"LAZARUS, COME FORTH."
Thus Jesus spoke—the earth dismayed
Opened its womb;
The dead man heard, his Lord obeyed;
He left his tomb:
And thousands, unbelievers, saw
The power of God;
Then they believed his holy law,
And word, that burst the sod.
Thus when he frees the wicked heart
From earth's control,
Sin and ungodliness depart
From the waked soul.
He cleans it by his blood and death—
To it is given
To know, all peace, all hope, all faith,
All ante-taste of heaven.
SONNET.
ON THE APPROACH OF SUMMER.
Summer approaches, filling earth with flowers,
The skies with beauty, and the woods with song,
While April, like a coy bride, wends along
In tearful smiles, half-wooed by the gay hours.
All nature breathes a welcome to young May,
Summer's bright harbinger, who bears her smile
Through every land, with blooming health the while,
And all are blest who feel her gladd'ning ray.
How pleasant 'tis beneath the summer noon,
When the soft wind hath lulled itself asleep,
On some fair hill a festival to keep,
While fancy on the wing revisits soon
Th' o'erarching world, the true, the pure, the fair,
Gath'ring with bliss all inspiration there.