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[246] Therefore well may Nature keep
Equal faith with all who sleep,
Set her watch of hills around
Christian grave and heathen mound,
And to cairn and kirkyard send
Summer's flowery dividend.
Keep, O pleasant Melvin stream,
Thy sweet laugh in shade and gleam!
On the Indian's grassy tomb
Swing, O flowers, your bells of bloom!
Deep below, as high above,
Sweeps the circle of God's love.
1865. He paused and questioned with his eye
The hearers' verdict on his song.
A low voice asked: Is't well to pry
Into the secrets which belong
Only to God?—The life to be
Is still the unguessed mystery:
Unsealed, unpierced the cloudy walls remain,
We beat with dream and wish the soundless doors in vain.
‘But faith beyond our sight may go.’
He said: “The gracious Fatherhood
Can only know above, below,
Eternal purposes of good.
From our free heritage of will,
The bitter springs of pain and ill
Flow only in all worlds. The perfect day
Of God is shadowless, and love is love alway.”
Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1888-89.
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