Yes, the shores of life are shifting And we are seaward drifting Old places changing fret us,— But the true life draweth nigher And its Morning Star climbs higher Earth's hold on us grows slighter, PARAPHRASE OF JOB XIV. By GEORGE P. MORRIS, late of New York. Man dieth and wasteth away, And where is he? hark, from the skies I hear a voice answer and say, "The spirit of man never dies. His body, which came from the earth, Must mingle again with the sod; His soul, which in Heaven had birth, Returns to the bosom of God!" The sky will be burnt to a scroll, The earth, wrapped in flames, will expire; But, freed from all shackles, the soul Will rise in the midst of the fire; Then, Brothers, mourn not for the dead Who rest from their labors, forgiven; Learn this from your Bible instead, "The grave is the gateway to Heaven!" O, Lord God Almighty! to THEE O teach us thy will to obey, And sing with one heart and accord,— "The Lord gave, He taketh away, And blest be the name of the Lord!" KING SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. By Brother A. J. H. DUGANNE. PART I. It is told, in a quaint old nursery tale, That perchance you have often read, How a castle lies hid in some charmèd vale, Remote from the usual tread; And within an enchanted Princess lies, Asleep in her silken bed; Whilst round about, under slumberous charms, Lie the forms of her lordly train — And their squires, and archers, and yeomen-at-arms, As valiant as ever drew rein; But with helmets, and bucklers, and lances, All clouded with mildew-stain. All corroded and mildew'd with rust of time, They are lying in court and hall; Every young knight's beard bears a frosty rimeLike the beard of the Seneschal Who awaits, in his chair, at the postern gate, The sound of a trumpet call; While below, in the crypts of this castle strange There are shapes like friars, in cloister'd range, And awaiting, in motionless slumber, For whenever a Knight who is tried and true Rides late o'er the haunted wold, And peals a loud summons the trumpet through, Then, in all the crypts of this castle And the Princess arises, in royal gear, From the couch of her charmed rest, And her knights and her nobles take shield and spear, At their beautiful lady's behest; And they hie to the gate of the postern Then afar through the cloisters and corridors And he creepeth away to the postern gate— While the bell of the castle is ringing amain, And the Seneschal leading his ghastly train Then the friars rehearse to the stranger knight With a patter of prayers and a dropping of beads, How their souls waxed heavy with sinful deeds And how Heaven's avenging sentence Their earthly years o'erran! And the Princess reveals to the stranger knight Till a Prince of the Temple, in valorous fight, And the spell of his midnight magic Disperse under morn's sweet ray! But alas! for that guest of the haunted grange, If no Templar Knight he be; And woe, when he listeth that story strange, If no memories pure hath he! To the spell of the sorcerer's magic He must bow his powerless knee; He must sink into sleep, with the shape he sees, He must lie in the cloisters and crypts, with these Who have risen, to greet him, from dust! And await, with them, an awakening By hero more pure and just! Like that charmèd castle, in haunted vale, Is the wondrous Masonic Past! Where the heroes and yeomen of History's tale With the spell of an indolent seeming Over all their memories cast! But the Princess, who sleeps in her silken bed, Is the spirit of ancient Truth; Lying evermore shrouded with tatter and shred, Like the knights and the nobles in slumber profound, In their rust and their dust they incumber the ground, 'Mid the haunted cloisters of History's script, Like the souls of the friars, they hide in each crypt, And emerge from each darksome cell At the blast of a summoning trumpet, Their wonderful stories to tell! In the volumed marvels of Grecian mind, There are riddles of wisdom for human kind, To ponder a lifetime o'er; And to all of their mystical meanings. Each heart is an open door! Every human heart is a postern gate To the house of the wondrous Past, Where the heroes and sages of History wait The sound of a trumpet blast, That shall break the enchanted slumbers For ages around them cast! How the voices of song, out of Dorian aisles. How they roll'd from the shadows of Tuscan piles, And how grandly, through Gothic chancels, And the whispers of hearts, and responses of souls, Flow around, like the west wind kind, When the song of the Singer of Avon rolls Through the gates of our listening mind, And the plaint of the pilgrim Harold Sounds fitful and strange behind! All the climes of the earth are as Holy Lands And the homes and the tombs of the poets To the whole wide world belong. In the paths of their minstrels the nations tread, For Ulysses is dumb, and Achilles is dead, And 'tis Tasso who frees Jerusalem, Though Godfrey wins her gates. Through the twilight of oaks and of mistletoe bowers, The hymns of the Druids I hear; And the Fairie Queene, through lab'rinths of flowers, Lures me with her melodies clear, From the echoes of "woodly Morven," To the murmurs of sweet Windermere ; And I hear the old Norsemen chanting their tunes, Under arches of boreai fires, And the Troubadours singing, through long, rich Junes, To their soft Provencal lyres ; And the bards of the Cambrian mountains, O'ersweeping their 'wildered wires. O! those voices of Song, how they ebb, how they flow! Every age, every clime, hath its life-giving throe, Till its master-thought leapeth, full armor'd, O! the heroes and kings have no story to tell, But the songs of the poets immortally dwell In the halls of the royal David, Or the cottage of Robert Burns! |