Back on its golden hinges
The gate of Memory swings,
And my heart goes into the garden
And walks with the olden things.
The old-time, joys and pleasures.
The loves that it used to know,
It meets there in the garden.
And they wander to and fro.
It heareth a peal of laughter,
It seeth a face most fair.
It thrills with a wild, strange rapture
At the glance of a dark eye there;
It strayeth under the sunset
In the midst of a merry throng,
And beats in a tuneful measure,
To the snatch of a floating song.
It heareth a strain of music
Swell on the dreamy air,
A strain that is never sounded,
Save in the garden there.
It wanders among the roses,
And thrills at a long-lost kiss,
And glows at the touch of fingers,
In a tremor of foolish bliss.
But all is not fair in the garden,--
There's a sorrowing sob of pain;
There are tear-drops, bitter, scalding,
And the roses are tempest-slain.
And I shut the gate of the garden.
And walk in the Present's ways.
For its quiet paths are better
Than the pain of those vanished days!
[MYSTERIES]
In God's vast wisdom, infinite and grand--
Too vast, too infinite, for mortal mind--
There are some things I cannot understand.
In all His paths, in all His ways, I find
Some subtle mysteries of life and death--
Some marvels that I cannot comprehend,
Nor can I hope to know them till the end,
When all shall be made plain, above--beneath.
There are so many of His righteous deeds--
There is so much that unto me is plain,
I have no time to wonder--have no needs
To question why, and wherefore. In the main
My mortal eyes see that His works are good.
Whatever else seems strange, and dark, and dim,
I am content to leave in faith with Him,
And in His time, it will be understood.
These labyrinths wherein many souls are lost--
These waters, whereon some barks lose the shore,
But draw me nearer to the Heavenly Host,
But make me love and worship God the more.
There is enough that I do see and know--
There is enough that I can understand,
And sometime Christ shall take me by the hand.
Explaining all that seems so strange below.
1870