Читать книгу Poems of Progress - Doten Lizzie - Страница 6

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The peaceful night, “the stilly night,”

Came down on wings of purple gloom,

And with her eyes of starry light,

Looked through the darkness of my room;

Peace was the pillow for my head,

While angels watched around my bed.

Freed from a weight of cumbering care,

My earnest spirit seemed to rise,

And on the wings of faith and prayer,

I sought the gates of Paradise;

Like priceless pearls I saw them gleam,

As in the Revelator’s dream.

O, holy, holy was the song

Of blessed spirits echoing thence,

So soft and clear it swept along,

It ravished all my soul and sense;

Close to those gates of light I crept,

And like a homeless orphan wept.

The white-robed angels went and came—

The white-robed angels saw me there—

And one, in our dear Father’s name,

Came at my spirit’s voiceless prayer.

“Dear child,” he said, “why dost thou wait

With weeping at the heavenly gate?”

“O, weary are my feet,” I cried,

“With wandering o’er the earthly way;

Lo, all my hopes hang crucified,

And all my idols turn to clay;

Far distant now the Father seems,

And heaven comes only in my dreams.”

He laid his hand upon my head,

And tenderly the angel smiled.

“Thy Father knows thy need,” he said,

“And he will aid his suffering child.

Return unto thine earthly home—

His kingdom yet shall surely come.”

Obedient at the word I turned,

And sought mine earthly home once more,

While all my soul within me burned,

With joy I never knew before;

For that blest vision of the night

Had filled me with celestial light.

Still o’er my life its glories stream,

The solace of my lonely hours,

Fair as the sunset’s golden gleam,

And lovely as the bloom of flowers;

A sweet assurance, calm and deep,

Which treasured in my soul I keep.

Henceforth I wait with anxious eyes,

Until the shadows flee away,

To see the morning star arise,

Which ushers in that glorious day.

Be patient, O my heart! be still

Till time the promise shall fulfill.