Page:The Christian Year 1887.djvu/56



Sweet Rainbow! pride of summer days, High set at Heaven's command, Though into drear and dusky haze Thou melt on either hand; -

Dear tokens of a pardoning God, We hail ye, one and all, As when our fathers walked abroad, Freed from their twelvemonth's thrall.

How joyful from the imprisoning ark On the green earth they spring! Not blither, after showers, the lark Mounts up with glistening wing.

So home-bound sailors spring to shore, Two oceans safely past; So happy souls, when life is o'er, Plunge in this empyreal vast.

What wins their first and fondest gaze In all the blissful field, And keeps it through a thousand days? Love face to face revealed:

Love imaged in that cordial look Our Lord in Eden bends On souls that sin and earth forsook In time to die His friends.

And what most welcome and serene Dawns on the Patriarch's eye, In all the emerging hills so green, In all the brightening sky?

What but the gentle rainbow's gleam, Soothing the wearied sight, That cannot bear the solar beam, With soft undazzling light?

Lord, if our fathers turned to Thee With such adoring gaze, Wondering frail man Thy light should see Without Thy scorching blaze;

Where is our love, and where our hearts, We who have seen Thy Son,