FROM "THE CITY OF THE PLAGUE."
THE air of death breathes through our souls,
The dead all round us lie;
By day and night the death-bell tolls,
And says, "Prepare to die."
The face that in the morning sun
We thought so wond'rous fair, Hath faded, ere his course was run, Beneath its golden hair.
I see the old man in his grave,
With thin locks silvery-gray;
I see the child's bright tresses wave
In the cold breath of clay.
The loving ones we loved the best,
Like music all are gone!
And the wan moonlight bathes in rest
Their monumental stone.
But not when the death-prayer is said
The life of life departs;
The body in the grave is laid,
Its beauty in our hearts.
And holy midnight voices sweet
Like fragrance fill the room,
And happy ghosts with noiseless feet
Come bright'ning from the tomb.
We know who sends the visions bright,
From whose dear side they came!
- We veil our eyes before thy light, We bless our Saviour's name!
This frame of dust, this feeble breath
The Plague may soon destroy;
We think on Thee, and feel in death
A deep and awful joy.
Dim is the light of vanished years
In the glory yet to come;
O idle grief! O foolish tears!
When Jesus calls us home.
Like children for some bauble fair
weep themselves to rest;
We part with life— awake! and there
The jewel in our breast!
CONSOLATION FROM GOD'S VISIBLE WORKS.
O Mighty One! whose saving love has stolen
On the deep peace of moonbeams to my heart,
Thou! who with looks of mercy oft hast cheered
The starry silence, when, at noon of night,
On some wild mountain Thou hast not declined
The homage of Thy lonely worshipper,-
Bear witness, Thou! that both in joy and grief,
The love of nature long hath been with me
The love of virtue: - that the solitude
Of the remotest hills to me hath been
Thy temple :- that the fountain's happy voice
Hath sung Thy goodness; and Thy power has stunned My spirit in the roaring cataract !
In seasons of depression,
Of life burned dim, and all unpleasing thoughts
Subdued the proud aspirings of the soul,-
When doubts and fears withheld the timid eye
From scanning scenes to come, and a deep sense
Of human frailty turned the past to pain, -
How oft have I remembered that a world
Of glory lay around me, that a source
Of lofty solace lay in every star;
And that no being need behold the sun
And grieve, that knew WHO hung him in the sky!
Thus unperceived I woke from heavy grief
To airy joy and seeing that the mind
Of man, though still the image of his God,
Leaned by his will on various happiness,
I felt that all was good; that faculties
Though low, might constitute, if rightly used,
True wisdom; and when man hath here attained
The purpose of his being, he will sit
Near Mercy's throne, whether his course hath been
Prone on the earth's dim sphere, or, as with wing
Of viewless eagle, round the central blaze.
Even in the warm and summer light of joy,
Without those hopes, that, like refreshing gales
At evening from the sea, come o'er the soul
Breathed from the ocean of eternity!
And O! without them who could bear the storms
That fall in roaring blackness o'er the waters
Of agitated life. Then hopes arise
All round our sinking souls, like those fair birds,
O'er whose soft plumes the tempest has no power,
Waving their snow-white wings amid the darkness,
And wiling us, with gentle motion, on
To some calm island, on whose silvery strand,
Dropping at once, they fold their silent pinions,
And, as we touch the shores of paradise,
In love and beauty walk around our feet!
THE EVENING CLOUD.
A CLOUD lay cradled near the setting sun,
A gleam of crimson tinged its braided snow:
Long had I watched the glory moving on
O'er the still radiance of the Lake below.
Tranquil its spirit seemed it floated slow;
Even in its very motion, there was rest:
While every breath of eve that chanced to blow,
Wafted the traveller to the beauteous West.
Emblem, methought, of the departed soul !
To whose white robe the gleam of bliss is given;
And, by the breath of Mercy, made to roll
Right onward to the golden gates of Heaven,
Where, to the eye of Faith, it peaceful lies
And tells to man his glorious destinies.
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