« Do I find love so full in my nature, God's ultimate gift, “ That I doubt his own love can compete with it? Here

the parts shift? “ Here, the creature surpass the creator,—the end, what

began ? “ Would I fain in my impotent yearning do all' for this

man, “ And dare doubt he alone shall not help him, who yet

alone can? “Would it ever have entered my mind, the bare will,

much less power, “ To bestow on this Saul what I sang of, the marvellous

dower “ Of the life he was gifted and filled with ? to make such

a soul, “ Such a body, and then such an earth for insphering the

whole ? “ And doth it not enter my mind (as my warm tears attest), “ These good things being given, to go on, and give one

more, the best ? “ Ay, to save and redeem and restore him, maintain at

the height “ This perfection,-succeed, with life's dayspring, death's

minute of night : “ Interpose at the difficult minute, snatch Saul, the

mistake, “ Saul, the failure, the ruin he seems now,—and bid him

awake “ From the dream, the probation, the prelude, to find

himself set “ Clear and safe in new light and new life,-a new

harmony yet “ To be run and continued, and ended—who knows ?

or endure ! “ The man taught enough by life's dream, of the rest to

make sure ;

“ By the pain-throb, triumphantly winning intensified

bliss, “ And the next world's reward and repose, by the

struggles in this.

XVIII “ I believe it ! 'T is thou, God, that givest, 't is I who

receive : “ In the first is the last, in thy will is my power to

believe. “ All 's one gift : thou canst grant it moreover, as prompt

to my prayer, “ As I breathe out this breath, as I open these arms to

the air. “ From thy will, stream the worlds, life and nature, thy

dread Sabaoth : " I will ?—the mere atoms despise me! Why am I not

loth “ To look that, even that in the face too? Why is it I

dare “ Think but lightly of such impuissance? What stops

my despair ? 6. This ;-'t is not what man Does which exalts him, but

what man Would do ! “ See the King- I would help him, but cannot, the wishes

fall through. “ Could I wrestle to raise him from sorrow, grow poor to

enrich, .“ To fill up his life, starve my own out, I would—knowing

which, “ I know that my service is perfect. Oh, speak through

me now! “ Would I suffer for him that I love ? So wouldst thou

--So wilt thou ! .“ So shall crown thee the topmost, ineffablest, uttermost “ And thy love fill infinitude wholly, nor leave up nor

down “ One spot for the creature to stand in! It is by no

breath, “ Turn of eye, wave of hand, that salvation joins issue

with death! “ As thy love is discovered almighty, almighty be proved " Thy power, that exists with and for it, of being be

loved ! “ He who did most, shall bear most; the strongest shall

stand the most weak. “ 'T is the weakness in strength, that I cry for ! my flesh,

that I seek “ In the Godhead! I seek and I find it. O Saul, it

shall be “ A Face like my face that receives thee; a Man like to

me,

“ Thou shalt love and be loved by, for ever : a Hand like

this hand “ Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee! See the

Christ stand !”

XIX

I know not too well how I found my way home in the

night. There were witnesses, cohorts about me, to left and to

right, Angels, powers, the unuttered, unseen, the alive, the

aware : I repressed, I got through them as hardly, as strugglingly

there, As a runner beset by the populace famished for newsLife or death. The whole earth was awakened, hell

loosed with her crews; And the stars of night beat with emotion, and tingled

and shot

Out in fire the strong pain of pent knowledge : but I

fainted not, For the Hand still impelled me at once and supported,

suppressed All the tumult, and quenched it with quiet, and holy

behest, Till the rapture was shut in itself, and the earth sank to

rest. Anon at the dawn, all that trouble had withered from

earthNot so much, but I saw it die out in the day's tender

birth ; In the gathered intensity brought to the grey of the

hills; In the shuddering forests' held breath ; in the sudden

wind-thrills ; In the startled wild beasts that bore oft, each with eye

sidling still, Though averted with wonder and dread ; in the birds

stiff and chill That rose heavily as I approached them, made stupid

with awe : E'en the serpent that slid away silent-he felt the new law. The same stared in the white humid faces upturned by

the flowers ; The same worked in the heart of the cedar and moved

the vine-bowers : And the little brooks witnessing murmured, persistent

and low, With their obstinate, all but hushed voices—“E'en so, it

is so !"

RABBI BEN EZRA.

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be
The last of life, for which the first was made :
Our times are in His hand
Who saith “ A whole I planned,
“ Youth shows but half; trust God : see all, nor be

afraid !"

Not that, amassing flowers, Youth sighed “Which rose make ours, “ Which lily leave and then as best recall !” Not that, admiring stars, It yearned “Nor Jove, nor Mars; “ Mine be some figured flame which blends, tran

scends them all !"

III
Not for such hopes and fears
Annulling youth's brief years,
Do I remonstrate : folly wide the mark !
Rather I prize the doubt
Low kinds exist without,
Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark.

IV

Poor vaunt of life indeed,
Were man but formed to feed
On joy, to solely seek and find and feast :
Such feasting ended, then
As sure an end to men;
Irks care the crop-full bird ? Frets doubt the maw-