Classic Poem

THE VOICE CALLING.

In the hush of April weather,
With the bees in budding heather,
And the white clouds floating, floating, and the sunshine falling broad:
While my children down the hill
Run and leap, and I sit still, -
Through the silence, through the silence art
Thou calling, O my God?
Through my husband's voice that prayeth,
Though he knows not what he sayeth,
Is it Thou who in Thy holy Word hast solemn words for me?
And when he clasps me fast,
And smiles fondly o'er the past,
And talks, hopeful, of the
" future -Lord, do I hear only Thee? Not in terror nor in thunder
Comes Thy voice, although it sunder.
Flesh from spirit, soul from body, human bliss from human pain
All the work that was to do, All the joys so sweet and new
Which Thou shewed'st me in a vision -
Moses-like -and hid'st again.
From this Pisgah, lying humbled,
Tile long desert where I stumbled
And " their fair plains I shall never reach, seem equal; clear and far:
On this mountain-top of ease
Thou wilt bury me in peace;
While my tribes march onward, onward, unto
Canaan and war In my boy's loud laughter ringing,
In the sigh more soft than singing
Of thy baby girl that nestles up unto this mortal breast,
After every voice most dear
Comes a whisper-
" Rest not here. " And" the rest
Thou art preparing, is it best, Lord, is it best? " Lord, a little, little longer "
Sobs the earth-love, growing stronger:
He will miss me, and go mourning through his solitary days.
And heaven were scarcely heaven If these lambs which
Thou hast given
Were to slip out of our keeping and be lost in the world's ways.
Lord, it is not fear of dying
Nor an impious denying
Of Thy will, which for evermore on earth, in heaven, be done:
But the love that desperate clings
Unto these my precious things
In the beauty of the daylight, and the glory of the
Sun. Ah, Thou still art calling, calling,
With a soft voice unappalling; And it vibrates in farl circles through the everlasting years;
When Thou knockest, even so! I will arise and go.
What, my little ones, more violets? - Nay, be patient - mother hears.