Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold :: :: University of Virginia Library

Between daylight and the dawning under twilight's tender awning
Came a vision bright to me,
With its treasures offered me—
Came an Angel with a message, came an angel with the presage
Of the better things to be
And the fairer sights to see,
Looked in sadness on my errors, smiled away my foolish terrors;
As a mother watching kindly o'er her baby straying blindly
Takes it safely on her knee,
So the Angel lifted me
From the turmoil and the dreary toil that left me wan and weary
High above the wicked welter of the evil to the shelter
Of the many-fruited tree,
With its happy healing branches and the only balm that staunches
Earthly wounds and human weakness of the souls that turn in meekness
To its shadow full and free,
And the shine that cannot flee.
And he said, “O timid mortal, why outside the open portal
Homeless, helpless dost thou linger, knocking with a doubtful finger,
When these blessings are for thee,
In their riches all for thee—

237

When God's love, a boundless ocean, answering the least devotion,
Rolls around and for no fee?
Lay aside thy sinful burden and accept the holy guerdon
Which He gives and only He.
Lo, without the gate are knolling death-bells and the billows tolling
Pitiless, and on thy lee
Hungry rocks of cruel iron frown forbidding and environ
Those delicious sunny gardens where the temptress reigns and hardens
With distress, as none but she—
Beautiful and false is she.
But within the pearly porches, where no heat of summer scorches
And no icy shaft of winter's angry rain or snowflake splinters
On the pilgrims tired and trembling and in loneliness dissembling
Vainly with heroic features sadness of poor hunted creatures,
Falling silent two and three—
Walk the blessed ones, and we
Know the truth behind the curtain of the sense and its uncertain
Avenues that have no ending but the grave and keep descending,
And behold the Vision (shrouded here) in all its bliss unclouded
Bathing in the boundless ocean of the love beyond emotion,
Where with all do all agree;
And these treasures are for thee;
Enter in and drink the juices dropping from their sacred sluices,
Shed as if alone for thee.”
So I passed the gracious portal, and in taking food immortal,
Drank eternity through me.