. DEDICATION. As one who, walking in the twilight gloom, So walking here in twilight, O my friends! I hear your voices, softened by the distance, ance. If any thought of mine, or sung or told, That teaches me, when seeming most alone, Kind messages, that pass from land to land: Kind letters that betray the heart's deep history, In which we feel the pressure of a hand, One touch of fire, and all the rest is mystery! The pleasant books that silently among Our household treasures take familiar places Perhaps on carth I never shall behold, Therefore to me you never will grow old, But the endeavour for the selfsame ends, tions. Therefore I hope to join your sea-side walk, The grand, majestic symphonies of ocean. o have my place reserved among the rest, BY THE SEASIDE. THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP. "BUILD me straight, O worthy Master! Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel, That shall laugh at all disaster, And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!" The merchant's word Delighted the Master heard: For his heart was in his work, and the heart A quiet smile played round his lips, As the eddies and dimples of the tide That steadily at anchor ride. And with a voice that was full of glee, And eight round towers, like those that frown It was of another form, indeed; And with wave and whirlwind wrestle! And scattered here and there, with these, And the banks of the roaring Roanoke! One thought, one word, can set in motion! The sun was rising o'er the sea, Framed and launched in a single day. Had hewn and laid them every one, The heir of his house, and his daughter's hand, Thus," said he, "will we build this ship; To this vessel shall belong, A goodly frame, and a goodly fame, For the day that gives her to the sea The Master's word Enraptured the young man heard; With a look of joy and a thrill of pride, Her father's door, Was the restless, seething, stormy sea! Ah, how skilful grows the hand That to the highest doth attain, And he who followeth Love's behest 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! That, ere the shadows of evening fell, Scarfed and bolted, straight and strong, His roving fancy, like the wind, That nothing can stay and nothing can bind, O'er the coral reefs of Madagascar, The dim, dark sea, so like unto Death, From the bowl of his pipe would awhile illume And for a moment one might mark Day by day the vessel grew, And around the bows and around the side 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. Of clattering hammers, He who listened heard now and then The song of the Master and his men : "Build me straight, O worth Master, And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!" 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, Hold the great ship against the bellowing blast? But modelled from the master's daughter! 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, Down his own the tears begin to run. The shepherd of that wandering flock, Of the sailor's heart, All its pleasures and its griefs; And lift and drift, with terrible force, "Like unto ships far off at sea, And climb the crystal wall of the skies, As if we could slide from its outer brink. It is not the sea that sinks and shelves, That rock and rise With endless and uneasy motion, To the toil and the task we have to do, Filling his heart with memories sweet and end- We shall securely, and safely reach 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, She starts, she moves,-she seems to feel And, spurning with her foot the ground, And lo! from the assembled crowd How beautiful she is! How fair She lies within those arms, that press Of tenderness and watchful care! Sail forth into the sea, O ship! Through wind and wave, right onward steer! Sail forth into the sea of life, O gentle, loving, trusting wife, |