I

THE DEATH-BED.

SAW thee breathe thy last, and pass away;

A smile, a long-drawn sigh, and thou wast gone ; I asked myself whereto thy life had flown,

Star of my life, but now mere flameless clay!
Oh! could I but believe with those who say

Thy light hath left thy form to shine alone,
That thou art still my Thou whom I may own,
In spheres more pure than our mere eyesight day.
But, Nature! if such straining hope be true,
Which thou thyself hast gendered in the brain,
Why vex with certain signs that all is o'er,
When Death doth sense and motion all subdue?
Why teach us by thy course we meet no more,
Yet prompt a hope that we shall meet again?

IS YOUR GOD LOVE?

HE mother loves her child, the bird its young,

THE

And child and young in turn both love the mother;

Offspring and source are blended with each other,
E'en like a sweet harp's tones by Nature strung!
Through all the ranges of her crowded throng,
Linked in a unity with one another,

There breathes a harmony no hell can smother,
Despite the jarring of discordant wrong.

Who tuned the harp of Nature to this strain?
Who taught the world to live by Love? A God,
Who brings forth millions for eternal pain,
Still multiplying victims for His rod?

Ye teachers of this Word, your word is vain,
If God be Love-if not, such be His code!

MAN.

HOU Human Being, calling thyself Man,

THC

Who must, like all around thee, come and go,
Claiming to be Chief Object of Earth's plan,
Thou mak'st thyself far more than thou canst know;
How should thy life from separate sources flow,
And why should all to thy one centre lean?
As if, forsooth, all things for thee must grow,
Thou only reasoner, nor of all most clean.

Go, learn a truth that something more doth mean,
And own thyself mere part of all around:
Shall greater never here one day be seen,
And is Creation's ultimate yet found?
Like waves at sea, or breakers on the shore,
Thou art a Consequence, and nothing more.

W

I.

NON CREDENS.

'ERE there a God whose ear I could invade

With any voice that might an answer bring, Then through Creation's range these words should

ring

Speak and appear, and be a God displayed!

Unseen, unheard, at most but guessed, Thou'rt

made

Slave of Thy creature Man 'gainst man, a Thing To bless, curse, save, slay, loose, bind, smile, frown, sting,

Heal, promise, threaten, comfort, and upbraid!

I wonder, as I ponder o'er this theme,

How Thou a God canst be while such things be,

Save as creation of our creature mind!

For past all comprehension doth it seem,
That thus with vain, pernicious mystery,

A God should make a World and hide behind!

Who speakest not with voice, Whom yet we hear, Whose Presence, though unseen, illumines sight; Avenger of all wrong, Shield of all right,

Far from the unfaithful, to the faithful near,

Too vast in voice and person to appear,

[might!

How blind man quails 'neath Thine Almighty Ages have reverenced Thy Holy Name,

And pondering o'er the terrors of Thy Law,

Have come before Thy throne the knee to bend ;

Though Thou hast made us small, from Thee we

came,

And Thou wilt hear, while with submissive awe

We praise and pray, but do not comprehend.