Haruered Treasures. FROM WHITTIER'S "QUESTIONS OF LIFE." WHY idly seek from outward things Whence, piercing heaven, with screenéd sight, He sees at noon the stars, whose light Shall glorify the coming night. Here let me pause, my quest forego; 5 6 QUESTIONS OF LIFE. That He, in whom the cause and end One vast and star-hung system sees, Which worlds destroy and worlds create, In tones of love, or warning fear, A language none beside may hear. To Him, from wanderings long and wild, In cool and shade His peace to find, I turn from fancy's cloud-built scheme, WHO SHALL ROLL AWAY THE STONE? From vain philosophies that try The sevenfold gates of mystery, And baffled ever, babble still, The Eternal Beauty new and old. 7 WHO SHALL ROLL AWAY THE STONE? "And they said among themselves, 'Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?' And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away.”—MARK XVI. 3, 4. WHAT poor weeping ones were saying Eighteen hundred years ago, We, the same weak faith betraying, Say in our sad hours of woe; In the dark and dread unknown, We, too, often ask with sighing, "Who shall roll away the stone?" 8 WHO SHALL ROLL AWAY THE STONE? Thus with care our spirits crushing, When they might from care be free, Rise, with rapture, Lord, to Thee— Oft we've had with joy to own, Many a storm-cloud sweeping o'er us, Never comes to cause us pain; Ofttimes in the feared to-morrow Sunshine comes the cloud has flown— Ask not then in foolish sorrow, "Who shall roll away the stone?" Burden not thy soul with sadness, Spoil not present joys by asking, “Who shall roll away the stone?” LITTLE BY LITTLE. 9 LITTLE BY LITTLE. WHEN the new years come and the old years go, How, little by little, all things grow! All things grow-and all decay Little by little passing away. Little by little, on fertile plain, As the new years come and the old years go. Low on the ground an acorn lies, Little by little it mounts to the skies, Long, long ago, when the world was new; Little by little are builded-while so The new years come and the old years go. |