Beyond Thestorm

Rain, rain, rain, cold and bitter.winter rain, The heavy sombre clouds are stooping low, And dropping fasl their chiUing burdens On the bare and reeking eurtii. The dlstant hills stand spectre like, Wrapoed in a mantle of cold, gray mist, The nearer woodland shows but moss-grown trunks And branches bare, where winter's frozen tearsareclingina tiiick, a. Through which the winter storm-wind moans. As if the trees and wind had human hearts, To roourn for departed music and iïagrance and beauty. Ah me, how like to our poor human lire Is thls ever-changing course of tne seaBons. ChllUng and darkening into storm anil deat.ii at last. Why, I remember how only a llttle time Everywhere and everything was llfe and beauty, Wüen forest and hlll and fleld and plain All waved and gleamed, in green and gold. When the wild wood was a grand orchestra, Whenall the emerald slopes of field and hill, Were spangled with violets and daisies and roses, When the whole warm atmosphere. Was heavy with the balrn of a thousautl flowers, When the sweet south wiud was a kiss of But to-day how changd Is everythlng The blrds are gone and the flowere are dead ; The leafless trees toss their bare branches To the low-browed storm as if in menace. And pass the. watcli word of resistance Down the darkening line in hoarse and sullen murmura. The brook wuich throuKh the eummer months Went siuging through the meadows Qlanciug out here and there aniong tUe wllPlajing' at hlde aud geek with summer clouds, As theyrowed thelr boats aeróse the upper deep, Ttaat brook is an angry rushing torrent now ; Forgelting the boundaries of itsgentle days. It has fiooded the meadow and the pastare land, The.willows stand walst deep in the icy flood, Stlll hurryingon, it dashes itselfagainst The gray old rocks at the foot of the hill, Tben plunges madly into the rocky foresi gorge bevond. Aud" uow 'tls night, black, starlese nigut, Nature's pall folded close about a ruined world ; Mast it forever be? Will the night always last? And will the wrathful storm forever drive lts maddened ehaviot over palsied, groaning nature? Oh teil me, bulbs of the blue-eyed violets. Sleeping now in the bank, buried in the black waters Have we lost your fragrance and your bloom forever? 'feil me. ye malestic forest sentinels, Hlding your treasured lifein the rock-bound soii, Will it ever break forth;into greenneps ,and glory again? Oh, teil me, stars of light, breakins througli The torn edges of the clouds above me, Oan you Ree irom your watch tower In the heavers, any promise that "summer sweets shall bloom again" Beyond the darkness and the storm That wrecks the wintry sky to night? And a 8weet,silvery volee floated upward From the graves of the buried violets To teil me I should see tuem again as lovely as before. And in adeep majestlc voice the forest answered, We süall live again in spite of frost aud storm And all this desolate reacli of darkness and of dea th, We shpll be an arcadia of music and beauty , . and perfume, ., "hen Btorms are dead and darkness rolled away; And, llstening still, 1 heard borne down to me, TUe echoes of that anthem grand and high, Whieli flils.the star strown vault of heaven wlthjoy: "Life is victor, crowned and wveathed, Life shall triumph evermore And in the long conflict of the age to come Death shall die and Ufe shall relgn alone, Amen- so letit bo, Sorrow tarrieth for A night and, lo, eternal joy with morning comes." And now my own tired heart, a human heart, Bnrdenedsomewbllewlth sadness and wllh gloom, Has caught the echo of that living song And joine lts trembling notes to roll The anthem on ; I shall not die, 1 eannot die forever, Lo, the gift sublime of immortality is mine And in my Master's own good time this wondrous lite, Imprisoned now in dust shall burst lts Dongeon bars and flnd lts kindred and its Home among the sons of llght, rhall see the walls of chrysollte and lasper Themassy gatesof pearl and the unsetting siin.