PEACE CONVENTION AT BRUSSELS.
And Naples mourns that new Bartholomew, When squalid beggary, for a dole of bread, At a crowned murderer's beck of license fed The yawning trenches with her noble dead; Still, doomed Vienna, through thy stately halls The shell goes crashing and the red shot falls, And, leagued to crush thee, on the Danube's side, The bearded Croat and Bosniak spearman ride; Still in that vale where Himalaya's snow
Melts round the cornfields and the vines below, The Sikh's hot cannon, answering ball for ball, Flames in the breach of Moultan's shattered wall; On Chenab's side the vulture seeks the slain, And Sutlej paints with blood its banks again. "What folly, then," the faithless critic cries, With sneering lip, and wise, world-knowing eyes, "While fort to fort, and post to post, repeat The ceaseless challenge of the war-drum's beat, And round the green earth, to the church-bell's chime,
The morning drum-roll of the camp keeps time, To dream of peace amidst a world in arms, Of swords to ploughshares changed by scriptura charms,
Of nations, drunken with the wine of blood, Staggering to take the Pledge of Brotherhood, Like tipplers answering Father Mathew's call- The sullen Spaniard, and the mad-cap Gaul, The bull-dog Briton, yielding but with life, The Yankee swaggering with his bowie knife, The Russ, from banquets with the vulture shared, The blood still dripping from his amber beard, Quitting their mad Berserker dance, to hear The dull, meek droning of a drab-coat seer; Leaving the sport of Presidents and Kings, Where men for dice each titled gambler flings, To meet alternate on the Seine and Thames, For tea and gossip, like old country dames! No! let the cravens plead the weakling's cant,
Let Cobden cipher, and let Vincent rant, Let Sturge preach peace to democratic throngs, And Burritt, stammering through his hundred tongues,
Repeat, in all, his ghostly lessons o'er,
Timed to the pauses of the battery's roar; Check Ban or Kaiser with the barricade Of" Olive-leaves" and Resolutions made, Spike guns with pointed scripture-texts, and hope To capsize navies with a windy trope; Still shall the glory and the pomp of War Along their train the shouting millions draw; Still dusty Labor to the passing Brave
His cap shall doff, and Beauty's kerchief wave; Still shall the bard to Valor tune his song, Still Hero-worship kneel before the Strong; Rosy and sleek, the sable-gowned divine, O'er his third bottle of suggestive wine, To plumed and sworded auditors, shall prove Their trade accordant with the Law of Love And Church for State, and State for Church, shall fight,
And both agree, that Might alone is Right!" Despite of sneers like these, oh, faithful few, Who dare to hold God's word and witness true, Whose clear-eyed faith transcends our evil time, And, o'er the present wilderness of crime, Sees the calm future, with its robes of green, Its fleece-flecked mountains, and soft streams be tween,-
Still keep the path which duty bids ye tread, Though worldly wisdom shake the cautious head; No truth from Heaven descends upon our sphere, Without the greeting of the sceptic's sneer; Denied and mocked at, till its blessings fall, Common as dew and sunshine, over all.
Then, o'er Earth's war-field, till the strife shal
Like Morven's harpers, sing your song of peace; As in old fable rang the Thracian's lyre, Midst howl of fiends and roar of penal fire, Till the fierce din to pleasing murmurs fell, And love subdued the maddened heart of hell. Lend, once again, that holy song a tongue, Which the glad angels of the Advent sung, Their cradle-anthem for the Saviour's birth, Glory to God, and peace unto the earth! Through the mad discord send that calming word Which wind and wave on wild Genesereth heard, Lift in Christ's name his Cross against the Sword! Not vain the vision which the prophets saw, Skirting with green the fiery waste of war, Through the hot sand-gleam, looming soft and calm On the sky's rim, the fountain-shading palm. Still lives for Earth, which fiends so long have trod, The great hope resting on the truth of God— Evil shall cease and Violence pass away,
And the tired world breathe free through a long Sabbath day.
I ASK not now for gold to gild With mocking shine a weary frame; The yearning of the mind is stilled- I ask not now for Fame.
A rose-cloud, dimly seen above,
Melting in heaven's blue depths away- O! sweet, fond dream of human Lovel For thee I may not pray.
But, bowed in lowliness of mind, I make my humble wishes known- I only ask a will resigned,
O, Father, to thine own !
To-day, beneath thy chastening eye I crave alone for peace and rest, Submissive in thy hand to lie, And feel that it is best.
A marvel seems the Universe, A miracle our Life and Death A mystery which I cannot pierce, Around, above, beneath.
In vain I task my aching brain, In vain the sage's thought I scan; I only feel how weak and vain, How poor and blind, is man.
And now my spirit sighs for home, And longs for light whereby to see, And, like a weary child, would come, O, Father, unto Thee!
Though oft, like letters traced on sand, My weak resolves have passed away, In mercy lend thy helping hand Unto my prayer to-day!
THE South-land boasts its teeming cane, The prairied West its heavy grain, And sunset's radiant gates unfold On rising marts and sands of gold!
Rough, bleak and hard, our little State Is scant of soil, of limits strait; Her yellow sands are sands alone, Her only mines are ice and stone!
From Autumn frost to April rain, Too long her winter woods complain; From budding flower to falling leaf, Her summer time is all too brief.
Yet, on her rocks, and on her sands, And wintry hills, the school-house stands, And what her rugged soil denies, The harvest of the mind supplies.
The riches of the commonwealth
Are free, strong minds, and hearts of health And more to her than gold or grain, The cunning hand and cultured brain.
For well she keeps her ancient stock, The stubborn strength of Pilgrim Rock; And still maintains, with milder laws, And clearer light, the Good Old Cause !
Nor heeds the sceptic's puny hands,
While near her school the church-spire stands Nor fears the blinded bigot's rule,
While near her church-spire stands the school
THE clouds, which rise with thunder, slake Our thirsty souls with rain;
The blow most dreaded falls to break From off our limbs a chain;
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