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(OUR MESSENGER OUT OF THE SKY.)
My son and his wife and his mother, and I, at the crest of a hill,
Dwelt always in peace with each other, as seldom such families will:
For no one was tyrant or menial, and none had a talent for blame,
And all of our hearts were congenial, and most of our views were the same.
Our lives, to the uttermost border, were full of unspecified order,
And honest and generous tact:
And yet, day by day, as we lived on our way,
There was something or other we lacked.
Dwelt always in peace with each other, as seldom such families will:
For no one was tyrant or menial, and none had a talent for blame,
And all of our hearts were congenial, and most of our views were the same.
Our lives, to the uttermost border, were full of unspecified order,
And honest and generous tact:
And yet, day by day, as we lived on our way,
There was something or other we lacked.
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Our health and our wealth were sufficient to keep us good friends with our kin,
The aid of the Father Omniscient we pleaded each morning to win;
We laughed and we danced with our neighbors, when sons or when daughters were wed,
We gave them a lift with their labors, and helped them to bury their dead.
What better with earth can endear you, than love from the ones that are near you?—
I joyed in the glittering fact:
And yet I still felt, when we worked or we knelt,
There was something or other we lacked.
The aid of the Father Omniscient we pleaded each morning to win;
We laughed and we danced with our neighbors, when sons or when daughters were wed,
We gave them a lift with their labors, and helped them to bury their dead.
What better with earth can endear you, than love from the ones that are near you?—
I joyed in the glittering fact:
And yet I still felt, when we worked or we knelt,
There was something or other we lacked.
My son and his wife and his mother, and I, ever strove to be fair,
Rememb'ring each man was our brother, and needed some sort of a care;
Rememb'ring the being called Woman was mother and wife of the race—
Rememb'ring that all who were human might some time look God in the face.
So had we that peace in our living, that comes from the profit of giving,
And eases the burden of gain:
But still in our joy was mysterious alloy,
A secret unknowable pain.
Rememb'ring each man was our brother, and needed some sort of a care;
Rememb'ring the being called Woman was mother and wife of the race—
Rememb'ring that all who were human might some time look God in the face.
So had we that peace in our living, that comes from the profit of giving,
And eases the burden of gain:
But still in our joy was mysterious alloy,
A secret unknowable pain.
Ah!—one day there came to our dwelling a soft, gentle word from on high,
By one who first wept in its telling—a messenger out of the sky!
By one with the natural graces with which Heaven had sent him away—
By one that soon smiled in our faces, and strove in our bosoms to stay.
And now, in the glorified slaving that had to be wrought in his saving,
And in the new care that he cost,
Our hungry souls grew, and we very soon knew,
What we, by not having, had lost.
By one who first wept in its telling—a messenger out of the sky!
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By one that soon smiled in our faces, and strove in our bosoms to stay.
And now, in the glorified slaving that had to be wrought in his saving,
And in the new care that he cost,
Our hungry souls grew, and we very soon knew,
What we, by not having, had lost.
Our sympathies needed expansion akin to the ages to be;
The silences chained in our mansion were jaded, and longed to be free.
The silks and the gems and the laces were yearning for younger commands,
The lines of our decorous faces grew soft in a baby's warm hands.
Some books needed smirching and tearing—some clothes wanted juvenile wearing—
The furniture palled with its worth—
Till the child to us given from the regions of Heaven,
Raised—mischief with things upon earth.
The silences chained in our mansion were jaded, and longed to be free.
The silks and the gems and the laces were yearning for younger commands,
The lines of our decorous faces grew soft in a baby's warm hands.
Some books needed smirching and tearing—some clothes wanted juvenile wearing—
The furniture palled with its worth—
Till the child to us given from the regions of Heaven,
Raised—mischief with things upon earth.
So now, with this troublesome linking with futures not wholly our own,
We presently found ourselves drinking new pleasures we never had known;
The ceaseless anxieties brought us a needed and exquisite rest—
The baby's wise ignorance taught us that he who is simplest is best.
Our little Columbus discovered new regions that o'er us had hovered
Long years, without being descried:
We knew not aright how to walk through the light,
Till Heaven sent this innocent guide.
We presently found ourselves drinking new pleasures we never had known;
The ceaseless anxieties brought us a needed and exquisite rest—
The baby's wise ignorance taught us that he who is simplest is best.
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Long years, without being descried:
We knew not aright how to walk through the light,
Till Heaven sent this innocent guide.
O God! give us wisdom to steer him again toward the land whence he came!
Let never the tempter crouch near him, with smiles of destruction and shame;
Let not needless harshness embroil him with memories fierce and unkind:
Let not our love weaken and spoil him with reckless indulgence and blind.
Let manhood's best bravery betide him, let woman's best influence guide him;
While thou, in thine infinite love,
Shalt smile on his track, and at death take him back
To thy beautiful mansions above!
Let never the tempter crouch near him, with smiles of destruction and shame;
Let not needless harshness embroil him with memories fierce and unkind:
Let not our love weaken and spoil him with reckless indulgence and blind.
Let manhood's best bravery betide him, let woman's best influence guide him;
While thou, in thine infinite love,
Shalt smile on his track, and at death take him back
To thy beautiful mansions above!
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