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137

THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

Yet, if we will one Guide obey,
The dreariest path, the darkest way,
Shall issue out in heavenly day:

And we, on divers shores now cast,
Shall meet, our perilous voyage past,
All in our Father's house at last.

And ere thou leave him, say thou this,
Yet one word more: they only miss
The winning of that final bliss,

Who will not count it true that Love,
Blessing, not cursing, rules above,
And that in it we live and move.

And one thing further make him know,-
That to believe these things are so,
This firm faith never to forego,

Despite of all which seems at strife
With blessing, all with curses rife, -
That this is blessing, this is life.

12 *

HYMN.

CHARLES H. A. DALL.

"As for truth, it endureth and is always strong; it liveth and conquereth for evermore." -1 Esdras iv. 38.

GREAT is the earth, O God!
But mightier still is truth;
As thou endurest, so it stands
Strong in eternal youth.

High is the pure, blue heaven;
Truth is as pure and high;
All angels bless thy righteousness,
All men repeat the cry.

Unerring flies the sun,

But truth is surer yet;

The nations, quickened in its course
Shall live, ere truth is set.

Transient are human works,
Wicked is human thought:
We perish in unrighteousness
If truth inspire us not.

Christ yesterday, to-day,

For ever,

conquers, lives;

EXAGGERATION.

Christ is thy truth and power for aye,
'Tis Christ thy kingdom gives.

No truth but is in him,

He claims no greatness else;

The majesty of ages, he

Comes in the truth he tells.

EXAGGERATION.

MRS. BROWNING.

139

WE overstate the ills of life, and take
Imagination,—given us to bring down

The choirs of singing angels overshone
By God's clear glory,—down our earth to rake
The dismal snows instead; flake following flake,
To cover all the corn. We walk upon

The shadow of hills across a level thrown,
And pant like climbers. Near the alder-brake
We sigh so loud, the nightingale within
Refuses to sing loud, as else she would.
O brothers! let us leave the shame and sin
Of taking vainly, in a plaintive mood,
The holy name of GRIEF! holy herein,
That by the grief of ONE came all our good.

THE STRAIGHT ROAD.

DISCIPLES' HYMN-BOOK.

BEAUTY may be the path to highest good,
And some successfully have it pursued.
Thou, who wouldst follow, be well warned to see
That way prove not a curvéd road to thee.
The straightest path perhaps which may be sought
Lies through the great highway men call I OUGHT.

GLORY TO GOD ALONE.

MADAME GUYON.

O LOVED! but not enough, though dearer far
Than self and its most loved enjoyments are;
None duly loves thee, but who, nobly free
From sensual objects, finds his all in thee.

Glory of God! thou stranger here below,
Whom man nor knows, nor feels a wish to know;
Our faith and reason are both shocked to find
Man in the post of honor, thee behind.

My soul, rest happy in thy low estate,
Nor hope nor wish to be esteemed or great;
To take the impression of a Will Divine,
Be that thy glory, and those riches thine.

A MEDITATION.

141

Confess him righteous in his just decrees,
Love what he loves, and let his pleasures please;
Die daily; from the touch of sin recede;

Then thou hast crowned him, and he reigns indeed.

A MEDITATION.

N. L. FROTHINGHAM.

Too far from thee, O Lord.

The world is close upon each captured sense;
The heart's dear idols never vanish hence;
Life's care and labor still are pressing nigh;
Its fates and passions hard about me lie;
But Thou art dim behind thine infinite sky,
O distantly adored!

O Lord, too far from thee!

Unwingéd Time stands ever in my sight,
Flooding the Past and Now with gloom and light;
Silent, but busy, constant at my side,

It shreds away strength, beauty, joy, and pride.
Eternal! why am I from Thee so wide,
Nor thy near Presence see?

Ne'er languished for as now,

Now that the hold of Earth feels poor and frail ; Now that the cheek of Hope looks thin and pale,

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