THE HEAVENLY MESSENGER.
The gates swung back on golden hinges turned
Their pearl-hewn massive panels noiselessly,
And o'er their jeweled portals swiftly sped
An angel on a mission sent.
One blast of music followed in her train,
A fragment from the grand eternal swell of Heavenly harmony that rolled within;
The gates had closed, the gateway beautiful
Shone purer than the stars that hung beneath,
And still the sweet notes, that like singing birds, had winged their flight
Into the ether space, flew back in echoes from the farthest star.
The angel paused a moment ere she took
Her journey through the cloudy realms of air;
Her eye was fixed upon a distant speck, dim and uncertain in the moving shapes that circled through the glittering universe;
Her brow was draped in waves of shining hair, her clear eyes pierced the cloudy fields below the solid planets in their rhythmic round,
And gazed undazzled through the glare of suns,
And then with one swift flight her form was lost amid the whirl of worlds.
The last bright flames of sunset had expired,
The ashen twilight, that had veiled the hills
Shining deep blue against the amber sky, had vanished and the dark o'ershadowing night spread like a spangled curtain over all;
Spangled with twinkling, gleeful, loving, stars;
And far beneath them a great city slept.
A city with its pomp and poverty,
A city where the guilty and the good
Met face to face amid the multitude,
And meeting, passed, and passing, met no more;
Their pearl-hewn massive panels noiselessly,
And o'er their jeweled portals swiftly sped
An angel on a mission sent.
One blast of music followed in her train,
A fragment from the grand eternal swell of Heavenly harmony that rolled within;
The gates had closed, the gateway beautiful
Shone purer than the stars that hung beneath,
And still the sweet notes, that like singing birds, had winged their flight
Into the ether space, flew back in echoes from the farthest star.
The angel paused a moment ere she took
Her journey through the cloudy realms of air;
Her eye was fixed upon a distant speck, dim and uncertain in the moving shapes that circled through the glittering universe;
Her brow was draped in waves of shining hair, her clear eyes pierced the cloudy fields below the solid planets in their rhythmic round,
And gazed undazzled through the glare of suns,
And then with one swift flight her form was lost amid the whirl of worlds.
The last bright flames of sunset had expired,
The ashen twilight, that had veiled the hills
Shining deep blue against the amber sky, had vanished and the dark o'ershadowing night spread like a spangled curtain over all;
Spangled with twinkling, gleeful, loving, stars;
And far beneath them a great city slept.
A city with its pomp and poverty,
A city where the guilty and the good
Met face to face amid the multitude,
And meeting, passed, and passing, met no more;
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