Page:The Christian Year 1887.djvu/168

He loves and weeps—but more than tears
   Have sealed Thy welcome and his love -
One look lives in him, and endears
   Crosses and wrongs where'er he rove:

That gracious chiding look, Thy call
   To win him to himself and Thee,
Sweetening the sorrow of his fall
   Which else were rued too bitterly.

E'en through the veil of sheep it shines,
   The memory of that kindly glance; -
The Angel watching by, divines
   And spares awhile his blissful trance.

Or haply to his native lake
   His vision wafts him back, to talk
With JESUS, ere His flight He take,
   As in that solemn evening walk,

When to the bosom of His friend,
   The Shepherd, He whose name is Good.
Did His dear lambs and sheep commend,
   Both bought and nourished with His blood:

Then laid on him th' inverted tree,
   Which firm embraced with heart and arm,
Might cast o'er hope and memory,
   O'er life and death, its awful charm.

With brightening heart he bears it on,
   His passport through this eternal gates,
To his sweet home—so nearly won,
   He seems, as by the door he waits,

The unexpressive notes to hear
   Of angel song and angel motion,
Rising and falling on the ear
   Like waves in Joy's unbounded ocean. -

His dream is changed—the Tyrant's voice
   Calls to that last of glorious deeds -
But as he rises to rejoice,
   Not Herod but an Angel leads.

He dreams he sees a lamp flash bright,
   Glancing around his prison room -
But 'tis a gleam of heavenly light
   That fills up all the ample gloom.