OUR BABY.

TO-DAY we cut the fragrant sod,
With trembling hands, asunder,
And lay this well beloved of God,
Our dear dead baby, under.
Oh, hearts that ache, and ache afresh!
Oh, tears too blindly raining!
Our hearts are weak, yet, being flesh,
Too strong for our restraining!

Sleep, darling, sleep! Cold rains shall steep
Thy little turf-made dwelling;

Thou wilt not know- so far below

What winds or storms are swelling; And birds shall sing, in the warm spring, And flowers bloom about thee: Thou wilt not heed them, love, but oh, The loneliness without thee!

Father, we will be comforted!

Thou wast the gracious giver:

We yield her up- -not dead, not dead
To dwell with Thee forever!
Take Thou our child! Ours for a day,

Thine, while the ages blossom!

This little shining head we lay

In the Redeemer's bosom!

ON THE DEATH OF A FRIEND'S CHILD.

DEATH never came so nigh to me before,
Nor showed me his mild face: oft had I mused,
Of calm and peace and deep forgetfulness,
Of folded hands, closed eyes, and heart at rest,
And slumber sound beneath a flowery turf,
Of faults forgotten, and an inner place
Kept sacred for us in the heart of friends;
But these were idle fancies, satisfied
With the mere husk of this great mystery,
And dwelling in the outward shows of things.
Heaven is not mounted to on wings of dreams,
Nor doth the unthankful happiness of youth
Aim thitherward, but floats from bloom to bloom,
With earth's warm patch of sunshine well con-

tent:

'Tis sorrow builds the shining ladder up,
Whose golden rounds are our calamities,
Whereon our firm feet planting, nearer God
The spirit climbs, and hath its eyes unsealed.

True is it that Death's face seems stern and cold,

When he is sent to summon those we love,
But all God's angels come to us disguised;
Sorrow and sickness, poverty and death,
One after other lift their frowning masks,

And we behold the seraph's face beneath,
All radiant with the glory and the calm
Of having looked upon the front of God.
With every anguish of our earthly part
The spirit's sight grows clearer ; this was meant
When Jesus touched the blind man's lids with
clay.

Life is the jailer, Death the angel sent
To draw the unwilling bolts and set us free.
He flings not ope the ivory gate of Rest,
Only the fallen spirit knocks at that, -
But to benigner regions beckons us
To destinies of more rewarded toil.
In the hushed chamber, sitting by the dead,
It grates on us to hear the flood of life

Whirl rustling onward, senseless of our loss.
The bee hums on; around the blossomed vine
Whirs the light humming-bird; the cricket
chirps;

The locust's shrill alarum stings the ear;

Hard by, the cock shouts lustily; from farm to farm,

His cheery brothers, telling of the sun,
Answer, till far away the joyance dies.
We never knew before how God had filled
The summer air with happy, living sounds;
All round us seems an overplus of life;
And yet the one dear heart lies cold and still.

It is most strange, when the great miracle
Hath for our sakes been done, when we have had
Our inwardest experience of God,

When with his presence still the room expands,
And is awed after him, that naught is changed,
That Nature's face looks unacknowledging,
And the mad world still dances heedless on
After its butterflies, and gives no sign.

'Tis hard at first to see it all aright;

In vain Faith blows her trump to summon back Her scattered troop; yet, through the clouded

glass

Of our own bitter tears, we learn to look Undazzled on the kindness of God's face; Earth is too dark, and Heaven alone shines through.

It is no little thing, when a fresh soul
And a fresh heart, with their unmeasured scope
For good, not gravitating earthward yet,
But circling in diviner periods,

Are sent into the world,—no little thing,
When this unbounded possibility

Into the outer silence is withdrawn.

Ah, in this world, where every guiding thread
Ends suddenly in the one sure centre, death,
The visionary hand of Might-have-been
Alone can fill Desire's cup to the brim!

How changed, dear friend, are thy part and thy

child's!

He bends over thy cradle now, or holds
His warning finger out to be thy guide;
Thou art the nursling now; he watches thee
Slow learning, one by one, the secret things
Which are to him used sights of every day
He smiles to see thy wondering glances con
The grass and pebbles of the spirit-world,
To thee miraculous; and he will teach
Thy knees their due observances of prayer.

Children are God's apostles, day by day
Sent forth to teach of love, and hope, and
peace;

Nor hath thy babe his mission left undone.
To me, at least, his going hence hath given
Serener thoughts and nearer to the skies,
And opened a new fountain in my heart
For thee, my friends, and all: and O, if Death
More near approaches, meditates, and clasps
Even now some dearer, more reluctant hand,
God, strengthen Thou my faith, that I may see
That 't is Thine angel, who, with loving haste,
Unto the service of the inner shrine

Doth waken Thy beloved with a kiss!

J. R. LOWELL.