SELF-DEVOTION AND RESIGNATION.
COME, Self-Devotion, high and pure,
Thoughts that in thankfulness endure,
Though dearest hopes are faithless found,
And dearest hearts are bursting round;
Come, Resignation, spirit meek,
And let me kiss thy placid cheek,
And read in thy pale eye serene
Their blessing, who by faith can wean
Their hearts from sense, and learn to love
God only, and the joys above.
They say, who know the life divine,
And upward gaze with eagle eyne,
That by each golden crown on high,
Rich with celestial jewelry,
Which for our Lord's redeemed is set,
There hangs a radiant coronet,
All gemmed with pure and living light,
Too dazzling for a sinner's.sight,
Prepared for virgin souls, and them
Who seek the martyr's diadem.
Self-Devotion and Resignation.
Nor deem, who to that bliss aspire
Must win their way through blood and fire.
The writhings of a wounded heart
Are fiercer than a foeman's dart.
Oft in life's stillest shade reclining,
In desolation unrepining,
Without a hope on earth to find
A mirror in an answering mind,
Meek souls there are, who little dream
Their daily strife an angel's theme,
Or that the rod they take so calm,
Shall prove in heaven a martyr's palm.
And there are souls that seem to dwell
Above this earth, so rich a spell
Floats round their steps, where'er they move,
From hopes fulfilled, and mutual love.
Such, if on high their thoughts are set,
Nor in the stream the source forget,
If prompt to quit the bliss they know,
Following the Lamb where'er he go,
By purest pleasures unbeguiled
To idolize or wife or child;
Such wedded souls our God shall own
For faultless virgins round his throne.
THOU Spakest; and the waters rolled
Back from the Earth away;
They fled, by thy strong voice controlled,
Till thou didst bid them stay:
Then did that rushing mighty ocean
Like a tame creature cease its motion,
Nor dared to pass where'er thy hand
Had fixed its bound of slender sand.
And freshly risen from out the deep
The land lay tranquil now,
Like a new-christened child asleep,
With the dew upon its brow:
As when in after-time the Earth
Rose from her second watery birth,
In pure baptismal garments drest,
And calmly waiting to be blest.
Again thou spakest, Lord of Power,
And straight the land was seen
All clad with tree, and herb, and flower,
A robe of lustrous green:
Like souls wherein the hidden strength
Of their new birth has waked at length,
When, robed in holiness, they tell
What might did in those waters dwell.
Lord, o'er the waters of my soul
The word of power be said;
Its thoughts and passions bid thou roll
Each in its channelled bed;
Till that in peaceful order flowing,
They time their glad, obedient going
To thy commands, whose voice to-day
Bade the tumultuous floods obey.
For restless as the moaning sea,
The wild and wayward will
From side to side is wearily
Changing and tossing still;
But sway'd by thee, 't is like the river
That down its green banks flows forever,
And, calm and constant, tells to all
The blessedness of such sweet thrall.
Then in my heart, Spirit of Might,
Awake the life within,
And bid a spring-tide, calm and bright,
Of holiness begin :
So let it lie with Heaven's grace
Full shining on its quiet face,
Like the young Earth in peace profound,
Amid the assuagèd waters round.
|