A YEAR IN HEAVEN

We cannot paint thee moving in white-robed state afar,

Nor dream our flower of comfort a cool and distant star.

Heaven is but life made richer; therein can be no loss:

To meet our love and longing thou hast no gulf to cross;

No adamant between us uprears its rocky screen; A veil before us only-thou hast the light

serene.

That veil 'twixt earth and heaven a breath might waft aside,

We breathe one air beloved, we follow one dear Guide;

Passed into open vision, out of our mist and

rain,

Thou seest how sorrow blossoms, how peace is won from pain.

A YEAR IN HEAVEN

And half we feel thee leaning from thy deep calm of bliss,

To say of earth, "Beloved, how beautiful it is! The lilies in this splendor, the green leaves in this dew;

Oh, earth is also heaven, with God's light clothed anew!"

Because we know thee near us, and nearer still to Him

Who fills the cup of being with glory to the

brim,

We will not stain with grieving, our fair, though fainter light,

But cling to thee in spirit as if thou wert in sight.

And as in waves of beauty the swift years come and go,

Upon celestial currents our deeper life shall flow. Hearing from that sweet country where blighting never came,

Love chime the hour immortal, in earth and heaven the same.

Lucy Larcom.

THE WAY TO HEAVEN

HEAVEN is not gained at a single bound;
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to its summit round by round.

I count this thing to be grandly true,
That a noble deed is a step towards God—
Lifting the soul from the common sod
Το purer air and broader view.

We rise by things that are 'neath our feet;
By what we have mastered of good and gain;
By the pride deposed and the passion slain,
And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet.

We hope, we aspire, we resolve, we trust,

When the morning calls us to life and light, But our hearts grow weary, and ere the night Our lives are trailing the sordid dust.

THE WAY TO HEAVEN

We hope, we resolve, we aspire, we pray,
And we think that we mount the air on wings
Beyond the recall of sensual things,

While our feet still cling to the heavy clay.

Wings for the angels, but feet for the men!
We may borrow the wings to find the way,
We may hope and resolve and aspire and
pray,

But our feet must rise, or we fall again.

Only in dreams is a ladder thrown

From the weary earth to the sapphire walls; But the dreams depart, and the vision falls, And the sleeper wakes on his pillow of stone.

Heaven is not reached at a single bound;
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to its summit round by round.

Josiah Gilbert Holland.

BEYOND

BEYOND the gloom is glory,
Beyond the cross a crown;
Not half so sad life's story,

Did we look up, not down.

We need but to rise higher,
Above the clouds and night;

To feel the heavens nigher
And see the eternal light.

The sowing, then the reaping;
We pass through death to life;
Comes gladness after weeping,
And sweet rest after strife.

Earth to-day, heaven to-morrow!
Oh, my soul, since God is there!
Into singing turn thy sorrow,

Into praise thy prayer.

James L. Elderdice.