Page:Pacific Monthly volumes 9 and 10.djvu/158



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The r>iU Lesson

Sy HdA CbomaMon

The peaceful hills, they stretch away Beneath the shining sky or gray — They laugh with beauty, drip with tears, As pass the rank and file of years They lie across the waters bright, A vision for our hearts* delight; They hide behind the mists of rain, Like smiles lost in a storm of pain.

The mighty hills, they stand for me — The type of vast eternity! — Across the changeful sea of life, Beyond the want, the woe, the strife. Where peaceful lies the wished-for goal, And naught disturbs the anchored soul. The blessed hills! Unmoved they lie As rolls the turbid century. Above them and about them all God lets the pall of silence fall.

O soul! O eager heart of mine. Draw from the hills knowledge divine; Proud spirit, bow — be still! be still! While passeth over good or ill, Or joy ,or laughter, sorrow, tears — These are but breathings of tjie years. The larger life is thine to know— The pure, the radiant after-glow, Wherein the soul may pause to see The glory of the yet to be.

Sweet hills! My soul looks unto thee, As there abiding all the free. Here we are bound — our shackles shake, We strive, we reach, the cry we make That men call prayer — we wait to hear — We wait to clasp the answer clear.

No sound, no sign; but there ye lie

In undisturbed serenity,

Teaching endurance, courage, might,

From each serene, untroubled height;

Teaching the same old biblic lore

Taught in the sacred days of yore.

"Peace," and **be still." Stronger than

speech, O hills, the lesson that ye teach!