O Love supreme!  O Providence divine! 
  What self-adjusting springs
Of law and life, what even scales, are thine,
  What sure-returning wings

Of hopes and joys, that flit like birds away,
  When chilling autumn blows,
But come again, long ere the buds of May
  Their rosy lips unclose!

What wondrous play of mood and accident
  Through shifting days and years;
What fresh returns of vigor overspent
  In feverish dreams and fears!

What wholesome air of conscience and of thought
  When doubts and forms oppress;
What vistas opening to the gates we sought
  Beyond the wilderness;

Beyond the narrow cells, where self-involved,
  Like chrysalids, we wait
The unknown births, the mysteries unsolved
  Of death and change and fate!

O Light divine! we need no fuller test
  That all is ordered well;
We know enough to trust that all is best
  Where love and wisdom dwell.

CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH.

THE CHANGED CROSS.

It was a time of sadness, and my heart,
Although it knew and loved the better part,
Felt wearied with the conflict and the strife,
And all the needful discipline of life.

And while I thought on these, as given to me,
My trial-tests of faith and love to be,
It seemed as if I never could be sure
That faithful to the end I should endure.

And thus, no longer trusting to his might
Who says, “We walk by faith and not by sight,”
Doubting, and almost yielding to despair,
The thought arose, “My cross I cannot bear.

“Far heavier its weight must surely be
Than those of others which I daily see;
Oh! if I might another burden choose,
Methinks I should not fear my crown to lose.”

A solemn silence reigned on all around,
E’en Nature’s voices uttered not a sound;
The evening shadows seemed of peace to tell,
And sleep upon my weary spirit fell.

A moment’s pause,—­and then a heavenly light
Beamed full upon my wondering, raptured sight;
Angels on silvery wings seemed everywhere,
And angels’ music thrilled the balmy air.

Then One, more fair than all the rest to see,
One to whom all the others bowed the knee,
Came gently to me, as I trembling lay,
And, “Follow me,” he said; “I am the Way.”

Then, speaking thus, he led me far above,
And there, beneath a canopy of love,
Grosses of divers shape and size were seen,
Larger and smaller than my own had been.

And one there was, most beauteous to behold,—­
A little one, with jewels set in gold. 
“Ah! this,” methought, “I can with comfort wear,
For it will be an easy one to bear.”

And so the little cross I quickly took,
But all at once my frame beneath it shook;
The sparkling jewels, fair were they to see,
But far too heavy was their weight for me.