Through this red sea our God hath made the pathway safe to shore; Our promised land stands full in sight; shout now as ne'er before!" And as the tower came crushing down, the bells, in clear accord, Pealed forth the grand old German hymn,-"All good souls, praise the Lord!” THE SOWER. I SAW a Sower walking slow With shrivelled hands he flung his seed, Nor ever turned to look behind; Of sight or sound he took no heed; It seemed he was both deaf and blind. His dim face showed no soul beneath, Yet in my heart I felt a stir, As if I looked upon the sheath I heard, as still the seed he cast, How, crooning to himself, he sung,"I sow again the holy Past, The happy days when I was young. "Then all was wheat without a tare, "The fruitful germs I scatter free, Then I looked back along his path, And heard the clash of steel on steel, Where man faced man, in deadly wrath, While clanged the tocsin's hurrying peal. The sky with burning towns flared red, Nearer the noise of fighting rolled, And brothers' blood, by brothers shed, Crept, curdling, over pavements cold. Then marked I how each germ of truth Which through the dotard's fingers ran Was mated with a dragon's tooth, Whence there sprang up an armed man. I shouted, but he could not hear; Made signs, but these he could not see; And still, without a doubt or fear, Broadcast he scattered anarchy. Long to my straining ears the blast Brought faintly back the words he sung: "I sow again the holy Past, The happy days when I was young." |