Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE THREE VOICES.

Enough that blessings undeserved
Have marked my erring track;
That wheresoe'er my feet have swerved
His chastening turned me back-

That more and more a Providence
Of love is understood,

Making the springs of time and sense
Sweet with eternal good-

That death seems but a covered way
Which opens into light,
Wherein no blinded child can stray
Beyond the Father's sight-

That care and trial seem at last,
Through Memory's sunset air,
Like mountain ranges overpast,
In purple distance fair-

That all the jarring notes of life
Seem blending in a psalm,

And all the angles of its strife
Slow rounding into calm.

And so the shadows fall apart,
And so the west winds play;

And all the windows of my heart
I open to the day.

JOHN G. WHITTIER.

WHAT

The Three Voices.

HAT saith the Past to thee? Weep!
Truth is departed;

Beauty hath died like the dream of a sleep,

Love is faint-hearted:

353

[ocr errors]

Trifles of sense, the profoundly unreal,
Scare from our spirits God's holy ideal-

So, as a funeral-bell, slowly and deep,
So tolls the Past to thee! Weep!

How speaks the Present hour? Act!
Walk, upward glancing:

So shall thy footsteps in glory be tracked,
Slow, but advancing.

Scorn not the smallness of daily endeavoi,
Let the great meaning ennoble it ever;
Droop not o'er efforts expended in vain;
Work, as believing that labor is gain.

What doth the Future say? Hope!
Turn thy face sunward!

Look where light fringes the far-rising slope-
Day cometh onward.

Watch! Though so long be the twilight delaying-
Let the first sunbeam arise on thee praying!

Fear not, for greater is God by thy side
Than armies of Satan against thee allied!
ANONYMOUS.

Messiah.

E nymphs of Solyma! begin the song

YE

To heavenly themes sublimer strains belong.
The mossy fountains and the sylvan shades,
The dreams of Pindus and the Aonian maids,
Delight no more—O thou my voice inspire
Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire!

Rapt into future times the bard begun :
A virgin shall conceive-a virgin bear a son!
From Jesse's root behold a branch arise
Whose sacred flower with fragrance fills the skies!
The ethereal spirit o'er its leaves shall move,

And on its top descends the mystic dove.

MESSIAH.

Ye heavens! from high the dewy nectar pour,
And in soft silence shed the kindly shower!
The sick and weak the healing plant shall aid –
From storm a shelter, and from heat a shade.
All crimes shall cease, and ancient frauds shall fail ;
Returning Justice lift aloft her scale,

Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,

And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend.
Swift fly the years, and rise the expected morn!
O spring to light! auspicious babe, be born!
See, nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring,
With all the incense of the breathing Spring!
See lofty Lebanon his head advance;
See nodding forests on the mountains dance;
See spicy clouds from lowly Sharon rise,
And Carmel's flowery top perfumes the skies!
Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers:
Prepare the way! a God, a God appears!
A God, a God! the vocal hills reply-
The rocks proclaim the approaching Deity.
Lo, earth receives Him from the bending skies!
Sink down, ye mountains; and ye valleys, rise!
With heads declined, ye cedars, homage pay!
Be smooth, ye rocks; ye rapid floods, give way!
The Saviour comes! by ancient bards foretold—
Hear Him, ye deaf; and all ye blind, behold!
He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,
And on the sightless eyeball pour the day;
'Tis He the obstructed paths of sound shall clear,
And bid new music charm the unfolding ear;
The dumb shall sing; the lame his crutch forego,
And leap exulting like the bounding roe.
No sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear--
From every face He wipes off every tear.
In adamantine chains shall Death be bound,
And hell's grim tyrant feel the eternal wound.
As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care,
Seeks freshest pasture, and the purest air,

355

Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs.
By day o'ersees them, and by night protects
The tender lambs He raises in His arms-

Feeds from His hand, and in His Dosom warms:
Thus shall mankind His guardian care engage-
The promised Father of the future age.
No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes;
Nor fields with gleaming steel be covered o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more;
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad falchion in a plowshare end.
Then palaces shall rise; the joyful son
Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun;
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,
And the same hand that sowed shall reap the field;
The swain in barren deserts with surprise

Sees lilies spring and sudden verdure rise;
And starts, amidst the thirsty wilds, to hear
New falls of water murmuring in his ear.
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,

The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods;
Waste sandy valleys, once perplexed with thorn,
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn ;

To leafless shrubs the flowery palms succeed,

And odorous myrtle to the noisome weed;

The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead,
And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead;
The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,

And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet.

The smiling infant in his hand shall take

The crested basilisk and speckled snake-
Pleased, the green lustre of the scales survey,
And with their forked tongue shall innocently play.
Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise!
Exalt thy towery head, and lift thine eyes!
See a long race thy spacious courts adorn;
See future sons and daughters, yet unborn,

A CHRISTMAS HYMN.

In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barbarous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;

See thy bright altars thronged with prostrate kings,
And heaped with products of Sabean springs!
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,

And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heaven its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day!
No more the rising sun shall gild the morn,
Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn;
But lost, dissolved in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze,
O'erflow thy courts; the Light Himself shall shine
Revealed, and God's eternal day be thine!
The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
But fixed His word, His saving power remains;
Thy realm forever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns!
ALEXANDER POPE,

A Christmas Hymn.

T was the calm and silent night!

IT

Seven hundred years and fifty-three Had Rome been growing up to might, And now was queen of land and sea. No sound was heard of clashing warsPeace brooded o'er the hushed domain; Apollo, Pallas, Jove, and Ma15

Held undisturbed their ancient reign,

In the solemn midnight,

Centuries ago.

357

« PreviousContinue »