Life is a vine branch,

A vintager, death;
He threatens and lowers,

More near with each breath,
Then hasten, arise,

Seek God, O my soul!

For time quickly flies

Though far seems the goal.

152 IT SINGETH LOW IN EVERY HEART.

It singeth low in every heart,
We hear it each and all,—

A song of those who answer not,

However we may call.

They throng the silence of the breast,

We see them as of yore,—

The kind, the brave, the true, the sweet,

Though they are here no more.

'T is hard to take the burden up,
When these have laid it down;
They brightened all the joy of life,
They softened every frown.

But oh! 't is good to think of them

When we are troubled sore;

Thanks be to God that such have been,

Although they are no more.

153

More home-like seems the vast Unknown,

Since they have entered there;

To follow them were not so hard,
Wherever they may fare.

They cannot be where God is not,
On any sea or shore :

Whate'er betides, Thy love abides,
Our God for evermore.

SOWING AND REAPING.

Sow with a generous hand,

Pause not for toil and pain;

Weary not through the heat of summer,
Weary not through the cold spring rain;
But wait till the autumn comes

For the sheaves of golden grain.

Scatter the seed and fear not,-
A table will be spread;
What matter if you are too weary
To eat your hard-earned bread?
Sow while the earth is broken,
For the hungry must be fed.

O sow!-for the hours are fleeting
And the seed must fall to-day,
And care not what hands shall reap it,
Or if you shall have passed away

Before the waving cornfields

Shall gladden the sunny day.

Sow-and look onward, upward,
Where the starry light appears,
Where, in spite of the coward's doubting
Or your own heart's trembling fears,
You shall reap in joy the harvest

You have sown to-day in tears.

154 IN UNITY WITH GOD AND MAN.

Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless round

Of circling planets singing on their way; Guide of the nations from the night profound Into the glory of the perfect day;

Rule in our hearts that we may ever be Guided and strengthened and upheld by Thee.

We would be one in hatred of all wrong,

One in our love of all things sweet and fair, One with the joy that breaketh into song,

One with the grief that trembles into prayer, One in the power that makes Thy children free To follow truth and thus to follow Thee.

Oh, clothe us with Thy heavenly armor, Lord! Thy trusty shield, Thy word of Love divine; Our inspiration be Thy constant word;

We ask no victories that are not Thine; Give or withhold, let pain or pleasure be, Enough to know that we are serving Thee.

155

WEEP NO MORE.

Relentless and unswerving in its course,

Time reaches onward in its dread career; And earth that nourished, earth that was the source, Reclaims her part, resigned with many a tear.

But why bewail the fate of our loved dead?
Why selfishly thus weep above the bier ?
Their care is gone, their every sorrow fled :
It's but the living that can claim the tear.

They dread no more for whom we vainly mourn ; Their pangs are past, their souls from shackles

free,

Their prison gates were oped, their fetters torn,
They fled-redeemed for all eternity.

Eternity! O mighty, wond'rous thought!
What words sufficient for so high a theme!
With promises of God's sweet mercy fraught-
The joyous morning after this life's dream;

A dream that points to hope of future meed,
The recompense of every earthly woe;
Our trust in God that they whose souls He freed,
Immunity from earthly troubles know.

156 AT THE PORTAL OF THE GRAVE.

I.

Alas for him who never sees

The stars shine through his cypress-trees!
Who, hopeless, lays his dead away,
Nor looks to see the breaking day
Across the mournful marbles play!
Who hath not learned, in hours of faith,
The truth, to flesh and sense unknown:
That life is ever lord of death

And love can never lose its own.

II.

So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves

To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not as the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.