For ever, did I say? O, no!
The time must come when she will look
Upon her pilgrimage below,
And find it in God's Book :
That as she trod her path aright,
Power from her very garments stole;
For such is the mysterious might
God grants the upright soul.
A deed, a word, our careless rest,
A simple thought, a common feeling,
If He be present in the breast,
Has from Him powers of healing.
Go, maiden, with thy golden tresses,
Thine azure eye, and changing cheek,
Go, and forget the one who blesses
Thy presence through that week.
Forget him he will not forget,
But strive to live, and testify
Thy goodness, when Earth's sun has set,
And Time itself rolled by.
THERE is a faith in Eastern lands,
That, when true friends are torn apart, Their angels who are here below,
To guard them through this world of woe, Do walk together still; and so
Heart communes still with heart.
In that belief I would believe,
Upon that holy faith would lean,
And thus still bow before thy shrine,
Still gaze upon thy light divine,
And still my spirit learn of thine,
Though mountains rise between.
FRAGMENT OF A LETTER TO A STUDENT OF DIVINITY.
I SEE you in some country town
On snug four hundred settled down,
And saving from your salary
What little surplus there may be,
To buy your wife a Christmas gown.
I see you through the rain, the snow,
Heat, cold, and mud, unwearied go
To visit every home of woe,
Sustain each drooping head;
Or when the mortal lies below,
Weep o'er the humble dead.
I see the fire; the cottage room,
Now all alight, and now all gloom,
As rise the flames or fall;
The simple meal; the honeycomb;
The bread and butter, made at home;
And you the lord of all.
I see the circle gather round,
I hear the silence so profound,
As bending, reverent, to the ground,
You pour the living prayer;·
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I see to rest your prattlers led,
With swimming eyes, back-turning head;
And when another hour is fled,
At nature's call, you haste to bed,
And I am with you there;
In other scenes and spheres you seem,
Of wider usefulness you dream,
And thirst for nobler care.
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