kiB RAM OF CONGRESS, * * ~^^^^ — T^ * ^|;«ip. .1,,. 4°»8"SM ||o # I ^^el/ Sas:.. ■ I ^ # I UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. \ THE GUARDIAN ANGEL POEM IN THREE BOOKS /- JAMES SCOTT, D.D., LATE PASTOR OF THE FIRST REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, NEWARK, N. J. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? " NEW YORK : D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 346 & 848 BROADWAY. M.DCCO.LIX. C^^^^c^r^^: ^^-O^^^^^^Z-^-r^^o^^^"^-^^' -^^^"^ Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S58 by D. APPLETON &, CO., In tlie Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New Yorli, TO HIS GKACE THE DUKE OF A R GYLE: THE LORD REOTOE OF MY ALMA MATER: AN AUTHOR, AND THE FRIEND OF AUTHORS: THE BRITISH EDITION OF MY POEM OF THE GUARDIAN ANGEL, IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. THE AUTHOR. New Toek, U. 8., 185S. PKEFACE. My object in this poem of the Guardian Angel, has been to illustrate the ministry of the holy angels as taiight in the Sacred Scriptures : — especially in the fol- lowing passages : Heb. I. 14. — The angels, " Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? " Psalm xci. 11. — " For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." Rev. I. 1. — " He sent, and signified it by his angel." The poem consists of a series of conversations concerning the invisible state ; the existence and min- istry of holy angels, as well as their guardianship over man, held by persons who met accidentally at different places, connected by a slender thread of story. I have made use of " the dream " as a poetic device, keeping in mind that several of the most glo- rious revelations made to man by God were made in dreams. 6 PREFACE. From my own experience, I am convinced that the human mind is always pleased with the heautiful and the subhme scenes of the natural world. Who was ever tired by looking at an overflowing fountain or at a waterfall ? As many of the thoughts contained in the poem oc- cupied my mind, while beholding the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, Niagara Falls, and Calton Hill, Edin- burgh, I was led, on subsequent reflection, to make them the grand scenic centres of it. Nor is it possible to give poetic interest to a didactic poem, without episodes on the beauitiful and the sublime in the visible universe. As the spirit of minstrelsy moved me from time to time, thought after thought arose in my mind, and line united mysteriously with line, like the bones in Ezekiel's vision, w^hen God's Spirit breathed on them, until the poem of the Guardian Angel became a living presence of beauty to me, as a creation of my intellect and heart, for I found it in the dej)ths of my own- nature ; I cannot forget it, nor entertain the thought of blotting it out of existence without painful emotions. I am met again by another trial ; it is the anxiety I feel on determining to unveU the virgin face of my poetic child to the gaze and scrutiny of eyes less joartial than my own. Like a father givuig away his beloved PEEPACE. ( daughter at the nuptial altar, who doubts, fears, hopes, and prays for her destiny, I too tremble for the future history of my poem of the Guardian Angel. I have nothing to say concerning the poem as a Avork of art. Dear reader, as the traveller who finds some relic of the olden time, intrinsically of little value, among the ruins of an ivy-mantled cathedral, deposits it for preservation in a museum, so do I commit this poem of the Guardian Angel to my generation for safe keep- ing. If one human mind from its perusal shall obtain clearer, nobler, and more comforting views, concerning the angehc ministry and GocVs solicitude for man, I shall not have written it in vain. In the language of Abraham's prayer for his son Ishmael — " May it live." J. S. POEM. The Poem seeketli to elucidate The doctrine of the holy angels, chief Their ministry to man. 'Twas but a germ Born of the sleepless spirit, a stray thought, Which lighted on my soul like some lone bird Upon the neighboring tree. Nor can I tell How it did take its present form : long years It has been growing on my soul, from that Sad thought. As years rolled on a presence grew, An angel's presence, passing beautiful Before my mind, which, neither day nor night, I could forget. I loved that presence, aye, As loves the lover only. Always the theme Of angels pleasured me : in childhood's years Angelic history charmed me. Through the years, As I elaborated in my inner mind The lay of the Gruardian Angel, I have gone For imagery far and near, to build It to its present size. With the urns of thought 1* 10 POEM. Set up, all o'er tte rounded universe, I took me freedom. Meditation walked With me into the works of Nature, where The Poet's eye adores the beautiful ; And carried me away, where I could hear The voices of those unseen presences Which minister to the enraptured soul. I brought me offerings from every land Of thought, as broidery for the lay : nor is't Yet worthy of the theme that gave it birth. E'en as it is, a humble niche my heart Would seek for it in the galleries of Earth. I cannot blot it out of being now — It clingeth to my memory, as moss Clings to the old wall, and the elfin flower Clings to the ruined shrine : nor bury it Without an agony, no more than sire His first-born child. It is not vanity That leadeth me to send it forth to the world, But love inborn. Perchance along the path Toilsome and straight, up to the gate of Heaven, Some weary wayfarer may find his toils Lightened by what it teaches. May it be so ! THE GUARDIAN Al^GEL. BOOK FIRST. The world invisible, the visible Surpasses far in population. There The spirits of earth's myriads, sleeping dead Have habitations, and the hierarchies, The ancient settlers of the universe. Among that multitude of beings, one Kesplendent as the evening star uprisen On the hill tops of earth, shines. Seraphim To him are ministering, and at his side Conspicuous, bright, his guardian angel stands. Whether enthroned, or travelling alone Heaven's crystal river down, or holding leagu With souls and angels, his great peers, an air Of thought invests him, thought serene and grand 12 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. And godlike. Spirits wliisper, as they gaze, And say, what grandeur in his looks ! The thought Which fills that noble soul, is not of God Alone, and the great hidden mysteries ; But also of the earth, the ruined star Of man, Nor rosy morn, nor dewy eve E'er harness up their chariots, the green earth To visit, but he likewise hies him out Unto the battlements of bliss, with none But his bright Guardian Angel at his side, To see the one-mooned world. Intensely clear His memories of earth. His grave is there — There was his natal spot, its woods, its wilds. Its mountain battlements., its cataracts. Its va,les, its vasty seas, are garnered up In his soul's sacred chambers, like the wealth Of palace treasured pictures, fresh and fair, As when he dwelt among them. Strong the spell, The witchery of youthful love inthrals Him still, 'tis part of his soul's being. Souls Upborne to sinless habitations, bear Their memories with them. Angels, as they mount From earth with tidings, halt on their ascent THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 13 Beholding Mm, and tell if aught they know Of her, he loved and left a-sorrowing, When he upsoared for angel-countries, far Beyond the margin of Time's ocean strand. Dulcet to me his memory is, as tones Pealed from cathedral organs, at the close Of day. Like the o'ertopping pine, his form Was tall, his mien all nobleness and grace. The aspect of his countenance as grand As carved or painted beauty, rarely seen Among the living. Out of his pale face Ofttimes a seraph looked. In musing moods. And e'en in hours of joyance, he was wont To fall a musing, parted stood his lips As portals oped for eloquence. But what Is beauty in the human face, but lines More exquisitely carved, or colors tinct On clay, by God's own fingers ? Small the worth Of outward beauty, for the briUiant tints Fade from the hving dust. Deep in the mind Ip beauty shrined, and o'er the universe Its hues are poured like light, whene'er the soul Is moved to pleasure. 'Tis the spirit unseen 14: THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. That beautifies the mortal form. The tent, Which fire-winged angels lodge in, is lit up By their celestial presence, and gleams out Illumined, to the midnight traveller. Thus doth the soul the man irradiate. And o'er him hang a veil of lustrous light. Betokening what dwells the home within. Sublime the clusters were of thought divine. Which grew upon that soul erewhile on earth. As the luxuriant foliage of young oaks. At times, methought he teemed with centuries ripe With wisdom ; then o'erflowed, as some full urn With water, clear and living from the rock ; But oftener, like the firmament, when all The stars are riding in their chariots brave. As angels voyaging, and pouring down Their beams in golden glory, on the hills And vales of earth ; for aye the beauty clear Of his mind filled the universe, and flowed Through all its veins. If he but spoke of hiU, Or tree, or stream, or feeling of the heart ; At once a halo of new light arose And brooded there. He sowed his thoughts around, THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 15 As Grod sowed erst the teeming worlds, that morn Of creation. Once, as if his soul Were a vast ocean roused to wrath^ where ebhed And flowed o'erswoUen streams of thought, he looked. Ideas grand, colossal, like the towers Of ancient worlds, dwelt in his mighty soul. At other times, most suddenly across His face swept shadows, as if sorrows preyed Upon his heart. Anon his eyes would blaze. Like meteors clear and soft and bright, as if He heard the voices of young hope and love Consoling him, from out their holy shrines. He was a mystery to me, and oft I feared, when watching his enraptured moods Of feeling, that his soul straightway would scale Its prison walls. A shell the body is Where spirit nestles, nay the globe itself Is but a nest, from which innumerous souls Their everlasting flight have taken. Man Is the Son of Grod, — His Scion, like to God In his diviner nature, but finite. On that side viewed all sensuous he seems ; On this, all intellect with naught of sense. _ 16 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. From loftier stand his moral nature looms Before iis, conscience rising like a tower. From height sublimer yet, he seems all faith, With ear intent on gathering every word, Which droppeth from the lips of God. The soul Of man is many-sided, of great powers, And destiny more grand than angel hath, Or being yet create. Sublime is man ! O'er the Atlantic sea, he journeyed far At manhood's dawn, far from his island home To the western world. In thought ofttime, he strayed A pilgrim homeward, loitered on its strand And climbed its heathery hills, for deep enshrined In 's heart it lay, where'er he wandered, bright And precious as a gem, which love preserves Locked in a casket. Of her orators. Philosophers and poets much he loved To ponder. Caves a.nd glens and mountain tops Which gave her martyrs shelter, of old time, He knew and treasured. Every battle field His memory recalled, and when he told Their glories, he revived the patriot dead, THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 17 Arrayed the mind before, with coronets crowned Of freedom. Full of minstrelsy, as harp, Waking to poet's fingers, was his soul. And strange his lore, for one so young. The founts Philosophy had oped in the vast world Of mind, were not concealed from him — of yore Nigh these he worshipped. Nor with living seers Had not held living converse ; for his isle Of deepest, soundest thinkers was the field : And he had nursed his generous youth e'en then, Where thought profound, and deep, and clear, and pure, Most reverence hath of men. The poet's tongue, The oratorial thunders he had heard. The men whose fame surrounds the globe, whose tomhs Votaries fail not to visit ere they die. In the vast shrine of worthies, consecrate To genius, in his native isle, a niche, A vacant niche, there is and yet will be, Until his statue fills it and his name. This faintest sketch by inapt pencil drawn May yet suffice, if it shall find a place, 18 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. A lodgment in tlie lieart of living men, Now on tlie earth, and to some yontb. unborn^ Far down a future age, a study be. Among imperishable names may bis And Isabel's be found — immortal is The memory of his guardian angel ; all ' My word-craft seeks is this. Most fit it is To sketch the lineaments of him, distinct. And full and lifelike, so the mind may see His presence, like a thing of life ; for 'tis His thoughts, which form the staple of my lay. His early history, though all replete With substance and adapt for song, I pass Untold, nor sound his fortunes, until first The star of love on his horizon rose. Blessed star to him. It found him, sure Heaven-sent. In the bright morn of life, when all the earth Is white with blossoms, and the sky Of future years is cloudless, only seen By lovers. Till that hour he knew not earth Had being so divine, so beautiful ; So much like those beheld in holy dreams. When the entranced soul looks through the sky THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 19 Up to the sinless beings there. His hour Of love had come, eventful hour of life On earth ; the mystic hour, which never comes To man hut once. He loved ; great is that word, And weighty with innumerous memories Of joy and hope and sorrow ; meanings which No orator hath spoken, and aP' hard Hath sung. A wider, vaster universe Was oped to him, and the new shrine of love Wooed him to worship— shrine of youthful love Shall never lack its numerous worshippers. Hard by the Mississippi's waters dwelt The maid create for him ; for there is not In all the realms of being one lone soul Unmated, all things are twofold in their lives. Spirits are made in pairs, and happiest aye, That spirit which hath found its twin-born mate. That blessed mate he found for him, foremade. In the recesses of the wilderness. The solitudes of earth are beautiful, Sentient and full of presences divine. Investing the earth-born, who dwell therein With heavenly bloom and dignity. In such 20 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Was born this angel of Ms destiny And cradled there. Child of the wilderness Was she, and grew in beauty, like the morn In unseen skies, or flower in secret glen, Where no rude eye intrudes. All things most fair And holiest in nature, noiseless weave Their threads of being. Angels visit earth In silence, retreat silent, as the dreams • Of sleepers. Thought makes pilgrimages wide. Silent through universal space ; and light, Next swiftest, journeys silent. Trees, The huge cathedral trees, which the sweet birds At eventide made vocal with their glee. Branch, spray, and leaf, and all their odorous blooms, Glad of their dewy baptism, silent grow. On earth there is no sound when souls are born To God. In silence awful and profound. Spirits he cleanseth black, engrained in sin. The wheel of Providence, so high and vast. So laden with the destiny of worlds, Eolls ever onward, silent and unheard. What wonder then, that child of beauty grew To womanhood, amid the wilderness. Unconscious, till they met. But when they met, THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL, 21 Each knew his mate, and earth diviner seemed To both, and life more holy from that hour. Each blossom has its destiny ; she was The only flower of time, which grew on earth For him. Words are the lifeless images Of outward things ; the history of love They never can unfold, nor faithful paint The witchery of beauty. Pictured words Breathe not, nor live. A sorcery there is, A sorcery in love and loveliness, Which none may know, save they who feel their power. By day and night, aye, in the lover's mind, Absent or present, dwells her image. Life JSTo pleasure has, so sweet as waking dreams Of love. • The most puissant mystery Of earth it is, that youthful souls sublime. With every virtue crowned, should instantly Halt, on the road of life and bow the knee To other human souls, once seen, nor seen, 'Nov heard of, till that hour. The woods among He saw her first, most beautiful to him In her wild youth — his inmost soul awoke 22 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. To feeling and to joy, such as before Naught had awakened in't. The trees are fair At summertide, when sultry days serene Lie motionless on earth and sea and sky. The hght is passing fair, when after night Of pain, the sunbeams gild the weary couch. Fair laughs the earth, when the black storm is past, And the loud flapping of its wings no more Eesound. The hills are beautiful at night, When all the burning stars do stand agaze From altitudes cerulean and vast : But all this beauty only is, to die. Trees, light, earth, storm, hills, stars, insentient all. Must perish. Not so human beauty, seen By eyes of love. Decay comes never nigh "With its effacing fingers" — death itself Mars not its memory ; and such was hers To him, who loved her. She the beam of light Created to illume the darkened shrine Of his existence. Earth must have her moon, To light her through the pathless fields of air, And man his star to light him up to Heaven. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 23 The Mississippi is the central stream Of tlie vast westeru continent, in twain From tlie great northern lakes dividing it, Down to the balmy Gulf of Mexico. On green and terraced bluff, of alpine swell, The orient overlooking, to the north. Some twice two hundred miles above the mouth Of the Missouri, was the childhood's home Of Isabelle the fair. He floated down The Mississippi, in his bark canoe, One star-lit autumn eve ; a lamp shone out High up the western banks, v/hich stirred his soul, As if a spirit spake, with memories Of other lands. Perchance he musing heard His ministering angel's voice, for God • To every man his angel gives, who ne'er Leaves him alone. Soon, on the river's banks He stood ; then to a willow half submerged Moored his canoe, and clombed the winding way Up to the lighted mansion ; entering it ; No more aimless to roam on earth ; for there He found his father's friend, a patriot Self exiled from fair France ; and here his fate 24: T H E G U A E D I A N A N G E L . Found liim, wMcli gave sublimity and bliss To all Ms after life. Young Isabelle Became bis heart's sole star. In all bis dreams He saw ber^ and in every revery He talked witb Irer. His mystery of life Y/as tbere — be loved, be won fair Isabelle. Tbree summers since, in flowery montb o' May, His borne by tbe Atlantic sea, wbere aye aside. From pilgrimages tbrougb tbe land, be turned, Farev/ell be bade, nor e'er again saw it. The day of bis espousals bastened on, Filling tbe future, like a jubilee ; And tbrougb tbe cbambers of bis soul, tbe sounds Of its approacbing wbeels resounded. On Tbat morn bis friend — tbe bard, whose numbers seek To waffc bis history far down tbe stream . Of years, bis sole companion v/as. , Tbe bay Studded witb argosies, on commerce bent : Tbe vast metropolis, all bushed and still As a sepulchral world, though sleepers dreamed, And sick and dying in their agonies Breathed heavy ; with white vapors covered were. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 25 It seemed as if the robes of morning trailed On earth. We left the city ere the beams Of day perched on the towers like birds of heaven. The streets were all deserted, and the steps Of wassailers were not e'en heard. None stirred, Save traveller all intent on pilgrimage. All day, all night we hasted on our way ; And as the second morn came out of heaven Greeting the earth, the AUeghanies stood Before us, wrapped in mist, Hke seers. All veiled and hid from vulgar eyes. Anon, As day drew near, their lofty summits shone Like the golden battlements of far off worlds. The live-long day these mountain barriers We clomb ; nor saw we aught in gorge, or glen, Or waterfall, or precipice, so fit For meditation as the giant trees, Innumerous, lying in lone dignity, Dead monarchs. Side by side they stately lay In rows, like tombed corpses in the crypt Of hoar cathedrals. It was sad to think No resurrection morn would them invest With life and foliage. 26 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. Sailing adown The "broad Ohio, us the fourth day found. Serene it was, and beautiful that day — As heautiful as when who saw it first Named it " la Belle Eivi^re," — the river showed. Its hanks, its forests, and its ample vales All green with life and populous with herds. Embosomed in the circling hills, come hack, Full oft in dreams to me, far distant. High, Eemote, the azure, dome-like sky appeared ; Illumed and glorious with the summer Bun, Where islands of whjte clouds slow floated through, Like fleets of hierarchs pleasure voyaging. The winds lay sleeping on the far off peaks Of mountains dimly seen. Silence profound. Like some great presence, listening amid The fane of Nature, stood invisible. Thrice day sun-lit, and thrice the starry night. The white moon walking midst the golden stars, Like inmate of the sky gone forth alone To meditate, did wax and wane while thus We sailed. Nor once a shadow fell on us. O'er which the soul could brood as ominous. Not fairer may the heaven of heavens appear, THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 27 Wken sinless angels walk its holy streets, Of God communing. Needs must I pass by Unsung, the sounding rivers, wMcIi came forth To greet us on our journey. Urns of thought I leave, thick standing there untouched ; of eld Lit up by spirits of the wilderness, And consecrated unto minstrelsy, While eartlfs young harp was green. scenes on scenes, Fresher than youthful memories and fair As the tall tree of life, I pass ye by With grief. Absorbed, I gazing watched the eve Of the eighth day, silent, the western gate Of the horizon ope. The blazing sun Had disappeared amid the forest. Sky, Earth, woods, and river instantly were dyed In crimson glory. On my soul, thoughts strange And new came flocking, like the birds of day Into the leafy groves, purpling the scene With angel presences most beautiful. Enough is told, my revery broke ofp — For then a hand me touched — o,n earnest tongue 28 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. Whispered — " The Mississippi/' and was mute. It was my friend — though looking towards the West, Mine eye had not observed where they two met — The sire of waters and his lovely bride. But now I saw the Mississippi sweep Silent and strong towards the sunny South, Bending the thousand-miled Ohio, like An osier twig, and carrying it away, As ancient conqueror his captive queen, Bound to his chariot. As the stream of time, With all its myriad wrecks of bygone worlds, Is poured into Eternity's vast sea And ceases, so Ohio was not — here Her history endeth. In the purple West, Beyond the Mississippi's swollen flood, Missouri's shores, with long drawn ranks arrayed Of giant sentinels, in verdure clad, Lay sleeping in the slant and misty lights Filling the forest-gaps, its source unseen. Far to the westward set the golden sun, While builded by his magic, in the East, High overhead the sevenfold arcli uprose THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 29 In iridescent lustre, beautiful, Bridging the azure with, its curve sublime ; As if ten thousand cars might roll across, Freighted with angels, nor its span depress. Beneath o'er thwarted by that glory, rolled In the soft light Ohio's lovely stream : While southward, underneath, not distant far, I saw the Mississippi sweeping by. As sometime through an arch of olden time Triumphal, in the sweet Italian night. The traveller sees the slow procession pass Of southern constellations burning clear. That scene is graven on my soul. The floods. The crimson halo, the o'erarching bow, Stand aye before mine eyes in present light, Upcalled by memory's retrospective spell. And with themselves upcalling all the train Of thoughts which passed before me musing then. How wonderful must be the sinless world Around the great white throne ; how more than grand The soul of Grod, when all that I beheld Was naught, beside His glory unrevealed To mortals ; and how unconceived the bliss 30 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. Of holiest angels conversant with scenes Fairer than this, through all the years of time. My friend had stood impatient as I gazed In tranced silence. When at length he spake Abrupt, I started ; for his sudden speech Seemed purposeless ; his words at random thrown, Wide from the mark.—" Dost thou believe," he said, " Dreams are of God to us, as erst they were To the old patriarchs who in Haran dwelt ; Of import real, inspiration true ; Or things as unsubstantial as yon bow Built out of rain and sunbeams ? " To him thus I answered. " Dreams are twofold in their kind ; Some issuing from the soul like streamlets clear From the deep hills ; or lights from out the urns Of Time ; or trees umbrageous, green and tall, Born of the valley. In the mystery Of the soul's essence deep their causes lie. Their origin beyond all mortal ken Far hidden. Some but fleeting vagaries Fantastic by the senses formed, which rise Like vapors from the stagnant pool, when high THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 31 The sun uprisen scatters his warm rays O'er fen and upland. Others again There are, which pass the mind's broad disc, as fleets Pass o'er the circle of the optic glass, Far out at sea, by angels builded on The banks of their great heavenly river, dreams Magnificent as orient palaces — Life dramas all, all launched by angels too, And steered unseen, in silence, swift as light, Before the sleeping senses. " Dreams there are, There have been, and shall be, whose sweep is vast. Far reaching in the infinite, deep concealed. In these 'tis thought by many that the soul Makes visits to far distant worlds, while sleep Locks all the body's senses up, and ere The gates are oped returns again. Such thought Is grand, befitting the large dignity Of the angelic soul. Its angel goes, Its guardian angel with it goes, in these Vast pilgrimages. Far away a land There is, where aye the future and the past Are seen, called Dreamland — there it goes. The soul 32 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. For briefest instant standing on those Mils, Or travelling through, those vales hath memories Innumerable traced on it, which rise Like scenery before it in its walks Anon and musings on the earth. Such dreams Are revelations taken from the urn Beneath the everlasting throne." To this He said — " I had a vision this last night, In which I saw the scenery we now see ; Only the setting sun, the earth, and sky, Were more divinely glorious. Other things Were shown to me, not now beheld, which gave The dream mysterious interest to my soul. I dreamed that I was travelling alone I' the land of visions ; now, on mountain tops I stood, where I beheld the battlements Of Heaven, and heard distinct the music rise And fall, like ocean billows on the ears Of pilgrim travelling near its surgy roar ; — Then, seemed to walk through valleys white with tents Of seraphim ; where aye at every turn I met their heavenly inmates ; and they made THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 33 Obeisance. Then, again, it seemed as if I paused amid a wilderness, and gazed On cataracts of alpine grandeur. Aye I felt myself borne on through varying scenes, Like an unbodied soul. " As wayfarer. When passing through an earthly palace, halts Sudden before some gallery's vaulted door. Awed by the presences seen there, along The canvassed walls and in the niches ; so Paused I amid the dream, entranced and awed By the grand scene before me : — 'twas this scene Now spread before us, but more beautiful. With something of the invisible world beside, As now the West like a pavilion glowed. Pitched for the great archangel. As I gazed, Methought I heard at intervals, far up Amid the gorges of the crimson clouds, The voices of young earth-born travellers To travellers shouting higher up ; and felt The presences of spirits ministering Unto me — nay, the spirit hand of one ThriUed me. " But here a change came over me, 2* 84 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. And all that memory has preserved is this : I sat alone in a canoe, borne down The current of the broad Ohio. Mute As rivers in the realms of death, was all Above, around ; naught heard I, but my thoughts Fast rushing through the halls of mine own soul. Most suddenly a rainbow noiseless dropped On earth from out the firmament ; a grand, Aerial structure beautiful uphung. Like the angelic bridges o'er the sea Of hfe — an arch of clear and gorgeous Hght, It spanned the Ohio river. Downward still Borne on, I neared it, and I saw distinct An angel stand midway its vaporous curve ; A giant angel ; on his head a crown Of wondrous glory gleamed ; afar Behind him trailed his robe ; and o'er the arch Floating, was stirred by the night-wind. Anon, I thought the angel beckoned me and spake. But incomplete, as dreams forever are. His words mine ear caught not. Perchance the waves That plashed around my course, likelier yet, My mortal ears, by sin sealed to the tones THE GTAEDIAN ANGEL. 35 Of holy angel's voice, those words divine From mine enraptured soul shut out. Anon, In fearful effort those angelic words Striving to grasp, I started, I awoke." " How hard," he said, " thus frustrate to awake And ineffectual, when a moment's space Spared to the vision more, had given to him The words seraphic.'^ " Sorrow not," I said To him, " for certes, soon again will come That messenger, if aught the message he, as ships By sudden storm blown from the shores they coast. Out to hroad ocean, after many days Arriving safe when winds are down ; so dreams Pass and come back again ; nor doubt I, this Shall bring the guardian spirit again, who left His errand half unfinished." Here I paused. For up the Mississippi now had turned Our vessel. Mute, upon the rushing prow, The crew stood gazing at the vasty flood, Which seethed and muttered hurrying past, as though Instinct with some great life. Innumerous 36 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL, Were the images which, came before my mind By which to measure it — this most we took, A maniac prophet fleeing from the face Of God, seeking some unknown world. The gates Of day down-dropped, and all now visible Of that most gorgeous sunset, v^as a gleam Of golden light above the distant tops Of the dim forest trees, like to the trail Of angels on their road to Heaven. The chariots of the night arrived on Earth, Bearing the round white moon and silver stars Their riders. On the horizon, from her car Of glory landed that fair queen, and poured Celestial radiance from her heavenly urn, 'O'er forest, flood, and field. Her aspect looked As that of heavenly priestess, at the shrine Of nature. The tall forest trees appeared, Like Druids stationed in the wilderness To worship God, The firmament of blue. When the enkindled stars sat on their thrones. Showed like a city on a mountain's steep, Seen by the traveller from the vale below At night, with all its avenues and squares THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL, 37 And monuments illumed. What siglit of Earth Could be more gorgeous than a night like this ? A passing cloud, a vagrant of the sky, An instant hid the moon, and o'er the scene A long, blue shadow flung. At this my friend Bespoke mine ear and said, " 'Twere well to sit Us down ; the place — the hour — the memories Kecalled are fit for high discourse." Anear the prow We sat us down, where observation swept Far up the Mississippi. Still the cloud Threw its dim drapery over all the scene. Alone we sat, nor long in silence sat ; For albeit soon, — " I doubt not, I indeed. That dreams are given of Grod, and give, themselves, Enlargement to the wide domain of thought. Still why it thus should be, or whence the need, I see less clear. Man's sensuous essence fits His nature to converse with all the world, Yet more his puissant mind. The Holy Ghost And Kevelation's truth pour on his soul All light essential else. Perchance the dream Is the soul's Eden-birthright, still possessed 38 THE GtTAEDIAN ANGEL. By it. If dreams were needful, then, to man^ More needful in his exile/' Answering him — In thought I led him back to the primal morn Of Earth, and to man's fall. " The Earth," I said, " When man was made, was nearer God than now. It lay at anchor in the hay of Heaven, As new rigged ship, moored in an inland sea Of Earth. The shadow of the hattlements Of the vast sinless land fell over it — This silver orb of time. From its green hills The great white throne and mystic bow were seen ; Heard, too, the minstrelsy at morn and eve, Of harping angels. Numberless amid The groves of Paradise walked cherubim And tongues and peoples. All obeisance made To man whene'er they met him. If desire Of travel e'er had then possessed the mind Of man, he could have passed unwrecked and safe In frailest shallop through the channels there, And seas replete with worlds ; as earthly bays Are with fair isles. In nightly dreams man saw Worlds now unknown, and visions had of things Future and grand. THE GTJAEDIAN ANGEL. 39 " Change direful came o'er man And eartli, apostate. Angels then, sent down In haste towed off the erring Earth, far off, Into the wilds of space, where far and few The stars are visible by night ; by day One lonely sun. Like plague-ship on a rock, A desert rock fast anchored, it was left : Grod's interdict waved like a banner high Above its rocky battlements ; and round Its sea-girt shores angelic beings walked Forbidding travel there, from sinless worlds ; Save to God's special envoys. " Forfeiture Most sad was this to man, apostate man. Angels no more might with him parley hold : No more be seen by, save when sent down From Heaven, on special errand from the throne. No more might angel footprints mark the earth ; No more might sinless minstrelsy the ear Of man regale : no more might angel tents Be visible to man : no more the wings Of his own soul unfurl, and from the Earth Go out exploring other stars. Egress From Earth to man was barred, forever barred, 40 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. Save by tlie mystic spirit-ship of death. Of all his former state^ naught was there left, Naught but the privilege of dreams divine ; Which, haply, if collected from, a life. And in one tome, apart, enshrined, Were almost revelation," Here, paused I : The vessel veered, and the unclouded moon Disclosed four listeners sitting, of our words Observant — these unseen erewhile. A boy Fairhaired was one, an orj)han, in one day Bereft of both, when most he missed their care, His parents — while the summer's raging star Smote the red rivers of that deadly clime With pestilential flame. When both were gone, Another boy, scarce older, clung to him Of sable hue, a slave. Around the child His arm was folded ; on his faithful breast The orphan head was piUowed. I have seen. Oft in my dreams, since that eventful night, The orphan and his slave. Even then, methought, That servile forehead did contain a soul Not servile. Four in number there they sat THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 41 The listeners : — one a venerable man Tall and white haired, with patriarchal flow Of reverend locks : and as the moonbeams fell In floods of lustrous glory o'er his face, As if from qLuenchless urn outpoured, I felt The oratory of his eye. He sat One side of the orphan boy. Upon the right Of the boy-slave reclined a woman, old Exceedingly, in robes of widowhood. Her large blue eyes shone radiant with the light Of deathless thought ; her feature clear and fair As sculpture. Spirit of statuary ! where Was then thy chisel, that thou didst not give That group to future times ! Amid the pause. The woman's words fell on mine ear distinct : " Seeing of dreams you speak," she said, " and things Spiritual and divine, no wrong it were, I ween, to hear and question. Pardon me, If I offend, who would not ; but your words Have touched my heart, that I must speak ; for naught 42 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Doubt I, but angels stoop, at times, to hear ; And spiritual beings hold their watch, In ministering to the exiled souls of earth, Inspiring dreams, which future deeds may oft Foreshadow, and teach truths of life divine." Albert her words d rank in, into the depths Of his large soul. He bent him forward, while She spoke. The Ethiop and the orphan looked Inquiringly into her face, with eyes Like stars of love, at eve, before the moon Arises ; and a curious witchery Crept over me at every word she said. Nor can I tell why it were so, unless The music of her voice some chord awoke Of secret sympathy. At length, assured Her words gave no offence, then on she spoke What in her mind was upmost ; how her Lord When he was dying, on his painful bed. When life was well nigh ended, and perchance A something of the future dawn was nigh, Dreamed, and, what time he woke, divulged his dream, THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 43 Mystic and wonderful. " In tliought absorbed, Beside bis couch by nigbt I sat, alone. He slept ; wben sudden up he rose, awake, Like one who dreams, when touched by human hand." Thus prefaced she the story of his dream. " ^ Saw ye mine angel, or his footsteps heard Near by ? — the sound of wings, of angel wings, Has waked me from a vision. Still, I hear The whisper of angeKc messengers. As if they ministered to me, in sleep. Audience methought an angel sought of me. He looked some far-off traveller, ofttimes seen On hill of earth, at early morn, whose robe Of mist trails far behind. I instant knew. And felt it was a spirit of glory, sent On secret errand from the throne of Grod. The angel had the visage of a man ; But taller than a mortal form his mien. The crown upon his head was not of earth. The harp not earthly, which his left hand bore. But ere his utterance reached my wondering ear, I heard the footsteps of my fluttering thoughts 44: THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. Descending and ascending througli my sonl, Like echoes of a falling tree. Ere long, Smiling ineffable peace, the angel spoke. Elect one, peace, fear not, tliy servitor Ordained am I of old, thine angel guide. In the Lamb's book thy name is writ : Writ in God's autograph, ere angels yet Had being, or the compasses of God Had mapped the confines of the universe. Hoary Eternity thy name elect Holds graven on its everlasting walls. The dial, which all things predestinate Announces, points even now to thy death-hour. He, who for sinners with the Eather pleads — The advocate — closes his argument For thee. Complete in holiness thy soul. For thee the Holy S|)irit brooding sits, A mystery in a temple ; and well pleased The Father. Lifted by the hand divine Of thy great proxy, hath the fragrance sweet, From the full censer of thy prayers, gone ujj. Blent with the increase of his sacrifice, Unto the Father's nostrils, high in heaven. theguaedian angel. 45 A crown^ a liarp of holiest make, a throne Await thy entrance to the land of souls. Hearest thou that, sound ? — It is the pendulum Of ancient time, its oscillations slow Beating. Thou canst not hear it, mortal yet Imperfect — nor canst see the mystic thread Uniting thee to all the holy forms Enthroned and glorified. It vibrates fast, As they on tiptoe watch thy advent grand Into their realms. Soon shalt thou see the court Of courts, sublime beyond all pomp of earth. On earth great multitudes of angels stand. Awaiting thy departure from the shores Of time. No soul elect from earth departs In the death-ship alone, or through the vale Of terror walks, without great retinue. Surpassing princely coronation trains. What would the sinless hierarchies of God Declare, if they beheld one holy soul Of angel guides bereft, in that dark hour Of strange transition, walking lonely home. To its new dwelling in eternity ? ' " No more said he, but with outspreading wings 46 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Of wondrous beauty, sailed away and soared, As eagle from a sea o'erlianging cliff, Into the empyrean. In the dream I followed him, as I were winged too. The moon we passed, and many a star, when night. The night of earth had sat enthroned in pomp Surpassing day. We passed the wheel-like sun. As he lit up the far horizon's steep With rays. We saw the battlements sublime Of the vast universe, unseen before. Huge amphitheatre-like cliffs, which gird An archipelago with isles besprent. Dense crowded on these ramparts of clear light, Kank above rank, sworded and helmed with fire. Thicker than cedars on the holy hill Of Lebanon, angelic legions stood. On, on we flew, the headlands we passed by, Creation's utmost limit, and went out Beyond the worlds, beyond the spheres of time, Into the airless waste of barren space. And there, hung balanced in the breathless void, Gazing, a desolation limitless On all sides round us. " Then the angel spoke THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 47 ' Earthborn/ he said, ' behold the ship of death Eiding the billows of eternity. With her great freight of souls/ " I looked abroa.d And saw a huge cathedral craft, her hulk All stripped, withouten masts, withouten sails, In silence toiling through the pitchy gloom. At times, strange wailings from her ribs of woe Kose tremulous to the ear, at times arose Jubilant shouts of triumph. " Here the dream Was changed. Methought a child I was, alone On earth. 'Twas summer, beautiful to see Were the white blossoms on the hedgerow trees By the woodside. • Balmy the air and blue The sky serene, with here and there a mass Of clouds whiter than hills of snow. The road I took was mountainous, and rich in wealth Of glens and streams, and woods and waterfalls, And lakelets forest-girt. Anon, a group Appeared of angels coming down the way, Who formed an avenue through which to pass Onward and upward. Silent all they stood, And made obeisance my steps before. 48 THE GUAEDIATSr ANGEL. As the steep road I clomb with childish glee Alone. Nor long until another group Drew nigh, and formed themselves in rows, and stood On either side ; like sentinels they stood, While I fared forward. More and more they came, The angel travellers, thickening on the way. The mountain road up to its highest gorge, Cleft through the hills eternal, narrower grew. And steeper. Nor could I forbear the thought That I was near the land of angels, near Some city, whence their hosts forth issuing came. Still went I on, until I reached at last What seemed the summit of that Alpine road, And paused awhile to look around, and drink Into my heart the scenery sublime. Then what a wonder blazed upon my soul Astonished ! — all the mountain gorge below. Which weary I had thridded to this height. Stood solid with one countless, shining mass Of angels coming up. Host after host They came. Above, great patriarchal trees O'er all the boundless champaign flourished fair, Upon the blessed mountain's top. The road THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 49 Through this wide meadow lawn showed great array With gonfanons, and banners, sounds of harps And symphony of psalteries and song, Approaching. — First, my Guardian Angel came. Joyful he grasped my hand, and in my ear This secret whispered." Here, she stopped and wept. With choking voice, scarce audible, so stirred With grief, then added — '^ Death was waiting, nor Would wait one moment longer. Ere he told That mystery sublime, the other world Eeceived his soul, and I was there alone. Alone beside my dead." The orphan boy No longer could his agony of soul Contain ; but loudly on his mother called. Like some lorn child, when wandered from its home And stopped by passing stranger. To his heart Closer the Ethiop clasped the boy — his tears Wiped ofP, and with kind words assuaged his woe. To change his trains of thought to channels free From sorrow, quietly I took his hand In mine, and asked if he had ever dreamed Of angels ? Instantly his eyes shone out 3 60 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. Like meteors bright and beautiful and full Of joyful tbougbt^ and answering, well pleased To tell his thoughts, spoke thus in childish phrase. " The night dear mother died, from troubled dream They waked me. In the dream I thought one came To me and talked about my mother. Wings Had he, like albatross or eagle, such As I have seen upon the rocky cliffs Of ocean, in the distant land beloved, Home of my boyhood. — Pointing to the sea, He showed me where a galley rode the waves Steered by angelic hands — ' That bark," he said, ' Bears thy dear mother's sainted soul away Beyond the shores of time.' — I cried for her To take me with her, and awoke to find Her dying. " Pallid was her face, and bright With an unearthly light her eyes. Her hands Were very cold, I feel their coldness still Upon my forehead ; and the words she spoke To me, forever shall I hear, as though They could not fly away from earth and me. With grief o'ercome I soon again returned THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 51 Into the land of dreams. I seemed at home And in my little chamber, on my couch At midnight. Through the window I could see A little star a- twinkling in the sky Brightly. The young moon looked upon the star As if she loved it more than other stars Around it. Soon I thought I saw that star Come nearer and more near to me. It looked In at the window, and I thought I called To it, and said, little twinkling star. Come in. At this methought the star was changed Into a bird, and instantly began To sing more sweet than any little bird I ever heard amid the grove. When once The serenade was o'er, I thought it flew Into my room, and oh how beautiful It was. It turned into an angel, like My mother, and then hovered o'er my couch, Still growing liker and more like, until It was my own dear mother. Beautiful Her wings and mantle seemed. More close she drew And stood beside my bed, and fondly looked Into my face, and spread her pinions bright 52 THE GIJAEDIAN ANGEL. Around me, and soft wliispered in mine ear — I tried to hear, but woke in trying," Then He wept aloud, at thinking how he woke His mother's words unheard. " Good messengers Are ever on the wing, between the earth And highest heaven," the old man said, and bent Him forward to embrace the orphan boy. This, too, he added — '■ Nor is it a thing Incredible, fair boy, thy mother's soul To thee was ministering amid the dream. Faster than thought can travel, travelleth The disembodied soul from earth to heaven ; And from the spirit realms again to earth. Most fit it were she should revisit thee. What time her duties at the great white throne Gave leisure." Now 'twas near the noon of night. For fast the moonlight hours had floated by Amid the reminiscences of dreams Foreshadowing the future — the unknown. As shining day and dusky night both met r the vale, so looked the orphan and his slave. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 5 While they arose and stood — as light and shade Moving across the summer plain, so, they Before us, sohbing. " Sorrow not," I said, ' ' Ye orphans, for most fitting night is this. For souls translated to eternity Earth to revisit, and most fit for dreams Dewy with inspiration." From his seat The aged man arose. Tall was his form And awe-inspiring, like a seer of earth, Whose inner life is full of holiness, Keeping communion ever with his God. Full in the moonlight standeth he, e'en now. For memory never perishes, but keeps Her thoughts with miser care, deep in the cells Of the fixed soul. As statue on whose brow Immortal thoughts are graven, so he stood. Then spake these words, solemn as oracles Of old revealing mysteries profound ; — We listened, I and Albert, for we two Alone remained. " Causes have holiest dreams Which dreamers little know. Angels must needs 64 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. Be the scene-shifters, for no hand of flesh Could build up architecture so divine And beautiful ; nor from futurity Lead up the shadowy skeletons of things To be ; nor ope the gateway of the world, Where Grod's old purposes have lain concealed From first eternity. The dreams this night Revealed to us have sequels, nor is it A thing to question, but soon some kindling ray From passing angel's torch, may fall on earth And lighten up their meaning. " Evermore, The future and the past appear in dreams, Looming like headlands seen far out at sea By mariners. Nay, passing strange it is. That scenes remote in childhood's years return And are reacted ; and that beings which No mortal eye hath seen, should sudden rise From out the womb of dread eternity. And flit before the dreamer. But 'tis. so. Divine and mystical are dreams, God's gifts To erring man, nor given to man alone, But e'en to cradled infants, and the years Of growing childhood, each to each adapt. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 55 What mother hath not sighed to know the thought Which stirred her sleeping infant's soul serene, As o'er its face, like twilight o'er the sea, Gleamed the sweet smile, and from its lips of love Laughter came rippling out, as if its ear Heard whispers of angelic voices nigh. The closest dungeon, secret as the grave, Barreth not out the dream of light, of love. Of blessedness, and death alone has power To hid the march of nightly visions cease. All things are God's — all dreams — all waking thoughts — Beings angelic, mortals in then- flesh. Souls in their immortality, aU His, And Death and Life, Eternity and Time ; This night is His, an episode not lost In the great poem of His Providence. Oft have I thought that dreams to man are sent, To warn the soul of its departure near. Nor were it strange, if we should learn anon. The ship of death were voyaging hard by This very night," Not silent long remained 66 THEGUAEDIAN ANGEL. Albert, but answered — "Dream-worlds thick as stars In the blue sky there are, in winter nights, Which souls must visit, and strange converse hold With spirit-beings, so that passing out Of earth into Eternity, some thought Of the future may possess them, and make fit For higher and diviner mysteries. It may be that the dreams, they dreamed alive. Borne with them through the narrow gates of death. Become deep truths to the unbodied souls. Which stand awaiting on the strand of time. Like ship unlaunched. " Vast is the soul enlarged. Vaster than planet, star, or moon, or sun. They cannot think — not so the soul. Nay, more, They in the lapse of time must cease to shine, To traverse the great firmament, no more Needed to light the skies — but not the soul ; It never can return, nor in the womb Of dark oblivion be entombed and hid. It must exist forever, whether saved Or lost — its essence has no end. The term Of its abiding on the earth, the day THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 57 Of grace, of overtures, of working laere Below, must end, all end. Nor endless e'en The joy of angels over rescued souls New born to bliss. But to tlie soul itself. In itself infinite, no end shall he. Death is but sleep's twin brother, nor long time Ere all of us shall converse hold with death Intima,te and familiar, as in sleep With our accustomed dreams, which still supply. On fit occasions, with fit help the soul. These are its towers of observation, these Its Pisgah realms, where oft it walks inspired, And learns the awful future. Even to me Have dreams great warning given of events Whose tops no eye hath seen. One dream I had Long years ago, or ere my beard had grown, Or I had thought to roam beyond the sea. Nor change of place, nor change of scenery. Nor wildest change of thought has from my mind That dream erased. I thought that I was dead, And buried in the hills beside a brook. Which evermore made music, as it flowed Close to my bed, and still methought, I grieved, 3* 58 THE GtlAKDIAN ANGEL. In the still grave^ witli deep regretful pain That I had died, or e'er I found to build The mighty purpose of my heart. For I, I too, a purpose had, through all my youth. Touched, if enkindled not, by fire divine, " To build the lofty rhyme,"' — and strike the harp, Which many a stranger hand had struck before : The harp of Scotia, which even then gave out Subhmest strains, that wondering nations loud Applauded, But nor Scott's enchanted lay Of way-worn minstrels and beleagured dames, And those who wept the flower of Yarrow's stream, ' All wede away,' and deathless Bannockburn, And fatal Flodden ; nor the bard who sang ' The lost Kilmenie, pure as pure might be ; ' Nor Motherwell's sad minstrelsy, instinct With simple Scottish pathos ; nor his lyre. Which sounded the dread plague scene ; nor wh^^ sang The Baltic and the North, and that weird fray. Where Munich's banners waved at dead of night. Arrayed by torch and trumpet, nor the flow ' Of Iser rolling rapidly.' My soul Detained as higher themes, which gave their sound THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 59 To less sonorous strings, and with, their flame In genius less sublime tindled, for me Grreater sublimity. His muse who sang ' The Course of Time/ still warbled in mine ear, And lured me with the gesture of white hands, Waving me forward — till my heart was filled With that sole hope, to build one monument Of holy song, which might survive, not " brass Nor the famed capital," but this poor clay Which gave it birth, and being, and ensure Something unto his glory ; and that done. To lay me down and die — but in my dream I died, or ere I reached that only goal Of that my one ambition. Nor, perchance. Is 't wonderful that, since I dreamed that dream, I feel as one foredoomed too soon to die. My self-allotted task undone, my life Purposeless, and my death as bare of fruit As my life hath been. Troubled is my soul Witb this night's history of dreams ; nor yet Do I fear to die ! — so, if death meets me, ere I have achieved my earth scheme, be it mine To yield it up to one wbose sojourning 60 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. On eartli exceeds mine own^ to finish it/' I answer made : " This night an epoch strange Will he, in all our memories. The dreams Will haunt us evermore, and fairer make Our earth state. Beautiful, more heautiful Than erst will he our future. Brighter forms Will seem to walk with us along the track Of time, and cheer us on our journey home To our great Father's halls. 'Tis wonderful. That on the mystery of God-sent dreams. Such unexpected dazzling light should fall. Ascribe not to hhnd chance such meeting. God The sower is, and reaper of the seed, And fruitage of all history. Unroll The map of nations where we choose, and then An armless hand is seen the helm to guide Of earth. The starry worlds, heaven's ships of fire, Not aimless drift athwart the firmament, But voyage on to shores foredoomed to them. Since the creation. God our teacher is This night upon the Mississippi." Here We parted, soft sleep like a mantle fell THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 61 Ere long enfolding me, and with, tlie sleep Dreams came uncalled. The narrow streets of earth Were ne'er more thronged with multitudes, than was The sleep of that one night with dreams. Not all Can I recall, nor give them utterance. Some I remember, angels beautiful "With all were blent — their faces and their words My memory for aye will haunt. One claims A passing tribute in my lay : I seemed Slowly to climb a high sequestered hUl Of earth, for in the dream I found myself Upborne to verdurous mountain-tops, and stood As pilgrim stands, who waits before the gate Of some imperial palace, half concealed With foliage dense. While thus I stood there came A shining angel unto me and said : " Hail, brother, hail ! thrice happy I to see Thy face. I heard thou wast upon the earth. And from my course have turned to visit thee, For ever since creation's cold, gray dawn, A pilgrim have I been, wandering alone Beyond the frontiers of existence, where The pendulum of time I could not hear, 62 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. Counting its oscillations^ have I gone ; Worlds e'en no hierarch yet hath visited ; And things beheld, none see till they have dwelt Long ages in eternity : yet earth — Thy star I never saw till now, nor thee. Yet well I know that this is earth, the orb Of wondrous destinies. Thee, too, I know. Keflected in my memory hath been Thy face since first Grod gave me being, clear And beautiful as in the limpid pool. The forms o'erhanging it. By angel's hand Limned, I saw it in the gallery Of God, where hang the pictures of all earth's Innumerous generations. Mysteries Thou wilt not know, for ages link my fate With thine." As some great thought will sudden flash Before the mind, and disappear as fast, Ere yet the soul arouses to the sense Of its great presence, so this angel came And passed away. He scarce departed, came A second angel and saluted me. Tall as a fiery column, and as clear THE GUAJRDIAN ANGEL. 63 Revealed was lie. He bowed again, but not To me, and spake. I knew, but knew not how T knew — His words unto my Gruardian Angel, near. Though, all unseen, and unsuspect by me, "Were spoken ; greeting, such as spirits have, They had, not having met since I arose On earth, fresh from creation's teeming lap. Erewhile together they had journeyed ; seen Strange wonders in the distant universe. Not oft explored by angels ; embassies Of mighty import had fulfilled, and dwelt Of old together : — this I heard them tell. Swifter than light that angel on his way Passed and was gone. Before me, in my dream. Another, mightier, stood. " Thou son of earth. Follow," he said, " and see the things not seen By mortal eyes. There is a world not far. Like unto earth, but sinless, which e'er since The ruin of its sister silent stands As if 'twere dead ; as fabled Niobe, When grief for her fair children to cold stone Transformed, so was that earth all petrified 64 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. By sympathy intense, througlaout all time, Frozen and lifeless. Tlie streams roll no more, Nor waters are, but stone. Tlie trees, tlie flowers. The grass — the very dew-drops crystallize And harden into rock. The winged winds Hang like dead eagles in the air. Its moon, Its stars, its sun, all stone. The dwellers there, Godlike in form and mien, like statues stand, Cold in the shadowy groves — alive within. Yet cased in adamantine panoply, for flesh." Much more he said, which dwelt not in my soul Distraught and slumbering. But this remains : I saw a host of angels sailing by. Freighting a barge of fire, round as the moon Kiding the dark blue sky at noon of night, Of winter night, through rocky seeming clouds. Snow white. They spoke, and I could hear them tell Of worlds, their mmistry, where thoughts sublime Lay on their shores, thick as the shells and sands On earth's sea-beaten beaches, where unwrought The quarries lie of genius infinite. THE GUAEDIAN A N G- E L . 65 Here I awoke, nor ever niglit have passed Before or since, dream-liannted thus. The world Of spirits stood with gates wide open. How, Not so, when I, a mortal undivest of clay. Such converse held with beiags aeriform ? The soul hath warnings given, by day, by night. Which fit it for its future. But the morn Had dawned meanwhile, and rising from my couch I looked upon the Mississippi flood, Seeking its broadest prospect. The grand woods Seemed to take root in mists, the hill-tops shone Far in the orient, with the crimson light. Shot upward from the unseen source of day. The sun's broad orb looked o'er the horizon's edge Beaming hke hope upon a bed of death. Down flowed his rays o'er vale and forest green ; And in the river's face, as in a glass. His perfect orb lay mirrored. All around So fair, so tranquil, so serene, that earth Appeared a holy suburb of the sky, Fit lodging for the blest. My reverie The slave-boy broke : — all wild with agony 66 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. He seized my hand and cried : " The orphan boy Is dying/' nor more said, but ran, but flew From out my presence. True it was, the boy, The orphan boy was dying. Pestilence Had breathed upon him as it passed. His face Was sunken with a tinge of livid blue, Like the dark azure of the mighty Ehone, When the cold moon lights up its waters. Cold And clammy was his little hand, nor pulse Was in 't. His eyes shone with unearthly light, Yet on the haggard features played a smile. As, with a husky voice, "' I know," he said, " That I am dying, mother told me so. Last night I dreamed she had me by the hand. Beside clear waters, where we sat us down And long communed. She told me she was now An angel, and with other angels lived r the heavens. Soon, my, father too was there ; But changed from what he was. Yet still I knew His figure coming, but the while I rose To meet him, a great spirit filled the place With his appearance, and it said, ' Not now. To-morrow.' Instantly I woke, — the morn THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 67 Is come — to-morrow — happy I to die — Happy!" Brief was his death-pang. As a prayer Was offering for his soul, I saw his lips Cease moving, in default of farther strength For utterance, and his fringed eyelids fell Down o'er his eyes. Oh, could I but have seen His disembodied soul, when it beheld The retinue of angels waiting there To bear it up to glory, and relate The marvellous raptures of that hour of change. Immortal then would be my numbers. The ritual of burial, nor long The eulogy by that gray-headed sage Pronounced : — " The grave is full of hands which toiled ; Of tongues which uttered words that cannot die ; Of ears to softest music tuned ; of hearts All hallowed as the shrine of love ; of heads Garnered with wisdom ; feet which o'er the roads, The weary roads of earth have walked long years ; Of faces beautiful as angels ; now Another trophy hath it won ; nor hath 68 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. In its dark halls been hid more sacred dust Than this we leave alone ; nor all alone^ For aye near this, amid the pathless woods, Angels shall vigil keep. Nor can we doubt His soul could now he seen, if it were given To mortals to behold the soul unhoused, Shining with lustrous light in the serene Of heaven, beside his mother's, as we see Full oft in the blue sky, together set, The moon and morning-star, ere peep of day, In kindred loveliness.'' Our toiling barque Moved on, and left the orphan sleeping there By the great river. Silence, solemn, deep And dreadful brooded over us. Friend spake To friend in whispers. Here and there were seen. At times throughout the day, the passengers In groups ; but oftener alone they walked, Or stood, or sat ; each with his thoughts alone : As when a thunder storm is on the wing. Or earthquake trembleth near, all, all is calm, Preluding strange convulsion ; so we felt. The sultry day its long, dull, leaden hours Dragged on, till the great yellow sickly sun THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 69 Began to redden in the west, and cast His lurid glare o'er all the forest scene. One came and said to me : " It is not grief Hath kept the slave-boy on his couch all day, But the dread plague." He lay upon that verge Which overlooks eternity. As oft A star at morning, seen upon the peak Of Chimhorazo, which retires behind That mountain suddenly, so did he look. Delirium lit his glassy eyes with thoughts, Apt for a higher being. Fised, they shone As marking some great spectacle, to which His finger pointed. Aye his lips he moved. Like one borne on the stream of eloquence. At intervals, bright gleams of gladness spread O'er all his face, like light upon the hills, When the sun breaks through fleecy summer clouds, Which float like islands in the azure sky. Perchance angelic embassies he sav/ Waiting to carry him away to heaven. As one v^^ho sudden leaves the crowded hall Of his own dwelling, nor his sorrowing house Revisits more ; so he, an instant more, TO THE aUAEDIAN ANGEL. And on his lips was stamped Death's signet pale. Ere long the fatal summons once again Was sounded, and another answered it. 'Twas whispered that the widow, too, was dead. Even as a taper's light quenched suddenly At gusty midnight, so her soul had passed From its earth-lamp. Deep gloom fell over us — And darker shadow spread its sable wing Around ; as when the full-orhed moon retires Behind the western hill, and leaves the vales To the dim lustre of the far-off stars. Her dying words were few ; as one who heard Beside her couch related. From her sleep She woke, as morn dawned in the east, and said : " The while I slept I heard the sounding wings Of angel couriers hastening to the earth From heaven — I saw — I saw my Lord, deceased, Stand in the clouds, and beckon me from far To meet him there, whereat I knew the hour Of death not distant. — For although unseen, 'Twas palpable to my enraptured soul Prophetical. My dream was more than dream ; THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Yl No vision of the future e'er portrayed That future clearer, truer than it did. Awake, I see its wondrous scenery still, And feel its mystic meanings." Suddenly She stopped, as if an angel gave the word — The great pass-word of Death — one instant more, And the death mystery invested her With death's supremacy. Near Genevieve Upon a lonely islet green, o'er which An ancient spreading tree its shadow flung In the cool evening ; quiet, beautiful, Most beautiful to see was all the scene Around. The river's rocky palisades. By nature wrought with arcs and grand alcoves, As if the spirits of the wilderness. In the primeval ages, from the crags Had scooped them giant niches meet to hold Their own colossal statues, loomed aloft. Befitting was the isle for sepulture Of those we love ; there both we buried. The slave-boy and the widow. Near the prow Y2 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. We sat again, Albert and I : there sat The old man too. Day now around us shone And not the moon, as when the other three Communed with us of dreams — the orphan hoy, The slave and widow. I remember this Of our converse that hour, — 'twas Albert spoke : " Dreams are," he said, " a mystery profound. Which ever have enchained my secret soul With deepest wonder. Who can tell but dreams Are creatures of some other universe. Which no astronomer with optic glass Has yet explored, in which the hand of God Has mapped out each man's history ; has mapped out The history of all the hierarchies ? Each dream might be a part of a great whole ; A section of our history sublime, Far reaching, but unknown till thus beheld In visions of the night. Wer 't so, the soul Might then, whene'er the body slept, its eyes Of sense all shut, look out beyond this world Into this universe of dreams, and read And study out its destiny on earth. 'Tis true God is the sole interpreter THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. To Of dreams ; and yet his teacliings by them, clear, Might evermore fall silent on the sonl. As dew upon the tender flower. " Till now. Ne'er did I feel the wondrous things in dreams Set forth. Not voice of trumpet sudden blown At midnight, in some leaguered city, tells, More truly, peril imminent, than the dreams We heard, so lately, told of great events Not earthly all. The universe of dreams Has oped its portals wide, and out have flown Its tribes like flocks of eagles. Who could think The dreams rehearsed, were like to couriers Commissioned in the secret halls of Grod, Laden with revelations, grand, sublime, Foreshadowing ftlturity, and soon To be accomplished here, our eyes before." " Conscious am I," the white-haired answering said, " That to the meditative warnings oft Of future things are given, that the soul Forewarned, sees darkly, through the mists of time, The coming fortunes, be they evil or good. Which may befall it. Signs the future hath. Y4 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. Outriders, like tlie wiiiged liglitning's flash, WMcli heralds the far thunder ere it rolls. Such signs are dreams, it may be, nor doubt I, The shadows of events they run before, Presaging what shall follow, on the road, To warn the dreamer. Thus full oft have I, At day's high noon when musing, sudden felt My mind stirred by some thought electrical. Most strange, and unconnected with the train Of casual meditations, fancy free, Which filled my bosom ere uncalled it came, To tell the coming accident, which soon Arose from out the darkling womb of time To satisfy the monitory thought. 'Tis true the future has been seen from earth, Up from the distance, like to chariots borne Amid deep passes of the Alps, beheld By traveller from some topmost mountain peak. 'Tis certain there is near the erring earth A mighty world of dreams, to which in sleep Men pilgrimages make : above that world Of visions, other worlds there are more fit For habitations of celestial shapes. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 75 One world of beauty is invisible, Most blessed and most holy, made of old And consecrate, for everlasting homes To men redeemed, and sinless hierarchies. Between it and the erring earth flows on Unceasing intercourse : bright couriers Aye come and go between them ; and, albeit It is not given too much for mortal man To speculate on what that world may be, Yet dreams of holy men may adumbrate Its glories, and God's finger ever points Its presence, in each page of Holy Writ, That faith, not sense, can see it. Thence I pass Unsung, what farther fell, as on we sped. Skimming the shallows of the mighty flood. Though meetest theme for minstrelsy. We reached The shores of Iowa, and stepped astrand On the green hiUocli, as the evening star Kose in the sky, shining lil?:e hope, to cheer And welcome us. No numbers hath the harp To sing the meeting of the lovers ; and 'tis well : There is a joy too sacred to be told — 76 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. Art cannot picture it. — The sculptor's hand. Shrouds with the veil what all his skill divine Must fail to render. 'Tis the nuptial night ; And though dark years, disastrous years, their robes Have trailed across the tract which intervenes ; Yet fresh in memory it is. I feel, The while I write, stirred with its presence — nay, I hear the music filling all the place With love and joy and witcheries. The veil, The bridal veil half hides the fairy form Of beauty leaning on that manly arm. What silence solemn and profound is this ! The vows are uttered — those great words which live Forever. It was midnight when I left That banquet hall with memories fraught. The boat awaited me beside thy shore. Dark Mississippi. Soon the plash of oars Was heard, and I was launched upon the stream. The night was calm and beautiful — the stars Sat on their burning thrones of sapphire, like A dynasty of kings. The silver moon Was setting, and her light, her lustrous light THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 77 Bewitched the scenery, and cast o'er all A beauty which no words can paint. The bluff Of Iowa, though from my gaze fasL fast Keceding, showed the bridal mansion's light Gleaming alone, from out its shadowy trees By the broad river. Memory recalls That tranquil scene — the terraces I see, — The green acclivities of Iowa — The lighted mansion bright with brilliant hopes. I seem to hear the minstrelsy's soft swell, As angel whispers o'er the waters borne, Though years have rolled away, and all is changed. Myself not less than all, since that fair night, When last I looked upon those scenes sublime, Nor ever saw that wedded pair again. BOOK SECOND. THE DKEAM OF ALBEET THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. BOOK SECOND, 'Tis well Niagara is the joint domain Of the great Saxon empires of the world, America and England. Heritage Becoming two such kindred nations, dame And daughter. Three years since, at noon, I stood Upon the rocky verge which overlooks The cataract and the Canadian shores. I felt the solid battlement of rock Quiver beneath my feet, as if the cars Of God drove down the precipice. The yeast O'er all that semicirque of waters, boiled Like caldron over subterranean fires^ Kindled when earth was fluid. Hidden rocks Vexed evermore the waters, dashing them 4* 82 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. From side to side. Like living creatures seemed The surges^ wHcli nor day nor night could rest. I likened them to ocean monsters^ seen In storms by mariners ; at other times To the white tails of the celestial steeds In ancient history writ. The mighty chasm Yawned in the strength of everlasting rock, As though Grod's hand had smote it, as it smote That rock in Horeb, and the waters turned To burst from it forever. On the sides Of the dread walls clung many a shrub and tree Hiding the rents and crevices. Eocks huge As those used erst in dread angelic war By Milton sung, lay scattered far and near, Slimy and black with ages passed away. The place was as a vision seen in dreams, Not earthly. Wondrous was the light and shade Which flitted o'er the gulf. Is it the wings Of eagles floating past the sun, which cast The long black shadows evermore athwart That scene of glory ? Clouds scarce fly so swift : Or may it be the pinions, to our eyes Invisible,' athwart the noonday sun THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 83 Of angels sailing, wMch shut out tlie rays Flooding the world with light. — Uprose anon Pillars of misty smoke, upswallowing all. And straight evanishing. Bright rainbows shone As sudden spanning all the wide abyss. Then, disappearing. Beautiful they shone, And came and. passed away too fast, as aye The holy angels do. There was no sound Heard there but the eternal roar and rush Of the great flood, " as many waters heard " Erewhile, by him listening to God. When gloomed The place with awful clouds of smoke, I felt That then the Holy God of nature passed I' the cloud of mist before me. All sublime, All beautiful is but a state of mind. Sublimity and beauty are within, Not things external. What is the ravine. The cataract, but for the mind, which gives To each sublimity. We animate The object with our feelings. What the charms Of loveliest forms, but that our eyes and mind Eeflect themselves, the sense of what they give. Association aye embellishes. 84 THE GUARDIANANGEL. And makes delight in -beauty. Beauty lives In our own minds^ and is itself the growth Of that which is within us, not without. All who behold the mighty cataract Must see, must feel it diverse. Most the bard Of all beholders, for his soul instinct With thoughts remote and kindred, peoples it With his own beings. Every changeful play Of light and shade and mist inspireth him. New images arise before his soul, And pictures, whence to measure it. . The bard Potent creator is, and giveth life To rocks and trees and streams and gulfs. His eye Sees things unseen by other eyes. — He hears The hidden voices of great nature. So The man of God that cataract surveys With feelings diverse from the bard. To him, " The voice of many waters " is the voice Of God. The scenery carrieth him from earth Into eternity. The imagery By which he measures it is not of earth. THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 85 Lake Erie filling up Ontario, Kemindeth him of one eternity Into another poured, or time's huge stream Of years discharged into the ocean gulf Of the dread shoreless future. Sight sublime Those white-maned rapids, like the steeds which bore The prophet heavenward, in Israel's cars : The ceaseless thunderings of the cataract, The roar of their great wheels, ascending aye The mountains of Eternity. The bows Across the vast abysm are arches fair — Celestial bridges for the angels built. The mists are God's earthrobes — the place itself, The vestibule of the eternal state — The dwelling of Jehovah — thus I felt, As I stood musing on a summer day. Contemplating the varied scenery : — The islands anchored fast above the Falls — The rush of waters hke Euphrates poured Through Naharmalca — the stupendous leap Of the huge river— -and the rapids, wild Like chargers, rushing o'er the precipice ; Or troops of angels on white horses, which 86 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Stayed not for danger — ^rainbows numberless Ever appearing and evanislimg: — The trees in silence listening tliere, like seers Awaiting revelations — and tbe rocks Up-piled around me and above, in one Huge picture ;— angel presences, metbought, Alone were wanting, to exalt tlie place Into the glorious portal opened wide Of all eternities ; eternity Present and Past and Future. Suddenly I was alone no longer ; strangers stood Beside me, yet not strangers all. The one Had hoary hairs and venerable form ; A striphng showed the other ; sire and son They were. The sire was even he, from whom I parted, erewhile, on the nuptial night In Iowa. That instant memory brought Back to my soul, like necromancer old. All the events of the long parted, time Vivid and fresh, the interval of years Contracted to a day. Our greeting o'er. We stood upon a wooded knoll, where full THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 87 We saw tlie vast abyss of waters wild, Surging "below, and howling like tlie sea Of everlasting wrath. The lad cried out As he beheld the scene, — " Now, I believe, This is one spot of earth unmarred by man. One nook of the primeval world, as first Fashioned by God. These seem the waters white And yeasty, which from out the shell of earth Spouted new-made ; — these spray drops, those which fell From off the eaves of the new firmament. Yet moist from its creation, ere the sun Sent down his light and heat. Perchance these bows Are beings of celestial birth and form — The presences of the angelic hosts, August, gigantic, fair, who shouting stood, What time God made the worlds ; still hngering here Amid the scene, unwilling to forsake The relics of creation's morn." His sire Took up the theme and said : " In this vast scene God is made visible to us : God thought it all, bb THE G-UAKDIAN ANGEL. In His great mind, in the eternity Bygone. The cataract — the battlements Of fissured rocks, all gray and rent with years — The wooded isles, dark spray, and rainbows bright, Spanning the old abyss, were thought, erewhile, Deep lodged and hid in the Almighty mind, Matter is thought incarnate, thought divine. The seas with all their hosts, the woods with all Their tribes, the rivers singing through the woods, The wild ravines, the unseen winged winds. Which nestle in the tops of trees, and haunt The precipices drear by ocean strand : The stars, the moon, the sun, man, heaven itself. With aU its mysteries, are but thoughts of Grod. Niagara is one sentence in the book Of nature, rich in meaning ; beautiful. Sublime and glorious ; but the Scriptures keep More blessed thoughts. Niagara cannot tell Of love, and grace, and mercy from of old Hidden in the Almighty mind." " The place," I said, " is ever holy unto me. I also feel as if God's presence gave The scenery its strange and awful power. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 89 It is not more than one short step from this, The spot we stand on, to eternity. One leap would make immortals of us all. As we behold it thoughts arise, which speak The greatness of our nature. Thoughts like these I ever have, when mid ancestral halls ; Or lonely lingering at the fabled haunts Of bards, where float the visions of their songs ; Or standing near the ruins of old fanes Festooned with ivy ; or by sepulchres Shrining the dust of martyrs, whose great acts Perish not from the earth ; or keeping watch Beside the dying. Ever in the soul Surges the sea of everliving thought. Pulsating ever to and fro. The waves Upon this sea, its tides, its calms, its storms, Its currents — all are thoughts. This very scene. All glorious as it is, and truly grand, Eeceives new glory, grows the more sublime. Invested by the soul's creative will With wonders not its own.'' Awhile we stood, We gazed, we mused in silence, and our thoughts, Like plumes plucked from archangel's wings, went oui 90 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Into the infinite. I tliought of God, And asked myself^ if all around I saw Was sliadow, while all underlying it Was substance. Not remote a height there is, O'erlooking all the cataract. Tall trees, Whose branching tops embraced and hid the sun, A semicirque had formed, like columns vast. The nave of some antique cathedral. Here A rustic seat invites the traveller To sit, and all the panorama grasp In his enraptured soul. We sat us down, And gazed, enwrapt in awe. One mighty tree, Upon the verge of the overlooking rock, Our eyes attracted, for its trunk was scored With names of travellers, like a column carved With mystic hieroglyphs all o'er and o'er. Wrought in the characters of olden time, Albert's conspicuous was. The youth, whose love Had drawn me, to behold his bridal rite, Beyond the sounding Mississippi's flood. At once outspoke the aged man, and said : "Albert these letters graved,- one early morn THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 91 Three summers since. Strangers we were, nor me Did lie observe^ so deep intent he was On this memorial. That night we met Upon the Mississippi made us friends Through all eternity's uhreckoned years. And if the souls of friends gone off to God Revisit earth, his soul is here, e'en how." I answering said : " Albert I know is dead, But of his dying views, and hopes, and death, Naught have I heard." " Most glorious was this death," Replied the traveller. — " Much converse we held Beside his death-bed. Long he lingered low^ Nor walked abroad in the rejoicing day, But in his chamber sat communing much With Grod. Great were the thoughts which sat them down, Like kings, upon the throne of his pure mind. Oft spake he of his death, and interviews "With angels in the visions of the night.'* " The memory of holy friends," I said, " Is ever fragrant, and the narrative Of his last thoughts and feelings on the earth, 92 THE GTJAEDIAN ANGEL. Would be as blessed incense to my soul. Nor could there be a place more fit than this For such discourse." As holy pilgrim bent On travel, to remotest lands of earth, Who lingers not to gaze on beauty's face ; Nor parley hold with travellers whom he meets ; Or, as an angel sent to earth, by God, With errand from the throne, so he began : — " 'Twas midnight, and by Albert's bed I sat : Startling he woke from wondrous dreams, and told Straightway their import — ' In my thought,' said he, ' I was alone, far from my native world. Standing upon a precipice abrupt, O'erhanging an abyss. Beneath, there rolled An ocean, whose huge billows ever dashed And broke to pieces on the jutting rocks. I looked on every side, but no one saw. There was not one memorial there of earth ; No work of art, no footprint left to tell If e'er before one of my mortal race Had visited the battlement sublime. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 93 Instead of worlds afloat, the firmament. I saw "beneath, as in a crystal lake, Studding it, planets and suns innumerous. The place was beautiful, unearthly all. ' Strange were the varied scenes I saw ; they came And passed like the white vapory cloud of mist, Oft seen by traveller on the hills of earth. When winged storms come flying from the sea. Now, 'twas a battlefield, where heroes closed In deadly conflict ; now a shoreless sea. Where sailed tall argosies bedight and trip With sails and pennons streaming. Instantly I saw cathedrals rising all around — These disappeared, and glens and waterfalls. And toppling mountains rose to view. I saw Distinct the effigies of ages rush Athwart the firmament, as figures fleet Across the boreal sky. ' Ere I had time To reason of the place, and the strange scenes. An angel suddenly flashed into form ; Of eminence beyond the height of man. No airs of angel greatness put he on. 94: THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. Saluting me — as brother brotlier greets, From foreign land arrived, absent long years — Then said : " Hail, brother, welcome to the world Of holy dreams ; a world which lies thine own And mine between, a world where Grod himself To mortals future things reveals, and sights Of angels gives. " I know thee well, son Of earth. Oft have I met thee in this land Of dreams and mysteries ; and visions borne From God, all sinless, beautiful and full Of hope, as scenery spread out along The stream of life. The shadow followeth not The body closer than do I thy steps, E'er since thou hadst a being, ministering Alway to thee. I ne'er have left thee once. E'en in thy sleep, but vigil ever kept Beside thee. Earthly matron could not hold Such ceaseless watch. Upon the beetling cliff, Where youthful travel took thee, there I stood Between thee and the deep abyss below. Beside the banks of rivers, where the love Of nature carried thee, I always walked, Tending thee. When the star of love arose THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 95 On thj young heart, 'twas I who whispered hope Into thine ear. Thine agony of soul, When sin and grace for mastery o'er thee Contended, I heheld and pitied much. What hour you knelt before the mercy-seat, I covered you with my celestial wings. ISTor all my joy can I relate, as still I saw the gathering thoughts of love divine. E'en as a child upon the ocean shore G-athers white pebbles." ' Now, an instant here The angel paused, then I — " Hierarch of God, I feel in some great presence, greater far Than aught of earth. It seems to me thy face In dreams hath met me often. Pass not then Away so soon from me, as thou art wont ; But linger here and of thy history speak. The distant memories of buried years Are flocking round me, like a winged plump Of eagles, at thy words, and my heart throbs In wild anticipation, for thou seem'st A messenger from God with tidings high Of mightiest import laden, — can it be I am akin to thee ? — strange is thy speech, 96 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. For how should I a miglity angel liave Asleep or waking ? " ' Then replied at once This angel of the Lord : " Earthborn, of kin To thee I am, and formed for thee alone. Thy Guardian Angel I, — to every soul Is one^ — great ofl&ce too. Thy mortal steps To tend, for evermore was I ordained. Ages ere thou wert born I lived, and none But God can tell how much I longed for thy Coming. I sought at every morn and eve The dial of eternity, and traced The shortening shadows of approaching years Which heralded thy advent. " On the tree Of Being, every opemng bud I watched. Scarce from impatience could I hold, to see The earlier generations of thy race. Washed up on the young strand of earth, like barks New launched on summer seas ; and hear the shout Of welcome from their guardian angels, glad To meet them. Never canst thou know the years THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 97 Of solitude, the slow-paced centuries I passed alone in thought, awaiting thee : For what were all the worlds of Grod to me, And all the white-winged countless hierarchies, Without thy presence ! Fitting mate for me None was, tiQ God made thee. The image fair Of thee, all uncreate, within my soul Stood ever forward, from the very morn Of my own being, and allured me o'er The gulf of ages, a great shoreless sea. Between thy birth and mine. Beyond all words To tell were my emotions, when I saw Thy birthday breaking in the orient sky. And heard the trumpet of Eternity Declare thy advent. Beautiful thou wert, Swaddled in mysteries and destinies. I saw thee take thy place among the ranks Of mortals ; immortality thy dower. Earth seemed that instant other world, thou erst Fairer than aught in the vast universe Yet visited by me. Thou art mine own Ordained ward. No mother ever loved As I love thee, nor sire, nor maiden fair Nurtured amid the dewy wilderness, 98 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Where only flowers and brooks, and "banks and braes Are seen, and God's own boly voice is beard. For sovereignty o'er all the souls create, And angels, would not I my charge exchange Of alway ministering to thee — espoused "We are by Grod for all eternity. Nor would I injure thee, for the vast dower Of seven eternities. Nor God ordains That angel innocent, of all his host. Who renders not account for soul of man To him intrusted. Penalty for that Is utter loss of being. If perchance I could apostate turn, and cheat thy faith With falsehood, instant cast beyond the verge Of all created worlds, a thing accurst, I there should moulder ; not like garden weeds. Or tares or fumatory rank, uptorn from earth. To vegetate again, and bring forth crops Of ranker, fouler weeds ; but utterly Outside creation, in a grave dug deep For angels dead, where resurrection morn Ne'er comes. Such is that angel's fate who fails In duty. Oh most terrible the thought Unuttered is. I live for thee alone — THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 99 Without tliy presence ever by my side, My immortality and destiny Would be a dreary wilderness of thought : Of bliss, and hope, and beauty, destitute/' ' The angel waited here, with pause profound ; Thence I : — " My Guardian Angel, if, in years Gone by, thou hadst vouchsafed thyself as now, How beautiful and fresh would earth have been : To feel, to know thou walkedst by my side O'er the steep mountain, through the summer woods, Adown the winding glen, and by the beach Of the Atlantic, where I mused alone What time the stars were bathing, and what time The billows rode like chargers o'er the sands, The howling winds pursuing them as fleet : To think thou wert within my cottage home Through gloomy winter's snowy, starless nights, Unseen, unheard, an exUe from the sky, And ministering to me, to me alone. Why didst thou not reveal thyself to us ? My mother would have welcomed thee, and given Befitting honor to thy ministry. 100 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Her angel too, — to tliink we never heard Yon "wHsper. Had we known sucli visitants Were ever with, us, and no dwelling had Celestial, and of architecture fit For beings so divine, we would have sought In prayer heartfelt, the Throne of God, to huild You tents in our near neighborhood. One spot There was beside the brook, a grove most rich In branching trees, and winding walks, and flowers, And ivy, and sweet eglantine, where oft I mused, and thought 'twas fitting place for spirits. On errand from the sky, to stoop and pause. Thou couldst have lodged by day, by night, and aye In our devotions joined : nay, taught us too The airs of minstrel angels. Pity 'tis Thy ministry was hidden from our eyes. As hidden as the mysteries of life In life's young morn. Thy history is full Of beauty, fuller than all tales of love E'er heard before : it lifteth my young thoughts Above the earth. If it be given thee more To utter of thyself, oh ! tell to me that — Impatient more to learn." ". My history," THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 101 Answered my angel, " to antiquity, BelbiG the stars arose and sang, goes back ; Long, long before tbe brood of worlds was batched ; And ere the seeds of the vast planets fell Into the soil of time, and there took root : Myriads of ages ere the central suns. Amid these families of orbs, their vast Abysmal urns filled up with teeming years : And ere the earth, the erring star of God, Was aught but an idea in his mind. " My memory is immortal, nor from it Can drop one thought : forgetfulness is all Unknown to spiritual beings. When arose The angel tribes at God's creating voice, I too. Eternity until that hour Was empty — none but God was there. I was. When I awoke to being, as I am. And have been since, save the- ideas vast Gathered by travelling through the universe : I felt I was a thing of thought God made To live forever, and to minister To thee forever and for aye. 102 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. " An arch. Standing upon the buttresses sublime, Of two eternities I saw — the thing First seen by me, and with a countless host Of beings like myself its shining height Ascending. I alone had reached and stood Upon the keystone, backward looking. " Next I saw, no voice was heard in all the place, The Spirit of Eternity go forth Amid Eternity, seed scattering. Like husbandman in thine own earth-world, when Springtide hath come. " "When I did look again. Ages, or what seemed ages, had passed by. And where the seed was sown, the stars and moons And suns were growing. " Last of all, I saw The earth, thy home-world, take its place, amid The firmament, when instantly a shout Of joy arose from the great family Of angels. " Since that ancient day of time, Travel hath carried me away THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 103 Into remotest worlds, whicli none Had visited, of all my myriad hosts : Into the wildernesses drear and lone, Around the poles of the great Tiniverse, Unfit for dwelhng places, have I gone. Stars growing aU along the millry-way Visited. On the alpine peaks of worlds Which never can be trod by human feet Stood. Through the gardens and the groves Of sinless worlds, the heritage divine, Ordained for souls elect, when they shall go Away from heaven to meditate on earth Their nature world, roamed have I, glad, glad — Musing, and holding intercourse with Grod, have I Spent centuries in highest heaven itself. Still wondrous interest ever has thy world To me. There is no cloudy mountain-top. Nor hidden glen found out by streamlet clear, Eunning with music in its heart, from morn To eve ; nor grove, with old ancestral trees, And lawns, forever consecrate to love And minstrelsy ; nor castellated rocks. To memories of olden time espoused ; Nor upland lake, sequestered 'mong the hills, 104: THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Where clouds deliglit to dwell, have I not been. But more anon " — Then paused. ' Here out I spake Unto the angel, saying : " Holy one, Thy history most glorious is, replete With the antiquities of time and earth. Thy memory goeth back beyond the faU Of angels from their heavenly thrones. Though dire Their story, and disastrous to my race, New view of God it would unfold to me, If told." " This much may I unfold to thee," he said. " The sun of man's first Sabbath on thy world Had set all glorious, as the sunsets were. Ere yet the black angel, sin, trailed his robe O'er the blest earth. There was no angel left Around the great white throne, save those bright hosts W^ho never leave its shining steps. We all Had gone to our appointed posts amid Immensity. Some stood upon the walls Of heaven ; some to the distant stars and suns Yigil had gone to keep ; but many more THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 105 On pilgrimages to these worlds, to see Their seas, and streams, and hills, and woods and lakes — The haunts where angels in the mighty past Had travelled. Some beside the sea of glass Stood gazing on the suns bemirrored there. Some stood alone, in meditation deep On the tall hills of bliss. Some sat and talked Within the bowers which skirt the crystal sea ; Some wrote their thoughts in books ; some min- strelsy Achieved ; some with the Almighty One Communion held. Upon the Atlantic strand Of earth, I walked alone, absorbed, and rapt In vision, questioning the future, when Thou too shouldst, musing, wander there. " My dream Was broken by the awful trump of Grod — The trumpet of eternity, whose blast Shook all the universe. Portentous was That clangor ; ne'er before had its dread voice Been heard since time created was. Thrice blown, its summons every angel heard, And sudden hasted to the mount of God. 5* 106 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. As I passed through, the firmament of earth, On rapid, rapid pinion, fleet as thought, The road and highways of immensity Were filled with angels on the wing. Nor long Till we the everlasting valley reached. Outspread on each side round the awful mount Of the Eternal — there the synod met, The synod of the angels : thither rushed. As rush at times the thoughts of myriads Of men, into the opened ear of God, When yawning earthquakes frighten them. Great was The number of the shining angels there Before the throne, obedient to the call Of God. Like a great noiseless sea were we : Upon the very pillars of the throne Some leaned, and I upon the steps. " The mount Itself was hidden in a cloud of light. Of lustrous light, intensely clear, which shut From every eye the throne. No more we saw Beyond the steps ascending, and the lamps. The mystic lamps around them. " Suddenly THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 107 That aTgent shining cloud was rolled away From off the mountain, and we saw the throne, And One on it human in form. Nor e'er Before such sight had been beheld, or felt, of eyes Angelic even — nor that presence of Grod Erst been made manifest. Desire intense. And aspirations had been nursed, sublime, Since first we were, that wondrous brightness through To pierce, and find some outlines shadowing Him : And yet to us that wish, o'erbold perchance, Had been vouchsafed not. True, we could not brook To see infinitude, and yet we wished that God Would nearer come to us ; and in our form Be seen for briefest instant. Now that wish Had answer, but the form he took was man. Not angel. " Mighty the emotion was Of every spirit, in that vast conclave At sight of God. Upon his head blazed out The diadem of dread eternity, And in his hand the sceptre. On the throne There lay the opened volume of decrees, Old as eternity itself. Above 108 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. His crowned head, the how of mercy hung, And at his feet, like angel sleeping, lay- Justice Bterne. No word was uttered there. Speechless we stood, and gazed, and marvelled long, Af Godhead visible, " The mystery soon Of Inspiration, like a cloud overcame Us, as we gazed, and fitted us to hear. The trumpet spoke again, twice, thrice — the trump We heard erewhile. Then fell these awful words Upon our ears, the words from out the throne,- The grand white throne. " ' Intelligences first And highest in the scale of being— hear : Your chiefest angel, and his chosen peers. No more shall sit upon their vacant thrones. Scarce had ye left the battlements what time The evening anthem ceased, when he, unbid. The secret chamber of eternity Entered, infringing on its mystery ; The prophecy he read of his own fall, And of his own estate forfeit to man — I' the future born, new-born, on earth's young star. No more he learned, but fled with hasty foot, THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 109 And told his listening peers, wlio not rebuked His treason : instant down lie fell from heaven : Such, fate befell them all. But fear not ye — Powers, Principalities, for treason here No more shall enter in — elect are ye, InfalHble.' " No word, angel returned To Him upon the throne, for holy awe Constrained us — awe, that black apostasy Had crept into the citadel hard by. The seat of God. Nor had he ceased to speak Ere the broad glory closed around the mount, And hid him from our eyes, " While we stood In silence musing, suddenly a sound Was heard, as if of messenger august Approaching, who, from distant world came on With urgent tidings, of most high import. Then louder woke the trumpet's blasts. At once We saw the angel of the earth ahght, Before the veiled throne. His tidings were Awful, and tingled in our ears, like some Death message. Audience instantly had he 110 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. From God "withm the veil. These were the words He spake : " ' Sire of Eternity, the Earth, Thy youngest child, is lost. The spirit of sin Hath rapt it from us. All around its coasts Angels are stationed, till I shall return. Forbidding all egress to the exiled From heaven. The glorious man that sat its throne And his fair mate no more are sovereign there : He too has been discrowned, and down the slope Of ruin rushes. By the guarded gate Of Paradise, I left him sitting, low * At his feet, a suppliant, lay his spouse Despoiled of all her beauty. Intercourse Between that star, and all the sisterhood Of worlds, is closed. Naught heard I when I left But the terrific wail of man, and the shouts Of the apostate angels.' Thus spake he. The angel of the earth, and waited mute God's answer. " Fast as thought lights up the mind, So rent the veil of glory, and he spake Again, the Great Invisible from out The mystic throne : THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. Ill " ' Son of the morning, Son Of light and truth, the loss of earth, and fall Of man, is written fuE. in the decrees And secrets of eternity. This too Is written, angels shall apostatize, Nor e'er be reinstated — Justice must Her symbol have. Of man it is not so : He may redeemed be, and so redeemed. Our Mercy to all time shall symbolize. The earth-star hath a destiny more grand Than all her sister spheres. Myself its soil Will tread in sorrow ; and at my advent, Horror that time shall shudder at, and earth Be riven ; joy, that shall make angels weep Shall succeed and surcrease. For erring man The ocean of eternal love is stirred To its unfathomable, ancient depths. But for the angels mercy never pleads. The earth shall be ennobled ; angels too, Who endure sinless, shall their destinies have With man's enlinked." I thought the angel's voice Trembled on uttering these mysterious words. A cloud, too, passed athwart his face — the words 112 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. The while went echoing through my throbbing heart. When fitting pause was o'er, soon as I saw The angel's musing cease, I ventured this To say : — " Brother divine, thou knowest all I ask, And more ; imperisbable are thy words As blossoms on the tree of life, replete With beauty and with life. Oft have I sighed For tidings of my sire, and mother dear In heaven : a child was I, when angels came For father, and him took to dwell with them In their celestial world. Orphans we were, I and my sisters too ; I eldest, they Younger : we three but children under five. The morn I was an orphan, my grand-dame Me took to gaze upon his face, and said — I, silent, wondering why he was so pale And still — that I was now an orphan boy. Her words were meaningless to me, and yet They pierced me through, the language from the dead. I speak not of our orphanage : of it Thou canst not know : none but the orphan knows. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 113 Eventful history is ours, most mine, As manhood came to me, my mother died : Her illness, death and burial, were all told At once to me. " I never can forget That morn we parted, one short year before ; Beside the hawthorn tree, near by the door. Her cottage door, we parted : fair she was, Most beautiful, as holy cherub is. Her blue eyes aye reflected heaven to me : Suffused they were with tears that morn — her hand — Her long, fond kiss — her words of warning kind — Her agony at parting — all I feel — I see — I hear this moment, as if years Had been rolled, and I again stood near Her cottage door, that morn." The angel's face Brightened with thoughts divine, as I here paused ; And soon in tones seraphic said : " Most filial thou. Son of the erring star of time. Thy sire Sitteth among the prophets of the earth, Enthroned, eucrowned, before the great white throne ; 114 THE GUARDIAN AJSIGEL. With them in high converse he takes a part : With them on mighty emhassies to distant orbs He goes. Oft have I met him leading on Cherubic cohorts to the earth ; once him SaiUng the Empyrean, I beheld, None with him save his angel. Glorious was His mien, as one on Mercy's errand sent To some wayfarer on the strand of earth. Thy mother, too, oft have I seen of late : More beautiful now is her eye of blue ; More fair her face : ethereal all is she : Nor is there in the sinless empire vast. Daughter of earth, with witchery of mien Surpassing. Spirits just arrived from worlds Which never saw the earth, pause to admire On passing her. Well is she known up there, For every angel from the earth arrived. She visits to inquire if they saw thee. There is not in thy history one jot Unknown to her. But yesternight, just as The Evening Star uprose, I bade her hail. As she came near to minister to thee : And hail, when with the angels of the night TJpflew, when morning lit upon the hills THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 115 Of earth. Tliy father and thy mother hold Long parleys by the stream of life ; and in The bowers of bliss, make symphonies at morn And eve, on their great golden harps." " Great angel of Jehovah, bear with me," I said, "for I have many things to ask. First, what is death, or rather what is it To die ? Does the soul think in the death-hour ? Does the soul see at once the spirit realms ? When it is loosened from the body frail. Doth it remain a season on the verge, I' the mists of the shadow ? Who first gives it hail When like uncaged eagles out it flies ? How far is to the throne ? What escort bears Its frailty to the Judgment Seat ? Are souls Which have already found immortal homes. In the bright country of the hierarchies. Spectators of the dying struggle ? Tell, Tell me, angel ! does the soul unfledged Take all its thoughts and feelings up with it, And leave its body like a shattered harp. Whose strings are jangled and flung loose ? Per- chance 116 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 'Tis sin to ask such, mysteries divine ? If not, answer me ; but if in part 'Tis sin, speak part : of part be mute. Explain, Spirit, if tbou may'st, tlie mystery of death. ! " Straight as I paused, the angel musing, stood A moment, then replied : " The mystery of death I know not, none but who have died may know — That did I never, nor can I ever die." " Hold ! " I exclaimed, " wise angel ! art thou then A creature, finite in thy sense, as I ? " Answering, he said : " We both are angels, thou Incarnate angel art ; but spirit I, Pure, immaterial spirit. To mortality Matter must yield, but spirit may not die. Much of the history of man I know. Much of angelic history — of death Nothing, although, thousands of years I live. Ask me of any of the far-off worlds — Ask me of tbe immortal hierarchies — Ask me of the remotest future, far Beyond the confluence of all the streams THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. IIT Of time, i' the ocean of Eternity. Ask me of earth's sublimest deed of crime — Ask me of the remedial scheme of grace ! — Ask me of Earth, and Hell, and Heaven, and Grod, And I win answer thee ; hut ask me not Of death, for in it I no portion have." " Spirit," I said, " almost omniscient thou, Bearing the burden of such knowledge. Ne'er Shall I in lore ascend to height so great. I feel as one upon a mountain-top. Arrayed with clouds, who cannot see the vale Below, with all its varied scenery ; Nor the blue welkin overhead. My thoughts Run to and fro, and come again to me, Like messenger sent forth, who still returns Unfit to make report. Enlighten me. Great angel, of the mighty past, and tell Of the Death Angel. Much I dread to meet His advent. In my youth oft have I waked Amazed, at midnight, for I thought the wail Of the sad wintry wind around our house. Was the dread herald of his silent tread. Are the surroundings, and the awe 118 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Wliicli thrills our hearts, at hearing of his name, But the wild mystic dreams of poet souls ? Tell me, I pray thee," — How the face divine Of the attentive angel brighter gleamed. It may be that the memories of scenes, Of grand triumphal death scenes flashed across His vision. This, he answered : — " True, I know Thy race dreads the death-angel, but it is The wild creations of your bards they dread. The angels, who let out the deathless soul From its clay palace, are as numerous As are the spirits which they do release. On earth each prison has its keeper, who The keys keeps faithful, so is ^t in all worlds. There is an angel stationed at the door Of each imprisoned soul, to ope the leaves And set it free, when the eternal knell Announce the hour. Thine own death-angel now Tarries, though thou him seest not. Serene And glorious he, as all heaven's angels are. The fallen hierarchies, discrowned and lost. No office hold in thy fair earth. They seek Such office, but seek vainly : only when THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 119 The soul has sinned away its day of grace. And left the flesh, their sovereignty begins To sway and rend it. But a guarding spirit^ The sentinel and servant, ministers Each to one soul. The Spirit of Death has charge The wheels of life to stop, whene'er the time Of the soul's unbodying arrives, nor he Knoweth the hour, but vigilant must wait Until the moment. There no darkness is Forewarning him. This secret God keeps pent In his own mind. This Spirit of Death has charge To keep that shrine deserted of its soul. Until it shall come back for it. G-reat charge ! Oft have I seen the angel hovering o'er The corpse yet warm with recent life, while round Stood friends in anguish all convulsed : ! little thought they of the presence there Of him immortal and invisible. There is no bier, whence one may not be seen Watching o' it, nor grave without one nigh. Oft have I, ere thou wert born into life, O'erflown the antique countries of earth. By winter's windy, gloomy, midnight moon. 120 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. jSTor e'er yet untended grave have seen Of angel. "At the resurrection hour, When centuries of intervening years Have been ingulfed in the vast shoreless sea Of old Eternity, the Spirit of Death Shall build the palace up again, fit house For the returned and travelled soul. Sublime Is the death-angel in his love : sublime Watching the sepulchre untired, through long And dreary centuries." " Most marvellous Thy teachings are, angel," answered I. " 'Tis strange that youth and age alike should dread A myth. Now answer me this one thing more. Explain the meaning of that valley dark, And called, ' of the Shadow of Death,' with horrors thick. Of which I oft have read and dreamed." At once He thus upspake : " There is a Vale of Death Which thou must cross to reach Eternity ; But 'tis a place with fancies thick set round, And dreams of fiction. Beautiful it is THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 121 As the approach to heaven must ever bo. Another vale there is for those who die Weighed down by loads of unrepented sin, Which they must pass toward their appointed place, "Where'er that be. Beauteous it cannot be ; But of its horrors, possible or true, Naught know I, nor can tell." " Is that the Vale Of Death," I asked, "the which I must pass through, Whose gate I see, thick thronged with holy souls. Its wide-spread ]3ortals entering into bliss ? " " That is thy Vale of Death," he answering said, " Oft have I travelled through it : angels aye Are journeying there : some, business — pleasure some Invite. Great multitudes were there, that day Messiah passed through it from Calvary ; Thicker than trees amid the wood, or stars In northern skies, when winter's icy winds Howl o'er the ocean. In all worlds 'twas known Messiah would explore the Vale of Death : The hour was known ; and from most distant orbs 6 122 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. Upon the outskirts of the universe, Angels to meet him came. I too was there, And heard the cry of anguish — Why hast thou. My God ! my God ! forsaken me ? and heard From out the gloom, the answer dread to hear, Unheard of man — Thou art forsaken thus, Because for man thou diest, thyself a man. I saw the Man-God die, and with his soul Went on to bliss. Vast, vast, beyond all words To tell, was the assemblage gathered there, Waiting in silence all along the road To glory, there to welcome him. The scene Was only grander, when he came again Embodied, living, from the sepulchre. " Within the sepulchre, that hour I stood When he returned from his great tour to heaven I saw him enter in, and the cold form Laid there, reanimate. I saw the door Of the sealed tomb to the angel's touch unloose, And heard distinct seraphic voices tell Grand tidings to the faithful few who came At early morning, 'Christ is risen to-day ! ' Nor knew I e'er till then, that the low grave THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 123 Is not a darksome, doleful place, but full Of angel presences, and so most fit For saints to lodge in. Holy is the grave Since Christ himself the precincts has passed through. And holy too the avenue which leads From earth thereunto — such thy Vale of Death ! The entering soul, each one, his passport hath. Unknown, unheard on earth. That secret word To thee shall be revealed, whene'er the hour For thine unbodying comes." " Seraphic friend And brother," I exclaimed, " surpassing kind Is God to give me one so wise as thou In mysteries sublime, my steps to guide. Most grateful I for all thy lore has told. Yet more I wish to know — there is a mist Before me, that concealing, which my soul Yearns to know perfectly. Great is thy power Of speech. So smooth thine oratory flows. So full of pictures, that I comprehend As if by instinct, all profoundest things In living light displayed. I know, before My thirsty eyes thou canst portray ' the new And living way.' " 124: THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. " My ward, my child beloved/' The angel said, " ' the new and living way/ Relates to the soul's feelings. If its thoughts All cling to Christ, as verdant ivy clings To the cathedral ruins, then they flow All heavenward, through ' the new and living way ; ' If, otherwise, the soul be filled with self, On its own merits dwell, and deeds of love. As fitting it for place i' the realms above. Then the old road of works must it toil through. Which hath long years been shut — a road no more. " Perchance — for I would have thee go with me Distinct and clear of mind — should I ascribe Man's twofold way of life, evil and good. As two diverging roads, this old, that new. Through Time, from its beginning to the dawn Of his Eternity, before him laid — Better might'st mark it. Every living man Hath his own phase of genius, which subtends His sensuous being, and each several phase Its own peculiar orbit, in which to move Its thoughts like planets round their sovereign sun. The lover's orbit is a moonlight path. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 125 Where love and hope and heauty linger ; where No storms nor sorrows find a resting-place. The poet's is along the stormy tops Of precipices, by the ocean's verge, By sounding waterfalls, by woods, by wilds, Through continents unseen by vulgar eyes. Where thoughts grow on the trees, like leaves and fruit, And where the soul communes with presences Kevealed to bards alone. The ambitious soul Hath for its high emprise an orbit too. He sees his name writ in his country's scroll Of deathless glory. Like as those who stray O'er the earth's mountain-tops, or valleys green ; So travel ever all those souls along Their chosen orbits. Orbits too, there are, Of good and evil ; nor are souls exempt From choice of one or other. " From the dawu Of time, far back as the first Sabbath day, A road was traced, by which the souls, first made. Might travel to their goal ; but short the time The road was pervious. It vp^as locked what time Man fell apostate. Then^its gates I saw 126 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. By angels closed and barred to ope no more. For man's obedience to the law hencefortb Impossible, no more should proffered be The master-key to move the locks divine. Oft through departed years, travelled have I To see its portals, if they e'er should ope, But still fast closed they stood, these direful words Writ high above the lintel, words of flame, ' Our Grod is a consuming fire,' — no soul By that old road finds entrance into bliss. " Now mark me — of the new and living way Decreed of old, ere yet the universe At Grod's creative voice arose. The way Of grace it is — ^the openest road, most wide For human feet or angels. By it the soul, Filled with this scheme divine, at ease ascends To bliss eternal. " Like a river, vast As inland sea, which hath its fountain head In some frore glacier, or mountain range, This scheme goes back to deep eternity, Ere yet the angels were, or the ancient stars Were lighted ; secret, grand, and full of love THE aUAEDIAN ANGEL. 127 r the Father's bosom slumbered, which the Son There lying, only knew. — 'Twas this, that God The Father, in whom represented is All Godhead, which can be, in one threefold, Father, Son, and Spirit ; in his Son sole-born, To guilty man should reconciled be : That scheme the Son accepted, and became Vicegerent for his chosen. These the terms Of that high covenant — Messiah should Incarnate be, incarnate die for man. And rising for him, intercession make Before the Father's throne. To this The Holy Spirit the last great sanction gave ; And ratified it stood, that He his share Of this contract sublime, the Elect of God To enlighten, sanctify and glorify. Should have forever. Souls which comprehend This plan of grace eterne, and in it find Supernal bliss, are pilgrims in ' The new And living way.' What time this scheme was oped To angels, all our harps awoke to song. Sweeter than any minstrelsy, erewhile Poured in the ear of Godhead ; or since then Breathed from ^olian harps, or Dorcian mood 128 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Of soft recorders^ until time was full, And harps serapMc Christ triumphant hailed With heaven's full diapason, and the shout Of Hallelujahs to the Prince of Peace. I felt that earth was yet God's world, nor cast Forever from his presence all divine, All merciful. The planets and the stars Would soon be dashed to atoms, if they sought New orbits for their wanderings ; so the soul Which keepeth not within the strait confine Of this new way of grace its steadfast track." The angel paused ; I felt his argument As one who listens to an orator Inspired with his own theme. I now beheld '^ The new and living way" as clear as if The wondrous ladder of the patriarch, With angels thronged, before me rose. Anon The wish for ampler knowledge moved within, And thus again I spoke to him, and said : " My Guardian Angel, bear with me awhile In all my asking. Is no volume writ By angel which combines all angel lore ? Had I such tome, into the wilderness THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 129 I would hie me and revolve it, till I grew Wise as thou art." Instant he, answering, said : " I know thou lovest books, when yet a child They pleasured thee. Oft have I gone with thee Unto the peak of toppling crag, amid The forest, where the waterfall alone Was heard, retreat befitting meditation ; And watched thee for long hours, intent on song Or prose new-buUded. Earthly books there are Fit for all time, fit for all study, some : One for Eternity — then wait — thou must, Till thou art glorified, and thou shalt find Thee books, unfolding mysteries beyond All present wishes, all imaginings. Each planet hath its own peculiar books — Its own hath heaven. The angels authors all — Greater than others, some. Their voyages Long might detain thee ; and their works to view, Would claim eternities of mortal time. Mere cycles of Eternity. Their lays Outbid imagination. In the worlds Naught is there like the archetypal book Of God, nor e'en the book so called below — 6* 130 THE GTTAEDIAN ANGEL. It stands 'mid tlie library of heaven, all writ In the mystic letters of Eternity. Be patient ! nigh, at hand the hour awaits Thy disembodiment. What glories then Shall burst on thy enraptured soul at death ! " " And stand I on the brink of death " I cried, " angel ? — for I fear to die — to stand Unclothed and naked to the inmost thought, Before the eyes of the Most Holy One ! My sins are great, so great, that though I hide In the cleft-rock of mercy, they rise up And shroud the star of hope from me. My hand Of faith seems withered, and I cannot cling Unto the naked word of God." " Hold, hold ! " My Guardian Angel cried .: " The Gospel scheme Meets every want and need of sinful man. Demerit, and what merit, alike are To the eye of God. Grace — grace alone thy kind Hath lifted to salvation. Grace from God Is not bestowed on goodness ; nor from what The world calls vice withheld. The Father's will Alone is the exhaustless source of grace. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 131 The love of God in Christ the mystery is, Involved in saving man. This well I know, For God I heard announce it, on that night Man was exiled from Paradise. I met That very night with all our hierarchies, To meditate on it. Vast multitudes Of angels have e'er since in session been. Investigating this high problem. Hence To aU the Gospel pardon offered is. Fear not, earthborn, though great thy sins, yet Christ Is greater — get thee faith." " 'Tis that I lack," I answered sorrowful. To this, he said, In kindest phrase : " My mortal brother, faith Is God's rich gift. Faith thou canst not create As 'twere a poem. It is given, not made. He giveth it like aU his other gifts. As seemeth good to him. Ask for it, thou. Look in and see, if in thy heart e'en now Its living germs be not. Faith never looks Within the heart, but still without. It takes the word 132 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. Of God in all its nakedness. If doubts Arise, it dashes them aside, as one Who swimming breasts the billows from his path. As living pictures set before the eye, The promises writ there it makes its own, As they were things embodied. 'Tis perchance Assuring faith, for which thou sighest. Well ! It none can find, till they have reached the height Of holiness sublime. Adhering faith Is saving. If thou have not joy and peace, Still to the Saviour cling — to Him hold fast ! Kemind Him of his promise and be saved. The patriarchs, 'tis writ, all died in faith. I saw them in the harvest-field of truth Go reaping handfuls of the promises. And carrying them, as reapers carry sheaves, Adown the Vale of Death." I answered here : " The promises I know, and feed on them As feeds the bee on flowers — perennial flowers. Those promises round mortal sorrows twine, As roses young "bout columns riven and gray. Hast thou," said I, inquiring, in reply, " E'er whispered, my own angel, in mine ear THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 133 Such promises^ for often have I felt As if the ail- with wings around me waved ; When some bright glimpse of promised hope, illumed My wavering soul ? " Cautious he answer made : " The promises perchance, inscribed divine On angel banners, borne by them in pomp On Mercy's embassies, have flashed in light Upon thy musing soul, as scenery Beheld in youth, arises suddenly, Ofttimes before the mind of one grown old. Perchance the converse thou hast overheard Of disembodied spirits, passing nigh. In high communion, through the realms of space Whispering of the promises." As here He paused and looked on me, " My mother," thus I spake, " was aye a constant gatherer Of j)i^omises ; and many a time for hours, In winter's gloomy, windy midnight, I Sat with her and collated them. That still The pages where they lie, with pencilled lines Drawn by my infant hand, inscribed are 134 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. All tlirough the treasured Bible of our house. I stored them too i' the tablets of my mind, Often repeating them. ' 'Twas well/ she said, ' For me to hoard them there, for time might come When I should need them, and no book be nigh.' " The curtains of my dream were drawn apart, And all its scenery 'gan shrink and shift. As mist towers melting in the morning glow ; When for an instant the angelic form Of him, who spake less distinct and less As he were vanishing : " Stay — stay," I said, '' angel, nor invisible become To who would ask thee much, or ere thou go.' Hereon the dream rekindled ! up he loomed. As on some vale or wide expanded plain An heavenward spire late wreathed in vaporous clouds Starts into sunlight. He, a thing of life And glory, e'en more glorious than before. His face, how fair, how meek and holy ! words, Earth-words cannot portray him. Then, these words He spake, and they were as the words of one THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 135 Who sees some spectacle of mystery Approaching nigh : " My earthborn brother haste/' He said, " even now I hear the sound of wings Far off — portending mightier change ! " " Yet hold A little, of my Saviour I would ask — The Prince of Peace, and where his presence now ? " " This," quickly answered he, " is all I have To tell thee. To all angels dear the name Of Jesus is, and ever upmost stands His image, in our Godlike memory. His face, his form, his plans, his words, his works, Are precious to us all. The minstrelsy Of Heaven is full of him. Memorials Of Him fill every avenue of bliss. And battlement, and hill, and vale, and stream, And sea. All worlds are full of his great name — The sceptre of Eternal Sovereignty Is holden by a human hand, that hand Messiah's. Eyes which see the universe ; The ears which hear all sounds of joy and woe Of all intelligences ; yea, the mighty heart Which hath pulsations for all things, are His." 136 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. He paused, for nearer, and more near, approached The angel embassy. Myself, I heard What seemed the rolling of the chariot wheels. At once I asked : " Who comes, angel .? thou Who seest them, speak to me." Outspoke he clear : " Ten thousand times ten thousand angels. Such Celestial cavalcade arrives on earth For every holy soul unbodying." " Stay, Stay, angel ! " I exclaimed, " a wondrous change Is passing. Is it the mystery of death ? I feel as one who sudden floats away On a receding wave. My glass of thought Is broken into fragments. What is this ? Am I an immaterial ray of light Extinguishing ? Am I a setting star. Or rising planet on yon distant sky Beyond those opening breaches ? Can it be I am myself no more ? I feel my thoughts Around me throng like eagles on the wind : Each grander, mightier, than erst. Am I All soul — What presences are these — What light Is this ? " THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 137 The voice of tlie old man shook here, And for an instant suddenly wa& hushed. I too was silent. Soon the mastery O'er his emotions fitted him to tell The sequel ; and he thus resumed, and told The whole — these are the words : " Nor other thought Passed o'er Albert's lips. The narrative sublime Was ended of his dream divine, A flash Of light passed suddenly across his face, As if the soul in passing out illumed The shrine, where it had lodged through all its years. As suddenly his circling arms embraced What seemed to me the air, but likelier was The soul outgoing. Instantly he changed Into a marble bust of loveliness ! I looked into his eyes for thoughts. I saw The light which burnt erewhile, so brightly then, Quite gone. All left of him on the erring earth Was soulless dust. I passed, not needed there, The doors of morning. Isabelle, his wife. Hung o'er him — how, I tell not. " The gay morn 138 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL'. Had dawned. The white mist lay like drapery Upon the broad and beauteous river. Low I' the east the morning star shone out. On the ear Of morn no pilgrim voice arose. The winds Slept in the woods, the matin-bird i' the bower. The glittering dew engrained the robes of earth With pearls and diamonds. Earth seemed not like earth, Perchance seemed not, because my thoughts were all With him who had gone from it." This the end Of Albert's dream, by the devout and aged man ; Nor left he aught untold, of that told him, On the morn Albert expired. This is the end ! It seemed like revelation new ; and lit With brighter light the mystery of souls And angels. As a star new launched in space Casts radiance o'er new passes in the sky, So would that dream pursue me with its power. Until I felt its memory ne'er would die, Unless I dying ! As I went my way. Nor ever saw them more — before me rose THE au A EDI AN ANGEL. 139 The scenes : around me seemed the worlds to breathe Of that strange pair, of whom, immortal one, Mortal awhile the other, and in part. Not wholly : as one on the threshold stands, Between two worlds, a foot on either side. Of neither, yet partaking some of both. THE GUARDIAN AIGEL. BOOK THIRD. My native land I visited, wlien years Thrice seven had flown o'er earth, as spirits fly Which leave their memories o'er all their track, And live forever. Oft on ocean's vast And trackless path, at midnight hour, when winds Flew round us, lighting on the shrouds and sails, Or " took the ruf&an billows hy their tops," And dashed them o'er the shuddering prow, I thought Of that lone ship in peril, ages past. To which an angel came, a messenger, The hope of the ship's crew ; 'twixt Crete midway And rocky Melita, with words of cheer To Eome's apostle. Twelve long days and nights. 142 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. Since on my homeward voyage I did sail, Had reckoned up tlieir hours, when dawning morn Eevealed the rocky shores of Erin green, In dark outline before us. Ere the night Came from her worlds heyond the sky, with all Her starry retinue, the northern shores Of that wild isle, the Mull of dark Kintyre, The lofty Arran, we had passed, and saw The glittering archipelago which lies In Clyde's broad Frith. Dumbarton's storied steep And castellated rock, against the sky Loomed up, like some angelic sentinel Gruarding us, as all night we anchored lay "Waiting the break of morn. There was no change Upon the scenery. The Frith, the isles, The sky, the clouds, the shores were still the same, As in the days gone by. The viewless wind In wantonness caressed me, as of old. When rapt in thoughts sublime a boy I stood. At morn and eve, upon those windy steeps Unaltered. — I, alone, of all things there. Was changed by Time's rude finger. Once again I stood, returned, upon the crowded wharves THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 143 Of the great city. No familiar face, No voice of kinsman, friend, or comrade old, Was there to greet me. In the grave they slept — Father and mother ; nor could I mine eyes From tears refrain. I felt as one who stands Amid the sepulchres of all his race, Himself the last survivor, all his thoughts Eeflected only to the shadowy past — But all earth-scenes are fleeting, so the thoughts That form and vivify the mind within. Pass we my visit to the scenes of old, Familiar and beloved ; the roof which saw My hirth-hour ; the green vales and hUls of mist Dear to my boyhood, — pass the pilgrimage To my dear parents' grave — that duty dear ; Pass we my steps through places known to fame, Palace, or prison, consecrated church. Or castellated keep, or breezy downs. Where erst embattled armies, face to face Encountering, shocked, and Scotland wept or sung Their slaughter, or their glory ; Bannockburn And Brace's might, or Flodden's fatal field, Where all the forest flowers were v/ede away ; 144: T H IC GUARDIAN ANGEL. These pass we — they are sung by loftier harps, By hearts with heavenly genius more inflamed ; But not with patriot love more filled than mine. At length — nor where, nor how, it needs not tell Suffice it that the scene, the place, the time Fitted the unsought occasion — once again We met — strange meeting — Isabelle and I ; Young Isabelle, the wife of him who died On the far Mississippi, with whose fate Connection I had held so manifold. So multiform ; as known to who thus far The lingering mazes of my devious strain Have followed patient. Isabelle was here. Who o'er the sea had voyaged, to behold The natal land of him, late gone to Heaven ; And memories common to us both, and strong As links of steel, compelled us, each to each To commune of the past. We sat us down Upon a rustic seat, o'erlooking wide The Firth of Forth, with all its isles and shores, THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 145 Its trees, towers, lulls, and skimming white-sailed barks. Then — nor was't strange, for who with dreams so much Had busied been — dreams mingling with our lives, And, it may be, presaging life to come — We spoke of visions, and she told me this. Her dream of yesternight : " In thought I stood Upon a distant star, the universe Outspread beneath my vision, clear as day. I' the centre of his worlds sat the great sun. And still he filled their emptying urns with years. He was the torch which lighted them, the fire Which heated them, the fjunt from which their sky Drank all its blue, the earth her green, and all The flowers their witchery of dies. The stars. Like showers of glory from some mass Of nebulous light outshot, through boundless space, Too populous and emulous of growth — Arcturus and Orion, and the Seven, The Pleiades, and the chambers of the south — Were there, as fresh as when Job saw them shine Tliree thousand years ago ; and the morning star, 7 146 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Which rapt Isaiah's harp, by angel's hands Attuned to immortality, hath given. While thus I saw the myriad rounded spheres Eun through the universe, like cars of gold, Methought I felt the presences divine Of spiritual heings. Then beheld Hard by two spirits, marvelling as I To see their glory ; this of earth — of heaven. Angelic, showed the other. " Wherefore sail These stars the Empyrean .? " questioned he Who less than angel seemed. " Be these the ships Celestial, on the sea of time afloat Toward shores eternal ? — or immortal fanes, Dwellings and tabernacles, for repose Of angels, on their voyagiugs divine ? Whence, whither, and how long ? " Ere }et reply Vouchsafed was, a change came o'er the scene : The stars set instant ; all was night and gloom. Then, as when morning light relumes the east. The earth alone I saw. Then as a ship First on the horizon seen, at early morn THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 147 By wlio from some tall Pharos scans tlie sea, Nigh Hfts itself, nigh and nigher, and becomes More palpable, till all its spars and sails, And smallest rigging show minute and clear. So did the earth approach, nor long the time Or ere I marked its rocky shores distinct. Barring the entrance of its surfy seas : Its hills, its vales, its rivers, lakes and streams ; Its quiet hamlets, and its royal towns. All sleeping in the sun, like cradled babes Eocked by the mother's hand. I heard the rush Of cataracts, down leaping from the hills, Parents of rivers — saw the upland tarns Lie in their misty mountain homes asleep : The world was rising from its couch of night. To pay its orisons to the uprisen sun. While gazing thus upon the beauteous earth. More beauteous than it ever seemed before, Again the scene was shifted, and I saw An avenue revealed, connecting earth And heaven. Nor knew I till that dreaming hour Such avenue there was. Long, broad and steep. From star to star, through boundless space it rose. 148 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. Surpassing all the human mind can frame, Of vastness or of beauty. Giant trees Shading its streets ; fountains murmured by Cooling its precincts. Hierarchies bright Its pleasant paths innumerable clomb, Filling its way with glory. The great gate Wide open stood, and by it stood, in hosts, Attendant angels, waiting who should come, In heaven expected, yet delayed on earth. While wondering at this avenue, and all The heavenly pomp assembled there, I saw A human soul, and guardian angel, stand Before the guarded portals of the gate, Seeking admittance of th' angelic host, To that their heavenward pass. Whereat arose Loud shouts of cherubim and seraphim To hail their advent. That triumphant joy Ceased, and a fiery chariot them up took. And bore them high, that heavenly road along, In pomp and grandeur, such as ne'er beheld Mind mortal, nor imagined. Vaster far That chariot, and more glorious than the blaze Of the great sun, escorted by all stars. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 149 Made pilgrimage from earth up to the gates Of Beula. Hosts that avenue along, Angelic, veiled their crowns and shouted hymns The while that chariot passed, Methought I heard The rapturous pseans of innumerous souls High up the heavenly hills, as they heheld The entering pageant and the chariot wheels. Which bore a soul to everlasting bliss. The noise of trumpets filled the air. The peals Of the great organ of eternity. The music of ten thousand holy harps, The voices of angelic minstrels, swelled The wondrous diapason. As the pair Entered the thunderous vestibules of heaven, A film dropped from my eyes, and instantly I knew the soul, it was Ms soul, my own Departed husband's, on its way to Grod, By him led forward, who his every step On earth had known, and lighted all his ways — His Guardian Angel. Here again my dream Was changed ; an angel came to me and cried — " Look, mortal, on the earth once more." 150 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. I looked, And saw the Mississippi covered once again With the white mists of morn. Upon its banks Arose the dwelling of my happy youth, Gathered around it vast angelic hosts. The chamber of my dying husband came Before me, and myself embracing him, Himself no longer. Little thought I then Angelic eyes pitied my grief. '• A world there is." The angel spake again to me. Said he : " A world of Grod nearer to earth, and filled With beings ruined, and for ever doomed To woe ! — which seen, will give to understand God's justice and God's mercy, and to judge The insane blindness of the fools who rush Heedless of what He promises, to grasp Empty fruition of the lusts which war Against the soul, and for the joys of time Barter immortal bliss and glorious life Among the seraphim ; preferring wrath, And wailing in the abyss, and gnashing teeth, Delivered to the worm that dieth not." THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 151 His hand he waved, and lo ! before me stood The star-hght Hell ! Like exhalation dire, It rose and stood before me, looming np, Dread, horrible, infernal ! most unlike All save itself, of worlds. No hills it had Nor mountain range, nor sea, nor glassy lake, Nor murmuring rivulets, nor forests old. No breath of evening zephyrs, or soft airs. No winds. No sun it had, nor silver moon, No gentle stars i' the empyrean sky. No city, citadel, or tower, or wall : No fairy palaces, nor grove, nor lawn. No white-sailed ships on seas, no shallops frail Of fairy form, on winding rivers hid, Away in mountain fastnesses. No haunts To be revisited, no travellers young Or old, upon its coasts, come from far lands To muse. There were no green, historic scenes To see and love. Like cities in our dreams. Deserted of all traffic, so was it Without one mart of business, or exchange Within, for all the merchants of a world To congregate. No science and no art Saw I therein. No harp, no statuary. 152 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. No portraiture of things most fair, "beheld In other worlds of God. No Sabbath day- Came there, no Mercy-seat, where weary souls Worn out could kneel. No sanctuary where praise And 23rayer, and truth eterne, and sacraments Delight the entranced worshipper. None was Who prayed or praised, in all that world, not one ! Nor book, nor scripture soothed, nor armed the soul With gems of human genius, truths divine. Greetings were none, though aged forms I saw, And youthful forms in human beauty clad. No home was there, no moonlight trysting tree : No smiles of youthful love ! no glances sweet And soft at meetings, as on earth ; nor looks Of hope, nor tears of joy, nor reveries Of blessedness. How long I gazing stood I know not, ne'er can know, but long enough To show me that there came no days, no weeks, No months, no years, no time, in that dread place. Cycles on cycles ceaseless rolled, unknown Around the beach of that forgotten star, For all forgot it seemed of God, so drear It was ; and full of everlasting woe ! THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 153 Like monuments of agony and death, I saw tlie ruined angels stand, their crowns All smouldering with slow, eternal fires. Watching the billows burning, of that flood Which ever dashed against the battlements Of that lone star, like seared and scorched pines, Erewhile beheld, upon earth's mountain-tops By forest conflagration fired, they stood. Far off, in the interior, saw I more, And beyond, the agonies untold. The blackened forms of beings waih'ng there In utter desolation. Memory And thought alone were left them. Nor in all. Far as my eye could scan, was aught which showed The sacred, sweet relationships of earth. Of husband, spouse, of parent, child. No love Of brother, sister, lover, friend. It was A world wherein to dwell, the passing thought Appalled the loaded fancy with all forms Of hideousness and horror. Yet its gates Wide open stood, and thronged with those who come, Blind to its terrors, down the slanting way, Betrayed and lost. Most horrible it was, 7* 154 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. Nor can I now, without hot flow of tears Describe it, and the hopeless dwellers there, Did not the angel words high elevate My thoughts, to leave all fears of it behind. Fast as it had arisen it passed away. His hand the angel moved, and it was gone. This, too, he said : " Thy husband never saw That ruined world and its inhabitants. It is not near the avenue to bliss. But far below the earth on its confines ; And far enough from every other world To hide all knowledge of its agony Within its own dire battlements of woe ! As when we pass from sights most desolate On earth, to scenes of loveliness and joy And blessedness supreme ; so in my dream The star of woe and horror floated by. And sights of bliss came o'er the changed scene. The glorious road between the earth and sky, Like rainbow of sur]3assing pomp and size ; And all along its arch, the chariot wheels Of angels and transfigured souls rolled on, THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL, 155 As if an envoy of great import. Bright The vestibules of heaven shone out, and all Its walls and towers. Rejoicings full and grand En choired with angel trump and harp and song, Resounded from within the battlements Of bliss, as if a nation of the earth From tyranny set free. Anon methought I stood within the gates, upon a tower Surpassing all earth's towers for altitude, Which amplest prospect gave ; and saw the mount Of God, set in the vale of heaven, begirt With the glittering, glorious, crystal, waveless sea. High on its top the Mediatorial Throne, Whiter than light, stood up, and overlooked The universe. Steps rose to it on steps. Lit with seven mystic burning lamps. It stood. The centre of all sovereignty in heaven. One with the likeness of a man sat there : Upon his head were many crowns, and all I knew, but chiefest knew, the coronet Of mercy ; brightest was its sheen. Threefold — 156 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Of the prophets, priests and kings combined. The bow Of sovereign grace suspended, hung o'erhead, Spanning the throne triumphal — arch it hung Majestical, sublime. On one side blazed These words terrific : " A consuming fire Is our God " — on the other, writ alike In everlasting flame — " Our God is love." From underneath the throne a river flowed Of crystal, round the mount and in the sea, The everlasting sea, discharged its flood — The river which the psalmist saith " makes glad For aye, the city of our God." How long On the white throne, and- Him who sat on it, I gazed, there was no horologe to tell. But ne'er shall I forget the mystery Of God in Christ, then oped to me. Then thoughts Before me passed, so luminous and grand ; That i