Spare Hours Part 20

"He knocks at all doors, strays and roams: Nay hath not so much wit as some stones have, Which in the darkest nights point to their homes By some hid sense their Maker gave: Man is the shuttle, to whose winding quest And pa.s.sage through these looms G.o.d order'd motion, but ordain'd no rest."

There is great moral force about this; its measure and words put one in mind of the majestic lines of s.h.i.+rley, beginning

"The glories of our earthly state Are shadows, not substantial things."

c.o.c.k-CROWING.

"Father of lights! what Sunnie seed, What glance of day hast thou confin'd Into this bird? To all the breed This busie Ray thou hast a.s.sign'd; Their magnetisme works all night, And dreams of Paradise and light.

"Their eyes watch for the morning-hue, Their little grain expelling night So s.h.i.+nes and sings, as if it knew The path unto the house of light.

It seems their candle, howe'er done, Was tinn'd and lighted at the sunne."

This is a conceit, but an exquisite one.

PROVIDENCE.

"Sacred and secret hand!

By whose a.s.sisting, swift command The Angel shewd that holy Well, Which freed poor Hagar from her fears, And turn'd to smiles the begging tears Of yong distressed Ishmael."

There is something very beautiful and touching in the opening of this on Providence, and in the "yong distressed Ishmael."

THE DAWNING.

"Ah! what time wilt thou come? when shall that crie, The Bridegroome's Comming! fill the sky?

Shall it in the Evening run When our words and works are done?

Or will thy all-surprizing light Break at midnight, When either sleep, or some dark pleasure Possesseth mad man without measure?

Or shall these early, fragrant hours Unlock thy bowres?

And with their blush of light descry Thy locks crown'd with eternitie?

Indeed, it is the only time That with thy glory doth best chime; All now are stirring, ev'ry field Full hymns doth yield; The whole Creation shakes off night, And for thy shadow looks the light."

This last line is full of grandeur and originality.

THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.

"Lord, when thou didst on _Sinai_ pitch, And s.h.i.+ne from _Paran_, when a firie Law, p.r.o.nounc'd with thunder and thy threats, did thaw Thy People's hearts, when all thy weeds were rich, And Inaccessible for light, Terrour, and might;- How did poore flesh, which after thou didst weare, Then faint and fear!

Thy Chosen flock, like leafs in a high wind, Whisper'd obedience, and their heads inclin'd."

The idea in the last lines, we may suppose, was suggested by what Isaiah says of the effect produced on Ahaz and the men of Judah, when they heard that Rezin, king of Syria, had joined Israel against them. "And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, _as the trees of the wood are moved by the winds_."

HOLY SCRIPTURES.

"Welcome, dear book, soul's Joy and food! The feast Of Spirits; Heav'n extracted lyes in thee.

Thou art life's Charter, The Dove's spotless nest Where souls are hatch'd unto Eternitie.

"In thee the hidden stone, the Manna lies; Thou art the great Elixir rare and Choice; The Key that opens to all Mysteries, The Word in Characters, G.o.d in the Voice."

This is very like Herbert, and not inferior to him.

In a poem having the odd mark of "--," and which seems to have been written after the death of some dear friends, are these two stanzas, the last of which is singularly pathetic:-

"They are all gone into the world of light!

And I alone sit lingring here!

Their very memory is fair and bright, And my sad thoughts doth clear.

"He that hath found some fledg'd bird's nest may know At first sight if the bird be flown; But what fair Dell or Grove he sings in now, That is to him unknown."

Referring to Nicodemus visiting our Lord:-

THE NIGHT. (JOHN iii. 2.)

"Most blest believer he!

Who in that land of darkness and blinde eyes Thy long expected healing wings could see, When thou didst rise; And, what can never more be done, Did at midnight speak with the Sun!

"O who will tell me where He found thee at that dead and silent hour?

What hallow'd solitary ground did bear So rare a flower; Within whose sacred leaves did lie The fulness of the Deity?

"No mercy-seat of gold, No dead and dusty Cherub, nor carved stone, But his own living works, did my Lord hold And lodge alone; Where trees and herbs did watch and peep And wonder, while the Jews did sleep.

"Dear night! this world's defeat; The stop to busie fools; care's check and curb; The day of Spirits; my soul's calm retreat Which none disturb!

Christ's[46] progress and his prayer time; The hours to which high Heaven doth chime.

"G.o.d's silent, searching flight: When my Lord's head is filled with dew, and all His locks are wet with the clear drops of night; His still, soft call; His knocking time; the soul's dumb watch, When spirits their Fair Kindred catch.

"Were all my loud, evil days, Calm and unhaunted as is Thy dark Tent, Whose peace but by some Angel's wing or voice Is seldom rent; Then I in Heaven all the long year Would keep, and never wander here."

[46] Mark i. 35; Luke xxi. 37.

At the end he has these striking words-

"There is in G.o.d, some say, _A deep but dazzling darkness_--"

This brings to our mind the concluding sentence of Mr. Ruskin's fifth chapter in his second volume-"The infinity of G.o.d is not mysterious, it is only unfathomable; not concealed, but incomprehensible; _it is a clear infinity, the darkness of the pure, unsearchable sea_." Plato, if we rightly remember, says-"Truth is the body of G.o.d, light is His shadow."

DEATH.

"Though since thy first sad entrance By just Abel's blood, 'Tis now six thousand years well nigh, And still thy sovereignty holds good; Yet by none art thou understood.

"We talk and name thee with much ease, As a tryed thing, And every one can slight his lease, As if it ended in a Spring, Which shades and bowers doth rent-free bring.

"To thy dark land these heedless go, But there was One Who search'd it quite through to and fro, And then, returning like the Sun, Discover'd all that there is done.