Chapter 78
And I am blest!
This is Thy high behest: Thou, here and _everywhere_.
Meeting Of My Departed Mother And Husband
"Joy for thee, happy friend! thy bark is past [10]
The dangerous sea, and safely moored at last- Beyond rough foam.
Soft gales celestial, in sweet music bore- Spirit emanc.i.p.ate for this far sh.o.r.e- Thee to thy home. [15]
"You've travelled long, and far from mortal joys, To Soul's diviner sense, that spurns such toys, Brave wrestler, lone.
Now see thy ever-self; Life never fled; Man is not mortal, never of the dead: [20]
The dark unknown.
"When hope soared high, and joy was eagle-plumed, Thy pinions drooped; the flesh was weak, and doomed To pa.s.s away.
But faith triumphant round thy death-couch shed [25]
Majestic forms; and radiant glory sped The dawning day.
[Page 386.]
"Intensely grand and glorious life's sphere,- [1]
Beyond the shadow, infinite appear Life, Love divine,- Where mortal yearnings come not, sighs are stilled, And home and peace and hearts are found and filled, [5]
Thine, ever thine.
"Bearest thou no tidings from our loved on earth, The toiler tireless for Truth's new birth All-unbeguiled?
Our joy is gathered from her parting sigh: [10]
This hour looks on her heart with pitying eye,- What of my child?"
"When, severed by death's dream, I woke to Life, She deemed I died, and could not know the strife At first to fill [15]
That waking with a love that steady turns To G.o.d; a hope that ever upward yearns, Bowed to His will.
"Years had pa.s.sed o'er thy broken household band, When angels beckoned me to this bright land, [20]
With thee to meet.
She that has wept
"By the remembrance of her loyal life, [25]
And parting prayer, I only know my wife, Thy child, shall come- Where farewells cloud not o'er our ransomed rest- Hither to reap, with all the crowned and blest, Of bliss the sum. [30]
[Page 387.]
"When Love's rapt sense the heart-strings gently sweep, [1]
With joy divinely fair, the high and deep, To call her home, She shall mount upward unto purer skies; We shall be waiting, in what glad surprise, [5]
Our spirits' own!"
Love
Brood o'er us with Thy shelt'ring wing, 'Neath which our spirits blend Like brother birds, that soar and sing, [10]
And on the same branch bend.
The arrow that doth wound the dove Darts not from those who watch and love.
If thou the bending reed wouldst break By thought or word unkind, [15]
Pray that his spirit you partake, Who loved and healed mankind: Seek holy thoughts and heavenly strain, That make men one in love remain.
Learn, too, that wisdom's rod is given [20]
For faith to kiss, and know; That greetings glorious from high heaven, Whence joys supernal flow, Come from that Love, divinely near, Which chastens pride and earth-born fear, [25]
[Page 388.]
Through G.o.d, who gave that word of might [1]
Which swelled creation's lay: "Let there be light, and there was light."
What chased the clouds away?
'Twas Love whose finger traced aloud [5]
A bow of promise on the cloud.
Thou to whose power our hope we give, Free us from human strife.
Fed by Thy love divine we live, [10]
For Love alone is Life; And life most sweet, as heart to heart Speaks kindly when we meet and part.
Woman's Rights
Grave on her monumental pile: She won from vice, by virtue's smile, [15]
Her dazzling crown, her sceptred throne, Affection's wreath, a happy home;
The right to wors.h.i.+p deep and pure, To bless the orphan, feed the poor; Last at the cross to mourn her Lord, [20]
First at the tomb to hear his word:
To fold an angel's wings below; And hover o'er the couch of woe; To nurse the Bethlehem babe so sweet, The right to sit at Jesus' feet; [25]
[Page 389.]
To form the bud for bursting bloom, [1]