They bore unquestioned evidence Of an anointed Messenger! Or, bowing down thy silver hair In reverent awfulness of prayer— The world, its time and sense, shut out- The brightness of Faith's holy trance Gathered upon thy countenance,
As if each lingering cloud of doubt— The cold, dark shadows resting here In Time's unluminous atmosphere- Were lifted by an angel's hand, And through them on thy spiritual eye Shone down the blessedness on high, The glory of the Better Land!
While, meet for no good work, the vine May yet its worthless branches twine. Who knoweth not that with thee fell A great man in our Israel?
Fallen, while thy loins were girded still, Thy feet with Zion's dews still wet, And in thy hand retaining yet The pilgrim's staff and scallop-shell! Unharmed and safe, where, wild and free, Across the Neva's cold morass
The breezes from the Frozen Sea With winter's arrowy keenness pass; Or, where the unwarning tropic gale Smote to the waves thy tattered sail, Or, where the noon-hour's fervid heat Against Tahiti's mountains beat;
The same mysterious hand which gave Deliverance upon land and wave, Tempered for thee the blasts which blew Ladaga's frozen surface o'er,
And blessed for thee the baleful dew Of evening upon Eimeo's shore, Beneath this sunny heaven of ours,
Midst our soft airs and opening flowers Hath given thee a grave!
Who seeth not as man, whose way Is not as ours!-'Tis well with thee! Nor anxious doubt nor dark dismay Disquieted thy closing day,
But, evermore, thy soul could say,
My Father careth still for me!'
Called from thy hearth and home-from her, The last bud on thy household tree, The last dear one to minister
In duty and in love to thee, From all which nature holdeth dear, Feeble with years and worn with pain, To seek our distant land again, Bound in the spirit, yet unknowing
The things which should befall thee here, Whether for labor or for death,
In child-like trust serenely going To that last trial of thy faith!
Where never shines our Northern star On that dark waste which Balboa saw From Darien's mountains stretching far, So strange, heaven-broad, and lone, that there With forehead to its damp wind bare He bent his mailed knee in awe;
In many an isle whose coral feet The surges of that ocean beat, In thy palm shadows, Oahu,
And Honolulu's silver bay, Amidst Owyhee's hills of blue,
And taro-plains of Tooboonai, Are gentle hearts, which long shall be Sad as our own at thought of thee,- Worn sowers of Truth's holy seed,
Whose souls in weariness and need
Were strengthened and refreshed by thine, For, blessed by our Father's hand, Was thy deep love and tender care, Thy ministry and fervent prayer— Grateful as Eschol's clustered vine To Israel in a weary land!
By thousands round thee, in the hour Of prayerful waiting, hushed and deep, That He who bade the islands keep Silence before him, might renew
Their strength with his unslumbering power, They too shall mourn that thou art gone, That never more thy aged lip
Shall soothe the weak, the erring warn, Of those who first, rejoicing, heard Through thee the Gospel's glorious word—- Seals of thy true apostleship. And, if the brightest diadem,
Whose gems of glory purely burn Around the ransomed ones in bliss,
Be evermore reserved for them
Who here, through toil and sorrow, Many to righteousness,-
May we not think of thee, as wearing That star-like crown of light, and bearing, Amidst Heaven's white and blissful band, The fadeless palm-branch in thy hand; And joining with a seraph's tongue In that new song the elders sung, Ascribing to its blessed Giver Thanksgiving, love, and praise forever!
And though the ways of Zion mourn When her strong ones are called away, Who like thyself have calmly borne
The heat and burden of the day, Yet He who slumbereth not nor sleepeth His ancient watch around us keepeth; Still sent from his creating hand, New witnesses for Truth shall stand- New instruments to sound abroad The Gospel of a risen Lord;
To gather to the fold once more, The desolate and gone astray, The scattered of a cloudy day,
And Zion's broken walls restore! And, through the travail and the toil Of true obedience, minister Beauty for ashes, and the oil
Of joy for mourning, unto her! So shall her holy bounds increase With walls of praise and gates of peace So shall the Vine, which martyr tears And blood sustained in other years, With fresher life be clothed upon; And to the world in beauty show Like the rose-plant of Jericho, And glorious as Lebanon!
FRIEND of the Slave, and yet the friend of all ; Lover of peace, yet ever foremost, when The need of battling Freedom called for men To plant the banner on the outer wall; Gentle and kindly, ever at distress Melted to more than woman's tenderness, Yet firm and steadfast, at his duty's post Fronting the violence of a maddened host,
Like some gray rock from which the waves are
Knowing his deeds of love, men questioned not The faith of one whose walk and word were right
Who tranquilly in Life's great task-field wrought, And, side by side with evil, scarcely caught
A stain upon his pilgrim garb of white: Prompt to redress another's wrong, his own Leaving to Time and Truth and Penitence alone
Such was our friend. Formed on the good old plan, A true and brave and downright honest man!- He blew no trumpet in the market-place, Nor in the church with hypocritic face Supplied with cant the lack of Christian grace; Loathing pretence, he did with cheerful will What others talked of while their hands were still : And, while " Lord, Lord!" the pious tyrants cried. Who, in the poor, their Master crucified, His daily prayer, far better understood
In acts than words, was simply DOING GOOD. So calm, so constant was his rectitude,
That, by his loss alone we know its worth,
And feel how true a man has walked with us on earth.
TO MY FRIEND ON THE DEATH OF HIS SISTER.6
THINE is a grief, the depth of which another May never know;
Yet, o'er the waters, O, my stricken brother! To thee I go.
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