THE LESSON. Ex Oriente Lux. [THE following lines are founded upon the well-known scruple of Jews and Mussulmans against trampling on paper, lest the name of God may be destined to be written on it, or be so already.] Nor yet to peace, and wished-for end And not all blest those souls that blend Yet groaning deep with inward flaw, To mark the ways, or read the signs, of Heaven. Let none despise his brother; deeds are done Once, in the heat of youthful blood, Along the low and sandy beach The sea, with a murmur low and strange, Ran white with surf; and no soft turf And told of generations past, Whose dying ears had heard the immemorial roar. A ruined city! but here and there A street, a mosque, a fort, A belt of palm-trees crossed the air- I saw the forests, far inland Had gained their old domain from men. Beneath some archway's ebon shade, The few poor hinds, who sought to gain And curse their useless toil: While gaunt hyænas nightly trooping down, With demon-laughter scare the sleeping town. The sun was high as I sprang to land And stood upon the burning sand: "God knows," I cried, "His ways are still Concealed from human ken; How this alternate good and ill Falls on the tribes of men. This place so populous and great, The ancient greeting on mine ear- The man I seek is here, For on your youthful cheek there glows I looked upon the seemly dress, We toiled amid the brooding beats, While strength remained to crawl, No human frame could live, and bear But help was nigh, not far before Had brought us to the resting-place, My guide stopped short; and turning round, A scrap of paper from the ground; And, "See, my son," he said As in the porch at length we stood,— This fluttering shred, we know not whence it came, Perhaps to-morrow, even here, Some hand shall trace the great Elohim's name." "Oh, if the meanest things appear" (My words broke forth without control) "For His sake precious thus and dear, How shall the greatest, wisest here Despise a human soul! No hearts to our dim sight are shown, But THOU art wise and great alone, THOU knowest, blessed LORD, thine own." H. G. K. GOD IN NATURE. "THOU turnest away thy face, and they are troubled." BEHOLD! an earthly Heaven, a realm of air, Of distance, till their outlines fade; their fields, And the horizon meets the sky, like Ocean's. Whence are these tender hues, these lights and shades, This blue transparent film, in which I see Half-hidden, half-revealed, like God's own truth That robes them with a radiance not their own? I stand alone amid the general gloom. Where now the splendour of the scene? where now That called itself Creator? It is real, The glory that we see on Nature's face, And by celestial influence comes and goes. H. G. K. |