Bees in Amber | Page 3

is sent, is sent,?And God knows best.
Fold up the tent,?And speed the parting guest!?The night draws on, though night and day are one?On this long quest.
This house was only lent?For my apprenticement--?What is, is best.
Fold up the tent!?Its slack ropes all undone,?Its pole all broken, and its cover rent,--?Its work is done.
But mine--tho' spoiled and spent?Mine earthly tenement--?Is but begun.
Fold up the tent!?Its tenant would be gone,?To fairer skies than mortal eyes?May look upon.?All that I loved has passed,
And left me at the last?Alone!--alone!
Fold up the tent!?Above the mountain's crest,?I hear a clear voice calling, calling clear,--?"To rest! To rest!"
And I am glad to go,?For the sweet oil is low,?And rest is best!
THE PRUNER
God is a zealous pruner,?For He knows--?Who, falsely tender, spares the knife?But spoils the rose.
THE WAYS
To every man there openeth?A Way, and Ways, and a Way.?And the High Soul climbs the High way,?And the Low Soul gropes the Low,?And in between, on the misty flats,?The rest drift to and fro.?But to every man there openeth?A High Way, and a Low.?And every man decideth?The Way his soul shall go.
SEEDS
What shall we be like when?We cast this earthly body and attain?To immortality??What shall we be like then?
Ah, who shall say?What vast expansions shall be ours that day??What transformations of this house of clay,?To fit the heavenly mansions and the light of day??Ah, who shall say?
But this we know,--?We drop a seed into the ground,?A tiny, shapeless thing, shrivelled and dry,?And, in the fulness of its time, is seen?A form of peerless beauty, robed and crowned?Beyond the pride of any earthly queen,?Instinct with loveliness, and sweet and rare,?The perfect emblem of its Maker's care.
This from a shrivelled seed?--?--Then may man hope indeed!
For man is but the seed of what he shall be.?When, in the fulness of his perfecting,?He drops the husk and cleaves his upward way,?Through earth's retardings and the clinging clay,?Into the sunshine of God's perfect day.?No fetters then! No bonds of time or space!?But powers as ample as the boundless grace?That suffered man, and death, and yet, in tenderness,?Set wide the door, and passed Himself before--?As He had promised--to prepare a place.
Yea, we may hope!?For we are seeds,?Dropped into earth for heavenly blossoming.?Perchance, when comes the time of harvesting,?His loving care?May find some use for even a humble tare.
We know not what we shall be--only this--?That we shall be made like Him--as He is.
WHIRRING WHEELS
Lord, when on my bed I lie,?Sleepless, unto Thee I'll cry;?When my brain works overmuch,?Stay the wheels with Thy soft touch.
Just a quiet thought of Thee,?And of Thy sweet charity,--?Just a little prayer, and then?I will turn to sleep again.
THE BELLS OF YS
When the Bells of Ys rang softly,--softly,
Soft--and sweet--and low,?Not a sound was heard in the old gray town,?As the silvery tones came floating down,?But life stood still with uncovered head,?And doers of ill did good instead,?And abroad the Peace of God was shed,?_When the bells aloft sang softly--softly,?Soft--and sweet--and low,--?The Silver Bells and the Golden Bells,--?Aloft, and aloft, and alow_.
And still those Bells ring softly--softly,
Soft--and sweet--and low.?Though full twelve hundred years have gone,?Since the waves rolled over the old gray town,?Bold men of the sea, in the grip of the flow,?Still hear the Bells, as they pass and go,?Or win to life with their hearts aglow,?_When the Bells below sing softly--softly,?Soft--and sweet--and low,--?The Silver Bells and the Golden Bells,--?Alow, and alow, and alow_.
O the Mystical Bells, they still ring softly,
Soft--and sweet--and low,--?For the sound of their singing shall never die?In the hearts that are tuned to their melody;?And down in the world's wild rush and roar,?That sweeps us along to the Opening Door.
Hearts still beat high as they beat of yore,?_When the Bells sing softly--softly--softly,?Soft--and sweet--and low,?The Silver Bells and the Golden Bells,--?Alow, and aloft, and alow_.
THE LITTLE POEM OF LIFE
I;--?Thou;--?We;--?They;--?Small words, but mighty.?In their span?Are bound the life and hopes of man.
For, first, his thoughts of his own self are full;?Until another comes his heart to rule.?For them, life's best is centred round their love;?Till younger lives come all their love to prove.
CUP OF MIXTURE
For every Guest who comes with him to sup,?The Host compounds a strangely mingled cup;--?Red Wine of Life and Dregs of Bitterness,?And, will-he, nil-he, each must drink it up.
WEAVERS ALL
Warp and Woof and Tangle,--
Weavers of Webs are we.?Living and dying--and mightier dead,?For the shuttle, once sped, is sped--is sped;--
Weavers of Webs are we.
White, and Black, and Hodden-gray,--
Weavers of Webs are we.?To every weaver one golden strand?Is given in trust by the Master-Hand;--
Weavers of Webs are we.
And that we weave, we know not,--
Weavers of Webs are we.?The threads we see, but the pattern is known?To the Master-Weaver alone, alone;--
Weavers of Webs are we.
THE CLEARER VISION
When, with bowed head,?And silent-streaming tears,?With mingled hopes and fears,?To earth we yield our dead;?The Saints, with clearer sight,?Do cry in glad accord,--?"_A soul