Page:Zinzendorff and Other Poems.pdf/219

Rh That in its blessed ignorance wail'd not A mother lost. Yet she who would have watch'd Each germ of intellect, each bud of truth, Each fair unfolding of the fruit of Heaven With thrilling joy, was like the marble cold. —There were the flowers she planted, blooming fair, As if in mockery,—there the varied stores That in the beauty of their order charm'd At once the tasteful, and the studious hour, Pictures, and tinted shells, and treasur'd tomes, But the presiding mind, the cheerful voice, The greeting glance, the spirit-stirring smile, Are fled forever. And he knoweth all! Hath felt it all, deep in his tortur'd soul, Till reason and philosophy did faint, Beneath a grief like his. Whence hath he then The power to comfort others, and to speak Thus of the resurrection? He hath found That hope, which is an anchor to the soul, And with a martyr-courage holds him up To bear the will of God. Say, ye who tempt The sea of life, by summer-gales impell'd Have ye this anchor? Sure, a time will come For storms to try you, and strong blasts to rend Your painted sails, and shred your gold like chaff O'er the wild wave; and what a wreck is man If sorrow find him unsustain'd by God.