I Thou, Lord, alone art all thy children need, From thee the streams of blessedness proceed; Fountain of life, and all-abounding grace, Our source, our centre, and our dwelling-place! MADAME GUYON. "Whither Shall I Go?" CANNOT find thee! still on restless pinion My spirit beats the void where thou dost dwell; I cannot know thee! even when most adoring From further quest comes back; thou art not there. Yet high above the limits of my seeing And folded far within the inmost heart, I cannot lose thee; still in thee abiding The end is clear, How wide so'er I roam; The law that holds the worlds my steps is guiding. And I must rest at last in thee, my home. ELIZA SCUDDER. Creation's Psalm A DEEP-BASSED thunder-rolling psalm Sweeps thro' the reeded throat of Time, With music of the great "I Am.” It drags the planets in their orbs, And smites the sun, and shakes the stars, Creation chants the nameless Name, The winging worlds in chorus ring; SWITHIN SAINT SWITHAINE. Making of Man AL-MUZAWWIR! the "Fashioner!" say thus; Still lauding Him who hath compounded us: When the Lord would fashion men, Spake He in the Angels' hearing, "Lo! Our will is there shall be Rule and royalty. Today Spake the Angels, "Wilt Thou make Of Thy precepts the forsaker? Answered Allah, "Yea! I know Go down to the earth, and taking Bring them unto Me in Heaven. Then those holy Angels three, Spread their pinions and descended; Seeking clods of diverse clay, That all colors might be blended; Yellow, tawny, dun, black, brown, White and red as men are known. But the earth spake sore afraid, Therefore, empty-handed came Spake the Lord to Azrael, "Go thou, who of wing art surest, Tell my earth this shall be well; Bring those clods, which thou procurest From her bosom, unto Me; Shape them as I order thee." Thus 'tis written how the Lord All save Iblis; and this story EDWIN ARNOLD. Adam and Eve (From "Paradise Lost") TWO of far nobler shape, erect and tall, Godlike erect, with native honor clad, In naked majesty seemed lords of all: Adam to Eve (From "Paradise Lost") FAIREST of creation, last and best Of all God's works, creature in whom excelled Whatever can to sight or thought be formed Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet. Eve JOHN MILTON. FOR the first time a lovely scene Earth saw and smiled, A gentle form with pallid mien Bending o'er a new-born child; The pang, the anguish, and the woe That speech hath never told, Fled, as the sun with noontide glow Dissolves the snow-wreath cold, Leaving the bliss that none but mothers know; Learn'd the ecstasy to trace The expanding form of infant grace To mark each radiant hour, Heaven's sculpture still more perfect growing, The little foot's elastic tread, The rounded cheek, like rose-bud glowing, The strange, mysterious, never-dying soul, To watch the angel-smile of sleeping innocence. No more she mourned lost Eden's joy, Or wept her cherish'd flowers, In their primeval bowers By wrecking tempests riven; The thorn and thistle of the exile's lot She heeded not. So all-absorbing was her sweet employ To rear the incipient man, the gift her God had given. And when his boyhood bold A richer beauty caught, Her kindling glance of pleasure told The incense of her idol-thought; Not for the born of clay Is pride's exulting thrill, Dark herald of the downward way, And ominous of ill. Even his cradled brother's smile The haughty first-born jealously survey'd And envy marked the brow with hate and guile, In God's own image made. LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY. |