Man is like God in miniature,When he is at his best;His motives and impulses pure,His heart and will at rest;No conflict in himself is felt,His light no earthly beam,While love encircles like a belt,And conscience is supreme. As thus endowed a creature mayThe keenest sufferings feel;Not such as rack the frame of clay,Which art of […]

O Thou Eternal One, look downUpon an erring child of earth;Thy handiwork with knowledge crown,Or life will seem of little worth;By Thine own light illume my way,And turn this darkness into day. I hear a whisper in my heart–“Than knowledge, better far is love;Thy knowledge here is but in part,The perfect waits for Thee above:Walk […]

The words we speak on the empty air,Are never lost, but recorded there;The process we may not comprehend,Nor how the words with the air may blend,But science shows what results may be;Accept the fact, is enough for me. The waves of sound may have died awayAs ripples faint on a sheltered bay;But though now faint […]

Somewhere in the realms supernalIs a home prepared for me,Where my joys shall be eternal,And my spirit ever free;Mortal vision helps not here,God conceals it from my sight,By effulgent beams of light;Oh that He would bring it near! But I hear a voice say, softly,“Be content to leave it so,For God’s thoughts are far too […]

Look down, ye Alleghenies, into the Conemaugh vale,And see the rising waters, and hear the bitter wail;The swollen streams now empty their contents in the lake,The waters rise to kiss the skies and walls of granite shake. Oh, hear that awful booming; the dam has given way!An avalanche of water God’s hand alone can stay!Oh, […]

An artist skilled beyond the sons of menWith pleasure scanned the pictures on the wall,Rare works of art, each one pronounced a gem,The product of his hand, both great and small;Each filled its place in the designer’s plan;Conceived in full before the work began. Pleased was the artist with results as shown;But his ideal was […]

Beneath the surface of a shallow lake,Where grasses rank and mammoth rushes grow,And playful fish their bright fins nimbly shake,Or madly chase each other to and fro,The larva of the dragon-fly submerged,In family large, had taken their abode,And tho’ the waves around them daily surged,Upon the bending grass they safely rode. Content were they with […]

The end we sought is not attained,But wisdom has been won,And thus a higher goal is gained.That like the moon has sadly waned,While this shines as the sun. A shorter route to India’s strandColumbus failed to find.That was an object truly grand,But in the wealth of this fair landGrandeur and good combine.

As the caged eagle neared the mountain range,O’er which he oft had soared on pinions strong,He clapped his wings, moved by some impulse strange,And then fell dead his prison floor along. So Moses stood on Pisgah’s heights alone,With sight undimmed, and unabated strength;He gazed with rapture on the vision shown,Of the fair land in all […]

When the French soldier from the field returned,Begrimed with smoke and blood, he felt content,As from Napoleon he this fact had learned,That thro’ his marshall, medals would be sent,The name of battlefield each one would bear,And, also, in large letters, “I was there.” In others’ triumphs we may well rejoice,If in their triumphs good to […]

“paint Me As I Am, Warts and All”– Cromwell Brave soul, ’twere well if all the same would say,And artists aim their patron’s wish t’obey.What signifies a wart, or e’en a scar?Leave both, skilled hand, and paint us as we are.The crowfeet paint, the wrinkles on the brow,The hollow cheek, the form inclined to bow,The […]

I would not cherish a wish or thoughtDispleasing, Lord, to Thee;Thy will is good, and with wisdom fraught,And that suffices me.I cannot alter a plan of Thine,And would not if I could;I acquiesce in the will divine,And find my highest good. At times my vessel drifts near the shore,And the beacon lights expire,The surf-capped waves […]

My old sweetheart is away to-day;I feel as I did of old,In my courting days, when far awayI yearned for her more than gold. I thought of her handsome, smiling face,Her noble and cultured brow,Of her gentle ways, and charming grace;I missed her less then than now. Through the long years of our wedded life,Now […]

With purpose strong to do or die,The race of life he ran,With love supreme to God on high,And equal love to man. Some flaws the earthen vessel marred,Which all could clearly see;Within was found the precious nard;From guile his heart was free. In motive e’er is found the sin;Let that to God be true,And he […]

He loves not much who loves not honor more;If men lack this then love must lack as well;If this possessed no tongue love’s depths can tell;The heart an ocean filled from shore to shore. Seeing in him the possibilityOf likeness to the great and Blessed One;It may be even now in him begun.I love him […]