TO-DAY AND YESTERDAY.

“That city knoweth nor sign nor trace

Of mutable land or sea;

Thou who art changeless, grant me a place

In that far city with Thee.”

So spake she, gazing on the distant sea,

That lay, one sheet of gold, in morning light;

And then she cried, “God, make my blindness sight!”

Heart-sore, heart-hungry, sick at heart, was she,

And did mistrust no other hope could be,

This side the grave, than shifting sea and land;

Yet dreamed she not her house was built on sand,

But fearless thought of dread eternity.

And men admired the house she builded fair,

Until a tempest, risen with sudden shock,

Rent it. Then God made answer to her prayer:

Showed her on earth a city, calm, and old,

And strong, and changeless; set her on a rock;

Gave her, with him, a place in his true fold.

II.

“For, oh! the Master is so fair,

His smile so sweet to banished men,

That they who meet it unaware

Can never rest on earth again.”

Such were the words that charmed my ear and heart,

In days when still I dwelt outside the fold;

But now they seem to me too slight and cold,

For I have been with thee, dear Lord, apart,

And seen love’s barbed and o’ermastering dart

Pierce thee beneath the olives dark and old,

Until thy anguish could not be controlled,

But from thy veins the Blood of life did start.

O Word made flesh, made sin, for sinful man!

I seek not now thy smile, so fair, so sweet;

Another vision, haggard, pale, and wan,

Of one who bore earth’s sin and shame and smart,

Hath drawn me, weeping, to thy sacred feet,

To share the unrest of thy bleeding Heart.