That we may do whate'er is right, "LIGHTEN OUR DARKNESS." Full of faith we are reclining, Thou art near, our gloom to brighten; And our spirits not forsaken Singing praise that they are thine. W. MARTIN. 144 THE CHRISTIAN MOTHER'S HOPE. JOY on the Mother's brow, How happy and how bright! How sweet a spring of light! In joyful ecstasies, How deep, how sweet the feeling What new delight revealing In rapture to the heart! Holy the Mother's gaze Upon her infant child; THE CHRISTIAN MOTHER'S HOPE. 145 And why?-because they blend With longings not of earth, To loves and joys extend That have in heaven their birth; With all the sacred things Alone to woman given, As never-failing wings To lift her unto heaven. Yearnings of soul and mind, Fond pantings of full bliss, When, like a budding rose This is the Mother's joy For all her meed of pain She felt for her sweet boy, And fain would feel again; And as emotion swells Like music in her breast, L 146 THE CHRISTIAN MOTHER'S HOPE. Oh! as the flower expands, Its altar is her knee; The "firstfruits" of its youth, How sweet the hope is, then, Its nature rude and wild, To stay the taint of sin That GOD is with her child! Then fade the many fears Of this world's cruel snares; Before her anxious prayers; She fears not then her bark To launch where storms may rave; To her it is an ark Of promise on the wave: She feels, that although tost Upon the rude world's strife, It never can be lost While "Christ within" is LIFE. THE AWAKENING OF THE SPIRIT. She knows, that though the flood Of misery should abide That they will upward ride, A Mother lingers o'er, Drawn from her bosom's core; Then comes that HOPE to bless, Though flesh be turn'd to dust; The Christian Mother knows In FAITH her bosom glows She cries-"THY WILL BE DONE.' 147 W. MARTIN. THE AWAKENING OF THE SPIRIT. THUS the soul lies Sleeping and spell-bound; and the monster sin O'er all within. |