RUTH.

Oh, this is peace! I have no need
Of friend to talk, of book to read;
A dear Companion here abides;
Close to my thrilling heart He hides;
The holy silence is His Voice;
I lie and listen, and rejoice.

187

EMERSON.

RUTH.

WHAT shall be the baby's name?
Shall we catch from sounding fame
Some far-echoed word of praise
Out of other climes or days?

Put upon her brows new-born

Crowns that other brows have worn?

Shall we take some dearer word,

Once within our circle heard,

Cherished yet, though spoken less,—

Shall we lay its tenderness

On the baby's little head,

So to call again our dead?

Shall we choose a name of grace

That befits the baby's face,

Something full of childish glee,
To be spoken joyously?

Something sweeter, softer yet,

That shall say, "Behold our pet!"

Nay; the history of the great
Must not weigh our baby's fate;-
Nay; the dear ones disenthralled
Must not be by us recalled;

We shall meet them soon again—
Let us keep their names till then!

Nay; we do not seek a word
For a kitten or a bird;
Not to suit the baby-ways,
But to wear in after days,—
Fit for uses grave and good,
Wrapped in future womanhood—

For the mother's loving tongue
While our daughter still is young;

For the manly lips that may
Call the maiden heart away;

For the time yet tenderer,

When her children think of her.

THE CALL OF THE CHRISTIAN.

Let us choose a Bible name,

One that always bides the same,
Sacred, sweet, in every land

All men's reverence to command;
For our earthly uses given,
Nathless, musical in heaven!

One I know, these names amid—
Beauty" is its meaning hid;
She who wore it, made it good
With her gracious womanhood.
Name for virtue, love and truth!
Let us call the baby Ruth.

THE CALL OF THE CHRISTIAN.

NOT always as the whirlwind's rush

On Horeb's mount of fear,

Not always as the burning bush

To Midian's shepherd seer,

Nor as the awful voice which came

To Israel's prophet bards,

Nor as the tongues of cloven flame,

Nor gift of fearful words.

189

190

THE CALL OF THE CHRISTIAN.

Not always thus, with outward sign.
Of fire or voice from Heaven,.
The message of a truth divine,
The call of God is given!
Awaking in the human heart

Love for the true and right,—
Zeal for the Christian's "better part,"
Strength for the Christian's fight.

Nor unto manhood's heart alone
The holy influence steals;
Warm with a rapture not its own,
The heart of woman feels!

As she who by Samaria's well
The Saviour's errand sought,-
As those who with the fervent Paul
And meek Aquila wrought:

On those meek ones whose martyrdom
Rome's gathered grandeur saw;
Or those who in their Alpine home,
Braved the Crusader's war,

When the green Vaudois, trembling, heard,

Through all its vales of death,

The martyr's song of triumph poured

From woman's failing breath..

THE CALL OF THE CHRISTIAN.

191

And gently, by a thousand things

Which o'er our spirits pass,

Like breezes o'er the harp's fine strings,
Or vapors o'er a glass,

Leaving their token strange and new

Of music or of shade,

The summons to the right and true

And merciful is made.

O, then, if gleams of truth and light
Flash o'er thy waiting mind,
Unfolding to thy mental sight
The wants of human-kind;
If, brooding over human grief,
The earnest wish is known,
To soothe and gladden with relief
An anguish not thine own;

Though heralded with naught of fear,

Or outward sign or show; Though only to the inward ear

It whispers soft and low;

Though dropping as the manna fell,

Unseen, yet from above,

Noiseless as dew-fall, heed it well,—

Thy Father's call of love.

JOHN G. WHITTIER.