THE LAST DAY OF THE YEAR.
A year ago to-day I should have anticipated being anywhere as here. Never have I had so much cause for wonder and joy at the close of a year. Blessed sickness! which prepared the way into the wilderness of waters. It would not be easy to trace the connection of the following lines which occurred to me about this time, with the meditations suggested by the close of the year; but I had been thinking of our Omnipresent Saviour as once living in a house; a humble dwelling, no doubt, in “a city called Nazareth.” It was good to think of Him who has now gone up on high that he might fill all things, as once tabernacled with men. The train of thought will serve for an illustration of the liberty which the mind will sometimes take of being independent of situation and circumstances:
“And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day; for it was about the tenth hour.” John I. 37, 39.
This roof once covered him who built the sky;
A room inclosed him who now fills all space
With thousand thousands rendering ministry;
He led the way to this His dwelling place,
And two disciples shared his courtesies,
Had friendly talk and brake their privacies,
Nor once withdrew from him their wondering eyes.
Sleep soothed him here whose eyes are flames of fire;
Here waked he at the crowing of the cock;
Hunger and thirst his daily thoughts require
Who now feeds worlds, as one would feed a flock.
Here would he kneel in prayer; dominions own
Him sovereign, bide his orders; round his throne
Prayers ceaseless rise, urged in his name alone.
Not far from this abode the wild gazelle
Cropped the red lilies and would venture near.
The devils knew him, cried, foreboding ill,
Fell down before him with tormenting fear.
Diseases fled; he stayed the expiring breath,
Bade the blind see; he brake the bars of death,
His home, the while, despised Nazareth.
By night upon this housetop oft he sat;
He watched the young moon as the light of day
Grew dim from east to west; he tarrying yet
Her crescent sank; on snow crowned Hermon lay
The lingering twilight, with a roseate hue
Tinging the snow, the small hills lost to view.
He formed that light; he framed the darkness too.
Let me believe that on this humble floor
His mother sought a piece of money lost,
And swept the house; his young eyes counting o’er
The pieces nine, she craved the stray piece most.
He wandering o’er these hills of Galilee
Beheld a flock all shepherdless and free,
The shepherd searching one through brake and lea.
Faith loves the mystery which it cannot read,
How he a child once in a manger lay,
Yet prayed he thus: The glory which I had
With Thee ere time was now repeat in me.
The eastern wise men to his cradle came,
Yet said this child; “Ere Abraham was, I am;”
He made the star which did their zeal inflame.
All which the twelve possessed by faith I have;
I live by faith of thee, thou Son of God!
Yet would I this my tabernacle leave
And look upon my Lord in his abode.
When in the lonesome valley praying thee,
“Master, where dwelleth thou?” do thou on me
Let fall the whisper, saying, ‘Come and see’.