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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 POEMS BY 
 
 ARAD JOY SEBRING 
 
 Author of Faith in Song 
 
 BOSTON 
 RICHARD G. BADGER 
 
 The Gorham Press 
 1905 
 
Copyright 1905 by Arad Joy Sebring 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 LiBflAay of i. 
 
 .ONGHESS 
 
 fwv tioptu 
 
 iletoiveu 
 
 JUL 13 
 
 I9U5 
 
 
 
 Printed at 
 
 THE GORHAM PRESS 
 
 Boston, U. S. A. 
 
This little book is affectionately inscribed to my 
 niece, Elizabeth Sebring; whose kindly and appreci- 
 ative interest in my work, and efficient help in pre- 
 paring coPy for the press, have added greatly to my 
 pleasure in composing these verses for the reading 
 public. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Happy New Year 7 
 
 Why a God ? lO 
 
 The Twenty-third Psalm i6 
 
 What is Life? i8 
 
 The Master Fact 21 
 
 The Flower I Prize 24 
 
 The Power of the Church 26 
 
 Thy Kingdom Come 29 
 
 Mission of the Church 32 
 
 "Hath Done What She Could" 35 
 
 The Ample Price 38 
 
 Which Rather Be ? 42 
 
 Supremacy of Christ 45 
 
 Amen, of Lord's Prayer 61 
 
HAPPY NEW-YEAR 
 
 When Time has set the shadow of 
 
 His frown upon the hills, 
 And cut the rocky curses for 
 
 The torrents and the rills ; 
 And belted hist'ry's landscape with 
 
 His russet swath of death, 
 A happy new-year then I wish 
 
 To all who share my breath. 
 
 When Time has plucked the sun from out 
 
 His chariot of blaze, 
 And veiled the moon in blood, and rolled 
 
 The skies in darkest maze, 
 I wish you all a glad retreat 
 
 Beneath the mighty wing 
 Of Him who sends Archangel forth 
 
 The end of time to sing. 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 When throne of judgment shall be set, 
 
 And nations gathered there, 
 And metes and bounds of men are changed 
 
 For standards only fair, 
 When theories of joy are weighed 
 
 In light of spirit world. 
 When seconds sweep of cycles take. 
 
 And points to eons whirled — 
 
 When lifetimes, in celestial flight, 
 
 But compass plans of love, 
 And human nature grows to grasp 
 
 The wealth of Home Above, 
 I wish you then a new-year's gift 
 
 From Hand divinely free. 
 With welcome broad as Heaven's plains. 
 
 Beside the glassy sea. 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 When garnered riches of our God, 
 
 Revealed in days of old, 
 And Calvary's purchase-price are set 
 
 In jeweled crown of gold, 
 When King in beauty shall have clothed 
 
 Himself in robes of light, 
 And trump of God shall clear proclaim 
 
 The end of world's black night — 
 
 And orchestra of angel hosts 
 
 The jubilee of grace 
 Shall ring from Heaven's eternal heights, 
 
 For Adam's ransomed race — 
 I wish you all a diadem 
 
 That makes your title strong 
 To sit on thrones of sceptered right. 
 
 And reign through ages long. 
 
WHY A GOD? 
 
 Why think I that there is a God, 
 
 When eye to Him is blind? 
 Why heed with reverence His voice, 
 
 When ear no sound can find? 
 Whence comes the mystic touch of God 
 
 Upon my quickened soul. 
 And makes me tremble at the thought 
 
 I stand in His control? 
 
 His ownership in lowing herd 
 
 I may with grace, suspect; 
 The waving harvests, full and free. 
 
 His kindly hand reflect — 
 And none the less in brain or arm, 
 
 That plows and sows and reaps, 
 Do I observe Creative Force 
 
 That thinks and makes and keeps. 
 
 10 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 His genial providence I feel 
 
 In warmth of noonday sun ; 
 In paths of planets I behold 
 
 His midnight sway begun; 
 I see His hand outstretched to stay 
 
 Destroying angel's wing, 
 That growing ear he shall not smite, 
 
 Nor blight nor mildew bring. 
 
 I see Him ride in regal state 
 
 On beam of morning light, 
 In rustling forest hear His step, 
 
 In nature see His might; 
 I trace Him in the smiling tint 
 
 That decks the flower's cheek; 
 I know Him in the thunderstorm 
 
 That crowns the mountain peek. 
 
 II 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Thus from effect to cause I climb 
 
 Up to supremest height; 
 In empire universal reigns 
 
 The God of truth and light — 
 From forms the microscope reveals 
 
 In tiniest water-home, 
 To where leviathan defies 
 
 The rolling billows foam — 
 
 From mote that floats before the gale 
 
 To mightiest worlds that swing 
 Through century rounds, and nameless bounds, 
 
 With speed that mocks the wing 
 Whereon imagination flies, 
 
 And with momentum vast 
 Enough to compass and exhaust 
 
 Man's numbers to the last — 
 
 12 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 From the minutest bud of life 
 
 That springs in vernal sun 
 To monarchs of Yosemite, 
 
 Whose roots persistent run 
 Far down beneath earth's rocky ribs, 
 
 While rugged branches wave 
 Triumphantly in stormy heights, 
 
 Where cyclones roam and rave — 
 
 From eyeless molusk, just alive, 
 
 That crawls in slimy deep 
 To great evangel round the throne, 
 
 Winging his joyous sweep — 
 Through every inch of space and time. 
 
 In every atom that exists, 
 In every spark of spirit, too, 
 
 That in His honor glists — 
 
 13 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Throughout the universe I trace 
 
 The grand, celestial, march 
 Of Him who spake life into life 
 
 And sprung the boundless arch ; 
 And where the gates of light lift up 
 
 Their everlasting greet 
 He sets His throne and marshals all 
 
 In glory at His feet. 
 
 Upon St. Peter's towering dome 
 
 A fly unheeding lights, 
 And dreams not of the rounded form 
 
 That swells to heavenly heights; 
 But architect who planned that mold, 
 
 And laid its granite base. 
 Knew well the shape and space and span 
 
 That made its stately grace. 
 
 14 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Well do I remember, then, 
 
 The temple of God's plan, 
 In providence, decree, and breadth, 
 
 Outmeasures thought of man; 
 And what to me most blind and dark, 
 
 With mystery pain and fears. 
 May be to Him who built the house 
 
 The circle of the years. 
 
 But highest, brightest, clearest proof 
 
 Of God of grace and love, 
 I see revealed in God-man Christ, 
 
 Descending from above — 
 Responding conscience yields consent, 
 
 Heart answers back, elate ; 
 And how can mind do less than bow 
 
 At edicts strong as fate ? 
 
 15 
 
THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM 
 
 My Shepherd is the Lord himself, 
 
 And hence I shall not want ; 
 He makes me lie in pastures green — 
 
 By waters still my haunt! 
 
 My soul downcast He yet restores, 
 
 And leads in paths of right; 
 But not for merit of my own — 
 
 His name in glory bright! 
 
 Through death's dark shade my soul must pass, 
 
 In which I'll fear no ill; 
 For with me rod and staff Thou art — 
 
 My comfort is Thy will! 
 
 My enemies shall turn to peace 
 
 At table Thou hast spread ; 
 My cup with blessing overflow, 
 
 When Thou anoint'st my head. 
 
 i6 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Thy goodness and Thy mercy, too, 
 Shall cling to end of life, 
 
 And in Thy house I'll ever dwell 
 Beyond the reach of strife. 
 
 (In this I see most surely cast 
 God's promise of His Son, 
 
 Who in my darkest, deepest, stress 
 Is my Triumphant One). 
 
 17 
 
WHAT IS LIFE? 
 
 A plant had grown a hundred years, 
 
 E'er blossom saw the light, 
 And then savants from realm at large 
 
 Were summoned to the sight — 
 Yet once in an eternity 
 
 God plants within your way 
 The tree whose blow brings bending low 
 
 The cheer of endless day. 
 
 Your life is great or short or long, 
 
 As by it you exalt 
 The god who reigns in things of earth. 
 
 Or Him in purer vault — 
 Through bowed by service, years, and gold, 
 
 At slavish toil you plod, 
 If life has failed, and earth bewailed. 
 
 Your lack of liege to God. 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 It is not life to whirl and twirl 
 
 In busy nothings round, 
 While thought and purpose empty go 
 
 And truth is never found ; 
 With law and gospel not inwrought 
 
 Through fiber of the soul, 
 With book of blur and God's demur 
 
 Still waiting at the goal. 
 
 To walk treadmill of custom round, 
 
 And wheel of mammon turn. 
 To drive the chariot of self, 
 
 Is not in heart to burn 
 With words of Christ and works of faith, 
 
 And self-denying grace; 
 Which honors bring, while seraphs sing. 
 
 Before the father's face. 
 
 19 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 To climb from fact to fact of God 
 
 In temple of His truth, 
 From hall to gallery and dome 
 
 In quest of endless youth, 
 To search the wonders of His love 
 
 By pure, celestial, glow, 
 To wait in joy, without alloy, 
 
 And great Redeemer know — 
 
 With angel's relish to partake 
 
 At fountain of His love, 
 'Mid promised splendors to abide 
 
 In hope of scenes above ; 
 And into one sum-total bind 
 
 The deeds to God we give — 
 This tells the day, and marks the way, 
 
 To homes where spirits live. 
 
 20 
 
THE MASTER FACT 
 
 Go search the tombs of ancient past, 
 Exhume the treasures, choice. 
 
 Which record holds in rock-locked vaults- 
 Release the silent voice — 
 
 Bring glorious names, profound in thought. 
 And philosophic lore, 
 
 Bring men who roll of science head 
 And reign in natures store — 
 
 Or angel-like in intellect. 
 
 Have dwelt in starry clime ; 
 From earth's fourcorners gather well, 
 
 And farthest sweep of time — 
 All precious metals, costl}' stones, 
 
 God's richest gifts, but grace, 
 And one vast monument erect, 
 
 With genius at its base — 
 
 21 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Its topstone shall be glory-crowned, 
 
 And drip among the clouds, 
 Till heavens together shall be scrolled — 
 
 Earth wrapped in flaming shrouds — 
 Then, graved upon its glowing front, 
 
 By hand and skill of age, 
 "In memory sacred to the best 
 
 That honors history's page" — 
 
 But in the armory of God 
 
 Is lever, strong and tall, 
 Which, held in hand that never fails. 
 
 Can overturn it all — 
 "The world by wisdom knew not God.' 
 
 Is truth of force so great. 
 That highest wisdom, less than His, 
 
 Must sink to endless fate. 
 
 22 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 But who is this from Edom come, 
 
 With garments dyed in blood, 
 Divine and human wisely merged 
 
 In one atoning flood ? — 
 So deeds of one are deeds of both. 
 
 In mystic virtue wrought, 
 And pardon free, and grace supreme, 
 
 By sovereign edict brought. 
 
 23 
 
THE FLOWER I PRIZE 
 
 Though at my feet may grow and blow 
 
 The flower of beauty rare, 
 Whose cultured fragrance is the fruit 
 
 Of years of patient care ; 
 \'et on the beetling crag I pluck 
 
 The one I chiefly prize, 
 By reason of the toil I've spent 
 
 To wrest it from the skies. 
 
 Its petals drank the early ray, 
 
 While shadow veiled the lawn, 
 The scent of Heaven its blossom stored, 
 
 And opal of the dawn ; 
 The eye of God its growing tint 
 
 With satisfaction saw. 
 And angel pen "obedience" wrote 
 
 To Maker's primal law. 
 
 24 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Thus on the mount of faithful work 
 
 I'd gladly climb and plod, 
 And value most the hard-won task 
 
 That brings the smile of God ; 
 For well I know there is a height 
 
 Where joys shall spring for aye, 
 And gardens radient with love 
 
 Shall grace the upper sky. 
 
 I would that something of their glow 
 
 Might float to nether scenes, 
 And exhalations of their life 
 
 Might pierce the cloud that screens 
 The zenith's blue from mortal eye, 
 
 And bloom from earthly hand — 
 Might here below, mid strife and sin, 
 
 Forecast the Glorious Land. 
 
 25 
 
THE POWER OF THE CHURCH 
 
 Renewal in God's image stands 
 
 The highest destiny of man ; 
 All schemes of genius His demands 
 
 Quite fail to meet, and never can — 
 The gathered wisdom of the world 
 
 J^efore His face in vain is hurled. 
 
 High lifted souls in Jesus' light, 
 Till they His perfect likeness wear, 
 
 Must be the law of Christian might 
 Till Heaven's dayspring, clear and fair, 
 
 Beams out on realms of life divine, 
 And makes dead men forever shine. 
 
 No culture merely of the mind. 
 
 No words, with dewy learning bright. 
 
 No manners, polished and refined. 
 Ideas many, grave or light. 
 
 No wealth of scientific lore 
 Can open free the pearly door. 
 26 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 No seer's best plea can Christ replace, 
 When broken record is unrolled, 
 
 No travestj' of saving grace 
 
 Can entrance gain within the fold ; 
 
 Historic image count, or weigh. 
 For title clear to upper day. 
 
 No attitude, or form, is found, 
 
 No ritual or stately mold. 
 No harmony of sweetest sound, 
 Can Sovereign Ear in mercy hold. 
 Or take the place of Christ's control 
 
 Within the sanctum of the soul. 
 
 No annels of ancestral race. 
 
 No hoar)^ custom, craft, or creed. 
 
 No churchly faith in time or place, 
 Heroic fame in word or deed, 
 
 No saintly prayer, or priestly plea, 
 
 May dare intrude twixt Christ and thee. 
 27 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 No chink or chime of golden chain, 
 
 Of apostolic link or length, 
 Can dull the ear, or foil the reign, 
 
 Of Him who is the joy and strength 
 Of men who stand on Zion's height, 
 
 And rescue souls from endless night. 
 
 And when the Church, amid the strife. 
 Leans on these outward signs of truth, 
 
 Decrepitude has seized her life. 
 
 Gray hairs usurped the crown of youth- 
 
 Her withered visage, pale and wan. 
 Her power lost, her glory gone. 
 
 28 
 
THY KINGDOM COME 
 
 Within the deepest fountains 
 
 That flow with life or death; 
 In highest, baldest, mountains. 
 
 That chill with Arctic breath ; 
 In truest, heart-deep, feeling, 
 
 Which sin and darkness rue. 
 Thy kingdom come with healing. 
 
 And health and joy renew. 
 
 Thy kingdom in experience 
 
 Of Christ's redeeming love. 
 The sinner's great deliverance. 
 
 The solace from above; 
 In hopes that rise to Heaven, 
 
 Thy power and love display ; 
 And nerve by Spirit given 
 
 For flight to endless day. 
 
 29 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 In filial, free, submission 
 
 To Father's holy will, 
 We lay in true contrition 
 
 Our wants before Thee still — 
 Please change the bristling fortresses 
 
 Of Thine afflictive hand 
 To golden-towered palaces 
 
 Of our Celestial Land. 
 
 Thus reign in love unbounded, 
 
 Work in us Thy clear will, 
 And let our hearts be sounded 
 
 By plum-line of Thy skill ; 
 That we in turn, most loyal. 
 
 With heavenly thrill love Thee, 
 And men, by ruling royal, 
 
 As self would favored be. 
 
 30 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Then rule, in faith appearing, 
 
 In proof of things unseen — 
 Thy voice within our hearing 
 
 Can only glory mean — 
 Thus break upon our vision 
 
 Worlds unrevealed before, 
 And spread the scenes elysian 
 
 Where seraphim adore. 
 
 31 
 
MISSION OF THE CHURCH 
 
 'Tis not of Christ, with girdled robe, 
 
 She passes on the other side. 
 When fellow traveler on the road 
 
 With reeking wounds has nearly died — 
 And thus denies her Master's call 
 
 To lift from ruin of the fall. 
 
 In ranks of trade, where men contend 
 For triumph on the field of gain, 
 
 Example, true, must ready set 
 
 Of golden rule and truth unfeign; 
 
 That in the barter of the world 
 
 The standard high shall be unfurled — 
 
 To plow and anvil, spindle, loom. 
 
 To bear glad news, Redeemer born — 
 
 To kitchen, laundry, needle room. 
 To echo song of brightest morn ; 
 
 And then the sad but glad refrain 
 Of Christ in saving pity slain — 
 
 32 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Where child of suffering has lain, 
 With help and healing all benign ; 
 
 To ease the heart of aching strain, 
 And fill Avith sympathy divine, 
 
 The great Physician she must bring, 
 And make the day of darkness sing. 
 
 She must descend to den of thieves, 
 With lamp of truth and light of grace, 
 
 While souls from prison she relieves. 
 And sets them free before God's face; 
 
 That halleluiahs they may hymn 
 In concert with the cherubim — 
 
 Ascend to legislative hall, 
 
 And lay her sacred, high, behest 
 
 On hearts of men whom millions call 
 To hold in trust their earthly best ; 
 
 And build a state, supremely great, 
 To last till end of time and fate — 
 
 33 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 On spire of world's best learning lift 
 The torch of heavenly life and light; 
 
 That seer and teacher's highest gift 
 
 Be touched with coal from heavenly height ; 
 
 And hand of a divine arrest 
 
 Impose on reason's guilded crest — 
 
 In realm of pride and fashion go, 
 
 Her signet seal of saving love, 
 Bring high imaginations low 
 
 At feet of Him who reigns above — 
 And fetch the tribute of the kings 
 
 To grace her hand with jeweled rings. 
 
 34 
 
"HATH DONE WHAT SHE COULD" 
 
 Mark 14:8 
 
 The meaning of an infant's cry, 
 
 And sweep of cherub's flight, 
 The least and most that thinking souls 
 
 Embrace within their might, 
 Are in the great Redeemer's words, 
 
 Made lamp and light to feet 
 That in the way of brightning day 
 
 Would heavenly portals greet. 
 
 They prompt to ministries of love 
 
 In homes of joy and health. 
 And in the hovels of the poor 
 
 Bespeak affection's wealth; 
 In palaces of cultured pride 
 
 The stately form unbend, 
 And spirit mild and undefiled 
 
 In loving service send. 
 
 35 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Thus what she could was what she did, 
 
 With noiseless, midnight, tread, 
 And sum'ning angel at her hand 
 
 Beside the dying bed — 
 Maternal prayers she freely gave 
 
 That Christ would soul endow. 
 While children slept and mother wept 
 
 O'er darling's fevered brow. 
 
 The words of Christ but simply tell 
 
 Of height and depth of thought. 
 Which truth and grace alone can awake 
 
 In hearts by Spirit taught — 
 Of alabaster box unsealed. 
 
 Of faith and love benign. 
 Which down the wend of ages spend 
 
 An increase all divine. 
 
 36 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Thus in her pathway missions spring — 
 
 Her dusky sisters know — 
 And dewdrops of millennial morn 
 
 In sparkling promise glow — 
 While faithful Christ's commending words 
 
 In loving accents ring, 
 "Let her alone, for she hath shown, 
 
 The faith My mercies bring." 
 
 37 
 
THE AMPLE PRICE 
 
 We love to talk of "gates ajar," 
 
 But who shall enter there? 
 The portals of eternal life, 
 
 Shall all unbidden share? 
 We well remember naught of sin 
 
 Can ever there be seen, 
 Where angels tread with timid step, 
 
 And saints with modest mien. 
 
 The Father's house has never been 
 
 In pride by payment bought, 
 Admission there may never be 
 
 With earthly treasure sought. 
 Tis not that He who made the skies 
 
 Could set His truth aside. 
 And with unpardoned rebels think 
 
 Forever to reside. 
 
 38 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Shall we our boasted morals bring, 
 
 And show before the throne, 
 When perfect love, as law demands, 
 
 Can meet the case alone? 
 Shall gold of nations we present, 
 
 And gems of every land ? 
 "Take these things hence," the King of kings 
 
 Shall then with scorn command. 
 
 Shall we for right to enter there 
 
 The zones of earth display. 
 And cattle from a thousand hills 
 
 Upon His altar lay? 
 'Tis not the blood of bulls and goats 
 
 Can expiate the sign 
 Where satan sets the burning scar, 
 
 His booty to define. 
 
 39 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Shall we in search the heavens mount 
 
 And Jupiter arrest, 
 And at the feet of Justice cast 
 
 The sky's resplendent best? 
 At judgment trump the stars shall fall, 
 
 Nor place for them abide, 
 For sight of sin their light defiles, 
 
 And they in blackness hide. 
 
 Will angels stand and vouch for us, 
 
 And swing the welcome door. 
 When He who dowered spirits vast 
 
 Bestowed on them no more 
 Than in return, with faithful praise, 
 
 They endless ages span. 
 And Gabriel naught can ever spare 
 
 To offset sin of man. 
 
 40 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Deep in philosophy of life, 
 
 As in God's plan above, 
 Not angel's nature took on him 
 
 The Christ of saving love ; 
 But nature human to Himself 
 
 Did Sovereign Grace assume. 
 That price of priceless worth might stand 
 
 Against the sinner's doom. 
 
 The gates of God are waiting wide. 
 
 Their Keeper calls us in ; 
 He who unbars their massive weight 
 
 Most freely pardons sin ; 
 And bids us but believe and live 
 
 And share the conquest won — 
 For Olivet and Calvary 
 
 Have yielded to the Son. 
 
 41 
 
WHICH RATHER BE? 
 
 A thousand miles from nearest 
 
 Where name of Christ is known, 
 There lives a man whose clearest 
 
 Light falls upon hewn stone. 
 For more than he can number 
 
 His generations past 
 Lie wrapped in heathen slumber, 
 
 To prove his pagan caste. 
 
 The language, custom, letters. 
 
 Of all his kith and kin, 
 Have wound their steely fetters 
 
 Around his heart within; 
 And shed their baleful twilight 
 
 Upon his darkened way. 
 And won his steps to midnight 
 
 By false, delusive, ray. 
 
 42 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 'Mid fumes of gall and wormwood, 
 
 'Twixt vicious millstones brayed, 
 God's image dashed from manhood, 
 
 And devil's die inlaid — 
 We hardly dare to follow, 
 
 Lest from our hearts arise 
 Acquittal, false and hollow. 
 
 From statute, just and wise. 
 
 Another I discover 
 
 Within our favored land, 
 On whom the blessings hover 
 
 Of many a praying band ; 
 Whose line of race descent 
 
 Runs back to mem'ry's verge, 
 In covenant-faith consent. 
 
 From where the years emerge — 
 
 43 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 All sealed in Name Eternal 
 
 At pure baptismal fount ; 
 On lap of faith maternal, 
 
 Matured for Zion's Mount; 
 By Sabbath music hallowed, 
 
 By love from bending skies — 
 Most sure his heart is mellowed 
 
 By grace divinely wise. 
 
 Yet at his Maker's alter 
 
 He bends no reverent knee, 
 At Calvary he'll falter. 
 
 And yield no suppliant plea — 
 Then tell in truth and kindness 
 
 Which lot you'd rather know. 
 The Hindu's groping blindness 
 
 Or man's rejected glow? 
 
 44 
 
SUPREMACY OF CHRIST 
 
 I grant you that on nature's face 
 
 The God of power shines; 
 Yet had I naught but nature's light 
 
 Within these close confines, 
 I'd stand where all the heathen world 
 
 Its blinded record makes — 
 The race in ruin, soul in death. 
 
 Its law of being breaks. 
 
 To sacred annels I appeal, 
 
 At central source to find 
 Prophetic proof of Him who stands 
 
 For law and love combined ; 
 That in my most distressing needs 
 
 I may to refuge fly; 
 And when my heart cries out for love, 
 
 It knows the Brother nigh. 
 
 45 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 I see Him as he sweeps the range 
 
 Of sacred hist'ry's sphere, 
 And know Him as he fills the eye 
 
 Of Inspiration, clear; 
 I hear Him as he speaks to me 
 
 From grand and kingly height, 
 And heed Him as he wins my heart 
 
 By glow of heavenly light. 
 
 But tell me not that this is wrought 
 
 By any sense of mine. 
 For in the scheme of grace Fm sure 
 
 Are plan and will divine — 
 For in the sacrifice He made 
 
 Was one essential price, 
 Without which justice could not stand, 
 
 And love find no device. 
 
 46 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 I know quite well that other men, 
 
 Of distant mental scan, 
 As world's Columbuses, have spied 
 
 The continents for man — 
 Demosthenes and Ciceroes 
 
 Of olden time have taught, 
 And Washingtons and Gladstones 
 
 Of later days have wrought — 
 
 I know the patriot soldier, too. 
 
 Upon the field of strife, 
 For country dear, and native hearth. 
 
 Has nobly laid his life; 
 But their achievements never reach 
 
 Quite down to man's last need ; 
 While sovereign Christ with grace evokes 
 
 The springs of heart and deed. 
 
 47 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 The ages have their might combined 
 
 To make the power of kings, 
 The Cjesars reign by aid derived 
 
 From force which history brings; 
 Victorian eras rise and fall 
 
 On waves of public state, 
 Which emperors and queens record 
 
 In archives of the great. 
 
 The Grants and Lincolns, all too few. 
 
 Whose honored names we praise, 
 Could not have been but for the wave 
 
 That bore heroic days — 
 The century through of hearts that bound 
 
 With freedom's hallowed song, 
 And unity of state with state 
 
 Which must the peal prolong. 
 
 48 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Not thus, not thus, the King of kings ; 
 
 The history maker, He; 
 Before whose royal reign the hearts 
 
 Of men must loyal be — 
 The old Northmen, with clotted locks, 
 
 Embarked in armed hulls, 
 And sallying forth with murderous hand, 
 
 Drank blood from human skulls — 
 
 He taught the golden rule, and touched 
 
 With finger of His grace. 
 And changed the cruel, savage, horde 
 
 Into a Christian race — 
 And Briton of the ancient day, 
 
 Unmoved by battle steel, 
 He won in reverent faith to him, 
 
 And joy in human weal. 
 
 49 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 From Christendom of elder world, 
 
 From nations great and small, 
 Enlisted in one serried host 
 
 And marching at His call, 
 Came men thus brought to bow 
 
 At feet of Conquering Lord, 
 From o'er the stormy sea to build 
 
 A home with reverence stored. 
 
 And from the vantage ground thus gained 
 
 By Him who marshals hearts, 
 A tribute to the King of kings 
 
 Is laid on distant parts — 
 Millennial inheritance 
 
 Shall make His reign of love. 
 For heathen world is pledged to Him 
 
 By fiat from above. 
 
 50 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 And when all correlated truth 
 
 Of Scriptures, great and grand, 
 In orderly array is set 
 
 By logic, pen and hand, 
 He still remains God-christ the same, 
 
 Of old, to-day, for aye — 
 The soul and sinew, bone, and joint, 
 
 Of schemes that never die. 
 
 Theologies may rise and fall. 
 
 With sweep and surge of mind ; 
 We call them old or new to suit 
 
 The temper of our kind ; 
 Yet underneath the fulcrum, strong, 
 
 Where all true systems brace, 
 Is God incarnate in his Son, 
 
 With purposes of grace. 
 
 SI 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 And would we make the world to know, 
 
 And heed our gospel call? 
 We'll win by placing at the front 
 
 Triumphant Christ of all — 
 If satan lifts his vicious head, 
 
 And human hearts refrain, 
 We know that truth shall crown His sway, 
 
 And righteousness His reign. 
 
 'Tis true, no vet'ran armies rise 
 
 To march at His command ; 
 No dynasty of kings he founds, 
 
 Nor liege of subject lands; 
 But summons kings and priests to God, 
 
 A dynasty of love, 
 Who shall his victory partake 
 
 In earth and worlds above. 
 
 52 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 His law of love, by man announced, 
 
 In words of false acclaim, 
 Had whistled down the empty wind. 
 
 In idle accents named, 
 And in the wilderness of thought 
 
 Had vanished by degrees; 
 Or stifled by the moral filth 
 
 In every tainted breeze. 
 
 But ah! the life, the life, of Christ! 
 
 Down at Whose feet is cast 
 The challenge of a jealous world ; 
 
 While back, from first to last. 
 He flings triumphantly the quest, 
 
 "Convinceth me of sin?" 
 And light from heaven's uplifted gate 
 
 Reveals heart-depth within. 
 
 S3 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 A righteous kingdom would He found, 
 
 Without example, clear? 
 Ah no ! the golden rule shines out 
 
 In Him, without a peer. 
 And when our race is once upraised 
 
 To level with His height, 
 The eye of God shall view the scene, 
 
 And judge it just and right. 
 
 The world's phisopohers have thought, 
 
 But Holy God denied. 
 Why in such brilliant contrast he 
 
 With all the world beside? 
 In human schemes of knowledge He 
 
 But very little taught; 
 The scientists of future times 
 
 Alone in learning wrought. 
 
 54 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 'Twas Galileo who descried 
 
 The earth's revolving round, 
 And Kepler measured with his wand 
 
 The midnight starrj' bound. 
 Why did not Christ the pen enlist, 
 
 And through all time eclipse 
 The orb of letters and of light 
 
 Throughout its vast ellipse? 
 
 I ken it was because He meant 
 
 To blend the lustrous glow 
 Of perfect manhood with the God, 
 
 And let it stream below 
 Far down the trend and train of time: 
 
 And then, Avith upward sweep. 
 Through cycles of an endless age 
 
 Into Celestial Deep. 
 
 55 
 
 l.olQ. 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 When heathen men at Lystra saw 
 
 The miracles of Paul, 
 "The gods have come in human form," 
 
 Thej^ shouted, one and all — 
 Hut what for them, in wondering fright. 
 
 Imagination won. 
 Has come to us in real truth 
 
 In God's incarnate son. 
 
 On drama of so strange a life 
 
 A mystery must have frowned. 
 Rut for the radiant afterglow 
 
 Which aw ful Calvar>' crowned ; 
 And gathered up and made complete 
 
 The record of His deeds. 
 And lent infinity of force 
 
 To great historic creeds. 
 
 56 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Men might have overlaid them all 
 
 With sophistries of time; 
 But cross of Christ so high above 
 
 Inventions most sublime 
 Has towered all the ages through 
 
 They could not reach its height ; 
 But twined around that living cross 
 
 His deeds are fresh and bright — 
 
 As when, long centuries ago, 
 
 From hills of heaven culled, 
 His precepts spake the mind of God 
 
 And power of sin annuled — 
 For, lifted in the morning sky. 
 
 Of Christian era's day. 
 That cross reflected Christ Himself 
 
 In His triumphant sway. 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 'Tis true the heart of man demands 
 
 Men of heroic state ; 
 And wiUing masses rally round 
 
 The standards of the great — 
 And history is h'ttle more 
 
 Than growth from germs of thought 
 Which master minds, of rarest mold, 
 
 Have brought and wrought and taught. 
 
 Hero of heroes, ever stands 
 
 Hero of Calvary's mount; 
 Whose dying love for our lost race 
 
 Released the living fount ; 
 And men shall with His banner march 
 
 To every clime and shore, 
 And gather in rejoicing throngs 
 
 Till time shall be no more. 
 
 58 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 We cannot learn too soon, too well, 
 
 Converting power inheres 
 In God's atoning love and grace, 
 
 Which in the cross appears — 
 For power and wisdom of our God, 
 
 Displayed for human weal, 
 Are centered in the dying pains 
 
 Which man's redemption seal. 
 
 He at whose name all knees shall bow 
 
 Has sent His church abroad, 
 And guarded and begird her ranks. 
 
 Which march in reverent laud, 
 With principalities of light, 
 
 And powers of matchless strength, 
 Which shall command the homage true 
 
 Through all earth's breadth and length. 
 
 59 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 When truth shall over error rise, 
 
 Or right shall wrong transcend; 
 However kindles gospel torch 
 
 Till cruelty shall end ; 
 Wherever enterprise shall go, 
 
 Illumined by the ray 
 Which gleams from Christ, the central sun, 
 
 And makes the darkness day — 
 
 And crowning all with each descent 
 
 Of Holy Ghost, divine. 
 Inspiring anew the strains 
 
 Which seraphim design — 
 Are but the upward, growing, beams. 
 
 On morning forehead drawn. 
 That paint the promises of God 
 
 In hues of heavenly dawn. 
 
 60 
 
AMEN, OF LORD'S PRAYER 
 
 Amen! Thy name, so let it be 
 
 On heights ethereal placed ; 
 With reverence mentioned here below 
 
 From alter, Spirit-graced — 
 Let our poor pleas no longer wait, 
 But meet us. Lord, at Heaven-gate. 
 
 Amen! Thy name on hallowed lips 
 
 Of all the heavenly train ; 
 While struggling hearts of men from earth 
 
 Lift up the glad refrain, 
 And Church Triumphant roll the song, 
 And angel-host the peal prolong. 
 
 Amen! Let righteous edict reach 
 Through all the realms of space — 
 
 From topmost mount to distant star — 
 Foot-stool to throne of grace — 
 
 Where saints redeemed and seraphs vie 
 
 To render praise to God on high. 
 6i 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Amen ! Let natures, stained in sin, 
 Who trackless deserts roam, 
 
 Receive the pardoning ring and robe 
 At door of Father's home ; 
 
 And thus enriched, forever laud 
 
 The grace of our redeeming God. 
 
 Amen! Blot out our debts of sin, 
 
 Their record burial give 
 In fountain of atoning worth, 
 
 And help us well to live. 
 That on humanity abide 
 Our own full, free, forgiving, tide. 
 
 Amen ! When powers of darkness reign, 
 
 And blight cast on the soul. 
 Then reach thy hand in mercy forth 
 
 And lift us to the goal — 
 From sin to Christ, from death to life, 
 From toil to conquest in the strife. 
 63 
 
GIRDLE OF GLADNESS 
 
 Amen ! Let now th}' kingdom come ; 
 
 Thy will in earth be done ; 
 When men their little best have shown, 
 
 Then glorify thy Son — 
 Let earth's dominions at His feet 
 In peace with ransomed millions meet. 
 
 Amen! When mind of man has thought, 
 Chains clanked, and hearts have bled. 
 
 And myriads bowed, and history grown, 
 Fields lost, and crowns have fled, 
 
 Ascend the throne of thrones. Lord ; 
 
 Li love redeem thine ancient word. 
 
 63 
 
JUL 13 1905 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 018 394 181 1