Garden and goal and nest!

Made green for wearied eyes;

Much softer than the breast

Of mother-dove clad in a rainbow's dyes.

"All precious souls are there

Most safe, elect by grace,

All tears are wiped forever from their face : Untired in prayer

They wait and praise,

Hidden for a little space.

"Boughs of the Living Vine,

They spread in summer shine

Green leaf with leaf:

Sap of the Royal Vine, it stirs like wine

In all both less and chief.

"Sing to the Lord,

All spirits of all flesh, sing;

For He hath not abhorred

Our low estate nor scorned our offering:
Shout to our King."

"But Zion said:

My Lord forgetteth me.
Lo, she hath made her bed

In dust; forsaken weepeth she
Where alien rivers swell the sea.

"She laid her body as the ground,

Her tender body as the ground to those Who passed; her harpstrings cannot sound In a strange land; discrowned

She sits, and drunk with woes."

"O drunken not with wine,

Whose sins and sorrows have fulfilled the sum, Be not afraid, arise, be no more dumb;

The prophet saw such clothed with flesh and skin;
A wind blew on them and life entered in;
They shook and rose.

Hasten the time, O Lord, blot out their sin,
Let life begin."

SWEET DEATH.

HE sweetest blossoms die.

THE

And so it was that, going day by day
Unto the church to praise and pray,

And crossing the green churchyard thoughtfully,
I saw how on the graves the flowers
Shed their fresh leaves in showers,
And how their perfume rose up to the sky
Before it passed away.

The youngest blossoms die.

They die and fall and nourish the rich earth
From which they lately had their birth;
Sweet life, but sweeter death that passeth by
And is as though it had not been: :-
All colors turn to green;

The bright hues vanish and the odors fly,
The grass hath lasting worth.

And youth and beauty die.

So be it, O my God, Thou God of truth:
Better than beauty and than youth

Are Saints and Angels, a glad company;

And Thou, O Lord, our Rest and Ease,
Art better far than these.

Why should we shrink from our full harvest? why
Prefer to glean with Ruth?

SYMBOLS.

I

WATCHED a rosebud very long

Brought on by dew and sun and shower, Waiting to see the perfect flower :

Then, when I thought it should be strong,
It opened at the matin hour

And fell at even-song.

I watched a nest from day to day,

A green nest full of pleasant shade,
Wherein three speckled eggs were laid:

But when they should have hatched in May,
The two old birds had grown afraid
Or tired, and flew away.

Then in my wrath I broke the bough
That I had tended so with care,
Hoping its scent should fill the air;
I crushed the eggs, not heeding how
Their ancient promise had been fair:
I would have vengeance now.

But the dead branch spoke from the sod,
And the eggs answered me again :
Because we failed dost thou complain?
Is thy wrath just? And what if God,
Who waiteth for thy fruits in vain,
Should also take the rod ?

CONSIDER THE LILIES OF THE FIELD. 95

"CONSIDER THE LILIES OF THE FIELD.”

F

'LOWERS preach to us if we will hear :

The rose saith in the dewy morn,

I am most fair;

Yet all my loveliness is born
Upon a thorn.

The poppy saith amid the corn:
Let but my scarlet head appear
And I am held in scorn;
Yet juice of subtle virtue lies
Within my cup of curious dyes.
The lilies say: Behold how we
Preach without words of purity.
The violets whisper from the shade
Which their own leaves have made :
Men scent our fragrance on the air,
Yet take no heed

Of humble lessons we would read.

But not alone the fairest flowers:

The merest grass

Along the roadside where we pass,
Lichen and moss and sturdy weed,
Tell of His love who sends the dew,
The rain and sunshine too,

To nourish one small seed.