7. THE OAK. "What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind ?" COME take a woodland walk with me, And mark the rugged old Oak Tree, Where from the bank the fresh rill springs, And points the waters' silent way Down the wild maze of reed and spray. There stands he, in each time and tide, He holds his root in faith and power, Mark'st thou in him no token true Of heaven's own Priests, both old and new? Fix'd in the wild, from year to year To penitents and children preach, 8. THE PALM. "Palma virens semper manet conservatione et diuturnitate, non immutatione foliorum."-St. Ambrose, Hexaemeron, iii. 71. WHY of all the woodland treasure, Holy Palm, art thou preferred, When the voice of praise is heard, Is it for thy verdure, brightest In the zone of colours bright? Nor of sun nor air afraid? Is it that in antique story Conquerors own'd thee for their meed? For thy green unchanging glory, Pines may tower, and laurels flourish- Type of hearts which airs divine 9. THE WATERFALL. Ye also as lively stones, are built up, a spiritual House." "I will make thy seed as the dust of the Earth." "WHAT is the Church, and what am I? A world, to one poor sandy grain, A waste of sea and sky To one frail drop of rain. "What boots one feeble infant tone Nay the kind Watchers hearkening there Each little wave, each air Upon the faltering tongue. |