And if some friend we love is lying low,
Where human kisses cannot reach his face,
Oh, do not blame the loving Father so,

But wear your sorrow with obedient grace!

And you shall shortly know that lengthened breath Is not the sweetest gift God sends His friend, And that, sometimes, the sable pall of death

Conceals the fairest boon His love can send. If we could push ajar the gates of life,

And stand within and all God's workings see,
We could interpret all this doubt and strife
And for each mystery could find a key.

But not to-day. Then be content, poor heart;
God's plans like lilies pure and white unfold;
We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart,—
Time will reveal the calyxes of gold.
And if, through patient toil, we reach the land
Where tired feet, with sandals loosed, may rest,
When we shall clearly know and understand,
I think that we shall say, "God knew the best!"
May Riley Smith [1842-

"THE MOURNERS CAME AT BREAK OF DAY"

THE mourners came at break of day
Unto the garden-sepulcher;

With darkened hearts to weep and pray,
For Him, the loved one buried there.
What radiant light dispels the gloom?
An angel sits beside the tomb.

The earth doth mourn her treasures lost,
All sepulchered beneath the snow;
When wintry winds, and chilling frost
Have laid her summer glories low;

The spring returns, the flowerets bloom-
An angel sits beside the tomb.

ilms? and find we silence there?

es, all your faces glow

e peace our faces never know,
e faith our faces never dare,—
ness? Do you find it there?

ere tired heads may lie?
kiss our weeping dry?
ill the pulse's leap?

holds the runes of sleep?

t such comfort anywhere— ness? Do you find it there?

deceiving light we call—

man so great, and God so small,
tars, and magnifies the grass-
s too a lying glass!

do you find truth there?

kness? Is it very fair?

Richard Le Gallienne [1866

A SEA DIRGE

From "The Tempest "

thom five thy father lies: is bones are coral made; are pearls that were his eyes: ing of him that doth fade,

But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Hark! now I hear them,-
Ding, dong, Bell.

William Shakespeare [1564-1616]

EPITAPHS

I-ON ELIZABETH L. H.

WOULDST thou hear what Man can say
In a little? Reader, stay.

Underneath this stone doth lie
As much Beauty as could die:
Which in life did harbor give
To more Virtue than doth live.
If at all she had a fault,

Leave it buried in this vault.

One name was Elizabeth,

The other, let it sleep with death:

Fitter, where it died, to tell

Than that it lived at all. Farewell.

II-ON SALATHIEL PAVY, A CHILD OF QUEEN ELIZABETH'S

CHAPEL

WEEP with me, all you that read

This little story;

And know, for whom a tear you shed

Death's self is sorry.

'Twas a child that so did thrive

In grace and feature,

As Heaven and Nature seemed to strive
Which owned the creature.

Years he numbered scarce thirteen

When Fates turned cruel,

Yet three filled zodiacs had he been

The stage's jewel;

And did act (what now we moan)
Old men so duly,

As sooth the Parcæ thought him one,

He played so truly.

Devil's Law Case "

of the spring

our burying;

their growing prime,
lourish but his time:
gress from our birth-

grow, we turn to earth.
nd all delights,
appetites!

h and clearest eye
go out and die;

htly this is done

ait upon the sun. ition of kings

trophies and dead things

ing name behind,

ut nets to catch the wind.

John Webster [1580?-1625?]

MBS IN WESTMINSTER

ehold and fear!

e of flesh is here!

any royal bones

his heap of stones;

had realms and lands,

nt strength to stir their hands;
heir pulpits sealed with dust
"In greatness is no trust."