AND OTHER POEMS.
Sleeping, waking, on we glide,
Dreamful, and unsatisfied,
In the heart a vague surprise,
Master of the thoughtful eyes.
What though Spring is in the air,
And the world is bright and fair?
Something hidden from the sight
Dashes fullness of delight.
Soothed are we in duty done,
And in something new begun,
Like a kissed and flattered child
To denial reconciled;
Yet the something unattained
Keeps us like Prometheus chained,
And our hearts intenser grow
As the vultures come and go.
Sleeping, waking, on we glide,
Dreamful and unsatisfied,
Pilgrims on a foreign shore,
Wanting something evermore,
All the shadow in our eyes,
All the substance in the skies.
By and by another sleep,
Angels watch and ward to keep.
By and by, from wakeful eyes,
Nothing of the old surprise,
All pure dreams of earth fulfilled,
Every sense with gladness thrilled.
Then are we, no more denied,
With Thy likeness satisfied.
SACRIFICE
Sacrifice! therein
I find no superstition of the past,
But one of Truth's great words, all life within,
As into chaos cast.
God, God put it there,
A trumpet-note to every living soul,
A prophecy of all that is most fair
Through darkness to the goal.
I can not efface
The record of this wonder-working Word,
Nor in my memory but faintly trace
Stern voices I have heard.
Voices come by day
Between life's lightning-flash and thunder-peal,
And sooner heaven and earth shall pass away
Than what they there reveal.
Voices come at night
Amid the silence of deluding cares,
And pain flows through the darkness and grows bright,
And knowledge unawares.
Voices fill the strife
To which I give the beauty of my days,
And testify that sacrifice is life,
Availing prayer and praise.
Life retained is lost,
The tocsin of interminable war;
And life relinquished is of life the cost,
Which shineth as a star.
Tongue can never tell
God's revelations in this mighty Word,
Nor how the mystery of life they spell,
With which all hearts are stirred.
I continue mute,
In joyful awe before the Infinite,
Until at length eternity transmute
My darkness into light.
I can only speak
An earth-born language, that does not reveal
The infinitude of duty which I seek
To utter and but feel.
Duty! heart of joy!
Which giveth strength to suffer and endure,
Till self-forgetfulness in God's employ
Enthrones a life secure.
Shepherd of the sheep,
To whom God gives the universal charge,
I think of Thy devotion and I weep,
Thy love appears so large!
And I think of all
The grief which strengthened Thy exalting hand,
Until great tears of Easter gladness fall,
To think in Thee I stand,
Out of whose great heart
So glorious is death's sacrificial knife--
To think I know Thee now somewhat, who art
The way, the truth, the life;
Who art with Thine own,
Where Thou hast been through immemorial years,
In every touch of consolation known,
In every flood of tears.
The Way of the Lord.
I cast my lot with the surging world,
To find out the way of the Lord;
A pebble hither and thither hurled,
To find out the way of the Lord.
I sought where the foot of man was unknown,
To find out the way of the Lord;
In the desert alone, alone, alone,
To find out the way of the Lord.
I bowed my heart to the voice of the sea,
To find out the way of the Lord;
To the sob of unuttered mystery,
To find out the way of the Lord.
I went down into the depths of my soul,
To find out the way of the Lord;
Down where the years of eternity roll,
To find out the way of the Lord.
Ah, me! I had no interpreter
To tell me the way of the Lord;
For Nature, it was not in her
To tell me the way of the Lord.
I heard of One who came out from God
To show me the way of the Lord;
I entered the path which here He trod
To show me the way of the Lord.
I walked the way of humility
To find out the way Of the Lord;
It turned to the way of sublimity,
To show me the way of the Lord.
From grief and loss came joy and gain,
To show me the way of the Lord;
And the dead came back to life again,
To show me the way of the Lord.
Yea, into the heaven of heavens He went,
To show me the way of the Lord;
And the Comforter from the Father He sent,
To show me the way of the Lord.
I learned how for me He lived and died,
To show me the way of the Lord;
And bearing the cross, which He glorified,
I found out the way of the Lord:
Via Crucis.
Cross uplifted, clouds are rifted,
Vision clearer, God grown dearer!
Via crucis via lucis.[1]
Cross, thy way is where the day is;
Thy surprises sweet sunrises!
Via crucis via lucis.
Life eternal, fair and vernal,
Is the glory of the story,
Via crucis via lucis;
Dawns in beauty, born of duty,
Joins thereafter Heaven's sweet laughter--
Via crucis via lucis;
Finds probation tribulation,
Onward presses and confesses,
Via crucis via lucis;
Bursts the fetter of the letter,
Reckons sorrow joy to-morrow--
Via crucis via lucis;
To the Master in disaster
Bravely clinging, journeys singing,
Via crucis via lucis;
Ranges crownward, never downward,
Always loving, always proving,
Via crucis via lucis;
Drinks forever from the river
Everlasting, still forecasting,
Via crucis via lucis;
And presages all the ages,
Light-enfolden, growing golden,
Via crucis via lueis.
O the shinings and refinings!
O the sweetness of completeness!
Via crucis via lucis!