Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 097.djvu/484

468 "When for the sons of earth the Saviour paid

That mighty ransom, which has purchased grace,

And rose triumphant from the tomb! The wide,

The boundless universe this day rejoice.

Hark! songs of praise swell every angel voice!

And to commemorate this glorious day,

The dead, who died in Him, are called to rise

From yonder earth, where sleep their forms of clay,

And shape their course to meet Him in the skies.

Behold! the graves are bursting—shadowy hosts

This Easter mom will throng the air:

Alas! for them who have no share

In the redeeming mercy this day boasts!"

I looked—and lo! the shrouded dead

From their dark vaults seemed to have fled;

The mould of many a grave was heaving,

Pale forms their silent tombs were leaving,

And, hovering o'er the ocean's dark blue waves,

The drowned were rising from their sandy graves!

"Spirit!" I cried, "oh, take me to the spot

Where thy beloved brother lies!" A smile

Was his reply. And quick as subtle thought

We passed far o'er the sea, to yonder isle,

And paused above the hallowed ground we sought

'Twas dawn's cool hour: the brilliant sun awhile

Had yet to linger, ere his beams could play

With all the burning power of Tropic day!

I gazed upon the sixteen mounds that pressed

Upon so many noble hearts—at rest.

Ah! side by side the much-mourned sleepers lay!

Sleepers no longer! On that morning blest,

They too arose—the new-made graves were rent,

And, slow ascending, all those gallant forms,

That oft had braved the ocean's wildest storms,

In their fresh shrouds their heavenward journey went.

But soon on one dear shade, as by a spell,

My gaze was fixed. His eye upon me fell,

And, for a moment, stopping in his flight

To the eternal realms of joy and light,

He said, "Mother, farewell! Grieve not for me!

My spirit from yon sinful world is free.

Oh! laud His holy name who called me thence,

That wise, that merciful Omnipotence!

But 'watch and pray,'

That in the day

When death shall snatch thee to the grave,

Through Him who hath the power to save, Thy parted soul may be accepted there!"

He pointed upwards—then was lost in air!