Part 35 (1/2)

So, from off converse with life's wintry gales, Should man learn how to clasp with tougher roots The inspiring earth;--how otherwise avails The leaf-creating sap that sunward shoots?

So every year that falls with noiseless flake Should fill old scars upon the stormward side, And make h.o.a.r age revered for age's sake, Not for traditions of youth's leafy pride.

So from the pinched soil of a churlish fate, True hearts compel the sap of st.u.r.dier growth, So between earth and heaven stand simply great, That these shall seem but their attendants both; For nature's forces with obedient zeal Wait on the rooted faith and oaken will; As quickly the pretender's cheat they feel, And turn mad Pucks to flout and mock him still.

Lord! all thy works are lessons,--each contains Some emblem of man's all-containing soul; Shall he make fruitless all thy glorious pains, Delving within thy grace an eyeless mole?

Make me the least of thy Dodona-grove, Cause me some message of thy truth to bring, Speak but a word through me, nor let thy love Among my boughs disdain to perch and sing.

AMBROSE.

Never, surely, was holier man Than Ambrose, since the world began; With diet spare and raiment thin, He s.h.i.+elded himself from the father of sin; With bed of iron and scourgings oft, His heart to G.o.d's hand as wax made soft.

Through earnest prayer and watchings long He sought to know 'twixt right and wrong, Much wrestling with the blessed Word To make it yield the sense of the Lord, That he might build a storm-proof creed To fold the flock in at their need.

At last he builded a perfect faith, Fenced round about with _The Lord thus saith_; To himself he fitted the doorway's size, Meted the light to the need of his eyes, And knew, by a sure and inward sign, That the work of his fingers was divine.

Then Ambrose said, ”All those shall die The eternal death who believe not as I;”

And some were boiled, some burned in fire, Some sawn in twain, that his heart's desire, For the good of men's souls, might be satisfied, By the drawing of all to the righteous side.

One day, as Ambrose was seeking the truth In his lonely walk, he saw a youth Resting himself in the shade of a tree; It had never been given him to see So s.h.i.+ning a face, and the good man thought 'T were pity he should not believe as he ought.

So he set himself by the young man's side, And the state of his soul with questions tried; But the heart of the stranger was hardened indeed Nor received the stamp of the one true creed, And the spirit of Ambrose waxed sore to find Such face the porch of so narrow a mind.

”As each beholds in cloud and fire The shape that answers his own desire, So each,” said the youth, ”in the Law shall find The figure and features of his mind; And to each in his mercy hath G.o.d allowed His several pillar of fire and cloud.”

The soul of Ambrose burned with zeal And holy wrath for the young man's weal: ”Believest thou then, most wretched youth,”

Cried he, ”a dividual essence in Truth?

I fear me thy heart is too cramped with sin To take the Lord in his glory in.”

Now there bubbled beside them where they stood, A fountain of waters sweet and good; The youth to the streamlet's brink drew near Saying, ”Ambrose, thou maker of creeds, look here!”

Six vases of crystal then he took, And set them along the edge of the brook.

”As into these vessels the water I pour, There shall one hold less, another more, And the water unchanged, in every case, Shall put on the figure of the vase; O thou, who wouldst unity make through strife, Canst thou fit this sign to the Water of Life?”

When Ambrose looked up, he stood alone, The youth and the stream and the vases were gone; But he knew, by a sense of humbled grace, He had talked with an angel face to face, And felt his heart change inwardly, As he fell on his knees beneath the tree.

ABOVE AND BELOW.

I.

O dwellers in the valley-land, Who in deep twilight grope and cower, Till the slow mountain's dial-hand Shortens to noon's triumphal hour,-- While ye sit idle, do ye think The Lord's great work sits idle too?

That light dare not o'erleap the brink Of morn, because 'tis dark with you?

Though yet your valleys skulk in night, In G.o.d's ripe fields the day is cried, And reapers with their sickles bright, Troop, singing, down the mountain side.