The Mountain Spring And Other Poems

Project Gutenberg's The Mountain Spring And Other Poems, by Nannie R. Glass
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Title: The Mountain Spring And Other Poems
Author: Nannie R. Glass
Release Date: February 18, 2005 [EBook #15101]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
? START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOUNTAIN SPRING ***
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The Mountain Spring and Other Poems
BY
NANNIE R. GLASS
BOSTON
SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY
1913
TO THE MEMORY OF HER PARENTS, WHO KEPT THEIR ALTAR FIRES BURNING, THE AUTHOR AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATES THIS LITTLE BOOK
CONTENTS
THE MOUNTAIN SPRING
GO WANDER
LOVE
THE LILIES
TELL PETER
THE SLEET
ANSWERED
ALONE
NO OTHER
WEALTH
THE CAPTIVES
THE LIVING WATER
JESUS INTERCEDES
EVE'S FLOWERS
COME UNTO ME
NOVEMBER
THE TRAVELERS
DAYBREAK
GONE
AWAKE!
"ABIDE WITH US"
O BETHLEHEM!
RING THE BELLS
THE DESERT SPRING
MUSINGS
BARTIM?US
ZACCH?US
APRIL
BETHLEHEM
NATURE'S LESSON
THE MIGRATORY SWANS
MINISTERING WOMEN
THAT JEWISH LAD
IN SINCERITY
THEY'RE COMING!
THE MOUNTAIN SPRING AND OTHER POEMS
THE MOUNTAIN SPRING
_And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely._--Revelation 22:17.
I wandered down a mountain road,?Past flower and rock and lichen gray,?Alone with nature and her God?Upon a flitting summer day.
The forest skirted to the edge?Of Capon river, Hampshire's gem,?Which, bathing many a primrose ledge,?Oft sparkled like a diadem.
At length a silvery spring I spied,?Gurgling through moss and fern along,?Waiting to bless with cooling tide?All who were gladdened by its song.
Oh, who would pass with thirsting lip?And burning brow, this limpid wave??Who would not pause with joy and sip??Its crystal depths who would not crave?
This query woke a voice within--?Why slight the spring of God's great love,?That fount that cleanseth from all sin,?Our purchase paid by Christ above?
Whoever will may drink! Oh, why,?Worn toilers in this earthly strife,?Reject a mansion in the sky,?Reject heaven's bliss and endless life?
GO WANDER
Go, wander, little book,?Nor let thy wand'ring cease;?May all who on these pages look?From sin find sweet release,
Through Christ, God's holy son,?Who left his throne in heaven?And e'en death's anguish did not shun?That we might be forgiven.
How should our thoughts and deeds?Exalt this mighty friend,?Who died, yet lives and intercedes?And loves us to the end!
LOVE
_For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God._--Ephesians 2:8.
Christ might have called the angels down?To bear him safe above,?To shield his brow from sorrow's crown,?From death's cold blight, and bitter frown,?Had it not been for love.
Our glorious King, our Prince of Peace,?Has left his throne above?To give our souls from sin release,?To make our pain and anguish cease,?And all because of love.
By faith in him, we all may see?In realms of light above,?Through streams of blood on Calvary,?A joyful immortality;--?The purchase price was love.
THE LILIES
Consider the lilies.--Luke 2:27.
Emblems of Christ our Lord,?Roses and lilies fair,?These flowers in His word,?His glory seem to share.
The lilies of the field,?Sweet teachers of the soul,?Which will their lessons yield?Long as the seasons roll,
They neither toil nor spin,?Exist without a care,?And yet no earthly king can win?A garb so chaste and rare.
Frozen, they burst to life,?To nature's minstrelsy--?A resurrection type?Of immortality.
TELL PETER
And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself.--John 18:25.
Peter, it was not outward cold?But inward chill thy bosom froze,?Made thee deny with falsehood bold?Thy Lord and Master to his foes.?When we find cheer at Satan's fires?The world is there to work us harm,?To deaden all our pure desires?With its deceitful lure and charm.
Peter, the voice of chanticleer?Fulfilled what Christ had prophesied;?And oh, that pitying look sincere?From him whom thou hadst just denied!?Thy burst of penitential grief!?Heaven those tears did surely send.?Tears give the burdened heart relief;?Dry anguish may its tendrils rend.
Sin soon will crucify our Lord,?Thy sin, and all the world's beside.?He gave himself, the Living Word,?Our shelter from God's wrath to hide.?Had all the seraphs pens to write?Such love upon the boundless sky,?Angelic powers could not indite?Its greatness while the ages fly.
The hour is hastening. God has willed?That Christ should through his own decree?Abolish death and have fulfilled?Our blood-bought immortality.?And when the awful tomb he rent,?When freed from every earthly thrall,?"Tell Peter" was the message sent;?"Tell Peter"--'tis love's tender call.
Peter was martyr to his faith;?His rock, God's son whom he denied;?This faith the key that unlocks death?To realms where joy and peace abide.?"Tell Peter!" Honey drops of love,?Awaking all the choirs of heaven!?"Tell Peter"--angels from above?Shout, "Hear, O earth, and be forgiven!"
THE SLEET
Regal the earth seems with diamonds today,?Gemming all nature in blazing array;?A picture more fairy-like never could be?Than this wonderful icicle filigree.
A crystallized world! What a marvelous sight,?Gorgeous and grand in the March sunlight!?The frost-king magician has changed the spring showers?To turquois and topaz and sapphire bowers.
And what is the lesson we learn from the sleet,?As toiling life's road with wearying feet,?Upward we strive, but failing so oft?In the struggles that bear us