Questions & Answers

I humbly ask To tent today, O Love, in Thy pavilion, From dawn's first mask Of pearly gray To vespertine vermilion. Then, when the moon Shall slip adown And shapeless shadows close, Grant Thou this boon Thy day to crown,— Secure repose.

Changeless stand the mountain summits, Voicing psalms to winds that wing them; Changeless rolls the circling ocean, Round the world with thundering anthems; Changeless swings the great procession, Hosts of stars across the heavens. Yet shall all be changed and vanish, While the strength of Love eternal Falters not, but waxes mightier, Through the breadth of God's dominions.

While yet 'twas dark, ere break of day The women hastened on their way And sought the place where Jesus lay. And there, behold! at break of day, As fled the shadows thick and gray, The stone already rolled away! Seek we a Saviour in the tomb, Amid the shadows and the gloom? Before us does some great stone loom? Be not dismayed! though dark the way, We too shall see, at break of day, The Christ hath rolled the stone away!

Sleep, little bird, 'neath thy mother's wing; The sun sinks low in the purpling sky, While gently the night-winds thy cradle swing And croon thee a tender lullaby. Sleep, little one, on thy mother's breast; Now deeper and deeper the shadows fall As twilight covers the dreaming west, And the evening's peace broods over all.

I gazed from a rugged mountain height On a little lake below, Where lay in mirrored splendor The mountains clad in snow; Each towering crag and rock-faced cliff And timbered deep ravine Were shown in perfect image Within the lake serene. Again I stood on the mountain height Beneath the sky so blue, And the colors on its rugged side Shone out in brightest hue; But the lake was irresponsive To all that splendid scene Of azure sky and mountain white And verdure's varied green.

I will not fear, For God is here. His hand divine, upholding mine, Now strengthens me, And makes me see His pathway straight.

Sunshine : with showers now and then, For so the rainbow hues have birth. Green fields: with here and there a place Where we may sow to brighten earth.

The time shall come when man shall hold His brother more dear than sordid gold, When the fierce and false alike shall fall, And mercy and truth encircle all. Toil, brothers, till the world is free, Till mercy and truth holds jubilee.

Life means—learning to abhor The false, and love the true, truth treasured snatch by snatch, Waifs counted at their work. And when with strays they match I' the parti-colored world—when, under foul, shines fair, And truth, displayed i' the point, flashes forth everywhere I' the circle, manifest to soul, though hid from sense, And no obstruction more affects this confidence— When faith is ripe for sight—why, reasonably, then Comes the great clearing-up.

Time was when none presumed to say that they Could greater nature lover be than I; And yet ofttimes beneath serenest sky Beheld I deadliest strife that held at bay A sense of peace: for with intent to slay, It seemed, all creatures great and small did lie In wait, their strength against the weak to try, With none their cruel ravages to stay. Ah, now I know how mortal sense beclouds The true creation wherein all is peace: Like scroll there rolleth back that which enshrouds The prophet vision of all pain's surcease, And with enraptured vision I behold The lion and the lamb within one fold.