Kitabı oku: «Home Poems», sayfa 4

AFFLUENCE

 
If you want both fame and money
You will do just as you can;
If you do not care for either
You can do just as you will;
And, among the moving masses,
He will be the wisest man
Who adopts these words of counsel
That shall help him up life’s hill.
 
 
If you wish to be to-morrow
What you cannot be to-day,
You must make the most of moments
While to-day is passing by;
If you would do in the future
What you really wish and pray,
Do at present what you can do
And be happy while you try.
 
 
Should you lose both fame and money
You will prosper all the more,—
For you’ll have an education
That shall loose you from your chains
And enable you to master
What you could not learn before,—
How to utilize resources
And rely upon your brains.
 

CHRIST DIVINE

 
Never can I forget Thee, Christ divine,
Never grow weary of this love of Thine,
Never deny Thee, from Thee turn away,
Nor cease to love Thee every passing day.
When storms of life are threatening very near,
Thy voice, dear Saviour, let me ever hear;
And when my sky is very clear and bright
Be Thou my sun, my never-failing light.
While I shall live, be Thou a life for me,
And when I die, my resurrection be.
When I shall enter Heavenly mansions fair,
Be Thou the first to meet and greet me there.
While, thro’ the endless years of which I dream,
I touch the golden harp, be Thou my theme,
On earth, in Heaven, forevermore be mine,—
My first, my last, my only Christ divine.
 

IN AFTER YEARS

 
Out in the grassy meadow,
As the light begins to fade,
To-day I sit in shadow,
Where in childhood hours I played.
 
 
The old stone, ’neath the maple,
The brooklet, beside the wall,
Are just as dear as ever
To this little girl grown tall.
 
 
The tinkle of bell, in pasture,
The glow of the sunset light,
Bring back those other twilights
When I drove the cows at night.
 
 
The whip-poor-will’s loud singing,
In his leafy bower on high,
Recalls the times I answered
And my echo made reply.
 
 
I hear another calling,
In the branches overhead,
For years they have been many
And the young must sing instead.
 
 
Adown the little pathway
That leads to pasture bars,
I see the grasses growing,
Where the footprints numbered stars.
 
 
In place of dear old homestead
Is ruin and heap of stone;
And tears are dimming vision,
As I think and gaze alone.
 
 
The same old tree is standing,
Where it towered years before,
With branches reaching outward,
To the low-eaved porch and door.
 
 
A hush is stealing o’er me,
Like the quiet of the night;
I can but breathe a blessing
For the dear ones gone from sight.
 
 
Tho’ feeble steps are silenced,
And the smiles no more I see,
Yet there, where Home remaineth,
They will wait to welcome me.
 
 
Alone! and yet in dreaming
I can live and love once more
The days of happy childhood,
In the sunshine gone before.
 
 
And tho’ my light is fading
And the night must come I know,
Yet the sunbeams will be stealing
Thro’ the rifts of long ago.
 

FAITH

 
Faith is needed every day,—
Faith to work and faith to pray;
Faith to learn and faith to teach,
Faith to practice, faith to preach;
Faith to love and faith to charm,
Faith to quicken, faith to calm;
Faith to bless and faith to chide,
Faith to follow, faith to guide;
Faith to prove and faith to know,
Faith to stay and faith to go;
Faith to urge and faith to keep,
Faith to waken, faith to sleep;
Faith to do and faith to dare,
Faith to bear and faith to share;
Faith to bind and faith to break,
Faith to give and faith to take;
Faith to stand and faith to yield,
Faith to heal, faith to be healed,
Faith to pardon, faith to seek,
Faith to listen, faith to speak;
Faith to wait and faith to try,
Faith to live and faith to die.
 

UNITED EFFORT

 
Working unaided, striving alone,
Effort is fruitless and triumph unknown;
Single endeavor, battling with sin,
Loses the laurels union can win.
 
 
Working together, trusting in God,
Effort united will merit reward;
Pledging allegiance triumph is sure,
Union is mighty, strength will endure.
 
 
Under our motto forces unite,
Fearless and loyal they pledge for the Right.
Onward to victory, summon the rest!
Christ is our Leader, Union is best.
 

MY SOUL

 
My soul is filled with music
Like the music of the sea;
And it takes both storm and sunshine
To awake it’s melody.
 
 
My soul is often tempted,
But from God it ne’er can part
While the heavens shall bend above me
And the Muses touch my heart.
 

THE TEXT

 
The song may be the sweetest,
And the story be the best,
The sermon most effectual,
And the poem well expressed;
 
 
But the text, it’s inspiration,
That the mind retains when heard,
May be a line at longest
Or perhaps a single word.
 

ETHEL

[In Memoriam.]

 
Before the little feet had weary grown
With toiling up life’s path from day to day,
The Master sent an angel from His home
To show our baby girl the nearer way.
 
 
Before the tiny hands were clasped in prayer,
To ask of Him—as often seemeth best—
To lighten burdens sometimes hard to bear,
Those hands were folded in eternal rest.
 
 
Before the baby eyes, so blue and bright,
Had o’er life’s lessons oft’ been known to weep,
The Saviour filled them with a Heavenly light,
And closed them, for a little while, in sleep.
 
 
Before the little heart could know a sadness,
Such as is ours who wait with falling tears,
He stilled its pulsing—hushed it into gladness—
No griefs to bear thro’ all the coming years.
 
 
Before the baby soul had known a wrong,
Or tempted been by sins earth below,
’Twas winged to Heaven, by angels’ sweetest song,
Pure and unspotted as the drifted snow.
 
 
Home to our Master in that Land above,
Never to know a heart-ache nor a care;
Would we recall her, whom we truly love,
To earthly home from Home Eternal there?
 
 
Home to our Father in that Land of Light,
Where angels guard her while we watch and pray,
Where we shall meet her if we live aright,—
For Home with Jesus is not far away;
 
 
And when, some day, we hear our Saviour’s voice,
We’ll breathe to Him above a thankful prayer,
And hearts, once filled with sorrow, will rejoice
That those we love are waiting for us there;
 
 
And when Heaven’s gracious gate is opened wide
To show, to gladdened souls, Eternal Day,
A child, with sunny hair, will stand beside,
To sing a welcome and to lead the way.
 
 
Not long we wait,—our baby goes before,
Spared from the sorrows which life here doth give,—
Happy with Jesus on that Heavenly Shore,
Where those He loves forevermore may live.
 
 
Thro’ patient toil we’ll reach that Better Land
Where now our darling finds her sweetest rest,
And then I think that we shall understand,—
And say, with happy hearts, that God knows best.
 

LOVE’S ROSES

 
When love ’woke from slumber,
At the dawn of day,
Roses without number
Bloomed upon his way;
 
 
But when noonday splendor
With her sunlight stayed,
Roses, young and tender,
Soon began to fade.
 
 
When the night winds sighing
’Round Love’s portals play,
Rose leaves, crushed and dying,
Soon will blow away.
 

INFLUENCE

 
The whole vast pyramid, Humanity,
Is built on Influence, an unseen power,
Whose great foundation stone is laid at start,
Upon which rises day by day a part;
Until the whole, imperfect though complete,
Awaits the Judge at close of life’s brief hour.
 
 
Like swallows who have found a summer sun,
And frozen buds which wake to springtime light,
So starved Humanity, which seeks awhile
The warmth and light of earth’s most friendly smile,
Bursts into fuller life and glories new
By strength of influence daily used aright.
 
 
As song of bird invites to melody
Some other soaring songster of the air,
Until a chorus, wakened far and near,
Fills quiet hour with music and with cheer,
So playful Zephyr may Æolus wake
To scatter clouds and make the earth more fair.
 
 
As raindrop falling to a fainting field
May summon forth a sweet, refreshing shower,
So little words may speed on loving wings,
Till earth awakes and all the glad world sings;
Till fainting hearts revive and souls are saved,
By needed influence of cheer and power.
 
 
If life with Socrates could make man wise,
If Aristides could make mortal just,
Then life with Christ can make a Christlike man,
Who lives, reflecting Christ, as best he can;
Whose nature is o’ertaken, sanctified,
Whose influence ensures a sacred trust.
 
 
The spell of Christ-life, deepening o’er the soul,
Refines and softens conduct, speech, and mind;
And what men think, and feel, and do, and say,
Will make the earth less hopeful or more gay,—
Will show a daring demon to the world,
Or prove the loving God to mortal-kind.
 

LIFT UP THY HEART

 
Lift up thy heart,
The day is bright,
There is no need of sighing;
Do well thy part,
Ere falls the night,
Be happy in the trying.
 
 
Fear not the way,
God knows it all,
His love is ever guiding;
Be true to-day,
And hear His call,
In faith and works abiding.
 
 
Look not before,
Nor yet behind,
The present is thy blessing;
Doubt Him no more,
But gladness find,
His gracious gifts confessing.
 
 
Lift up thy heart,
And like a King
Rule o’er it, faithless never;
Do well thy part,
Till earth shall sing,
And Heaven be thine forever.
 

TWO PATHS

 
When eastern skies are bathed in mists of gray,
And all the heralds of the night are gone,
I watch two shadows, moving o’er the way,
Beyond the dim, uncertain light of morn.
 
 
Adown the years they come, like fleeting dreams,—
No sound disturbs the hush of daylight fair,
Save song of bird, or many murmuring streams,
Like sweetest music filling all the air.
 
 
Near, and yet nearer, till each sunlight ray
Reveals no shadows, as they onward glide,
But two young friends, upon life’s unknown way,
Eager to journey o’er a path untried.
 
 
Youth knows no fear; the day is near at hand
And Mother Earth breathes forth a welcome sweet;
Thus do they wander o’er the sun-lit land
Until they come to where the two paths meet.
 
 
They pause a moment, in their eager flight,
Uncertain which to take upon the way;
But choose the path now filled with morning light
Where flowers bloom and gentle zephyrs play.
 
 
Now Pleasure points the way to paths unknown,
The prospect brightens, as new scenes appear;—
The world invites them,—they are not alone,
But join a moving throng, who know no fear.
 
 
To one, a still voice comes,—a breath, a prayer,
Breathed by a brother, in life’s changing day;
And, gazing up, he leaves the valley fair
To seek that other path,—the surer way.
 
 
He climbs the height; the vale beneath him lies,
And angels guide his faltering steps aright;
To gain the summit manfully he tries,—
Above he sees the day’s eternal light;
 
 
But looking downward, to the valley fair,
Where, in youth’s morn, his weary feet have trod,
He sees his fellow traveler lingering there
And, in his strength, he leads him up to God.
 
 
Happy is he who finds the heavenly way
And lends to doubting souls a helping hand;
God’s light directs him, step by step, each day,—
God’s glory waits him in the Promised Land.
 

STEADFASTNESS

 
We never know what we can do,
Until we try;
He who accomplishes the least,
Stands idly by;
While he who makes the most of life,
Keeps plodding on,
And earns at least his perfect rest
When strength is gone.
 
 
We never know what we can do,
Until we dare;
He who would gain the victor’s place,
Must not despair;
For tho’ life’s burdens seem too great,
The way too long,
He will succeed who conquers doubt
By prayer and song.
 

VOLUME ONE

 
How beautiful is youth that grandly gleams
With bright illusions and aspiring dreams!
Book of beginnings, such as Fiction paints,
With model heroines and hero saints.
 
 
Each precious page with expectation teems,
Filling the mind as rain-drops fill the streams;
Sweet and refreshing as the summer shower
And adding charms to every passing hour.
 
 
Each coming chapter with a new hope beams,
But how ’twill end the wisest little dreams;
And when, at last, the book of Youth is done
A less romantic sequel is begun.