Let In The Light!

Let in the light! The sky is bright, The air is flowing free; The mountains glow, The vale, below, Is holding jubilee.

Let in the light!-- Sad oversight To miss so sweet a morn; The vision flies, Awake! arise! Each dawn is life reborn.

Let in the light! O! read aright The day’s Apocalypse; Its hours enfold The age of gold, And all thy dreams eclipse.

Let in the light! ’Twill soon be night; Prize every moment given; With all thy might Serve thou the right, And leave the rest to Heaven.

THE LAW OF LOVE.

O, the sky is blue above me, And the earth beneath is green, And softly bright the flowing light Floods the boundless space between.

But what if the day should darken, And death’s dread shadows fall? I need not fear; with heaven so near, Why should the night appall?

’Tis but the peaceful portal Unto a morn immortal; For the light that once gladdened the garden’s deep gloom At last shall transfigure all blight into bloom.

For over and under the soul’s sore strife Is the blessed law of an endless life; From the sod to the stars, and the stars to the sod, Sways the everlasting love of God.

A PROPHECY.

O happy, happy, happy boy! Let me tell you all your joy; Let me whisper in your ear All the secret of the seer. Let me tell your fortune fair To the wide and wandering air; Let me share my rapture rare With the social, songful air,-- With the gentle, genial air, Kind to laughter and to prayer.

* * * * *

Whatsoe’er the world may say, You shall have the right of way: You shall laugh, and you shall play, And, in merry roundelay, Dance with jolly faun and fay; You shall have the wealth of May For your dowry every day.

* * * * *

Nature, from her frailest spar To her oldest, utmost star, All her miracles shall bring For your blissful wondering;-- You shall be her priest and king. Knowing what was never known, Reaping what was never sown, You shall feel the world your own, On your universal throne. And, in holy place apart, (Blessed are the pure in heart!) In a halo of delight, Jubilant with glorious might, You shall walk with God in white.

* * * * *

This is all was shown to me Of the child’s futurity; What the youth and man will be-- Sealed is in mystery. Scarcely can his angel see, Face to face with Deity, Farther into certainty. God exceed the prophecy! God be better to the boy Than the parent’s dream of joy.

LITTLE RUTH.

I cannot feel that she is gone So far, so far away; Her little heart close to my own Is beating day by day.

Ah! tender are these human ties; May heaven at last reveal Why on her eyes a slumber lies E’en tears cannot unseal.

A look this darkness would displace With a divine delight; The soul’s rare grace in her fair face. It was a blessed sight!

Her hair a happy halo wore That lit the hearth and hall; Alas! no more my study door Heeds her confiding call.

Dear lips! where mirth and music wrote The lore in Eden sung; Seemed every note from her sweet throat By elf or angel strung.

The robin, hark! is here again, To woo the wondrous child; But all in vain his ardent strain,-- Death may not be beguiled.

Sleep, Baby, sleep; we will not weep, Nor moan or murmur make; But O! how deep the dreamless sleep! Would God she might awake.

Asleep? awake! the Shepherd takes His little lamb above; And where she wakes the morning breaks In everlasting love.

* * * * *

But I cannot feel that she is gone So far, so far away; For her little heart close to my own Keeps beating day by day.

WHERE THERE IS NO MORE PAIN.

The sharpest pang, the tenderest tear, Not yet are known to thee, Unless thy heart has learned how dear A little grave can be.

A little grave--but O, how wide The room it left for grief! A grief which, like the ebbing tide, Returns without relief.

Dear child! by death made doubly dear, God grant it may not be That thou in heaven should’st ever hear How much we mourn for thee.

One after one the seasons wane,-- Our loss, it grows not less; Time’s balm is vain to heal the pain Of such a loneliness.

O little grave, that darkened so The path by Sorrow trod, Sometimes the sunset’s golden glow Rests on thy daisied sod;--

And then we feel that God is good, And we take heart again, Assured ’twill all be understood Where there is no more pain.

Where there is no more pain--’tis there, ’Tis there we long to be; O Thou, who didst our sorrows bear, Bring us to dwell with thee!

Where there is no more pain--how blest Love’s kingdom, fadeless, fair! That blissful rest naught shall molest,-- Death cannot enter there.

AMONG THE LILIES.

Among the lilies she lies asleep, Our Easter lily, so fair and sweet,-- A flower too fair and frail to keep Where love with sorrow and pain must meet.

Among the lilies in Paradise (O sweeter than Eden, God’s garden above!) Stands a little child,--and the same dear eyes Look up into ours with immortal love.

Among the lilies! Lord, grant that we With the pure in heart thy face may see, And find with our loved and our lost a home Where pain and sorrow can never come.