I HAD a dream which was not all a dream.
The Summer's sun, that daily rose undimmed,
As he advanced, gave out a scorching heat;
The wind had lost its freshness, and did blow
A furnace blast, sweeping the forest trees
Untimely seared, with an Autumnal moan.
Morn came and went, and came and brought no rain.
The arid soil assumed an ashen hue,
As if with some similitude to mock
The cloudless sky. And now the husbandman,
With eye averted from the wasteful scene,
Passed sorrowing, his desolated fields,
Seeking his flocks.-Of these, despairing food,
Some left the meadow's brown-crisped herbage,
And panting sought the hill-side for a shade;
While some with hollowed flank and eye ball glazed,
And tongue protruded far, the thickets sought,
Impelled by instinct to a silent grave.
Night came and went and came and brought no dew.
Their liquid murmuring the streams forgot.
Men hurried to and fro with anxious tread,
As when some dread alarm doth interrupt
The revellers,-each questioning his fellow
If this were famine, or if Death were come
To reap his harvest of the harvesters.
The lakes their bosoms, streams their channels
And in their oozy bed fast-mired, the beasts
Which from far inland came to quench their thirst,
Their famished limbs refusing further aid,
Gasping had sunk :-impatient for their blood,
The vultures tore and gorged upon them warm.
From out their habitations in the cities
Men rushed distraught, and fled, to caverns some,
And some to haunts of the still wilderness ;
While others with a voice of stifled prayer
Poured out their anguish in the sanctuary.
Even tombs were broken, and their vapors dank
For a short space, the torture did allay
That fiercely raged in the hot breath of life.
And now one only want, one hope, one prayer
Was left, and all with blood-shot eyes upturned
Had WATER! written on their parched lips.
Then came the deluge and red lava fell,
Consuming all things-even hope herself.
SPEED on, O Prince of Peace,
The long-expected day,
When fierce-embattled strife shall cease,
And the wild war-horn's bray.
Adorned in radiant hues,
That glorious day shall rise;
A lovelier bloom the earth suffuse,
A purer light, the skies.
No more shall madly rush
The warrior to the plain,
No more shall tears unbidden gush,
For the untimely slain.
Then shall as sweet a song
As hailed Messiah's birth,
In living music float along
O'er all the bliss-clad earth.
BY BENJAMIN A. G. FULLER.
"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Have HOPE!-it is the brightest star
That lights life's pathway down.
A richer, purer gem than decks
An Eastern monarch's crown.
The Midas that may turn to joy
The grief-fount of the soul;
That points the prize, and bids thee press With fervor to the goal.
Have HOPE!-as the tossed mariner,
Upon the wild waste driven,
With rapture hails the Polar star,
His guiding light in heaven,-
So Hope shall gladden thee, and guide
Along life's stormy road,
And as a sacred beacon stand,
To point thee to thy God.
Have FAITH!-the substance of things hoped,
Of things not seen the sign;
That nerves the arm with God-like might,
The soul with strength divine.
Have Faith-her rapid foot shall bring
Thee conquering to the goal,
Her glowing hand with honors wreathe
A chaplet for thy soul.
Have FAITH!—and though around thy bark
The tempest surges roar;
At her stern voice the storm shall rest,
The billows rage no more.
HOPE bids the soul to soar on high,
But yet no wing supplies;
She marks the way,-but FAITH shall bear
The spirit to the skies.
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