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In the bower as in the battle, haunting night and day:
O Death, what art thou? Nurse of dreamless slumbers
Freshening the fevered flesh to a wakefulness eternal :
O Death, what art thou? strange and solemn Alchymist,
Elaborating life's elixir from these clayey crucibles :
O Death, what art thou? Antitype of Nature's marvels,
The seed and dormant chrysalis bursting into energy
and glory.

Thou calm safe anchorage for the shattered hulls of

men,

Thou spot of gelid shade, after the hot-breathed desert,Thou silent waiting-hall, where Adam meeteth with his children,

How full of dread, how full of hope, loometh inevitable Death:

Of dread, for all have sinned; of hope, for One hath saved;

The dread is drowned in joy, the hope is filled with immortality!

· Pass along, pilgrim of life, go to thy grave unfearing, The terrors are but shadows now, that haunt the vale of Death.

Of Immortality.

Cir up thy mind to contemplation, trembling inhabitant of earth;

Tenant of a hovel for a day, - thou art heir of the universe for ever!

For, neither congealing of the grave, nor gulphing waters of the firmament,

Nor expansive airs of heaven, nor dissipative fires of Gehenna,

Nor rust of rest, nor wear, nor waste, nor loss, nor chance, nor change,

Shall avail to quench or overwhelm the spark of soul within thee!

Thou art an imperishable leaf on the evergreen bay-tree of Existence;

A word from wisdom's mouth, that cannot be unspoken;
A ray of Love's own light; a drop in Mercy's sea;
A creature, marvellous and fearful, begotten by the fiat
of Omnipotence.

I, that speak in weakness, and ye, that hear in charity, Shall not cease to live and feel, though flesh must see corruption;

For the prison gates of matter shall be broken, and the shackled soul go free,

Free, for good or ill, to satisfy its appetence for ever: For ever, dreadful doom, to be hurried on eternally to

evil, For ever, ever !

happy fate, to ripen into perfectness — for

And is there a thought within thy heart, O slave of sin and fear,

A black and harmful hope, that erring spirit dieth? That primal disobedience hath ensured the death of soul, And separate evil sealed it thine-thy curse, Annihilation ?

Heed thou this; there is a Sacrifice; the Maker is Redeemer of his creature;

Freely unto each, universally to all, is restored the privilege of essence:

Whether unto grace or guilt, all must live through Him, Live in vital joy, or live in dying wee:

Death in Adam, Life in Christ; the curse hung upon

the cross:

Who art thou that heedest of Redemption, as narrower than the fall?

All were dead, -He dieth for all; that living, they might love;

If living souls withhold their love, still, He hath died for them.

Eve stole the knowledge; Christ gave the life:

Knowledge and life are the perquisites of soul, the privilege of Man:

Mercy stepped between, and stayed the double theft ; God gave; and giving, bought; and buying, asketh love:

And in such asking rendereth bliss, to all that hear and

answer,

For love with life is heaven; and life unloving, hell

Creature of God, his will is for thy weal, eternally progressing;

Fear not to trust a Maker's love, nor a Saviour's ran

som:

He drank for all,- for thee, and me,

deeds;

the poison of our We shall not die, but live, and, of his grace, we love. For, in the mysteries of Mercy, the One fore-knowing Spirit

Outstrippeth reason's halting choice, and winneth men to Him:

Who shall sound the depths? who shall reach the heights?

Freedom, in the gyves of fate; and sovereignty, reconciled with justice.

If then, as annihilate by sin, the soul was ever forfeit, Godhead paid the mighty price, the pledge hath been redeemed:

He, from the waters of Oblivion raised the drowning

race,

Lifting them even to Himself, the baseless Rock of

Ages.

None can escape from Adam's guilt, or second Adam's

guerdon:

Sin and death are thine; thine also is interminable

being:

Let it be even as thou wilt, still are we ransomed from

nonentity,

The worlds of bliss and woe are peopled with immortals:
And ruin is thy blame; for thou, the worst, art free
To take from Heaven the grace of love, as the gift of
life:

Yet is not remedy thy praise; for thou, the best, art bound

In self, and sin, and darkling sloth, until He break the

chain:

None can tell, without a struggle, if that chain be broken; Strive to-day, one effort more may prove that thou art

free!

Here is faith and prayer, here is the Grace and the

Atonement,

Here is the creature feeling for its God, and the prodigal returning to his Father.

But, behold, His responsible children, standing in just probation,

With ears to hear, neglect; with eyes to see, refuse: They will not have the blessing with the life, the blessing that enricheth immortality;

And look for pleasures out of God, for heaven in life alone :

So, they snatch that awful prize, existence void of love, And in their darkening exile make a needful hell of self.

Therefore fear, thou sinner, lest the huge blessing, Immortality,

- it were better he

Be blighted in thine evil to a curse, had not been born; Therefore hope, thou saint, for the gift of immortality

is free;

Take and live, and live in love; fear not, thou art redeemed!

The happy life, that height of hope, the knowledge of

all good,

This is the blessing on obedience, obedience the child of faith:

The miserable life, that depth of all despair, the knowledge of all evil,

This is the curse upon impenitence, impenitence that sprung of unbelief.

God, from a beautiful necessity, is Love in all He doeth, Love, a brilliant fire, to gladden or consume:

The wicked work their woe by looking upon love, and hating it:

The righteous find their joys in yearning on its loveliness for ever.

Who shall imagine Immortality, or picture its illimitable prospect?

How feebly can a faltering tongue express the vast idea! For consider the primeval woods that bristle over broad Australia,

And count their autumn leaves, millions multiplied by millions;

Thence look up to a moonless sky from a sleeping isle of the Ægæan,

And add to those leaves yon starry host, sparkling on the midnight numberless;

Thence traverse an Arabia, some continent of eddying sand,

Gather each grain, let none escape, add them to the leaves and the stars;

Afterward gaze upon the sea, the thousand leagues of an Atlantic,

Take drop by drop, and add their sum, to the grains, and leaves, and stars;

The drops of ocean, and the desert sands, the leaves, and stars innumerable,

(Albeit, in that multitude of multitudes, each small unit were an age,)

All might reckon for an instant, a transient flash of Time Compared with this intolerable blaze, the measureless enduring of Eternity!

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