"I believe it! 'T is thou, God, that givest, 't is I who

receive :

"In the first is the last, in thy will is my power to believe.

"All 's one gift thou canst grant it moreover, as prompt to my prayer,

"As I breathe out this breath, as I open these arms to the air.

"From thy will, stream the worlds, life and nature, thy dread Sabaoth :

"I will? the mere atoms despise me! Why am I not

loth

"To look that, even that in the face too? Why is it I

dare

"Think but lightly of such impuissance? What stops my despair?

"This ; 't is not what man Does which exalts him, but what man Would do!

"See the King—I would help him, but cannot, the wishes fall through.

"Could I wrestle to raise him from sorrow, grow poor to enrich,

"To fill up his life, starve my own out, I would-knowing which,

"I know that my service is perfect. Oh, speak through

me now!

"Would I suffer for him that I love? So wouldst thou --so wilt thou!

"So shall crown thee the topmost, ineffablest, uttermost

crown

"And thy love fill infinitude wholly, nor leave up nor

down

“One spot for the creature to stand in!

breath,

It is by no

"Turn of eye, wave of hand, that salvation joins issue with death!

"As thy love is discovered almighty, almighty be proved "Thy power, that exists with and for it, of being be

loved!

"He who did most, shall bear most; the strongest shall stand the most weak.

""T is the weakness in strength, that I cry

that I seek

for my flesh,,

"In the Godhead! I seek and I find it. O Saul, it

shall be

"A Face like my face that receives thee; a Man like to

me,

"Thou shalt love and be loved by, for ever: a Hand like this hand

"Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee! See the Christ stand!"

XIX

I know not too well how I found my way home in the

night.

There were witnesses, cohorts about me, to left and to

right,

Angels, powers, the unuttered, unseen, the alive, the

aware:

I repressed, I got through them as hardly, as strugglingly

there,

As a runner beset by the populace famished for newsLife or death. The whole earth was awakened, hell

loosed with her crews;

And the stars of night beat with emotion, and tingled

and shot

Out in fire the strong pain of pent knowledge: but I fainted not,

For the Hand still impelled me at once and supported, suppressed

All the tumult, and quenched it with quiet, and holy behest,

Till the rapture was shut in itself, and the earth sank to

rest.

Anon at the dawn, all that trouble had withered from earth

Not so much, but I saw it die out in the day's tender

birth;

In the gathered intensity brought to the grey of the

hills;

In the shuddering forests' held breath; in the sudden wind-thrills;

In the startled wild beasts that bore oft, each with eye sidling still,

Though averted with wonder and dread; in the birds stiff and chill

That rose heavily as I approached them, made stupid with awe :

E'en the serpent that slid away silent-he felt the new law. The same stared in the white humid faces upturned by the flowers;

The same worked in the heart of the cedar and moved the vine-bowers :

And the little brooks witnessing murmured, persistent

and low,

With their obstinate, all but hushed voices-" E'en so, it

is so !"

RABBI BEN EZRA.

I

GROW old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made:

Our times are in His hand

Who saith "A whole I planned,

"Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"

II

Not that, amassing flowers,

Youth sighed "Which rose make ours,
"Which lily leave and then as best recall!"

Not that, admiring stars,

It yearned "Nor Jove, nor Mars;

"Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends them all!"

III

Not for such hopes and fears

Annulling youth's brief years,

Do I remonstrate: folly wide the mark!

Rather I prize the doubt

Low kinds exist without,

Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark.

IV

Poor vaunt of life indeed,

Were man but formed to feed

On joy, to solely seek and find and feast:

Such feasting ended, then

As sure an end to men ;

Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw

crammed beast?

Rejoice we are allied

To That which doth provide

And not partake, effect and not receive!

A spark disturbs our clod;

Nearer we hold of God

Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe.

VI

Then, welcome each rebuff

That turns earth's smoothness rough,

Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!

Be our joys three-parts pain!

Strive, and hold cheap the strain;

Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!

VII

For thence, a paradox

Which comforts while it mocks,

Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail :

What I aspired to be,

And was not, comforts me:

A brute I might have been, but would not sink i

the scale.

VIII

What is he but a brute

Whose flesh hath soul to suit,

Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play?

To man, propose this test—

Thy body at its best,

How far can that project thy soul on its lone way?

IX

Yet gifts should prove their use:

I own the Past profuse