The Mountain Spring And Other Poems | Page 7

is there in our flitting years?With this pure treasure can compare??His love can wipe away our tears,?His love can lighten every care.
THE MIGRATORY SWANS
A necklace in the depth of blue?Of scintillating, silvery pearls,?Which peering eagerly we view?As gracefully it curves and whirls,?Safely and swiftly, far away?They seek the groves of date and lime;?Naught can arrest and naught dismay?From heights so lofty and sublime.
In dreams alone their wintry home?Can haunt them with its ice and snow;?Mingled with visions as they come?Of shimmering waves where lilies grow?And open lakes are fresh and clear,?Fit mirror for a plumaged breast,?Shaded by moss-grown trees. 'Tis here?They'll dip and dive in gleeful rest.
Vanished! and vainly do we try?To trace upon the distant air?That scroll which written on the sky?Told of the hand which led them there.?Could we upon our heavenward way?From tempting snares as far remove?And be as disenthralled as they,?We'd plainer show a guiding love.
We skim too closely to the earth,?We press too slowly for the prize,?Let thoughts and cares of trivial worth?Retard our journey to the skies.?Oh, let us watch and pray to have?A loftier flight from transient things,?Inspired like swans at last to lave?In streams of bliss our wearied wings!
MINISTERING WOMEN
_And Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna and many others who ministered unto him of their substance._--Luke 8:3. Mark 14:3-9. John 12:3-8. Matthew 26:6-13. Luke 7:37-50. John 11:3.
Those women who their Christ and Lord?Aided by gentle ministry,?Have gained their race a rich reward,?Treasured in sacred history.
Joanna is unknown at court,?Although entitled to be there;?The record of her life's report?In fadeless glory has its share.
Susanna's name is intertwined,?A gem as sparkling and as clear?As those with which it is enshrined;?And this is all we know of her.
And those whose names have not been given?Are now in realms of light and love,?Praising him mid the choirs of heaven,?Crowned with his joy and peace and love.
Mary of Magdala was brought?From mysteries strange and dark and drear?To heights with joy and gladness fraught;?She radiates a luster clear.
Those chimes from Bethany will ring?With power that will not, cannot die;?Martha's and Mary's names will sing?Long as the flitting centuries fly.
That spikenard, which 'twas wholly meet?Mary should pour upon his head,?Has filled with fragrance rare and sweet?Succeeding ages as they've fled.
And when a critic standing near?Censured her act, misunderstood,?Christ spoke so that the world might hear;?He said, "She hath done what she could."
This her memorial while the sun?Traverses the blue dome of heaven,?Fulfilling while time's cycles run?Christ's prophecy which then was given.
Unto the end these faithful few,?Regardless of all pain and loss,?Did what their hearts and hands could do,?Though bowed with wonder at the cross.
Such love they could not understand,?Such love unto his latest breath;?That love had our redemption planned?Both in his life and in his death.
They haunt the tomb in which he lay,?Grief-stricken, desolate, and lone;?But Magdalene at break of day?Found that her precious charge was gone.
Two angels said, "Why weepest thou?"?The angels knew ere they inquired.?They knew her heart could triumph now,?These sinless ones by love inspired.
She, weeping, told her loss and woe,?Then answered thus a questioner near:?"Sir, if thou dost his refuge know,?Tell me. I seek him vainly here."
"Mary!" She listened to her name?Uttered by Christ, her risen Lord.?"Master?" her trembling lips exclaim,?Then wondered, worshipped, and adored.
Her joy is ours! Oh, may we see?That joy more plainly every day!?Christ lives and loves eternally,--?Swift feet such tidings should convey.
Eternal life and heavenly rest?He purchased by death's agony,?That whosoever will be blest?With glorious immortality.
May we our sisters of the past?In life and character revere,?Like them be faithful to the last,?Like them be loving and sincere.
First must the gospel plan of love?To every land and tribe be given,?Ere He'll return who from above?Is God's best gift to earth from heaven.
THAT JEWISH LAD
_There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes._--John 6:9.
He must have been a thoughtful youth,?His name the record has not given,?But if his heart imbibed the truth,?'Tis written in the books of heaven.?A cipher in the multitude,?He followed with his meager store,?And far from his perception crude?The miracle that made it more.
With loaves and fishes few, this lad?By power and aid of one divine?Has made the hungry thousands glad?And God's providing power to shine.?When at the midweek hour of prayer?Ye faithful mourn your number few,?Pray He who fed that throng be there?Your faith and vigor to renew.
He will your meek petitions hear?Which, like those loaves and fishes small,?Will cause his glory to appear?In showers of blessing that will fall.?The centuries are sweeping by,?Bearing their millions gay and sad,?And wafting those to realms on high?Who follow with that Jewish lad.
IN SINCERITY
_Grace be with them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in?sincerity._--Ephesians 6:24.
Thou saddened one whose longing eyes?Seek quickening thoughts to glean,?Whose views of Christ, the Heavenly prize,?Clouds often veer between,?That rapture