ORDER RHYMES 
 
 By FREE LANCE 
 
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 littp://www.archive.org/details/borderrhymesOOfreeiala 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
BORDER RHYMES 
 
 BY 
 
 ^^ 
 
 JFREE LANCE 
 
 ?ff/ 
 
 LiLLIESLEAF. 
 
 yf<r 
 
 
 F7 
 
 
 IS'i? 
 
 
 ^/ilF 
 
 / am content to be so bare 
 
 
 Before the archers ! everyiohere 
 
 
 My wounds being stroked by Heavenly air. 
 
 
 E. B. Beow] 
 
 NINQ. 
 
 HAWICK : 
 
 James Edgar, 5 High Street 
 
 1899 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I herewith send out into the world the children 
 of my brain, trusting they will find their way into 
 the hearts of souls that are akin. 
 
 F. L. 
 
 Lit lies leafy 
 
 May, i8gg. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 A Blue-bottle Fly 
 
 After Many Years 
 
 A Gowk's Day Sonnet 
 
 A Holy Life - 
 
 A Holy Life - 
 
 A Holy Spirit - 
 
 Ailie an' me 
 
 A Lang Road - 
 
 A Man Shot 
 
 Analogy 
 
 A New Version of an Old Soliloquy 
 
 Anxiety, 
 
 A Paraphrase - 
 
 Application 
 
 A Prayer 
 
 A Race 
 
 Argument 
 
 A Rhyme for a' Concerned 
 
 A Rose 
 
 A Sang for Somebody - 
 
 A Sower went forth to Sow 
 
 Aspiration 
 
 A Strong Will 
 
 At Eventide it shall be Light - 
 
 Autumn Leaves 
 
 Autumn 
 
 Page 
 25;i 
 121 
 
 59 
 162 
 202 
 152 
 
 75 
 4 
 
 71 
 263 
 149 
 322 
 243 
 
 51 
 112 
 322 
 251 
 
 53 
 241 
 
 83 
 151 
 180 
 208 
 374 
 
 73 
 144 
 
viii. CONTENTS. 
 
 
 
 Puije, 
 
 Bairns at play 
 
 223 
 
 B. C. 
 
 372 
 
 Before and after 
 
 205 
 
 Be of good Cheer 
 
 182 
 
 Buildinsc .... 
 
 257 
 
 Burns ..... 
 
 362 
 
 Cathie and Frank 
 
 3 
 
 Cause and Effect 
 
 263 
 
 Change not Loss 
 
 148 
 
 Charity .... 
 
 307 
 
 Character .... 
 
 318 
 
 Chrysostom .... 
 
 338 
 
 Clothes ..... 
 
 230 
 
 Conie ..... 
 
 87 
 
 Conceit .... 
 
 260 
 
 Consuming Fires 
 
 310 
 
 Conviction .... 
 
 163 
 
 Cracks ..... 
 
 231 
 
 Creeds ..... 
 
 121 
 
 Creeds ..... 
 
 246 
 
 Daily Duty .... 
 
 114 
 
 Darkly we see . . . . • 
 
 356 
 
 Design - - . . . 
 
 90 
 
 Do Right .... 
 
 265 
 
 Do Right - . . . . 
 
 295 
 
 Doing and Being ... 
 
 176 
 
 Dragons' Teeth ... 
 
 317 
 
 Dr John Ker .... 
 
 353 
 
 Detraction .... 
 
 258 
 
 Each 
 
 242 
 
 Eventide ■ - . . . 
 
 270 
 
 Evil ■ - 
 
 306 
 
 Evolution • . . . . 
 
 175 
 
 Expression . . . . . 
 
 294 
 
 Eyes ...... 
 
 10 
 

 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 k. 
 
 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Faith and Action 
 
 
 . 
 
 86 
 
 Falsehood 
 
 
 . 
 
 252 
 
 Fate 
 
 
 . 
 
 100 
 
 Faultfinders 
 
 
 . 
 
 48 
 
 Fear not 
 
 
 . 
 
 238 
 
 Forget-me-not - 
 
 
 . 
 
 38 
 
 For God 
 
 
 . 
 
 275 
 
 Force - 
 
 
 . 
 
 319 
 
 Forward 
 
 
 . 
 
 225 
 
 Fret not 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 178 
 
 General Gordon 
 
 
 . 
 
 351 
 
 Giving and Getting 
 
 
 . 
 
 198 
 
 God's Laws 
 
 
 . 
 
 301 
 
 God's Treasure-house 
 
 
 . 
 
 230 
 
 Gossip - 
 
 
 . 
 
 57 
 
 " Greet the Unseen w 
 
 ith 
 
 a Cheer " - 
 
 309 
 
 Harriet Beecher Stowe 
 
 . 
 
 36 
 
 Heart Gifts 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 64 
 
 Hearts of Gold 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 213 
 
 Henry's Birthday 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 46 
 
 Henry Fawcett 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 349 
 
 He who Tilleth the L 
 
 and shall have Bread - 
 
 262 
 
 His Will be Done 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 108 
 
 Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz 
 
 204 
 
 Holy Spirit 
 
 
 
 247 
 
 Homeward Bound 
 
 
 
 252 
 
 H. M. Stanley - 
 
 
 
 32 
 
 Hope of Spring 
 
 
 
 214 
 
 How not to do it 
 
 
 
 43 
 
 Igdrasil 
 
 
 
 136 
 
 Ill-used Folk - 
 
 
 
 52 
 
 Immortal Death 
 
 
 
 294 
 
 Individuality - 
 
 
 
 321 
 
 In Memoriam — A. G. 
 
 
 
 326 
 
 Isabella Gertrude 
 
 
 ■ ■ ■ 
 
 34 
 
X; 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Jack the Giant Qaeller 
 
 189 
 
 James Martineau 
 
 361 
 
 Jessie - 
 
 66 
 
 Jesus 
 
 239 
 
 J. G. - 
 
 366 
 
 J. H. - 
 
 368 
 
 John Bright 
 
 358 
 
 John Henry Newman - 
 
 357 
 
 John Howard Payne - 
 
 195 
 
 John Woodger 
 
 337 
 
 John Wyclif - 
 
 340 
 
 Justice 
 
 197 
 
 Kate - 
 
 4 
 
 Keys - 
 
 304 
 
 Kingship 
 
 314 
 
 Kin - 
 
 269 
 
 Kingdom 
 
 295 
 
 Kindliness 
 
 320 
 
 Knowledge 
 
 100 
 
 Knowledge 
 
 312 
 
 Law 
 
 105 
 
 Law 
 
 293 
 
 Laws 
 
 158 
 
 Langlands 
 
 68 
 
 Leaders 
 
 303 
 
 Leaves - 
 
 305 
 
 Let the Diel get his due 
 
 157 
 
 Life - 
 
 72 
 
 Life - 
 
 154 
 
 Life - 
 
 178 
 
 Life 
 
 325 
 
 Light - 
 
 291 
 
 Light and Law 
 
 221 
 
 Limitation 
 
 307 
 
 Lines for the Season 
 
 172 
 
 Live true 
 
 260 
 
COI^TENTS. xi. 
 
 Page 
 
 Loo ........ 1 
 
 Louisa --•----. 63 
 
 Love -------- 245 
 
 Loyalty ------- 203 
 
 Luther ....... 346 
 
 M. A. 336 
 
 Malice ....... 212 
 
 Mary ---.-..- 13 
 
 Matter and Spirit ------ 94 
 
 Matter and Spirit ...... 278 
 
 May 8 
 
 May Blossom Sunbeam Club - - - - 23 
 
 Meditation - - • - - - - 196 
 
 Memories ....... 39 
 
 Mend the Bruised Shell with Pearl .... 132 
 
 Miracles 311 
 
 Mooter ....... 18 
 
 Moral Atmospheres - - - - - - 17 
 
 Move Firmly on ----- - 159 
 
 Mrs Grundy ....... 55 
 
 Mrs Grundy in Parliament ..... 218 
 
 Musings ....... 14 
 
 Music ....... 288 
 
 My Books ....... 95 
 
 " My Beautiful Boy " 124 
 
 My First Acrostic - - - - - - 117 
 
 My Little Freend ...... 85 
 
 My Work 227 
 
 Nancie ........ 139 
 
 Nature is Quiet Creating ; Load in Destroying - - 273 
 
 Noise and Silence .--... 274 
 
 Obedience ....... 173 
 
 Obstructions ..---.- 298 
 
 Onward ....... 176 
 
 Oor Ain Wee Loo ...... 2 
 
xii. 
 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Open Eyes 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 . 274 
 
 Our Alphabet - 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 271 
 
 Our Exemplar - 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 97 
 
 Our Sunbeam Club 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 24 
 
 Paraphrases on the Words of Thomas Carlyle 92, 142, 
 
 184, 188 
 
 Paraphrase, Another 
 
 Carlyle - - - . 
 
 234 
 
 Patience 
 
 
 
 186 
 
 Prayer - 
 
 
 
 318 
 
 Prayer - 
 
 
 
 247 
 
 Praying Hands 
 
 
 
 156 
 
 Prayer 
 
 
 
 126 
 
 Praying Deeds 
 
 
 
 134 
 
 Pretty Nancy - 
 
 
 
 86 
 
 Professor Lawson 
 
 
 
 354 
 
 Psalm XV. 
 
 
 
 211 
 
 Reflection 
 
 
 
 89 
 
 Refleetion 
 
 
 
 207 
 
 Registration 
 
 
 
 104 
 
 Rest at Last 
 
 
 
 204 
 
 Retrospect 
 
 
 
 297 
 
 Revelation 
 
 
 
 123 
 
 Revelation in Man 
 
 
 
 277 
 
 Rev. Robert Muir 
 
 
 
 335 
 
 Rev. Robert Blackstock 
 
 
 337 
 
 Rev. John Lawson 
 
 . 
 
 
 355 
 
 Revelation 
 
 . 
 
 
 321 
 
 Riches - 
 
 - 
 
 
 308 
 
 Robin Redbreast 
 
 . 
 
 
 41 
 
 Rozinante 
 
 - 
 
 
 66 
 
 Sabbath 
 
 . 
 
 
 237 
 
 Sabbath 
 
 - 
 
 
 304 
 
 Sabbath Bells - 
 
 . 
 
 
 80 
 
 Sabbath in Summer 
 
 . 
 
 
 11 
 
 Seedtime and Harvest 
 
 
 
 209 
 
 Semblance 
 
 - 
 
 • . . . 
 
 268 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 
 
 xiii. 
 
 Page 
 
 Sentimeutal Grumblers 
 
 
 
 
 
 250 
 
 Shining Souls - 
 
 
 
 
 
 257 
 
 Sin - 
 
 
 
 
 
 241 
 
 Sight and Sound 
 
 
 
 
 
 133 
 
 Silent Influence 
 
 
 
 
 
 164 
 
 Slow to Blame - 
 
 
 
 
 
 315 
 
 Small Things - 
 
 
 
 
 
 207 
 
 Song for the Season 
 
 
 
 
 
 129 
 
 Sons of God 
 
 
 
 
 
 279 
 
 Sonnets 
 
 
 
 
 
 284 
 
 Sunsets 
 
 
 
 
 
 287 
 
 Sonnets — Hindrance 
 
 
 
 
 
 280 
 
 Sonnet 
 
 
 
 
 
 280 
 
 Sooner or Later 
 
 
 
 
 
 84 
 
 Sowing - 
 
 
 
 
 
 131 
 
 Sowing - 
 
 
 
 
 
 311 
 
 Spectacles 
 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 Spiritual Evolution 
 
 
 
 
 
 104 
 
 Spring 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 Spring 
 
 
 
 
 
 88 
 
 St Mary's Kirk, and St Mary's 
 
 Loch 
 
 
 
 
 37 
 
 Storms 
 
 
 
 
 
 317 
 
 Steering Home 
 
 
 
 
 
 276 
 
 Strength 
 
 
 
 
 
 313 
 
 Strict - 
 
 
 
 
 
 323 
 
 Summer in the Soul 
 
 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 Summer 
 
 
 
 
 
 145 
 
 Sweet Peas 
 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 Sweet Violets - 
 
 
 
 
 
 286 
 
 Symbols 
 
 
 
 
 
 200 
 
 Symmetry • 
 
 
 
 
 
 194 
 
 Temptations 
 
 
 
 
 
 301 
 
 The Race 
 
 
 
 
 
 310 
 
 The Wisest Man 
 
 
 
 
 
 314 
 
 The Overmind 
 
 
 
 
 
 320 
 
 The Unseen Soul 
 
 
 
 
 
 289 
 
 The Rainbow - r 
 
 
 
 
 
 289 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 The Snowdrops 
 
 The Spirit of our days 
 
 The Lake 
 
 The War 
 
 The Pole Star - 
 
 The Seasons Again 
 
 The Seasons 
 
 The Sword of Truth 
 
 The Pilgrim 
 
 The Angels 
 
 The Higher Sense 
 
 The Daisy 
 
 The Difference - 
 
 The Sunbeam Club 
 
 The Monologuish Man 
 
 The Golden Wedding 
 
 The Bane o' St Giles - 
 
 The Martyrs 
 
 The Kingdom of Christ 
 
 The Moth 
 
 The Daisies 
 
 The Key 
 
 The Key 
 
 The Twenty-third Psalm 
 
 The Words of the Lord 
 
 The Words of the Lord 
 
 The Message of the Daisy 
 
 The Seasons 
 
 The Builders 
 
 The Laws of God 
 
 The Lilies 
 
 The Web of Life 
 
 The Trinity 
 
 The Collie Dog 
 
 The Gates 
 
 The Lord's Prayer 
 
 The Cross 
 
 The Indiw Chief 
 

 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 
 XV. 
 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Three Sonnets --.--- 
 
 
 282 
 
 The Shadow of Death . . . . 
 
 
 367 
 
 Tennj'sou ...... 
 
 
 363 
 
 Thomas Carlyle .... 
 
 
 371 
 
 Thoughts ...... 
 
 
 106 
 
 Thou in me and I in thee . . . . 
 
 
 249 
 
 Time ....... 
 
 
 166 
 
 Time ...... 
 
 
 300 
 
 Toil 
 
 
 268 
 
 To A. G. H. 
 
 
 22 
 
 To him that hath shall be givea - 
 
 
 171 
 
 To Mary, with Snowdrops . . . . 
 
 
 12 
 
 Transition ..... 
 
 
 181 
 
 Tried - 
 
 
 
 
 292 
 
 True Religion 
 
 
 
 
 96 
 
 True Prayer 
 
 
 
 
 107 
 
 True Life' 
 
 
 
 
 256 
 
 Trust - 
 
 
 
 
 117 
 
 Trust - 
 
 
 
 
 248 
 
 Truth - 
 
 
 
 
 168 
 
 Truth - 
 
 
 
 
 299 
 
 Twae-faced folk 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 Unequal Development 
 
 
 235 
 
 Unpunctuality .-..-• 
 
 
 285 
 
 Verses - . - 
 
 
 147 
 
 Via Dolorosa ..... 
 
 
 179 
 
 Vespers ..... 
 
 
 272 
 
 Voices and Echoes .... 
 
 
 99 
 
 Watchfulness ..... 
 
 
 155 
 
 Weaving ..... 
 
 
 266 
 
 Weariness ..... 
 
 
 316 
 
 We Spend our Lives as a Tale that is Told - 
 
 
 170 
 
 What Shall it Avail? 
 
 
 224 
 
 William Tyndale .... 
 
 
 344 
 
 William Ewftrt 
 
 Gladato 
 
 ne ' ' ' 
 
 
 348 
 
XVI. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 W. M. D. 
 
 Work - 
 
 Work - 
 
 Work - 
 
 Written in an Album 
 
 W. T. P. Y. - 
 
 Page 
 359 
 177 
 209 
 296 
 42 
 369 
 
 Yearning for the Snowdrops 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 In the 2ist line, page 109, for "be" read "is." 
 
 In the nth line, page 170, for "taken" read 
 *' token." 
 
 In the 8th Hne, page 177, for "hidden" read 
 "hid in." 
 
 In the 29th line, page 294, for "sweat" read 
 "sweet." 
 
Border Rhymes, 
 
 LOO. 
 
 J) EAR little Loo, queer little Loo, 
 
 O, she loves the wild flowers well ; 
 But the sweetest flower o' a' to me 
 Is dear little Loo hersel'. 
 
 Through lang, lang years, wi' wistfu' een, 
 
 I dream o' flowers aboot her, 
 An' rowth o' a' things guid an' fair 
 
 That canna' be withoot her. 
 
 But wise wee Loo, the blasts are rough 
 That blaw ower the gentlest life ; 
 
 An' a brave, strong heart is needed 
 To warstle through the strife. 
 
 But there's a Faither's love abune 
 
 To bield the tenderest buds. 
 An' the flowers are slockened wi' rain 
 
 That fa's frae heaven's ain cluds. 
 
 A 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 I'll bring, if prayers can bring, frae heaven 
 
 An angel sae leal an' true, 
 To keep frae every stain o' sin 
 
 Oor ain auld-farrant Loo. 
 
 OOR AIN WEE LOO. 
 
 Q SOMEBODY'S een are blithe an' bricht, 
 
 ■^ They laugh into mine an' mine laugh too- 
 Auld-farrant een wi' a sense o' richt 
 Are the kindly een o' oor ain wee Loo. 
 
 Pure as the stars on a simmer nicht, 
 
 An' sweet as the flowers in mornin' dew 
 
 That ope their hearts to the kindly licht. 
 Is the winsome smile o' oor ain wee Loo. 
 
 Other folk's bairns nae doot may be 
 
 Bonny an' guid an' clever an' true, 
 But nane o' them a' has a smile for me 
 
 Like the leal smile o' oor ain wee Loo. 
 
 I like to look in her bonny face, 
 
 Wi' her innocent soul shinin' through — 
 
 A rosebud openin' wi' quiet grace — • 
 Nae wonder we like oor ain wee Loo. 
 
 Angels abune may covet mair bliss, 
 An' entice her away frae oor view ; 
 
 But wherever she is, I'm shure o' this. 
 She will aye be oor ain dear Loo. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 CATHIE AND FRANK. 
 
 C\ THE vale o' the Tweed is bonny 
 ■^ In the bield o' the heather hills, 
 Where the river, reflectin' tree an' flower, 
 Is fed by a hunder rills. 
 
 O, the vale o' the Tweed is bonny, 
 
 A' robed in its simmer prime, 
 Wi' the wild rose an' the hawthorn 
 
 An tufts o' the sweet wild thyme. 
 
 An' foment a bonny laburnum 
 
 I ken o' a cosy fauld 
 Where twae wee twin lambs trot oot an' in, 
 
 Weel bielded frae heat an' cauld. 
 
 O, the vale o' the Tweed is bonny 
 
 Frae Yair to auld Elibank ; 
 Still, siller could buy the hale vale. 
 
 But it canna' buy Cathie an' Frank. 
 
 May angels aye guide their little feet 
 
 Frae everything that's wrang. 
 And lead them aye in the paths of peace, 
 
 Where true love wad have them gang. 
 
 And when at the last the angel comes 
 
 To open the gate of heaven. 
 May leal hearts meet their ain leal hearts • 
 
 Wi' welcome by true hearts given. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 A LANG ROAD. 
 
 "/TOOTHER, mother, come away," 
 I heard a little maiden say ; 
 " We've a lang road afore us." 
 
 And all along the dusty way 
 The flowers looked up and seemed to say— 
 " Little maiden, take me." 
 
 Her little hands were filled with flowers ; 
 Her gentle heart forgot the hours, 
 Filling itself with sweetness. 
 
 I thought upon life's dusty road. 
 And raised my thoughts in prayer to God 
 To line her way with flowers. 
 
 And when the weary end draws near, 
 May shining ones from Him appear 
 To take our own sweet flower. 
 
 KATE. 
 
 C\ KATE, Kate, you want to look nice- 
 
 * A sweet embodiment o' grace ; 
 That's why you love your silver brooch 
 With " Truth " engraved upon its face, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Solomon was wonderfu' grand, 
 As we read in the Bible story ; 
 
 But a greater than he has said 
 The lilies outvied his glory. 
 
 Now, if you are adorned with truth, 
 
 And love it in every degree, 
 Then even the lovely lilies 
 
 Will be far surpassed by thee. 
 
 The fruitful palm in sunny lands 
 
 Grows outward — upward from the heart, 
 
 And spreads out its crown of beauty 
 To heaven from its highest part. 
 
 So may thy life from inner truth 
 To outward beauty ever grow, 
 
 Crowning with opulence and grace 
 A soul as white as falling snow. 
 
 YEARNING FOR THE SNOWDROP. 
 
 C\ WE weary for the snowdrops 
 * In the hollow of the year ; 
 But life is creeping through the clod. 
 And. the flowers will soon be here. 
 
 The crocus will open its heart of gold, 
 And laugh in the sun's bright face ; 
 
 Daffodils too will come, and hyacinths, 
 With comely racemes of grace. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 The lambkins will dance on the lea, 
 And the daisies will kiss their feet ; 
 
 And the blackbird's heart will overflow 
 With melody rich and sweet 
 
 Roses will lurk in the blooming hedge 
 And blush in the morning dew, 
 
 Showing their clusters half concealed 
 And half held forth to view. 
 
 Autumn shall follow the summer 
 
 Over the hill and the plain. 
 And the mellow fruit will fall in her lap 
 
 Along with the golden grain. 
 
 Then winter will come and bind 
 The earth with an icy chain, 
 
 And the snowdrops will know their time 
 And foretell all the flowers again. 
 
 SPRING. 
 
 ffl' 
 
 'HE earth asleep 
 In slumber deep 
 Lay underneath the snow ; 
 The angel spring, 
 With genial wing, 
 Swept over all below. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Then bud and bloom 
 Rose through the gloom 
 
 To greet the eye of day ; 
 The earth grew green, 
 The streamlets sheen 
 
 Sang sweetly on their way. 
 
 Now 'neath our feet 
 Are daisies sweet, 
 
 Birds warble on the spray ; 
 In the blue sky 
 The lark sings high, 
 
 And love is all his lay. 
 
 My soul is thrilled, 
 
 My heart is filled 
 And troubled with emotion ; 
 
 For earth and air 
 
 And all things fair 
 Are full of love's devotion. 
 
 In my best dreams 
 
 All nature seems 
 A harp of many strings, 
 
 That angel throngs 
 
 Stir into songs 
 By rustling of their wings. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 MAY. 
 
 rjjHE green-robed earth is beautiful 
 
 In dell and hill and grove ; 
 Life fresh and young is everywhere, 
 And over all is love. 
 
 The tender grass, the sweet primrose, 
 
 The daisy by the way — 
 A golden heart in silver set 
 
 To greet the eye of day. 
 
 Life thrills through every branch and twig 
 
 Of every forest tree. 
 Unfolds the leaves like bannerettes 
 
 That tell of victory. 
 
 The birds pour forth the joy of life 
 
 In raptures of delight, 
 The streamlets murmur sweetly on 
 
 In music day and night. 
 
 And I could sing a song of heaven 
 
 Revealed in all things fair, 
 Did not my heart with fulness fall 
 
 Dumb on the altar stair. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 THE DAISY. 
 
 TTTHE sun withdrew his genial ray, 
 I plucked a daisy by the way ; 
 Its white and crimson rays were rolled 
 Around its lovely heart of gold — 
 O, daisy by the trodden road, 
 I read in thee the love of God. 
 
 My soul is stirred whene'er I see 
 The emblem of myself in thee ; 
 For in the cold and dreary night. 
 When earth obscures the blessed light, 
 I fold my heart from curious eyes 
 Until God sends the bright sunrise. 
 
 Then heedless of the pain that's past, 
 I open all my folds, and cast 
 Myself into the kindly light. 
 When all is fair again and bright 
 As morning freshness after rain. 
 Or morning rest from night of pain. 
 
 And when the darkest hour draws nigh, 
 
 I'll fold my withered leaves and lie 
 
 In peace, while angels bear me through the night 
 
 Into the sweet and glorious light ; 
 
 And, daisy by the trodden road, 
 
 I'll take thee in my heart to God. 
 
10 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 EYES. 
 
 I | OVING, laughing, beautiful eyes; 
 Wondering, thoughtful, and wise ; 
 Eloquent eyes that to mine unfold 
 Treasures far nobler than beaten gold — 
 
 Eager eyes ever so bright 
 
 As they hail and drink the light, 
 Like the young plant pushing abroad 
 
 The roots and leaves 
 
 That foretell the sheaves 
 Flung down at the feet of God. 
 O, dear eyes! in the coming years 
 Only the noblest be thy peers. 
 And only love shine in thy tears. 
 
 And when the hosts of right and wrong 
 
 Are mustered face to face and strong, 
 Then, wise eyes ! the perfect law read ye. 
 
 And lift the sword of right 
 
 With willing hands to fight 
 For laws that make men free. 
 And when the angel comes. 
 
 After long years, 
 Lay down the sword and go 
 
 With him to higher spheres ; 
 Round thee a life well proven, 
 In thee, heaven inwoven. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 11 
 
 SABBATH IN SUMMER. 
 
 /^ I E must not let our spirits rust, 
 
 Come ! let us shake the week-day dust 
 
 From weary hand and heart and brain ; 
 And walk in peace with quiet feet 
 Where all around is pure and sweet, 
 
 Forgetful of the world's dull strain. 
 O, come where flowers and song 
 The whole day long 
 
 Fill every yearning sense with God, 
 Like holy angels in the air 
 That draw us up the altar stair. 
 
 By stream and dale and beaten road. 
 
 Beauty fills receptive eyes, 
 
 And music grateful ears ; 
 The soul of beauty never dies, 
 
 Song sweetens all our tears 
 
 And thrills through all the years, 
 O, come and walk by green-merged streams, 
 
 And grow as the still flowers grow ; 
 Yield up our hearts to summer dreams. 
 
 Let song and beauty overflow 
 Our souls with peace 
 And life's increase. 
 
 With flowers and song God opes our hearts 
 
 To fill them with delight ; 
 He gives earth's treasures through the day, 
 
 The quiet stars by night 
 
12 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 We list his messengers until we feel 
 
 We too are sent by Him, and bear His seal, 
 
 And should with joy respond unto 
 A healthy atmosphere with health ; 
 Gathering and giving truest wealth 
 From life's circumference to its core, 
 At one with Him for evermore. 
 
 TO MARY, WITH SNOWDROPS. 
 
 ^T^EAR friend, we know the love that greets the 
 
 flowers 
 That grew by Hardenburn. In the great city 
 These snowdrops, like some potent magic wand. 
 Do raise sweet memories that thronging come 
 With all the dear friend faces of the olden time. 
 When we would watch the small white tips that peered 
 Above the winter clod, and think upon 
 The gladsome time of leaves and birds and flowers ; 
 Then passing to your genial home, we'd draw 
 The sofa round, and look with glowing hearts 
 Into the glowing fire, and speak with free 
 And blessed unreserve because our trust was perfect 
 
 And when the summer came 
 With all things beautiful, our hearts were filled 
 With summer gladness that shed o'er all a light 
 That made the green earth like the land of all 
 Our holiest dreams; while through the flowers 
 And grass we climbed the steep Grange brae, and then 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 18 
 
 Sat down to fill our souls with wealth of loveliness, 
 
 For O, the scene was lovely! I wonder now 
 
 If the kind friend who shared our walks 
 
 Has in the Fatherland beheld a scene 
 
 More fair — hill and vale and wooded slope ; 
 
 The " fairy-haunted Lindeancleuch ;" the Ayle 
 
 Singing its ceaseless song through meadows green, 
 
 Like gentle maiden murmuring holy songs 
 
 Because her peaceful heart is pure and glad ; 
 
 The hedges high and white with bloom ; our own 
 
 Fair Lilliesleaf scattered along the ridge, 
 
 Calm in the holy Sabbath calm. No wonder 
 
 That the scene remains on memory's whitest page — 
 
 That time's effacing finger dare not touch — 
 
 And ever with the lapse of years keeps growing 
 
 More dear and beautiful. And when we've reached 
 
 The farther shore of this first scene of life, 
 
 We'll often think of " ancient Riddell's fair domain," 
 
 Of Hardenburn, and all the walks we had 
 
 When life was young and all the world before us. 
 
 As all the summer lies before the snowdrops. 
 
 MARY. 
 
 T. KEN a winsome bit lassie 
 
 That minds me o' rosebuds that lie 
 'Mang dewy leaves in the morning, 
 A-wooin' the sun frae the sky. 
 
14 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 An' I wish that her life may aye breathe 
 An effluence as sweet as a rose, 
 
 An' as pure as the dews o' the morn 
 That freshens the flower as it grows. 
 
 As the dewdrops kep and ensphere 
 The rays frae the source o' oor licht, 
 
 E'en so may her pure soul ensphere 
 The rays frae the centre o' richt 
 
 An' when the lang years have woven 
 Aboot her a mantle o' peace, 
 
 An' the angels are weary wi' vyaiting 
 To crown her wi' life's grand increase; 
 
 When her heart is yearning for hame, 
 An' her feet are sair wi' the road, 
 
 May shining ones waft her away 
 To fulness of joy in God. 
 
 MUSINGS. 
 
 'T^AE doot the blackbird sings fu' sweet 
 
 High on the auld aik tree, 
 But the whustle o' the whaup, I trow, 
 Is fer mair dear to me. 
 
 O, weel I like the Ettrick hills 
 
 Where I hae leeved sae lang, 
 Where a' the glens are glamoured ower 
 
 Wi' auld romance and sang. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 15 
 
 Amang the hills an' hopes an' holmes 
 My thoughts fu' often daunder, 
 
 Like siller sangs frae siller rills 
 That through the glens meander. 
 
 I enter in at open doors 
 
 Where kindly welcome's gi'en, 
 An' where we crack the langsyne cracks 
 
 An' see ilk langsyne scene. 
 
 But I carena to gang back to leeve, 
 
 My hert wad be but wae 
 To miss the hert that made for me 
 
 The bield below the brae. 
 
 I'm weel content to wait until 
 
 The veil is drawn aside, 
 That hides the hert I leant on lang, 
 
 Wi' muckle joy an' pride. 
 
 For where the hert is, there's the hame ; 
 
 It's love that builds the nest ; 
 An' weel I ken love waits for me 
 
 To hap me roond wi' rest. 
 
 Though then my thoughts may wander here 
 
 To see ilk weel-kenned face, 
 I wadna come to leeve again, 
 
 Though weel I like the place, 
 
16 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 SWEET PEAS. 
 
 ^OMEBODY aince walked into my heart, 
 
 Wi' a posey o' flo'ers for a key ; 
 To other folks' een the flo'ers may fade, 
 But they'll never fade wi' me. 
 
 Of course the sweet peas were sweet : 
 Their sweetness scentit the air ; 
 
 But the sweetest thing about them 
 Was the spirit sae leal and fair 
 
 That breathed through every blossom, 
 Like words through a telephone. 
 
 In whispers that said kind things to me 
 In a quiet undertone. 
 
 O' flo'ers are wonderfu' bonny ! 
 
 An' God speaks through them too ; 
 Oot o' the same earth, into the same licht, 
 
 O' every description an' hue, 
 
 O' every form an' substance they come, 
 Drinkin' the same rain an' dew, 
 
 Each wi' a word o' God in its heart, 
 An' each to its mandate true. 
 
 An' now, my bonny wee woman, 
 Your heart and mine should be 
 
 Like the clinging hands that twine 
 Roond the stakes for the clinging pea. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 17 
 
 Oor hands should cling to the steadfast laws 
 That oor deeds may look to heaven, 
 
 Like flowers that sweeten all the air, 
 With perfume freely given. 
 
 MORAL ATMOSPHERES. 
 
 /jPI E a' evolve an atmosphere 
 
 Roond us o' guid or ill — 
 An outer garment o' the soul 
 
 Through which oor thochts distil 
 The spirit o' oor lives to shew 
 
 Oor qualities o' hert an' will. 
 
 The cynic's atmosphere is ane 
 
 That checks, an' numbs, an' freezes 
 
 Oor thochts ere they are coined to words ; 
 It fosters soul diseases, 
 
 Like snell east wunds that blaw aboot 
 Rheumatics, coughs, and wheezes. 
 
 We feel as 'neath a Upas tree — 
 
 The richt word wunna come ; 
 We stutter an' we warstle wi' 
 
 A spirit halflins dumb ; 
 Oor thochts are a' astray ; oor heids 
 
 Feel like an empty drum. 
 
18 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Frae his cauld unbelievin' gaze 
 We shrink within oorsel's ; 
 
 Only what's warst in us he sees, 
 An' what is guid repels ; 
 
 He judges most censoriously 
 By ootsides o' the shells. 
 
 But kindliness roond kindliness, 
 Like perfume roond the flo'ers, 
 
 Make thochts rin into fittest words, 
 An' we could speak for 'oors 
 
 Bathed in a healthfu' atmosphere 
 That fosters a' oor po'ers. 
 
 The man who takes the cynic's sword 
 Shall perish by the same ; 
 
 Who wantonly his neighbour hurts, 
 Writes on his own soul, " Shame ! " 
 
 But he is blest who kindly makes 
 The golden rule his aim. 
 
 MOOTER. 
 
 I ^ ANGSYNE, when mills were few, 
 
 The district roond 
 Was thirled to ane, an' a' within 
 
 The legal boond 
 To it their corn bude take to grind. 
 Whether or no' they had a mind ; 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 19 
 
 An' for each lade 
 
 The miller made 
 
 He was paid weel 
 
 Wi' mootered meal. 
 But thirlage now has ceased to be, 
 
 Wi' ane or twae exceptions 
 O' some deid hand's decree, 
 That like the ghosts that didna hear 
 
 The morning cock craw in the day, 
 Still linger, unca deidly sweer 
 
 To don their mantle grey, 
 
 And gang away. 
 
 Now thirlage micht be wrang or richt 
 
 When sic a law was made, 
 But wi' changed times an' clearer licht 
 
 We a' maun hae free trade ; 
 When folk ootgrow their swaddlin' bands. 
 They tear them off wi' willing hands, 
 
 So thirlage had to go. 
 
 But, oh ! I wonder sair to see. 
 
 When wordly men do richt 
 They're wiser than the folk that think 
 
 They're children o' the licht ; 
 An' there's the auld kirk mill, 
 
 That grinds the breid o' life, 
 Thirles a' the parish to itsel' 
 
 An' raises muckle strife ; 
 
20 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 It's true they canna' make us bring oor corn, 
 
 Nor haul us in by lug an' horn, 
 
 But though we grind oor grain elsewhere. 
 
 To their auld mill mooter maun gang ; 
 Now this, of course, is fer frae fair — 
 
 Indeed its doonricht wrang, 
 An' mootered folk cry oot for richt — 
 
 This state o' things they wunna stand, 
 An' auld kirk millers, filled wi' fricht, 
 
 Wi' magic lanterns stump the land. 
 
 The watchmen on the sheelin' hill 
 May lift their voice wi' clamour shrill ; 
 The rank an' file rub stoorie een, 
 An' a' concerned 
 
 May greet an' grane 
 
 An' make their mane, 
 
 For they'll find oot, 
 
 Withoot a doot. 
 
 That nae lime licht 
 
 Can make wrang richt. 
 
 THE DIFFERENCE. 
 jwOME folk think to raise theirsel's up 
 
 By pushin' other folk doon ; 
 It's a great mistake — they only show 
 
 Theirsel's the pest o' the toon, 
 
 An' a' folk think they weel deserve 
 
 To get di, crack on the croon, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 21 
 
 Others, again, forget theirsel's, 
 
 Mindin' others to raise : 
 It wad be the last o' their actions 
 
 Their kindness abroad to blaze, 
 But in the kingdom o' heaven 
 
 It's written doon to their praise. 
 
 If a' folk wad only mind an' act 
 On the golden rule o' life, 
 
 The diel could seldom raise a storm 
 O' enmity and strife, 
 
 An' angels' visits, instead o' few. 
 Wad be uncommonly rife. 
 
 We needna' think this rule is but 
 
 For other folk to observe ; 
 It's for you, an' me, an' every ane, 
 
 To quicken oor life wi' verve ; 
 The mair we help the helpless, the mair 
 
 Oor ain guid we conserve. 
 
 Folk dinna lose by giein', if 
 Their hearts are just an' richt ; 
 
 The man that scatters his seed abroad 
 Get's harvest to gladden his sicht ; 
 
 But he that hoards the seed he has, 
 Is a puir shortsichted wicht. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 His barns are empty in autumn, 
 When other folk's o'erflow ; 
 
 We get the seed frae oor Maister 
 To scatter in fields below, 
 
 An' we'll reap oor harvest in heaven 
 Accordin' as here we sow. 
 
 TO A. G. H. 
 
 f^ ANDIE, ye're but a wee, wee chap, 
 
 * Wi' the world a' afore ye ; 
 Yer ain route ye maun take on the map, 
 
 An' write yer ain life's story ; 
 Yer wee, wee feet maun be weel shod 
 Wi' a firm trust in the love o' God. 
 
 Angels o' ill an' angels o' good 
 
 Will gang wi' ye a' the way ; 
 The angels o' ill maun be withstood. 
 
 But list what the good anes say ; 
 For the good an' the ill will strive to gain 
 The mastery ower yer heart an' brain. 
 
 Frae end to end o' the journey o' life 
 
 Have a leal love o' the truth, 
 An' while weel prepared for jar or strife. 
 
 In yer heart aye harbour ruth. 
 An' good shall be strewn along the road 
 That is lit up by the stars o' God. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 23 
 
 Wisely walk in the light, that others may 
 
 Safely in yer footsteps go ; 
 An' freely yer seed sow a' the way, 
 
 An' gather where others strew ; 
 As pilgrim, sower, soldier, reaper, 
 Yer soul shall be its ain charter keeper. 
 
 Take truth for a sword an' right for a shield, 
 When foes surround and assail : 
 
 The sword of the Lord shall win the field, 
 An' make thine enemies quail ; 
 
 Aye move straight on, equip't, complete, 
 
 For onward march, but not for retreat 
 
 An' a' on the way that ye subdue 
 
 By effort of heart an' mind. 
 Shall render thee service, leal an' true. 
 
 An' with kingliness enshrined 
 Within yer soul, kingly ye shall reign 
 Ower a' ye have won in life's campaign^ 
 
 MAY BLOSSOM SUNBEAM CLUB. 
 (Rules to be Signed by the Members.) 
 
 T PROMISE to try to be true 
 
 In thought, in word, and in deed ; 
 To be m.odest and helpful and kind 
 
 To each living thing that has need. 
 Never to listen to scandal, 
 
24 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Nor take pleasure in anything wrong ; 
 To be self-denying and punctual, 
 
 To love what is good and be strong 
 To resist and conquer temptation ; 
 
 To encourage each other in rightness, 
 By character and conversation. 
 
 OUR SUNBEAM CLUB. 
 
 Y DREAMT that the angels abune 
 
 Looked doon frae their spheres o' licht, 
 And saw the dear little Sunbeams here, 
 
 Wi' faces a' shining bricht ; 
 And they danced and sang wi' perfect joy 
 
 To see sic a bonny sicht. 
 
 Ane said to the rest " Let us each take ane, 
 And tend her baith nicht and day. 
 
 We'll help them aye to be kind and true 
 In a' that they think and say ; 
 
 We'll open their een to each wily snare, 
 That wad lead their feet astray. 
 
 We'll make them see that the evil deed 
 
 Grows oot o' the evil thocht ; 
 And every ten years we'll meet again 
 
 To see what changes have wrought ; 
 Be glad wi' the guid and grieved wi' the ill 
 
 That the years to them have brocht." 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 25 
 
 Then ane said " I'll have Fanny," 
 The next ane " I'll have Jane," 
 
 The third said "Tiny Maggie 
 I'll aye keep free frae stain"; 
 
 The fourth said " Isabella 
 Shall be my very ain." 
 
 The fifth had een that shone like stars, 
 
 O, she was wondrous bonny ! 
 She said she thocht that I mysel' 
 
 Had as muckle need as ony, 
 And she'd be mine to help me ower 
 
 Paths thorny, steep, and stony. 
 
 So here, ower hill and dale, we journey on 
 Wi' watchfu' angels by oor side, 
 
 That we should trust as pilgrims trust 
 The knowledge of a trusty guide — 
 
 A kindly guide, whose love we know. 
 Will lead us through the world wide 
 Safe to our home at eventide. 
 
 THE SUNBEAM CLUB. 
 
 '^ LANE at the eventide I dreamt 
 
 That fifty years had come an' gane, 
 An' the Sunbeams met in the same auld place, 
 
 Each with the angel that was her ain, 
 An' a' were as leal as when they met 
 Fifty years syne roond this hearthstane. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 There was Fanny an' Tina, Maggie, 
 
 Jane, Esther, an' Isabella, 
 An' the licht that shone aboot them 
 
 Was genial, sweet, an' mellow. 
 The hair o' ane was as siller-white 
 
 As it aince was golden yellow. 
 
 An incorporeal Sunbeam cam' 
 An' sat in the auld airm chair, 
 
 The other Sunbeams smiled, weel pleased 
 To have their auld clubmate there, 
 
 Although she was as intangible 
 As the simmer evening air. 
 
 Wi' a licht like a smile frae Heaven, 
 
 Her voice said, soft and low, 
 " Let us a' gie thanks to the angels 
 
 That, wi' love that was aye aglow. 
 Strove weel to keep oor herts an' lives 
 
 As pure as the stainless snow. 
 
 An' Heaven's sweet benedictions 
 Dropt doon frae the angels' wings. 
 
 An' every clubmate's hert was filled 
 Wi' sangs that the glad hert sings, 
 
 While the sorrows o' earth for them 
 Nae langef had ony stings. 
 
 An' there they sat, the comely dames, 
 
 Each wi' her spectacles on ; 
 Wi' a far off look recounting by turns 
 
 Events that had come an' gone, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 27 
 
 An' how through them a' a licht frae Heaven 
 
 Had ever aboot her shone ; 
 An' the others Hstened wi' kindly grace 
 
 To the quiet undertone. 
 
 Then said the voice frae the airm chair 
 " I'm glad to be here this nicht, 
 
 An' pleased ower the lugs to ken 
 
 How each Sunbeam has been a licht 
 
 That shone on the cluds o' the darkest day, 
 Till the darkest cluds grew bricht. 
 
 I'm prood to think yer a credit 
 
 To the guides ye've had sae lang — 
 
 That cheered yer journey through life 
 Wi' mony a hertsome sang, 
 
 But dinna be pridefu', but gratefu' 
 To ken ye've been keepit frae wrang. 
 
 An' now that the day's far spent, 
 An' the shadows o' even grow dark, 
 
 Trust the love that has aye been aboot ye, 
 An' leave to the world yer wark, 
 
 While loyalty writes on yer soul 
 
 The word that is Heaven's hall mark." 
 
 Then there was a flutter o' unseen wings, 
 An' a soond like the primrose rill, 
 
 Where ferns grow green in Lindeancleuch 
 On the side o' Riddell Hill, 
 
 An' I wakened wide an' raxed mysel' 
 In the nineteenth century still. 
 
28 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 THE MONOLOGUISH MAN. 
 
 TTTHE monologuish man wad sit 
 An' drone eend on for ever ; 
 He loves his ain eternal voice 
 
 That flows on like a river ; 
 Ye canna' get a shot at him 
 
 However fu' yer quiver. 
 
 O' endless strings o' platitudes 
 
 He will his soul deliver ; 
 If ye like ill to be repressed 
 
 He'll speak ye in a fever, 
 For " men may come and men may go 
 
 But he goes on for ever." 
 
 Ye listen, wait, and watch yer chance 
 
 To get a word rushed in, 
 But on he goes until ye think 
 
 His dronin' waur than sin. 
 An' wish to guidness he wad cease 
 
 His unconvincing din. 
 
 A' conversation's at an end 
 When he gets under weigh ; 
 
 Edgeways ye'll no get in a word 
 Though ye should wait a day ; 
 
 He thinks yer charmed to side wi' him 
 In a' ye hear him say. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 An' if, by some unlooked-for luck, 
 His tongue should cease to wag, 
 
 The subject's changed, it's oot o' time 
 An' no worth while to drag 
 
 The dreary windbag back to licht 
 It's blawn up sides to jag. 
 
 He is the greatest weariness 
 
 Syne ever speech began ; 
 An', O, he very often is 
 
 A holy clergyman ; 
 The guid forgie me if I wish 
 
 He were ayont Japan. 
 
 For, wae is me, I dinna like 
 
 The monologuish man ; 
 Oh ! had his harness ony joint, 
 
 I'd drive through it a ban 
 Wad make him frame his future speech 
 
 Upon another plan. 
 
 If there's a greater bore, it is 
 
 The monologuish woman ; 
 She'll deave yer vera soul wi' din 
 
 Till baith yer lugs are bummin' ; 
 Oh ! how ye wish for quietness, 
 
 An' think it's never comin'. 
 
 Nae love is lost atween the twae 
 
 Whenever they foregather ; 
 Ilk ane believes the other ane 
 
30 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 A great lang-wundit blether, 
 An' like the man that couldna' speak 
 On onything but leather. 
 
 Were it no' for conceit, I trow. 
 They'd baith say muckle less, 
 
 An' no' against a neebour's tongue 
 Sae thoughtlessly transgress, 
 
 But let ilk ane that wants get room 
 To speak withoot excess. 
 
 THE GOLDEN WEDDING. 
 
 |-4lFTY years ago two pilgrims met 
 
 When their lives were fresh and gay, 
 When the lily and the violet 
 
 Strewed sweetness on their way ; 
 And love, like a priceless amulet, 
 Their hearts made youog for aye. 
 
 Hand clasp'd in hand, and with hearts a-wed, 
 They tripp'd o'er hill and plain ; 
 
 While over their heads the fleet years sped. 
 Doubling joy and halving pain, 
 
 With earth below and heaven o'erhead 
 And sunshine in their train. 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 31 
 
 They were ever helpful, true, and kind 
 
 To pilgrims travelling the road ; 
 For the love within their hearts enshrined 
 
 Was love to mankind and God ; 
 And the kindly earth with heaven combined 
 
 To smoothen the path they trod. 
 
 And all the way, as onward they went, 
 
 There was neither jar nor strife ; 
 For trust and loyalty were so blent 
 
 In their calm concordant life ; 
 Each was to each the complement — 
 
 True husband and true wife. 
 
 When the day for the golden wedding came, 
 
 A dark cloud hovered o'er ; 
 An angel through the dark cloud, cleft, 
 Came and bore one pilgrim through the rift — 
 One was taken, and the other left 
 
 To wait until love restore 
 To the lonely heart, awhile bereft. 
 
 Its mate for evermore. 
 
 Angels are hovering round the souls 
 Whose eyes look up to the light, 
 
 Where their names are shining in the scrolls 
 That the angels love to write. 
 
 And the pilgrim feet are led to goals 
 Where the loved ones re-unite. 
 
32 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 H. M. STANLEY. 
 
 ^y^ ETTLE, muscle, brain and will, 
 Their unity in Stanley find, 
 And with his fearlessness combined 
 They level every hindering hill. 
 
 His eyes are quick as light to see ; 
 His heart is wise ; his ready feet 
 When duty calls know no defeat 
 
 In working out the head's decree. 
 
 Obstruction cannot bar his course ; 
 
 It gives but token of his might ; 
 
 It bows before his claim of right. 
 And owns the dominance of force. 
 
 Like all great souls, he seems to think 
 Obstructions are but tests to try 
 The strength we win our victories by, 
 
 From which no loyal heart should shrink. 
 
 The savage man with poisoned dart, 
 The forest, dark, and damp, and drear ; 
 And hunger, sickness, death austere, 
 
 Like hounds of hell growled round his heart. 
 
 But He who hears His children cry 
 
 A father is in very deed, 
 
 And help He sent for Stanley's need, 
 When he was in extremity. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 33 
 
 And when the food his hunger sought 
 Came from the stores of heaven direct, 
 He felt a father's arms protect 
 
 His life with purpose high enwrought. 
 
 Some men in silence overcome — 
 Not so Stanley — loud and clear 
 His words direct fall on the ear, 
 
 And in the heart are driven home. 
 
 His two grand texts are true and good, 
 " As thine own self thy neighbour love,'' 
 " Wish for best gifts," to be inwove 
 
 Within thy soul with brotherhood. 
 
 That wish, expressed in noble deeds, 
 Like polished stones build up the life 
 That turns aside besieger's strife 
 
 And foemen's swords like broken reeds. 
 
 Oh, fearful heart ! be strong and true, 
 And know the help to Stanley sent 
 When failure seemed so imminent 
 
 Was a grand guide post reared for you. 
 
 God sends his servants to his field 
 To work, and till their task is done 
 He keeps them safe — at setting sun 
 
 Their worth of work is signed and sealed. 
 
34 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 None with His work to do can die 
 Before his time ; no dart has power 
 To pierce his heart before the hour 
 
 That brings permission from on high. 
 
 ISABELLA GERTRUDC. 
 
 W OU bonny wee blossom of love, 
 
 Wi' a face like a pale pink rose, 
 Where a pair of sweet viol&ts lie 
 In holy and restful repose 
 As pure as the stars 
 
 That look from the sky. 
 
 Surely your beautiful eyes 
 
 Were kindled in Heaven 
 To shine on this world of ours, 
 
 And to keep our hearts lovely 
 
 Nae doot you are given, 
 As earth is made lovely with flowers. 
 
 We welcome thee nestling here, 
 
 As we welcome the flowers in the spring. 
 When the buds and the blossoms appear, 
 
 And the birds begin blithely to sing. 
 
 Oh, a' the hale way 
 
 That your w^ee feet maun gang 
 May the angels lilt ower ye 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 35 
 
 Some heartsome bit sang ; 
 While guiding" your steps 
 Frae a' that is wrang. 
 
 May they love thee and shield thee, 
 And comfort and bield thee 
 
 Frae sorrow and pain, 
 
 Making rough places plain ; 
 While they bind thee to guidness 
 
 Wi' love's daisy chain. 
 And 'mid a' temptations and jars 
 
 I\Iay they keep thee for ever 
 As pure as the stars. 
 
 In the sweetness of morn, 
 
 In the glow of noontide, 
 In the shadows of eve, 
 
 May they keep by thy side. 
 
 And when at the close of the day 
 
 Kind nature is hushed to a calm, 
 And the bonny rose petals decay, 
 From love to more love slip away 
 Like th^ last holy line of a psalm. 
 
36 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 
 
 "I feel about all things now as I do about the things that 
 happen in a hotel after my trunk is packed to go home. I may 
 be vexed and annojed, but what of it, I am going home." 
 
 H. B. Stowe. 
 ^^OOD Harriet Beecher Stowe ! 
 
 In countless hearts the name Hes sweet, 
 And countless heads with reverence bow, 
 To know her round of life complete. 
 
 She lived in readiness to go ; 
 
 Death oped the door when God said, " Come, 
 Leave all thy hindrances below, 
 
 Come up and rest a while at home." 
 
 And she passed through the open door 
 
 Where loyal souls do enter in, 
 To share God's joy for evermore, 
 
 In triumph over death and sin. 
 
 O, grand the crown that angels wait 
 
 To place upon the victor's brow ; 
 And bright the smiles that gratulate 
 
 Brave Harriet Beecher Stowe. 
 
 While noble souls of every age — 
 
 In Christlike deeds her own compeers — 
 
 Loyal in heart, the seer and sage 
 Sing welcome to the higher spheres. 
 
 O, 'tis a blessed thing to sow 
 
 The seed the Lord Himself hath given, 
 
 To see the harvest sheaves, and know 
 Love garners them in heaven. 
 
nORDER RHYMES. 37 
 
 ST MARY'S KIRK AND ST MARY'S LOCH. 
 
 "Tj ONG years ago, within the mystic past, 
 
 St Mary's fane was reared on the hillside, 
 And reverent feet went up to meet with God. 
 Chivalry and beauty have here ofttimes 
 Joined heart and hand for weal or woe ; 
 And here the warlike knight and humble herd 
 Laid down the sword and crook, and rested 
 Side by side ; while fairies flitted o'er 
 The rainbow's rim, and brownies hid 
 Within the deep ravine, and the clear 
 Gem-like lake claspt the calm hills in unity. 
 O, sweet St Mary's lake ! the past and present 
 Meet in thee— earth and heaven meet when thy 
 Pure loveliness draws down the enamoured sun 
 From shining- steeps of light to lay 
 His rainbows on the heathy hills 
 That duplicate themselves at eventide 
 In thy calm depths. No wonder 
 That the poet's heart has been so often 
 Raptured with thy queenliness, and quivered 
 Into song at sight of thee among thy hills. 
 My soul, too, has felt the mystic touch ; 
 And now, with trembling fingers, here I lay 
 One more poor tribute on thy rippling wave. 
 
38 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 FORGET-ME-NOT. 
 
 "T^EAR friend, I thank thee for the sweet forget-me- 
 
 not, 
 The fitting emblem of a sweet request ; 
 But think not that I need its silent prayer. 
 Can I forget the love whose shining beams 
 Transformed whate'er they fell on, 
 Till everything looked up with gladsome eyes, 
 Responding to the bright congenial glow 
 That opened all the flowers to give them light, 
 While birds filled all the air with melody ? 
 The love that lay like balm upon the bruised heart, 
 Made pain less sharp and toil less wearyful, 
 That gave a keener zest to all the good 
 That strewed the wayside of our pilgrim life, 
 While brightening hope for all the time to come ? 
 No ! your love is woven so into my life 
 That I must cease to live if I forget thee. 
 The flower that drinks fresh draughts of morning dew 
 Grows strong and beautiful — a pure delight : 
 Thy love has hung on me like morning dew. 
 And I have drunk it up as drinks the thirsty flower. 
 I've seen the light through all its lustrous shining, 
 Yea seen the sun itself reflected in each drop ; 
 And if it hangs not now like crystal spheres 
 It lives in every fibre of my soul, 
 Calm eyed and deep, a true forget-me-not. 
 And in the higher life my heart shall call, 
 And thou shalt never choose but come to me, 
 
BOEDER RHYMES. 89 
 
 For thou ajrt mine ; and as thy love has slaked 
 My thirsty soul, e'en so my love has rained 
 Refreshment on thine own, and though daric clouds 
 May intervene, still come there must clear shining 
 When all the storms of life have wrecked themselves 
 Upon the hither shore of death's dark river. 
 
 MEMORIES. 
 
 T SIT alone and dream of walks 
 
 Long past, but pleasant still — 
 Of walks we've had by wood and stream, 
 By flowery vale and hill. 
 
 Of walks along the Riddell road 
 Where trees their branches spread, 
 
 A living arch of greenest leaves 
 That interlace o'erhead. 
 
 We've wandered up by Hardenburn, 
 
 And to the muckle tree. 
 Or through the fairy-haunted glen 
 And ower the daisied lea. 
 
 And memory loves to linger long 
 By bonny Boosemill Haugh, 
 
 Where merrily the river glides 
 Past clumps of st-ately saugh. 
 
40 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And sweeter walks ane canna get 
 
 Than walks by fair Linthill, 
 Where murmuring soft the river sings 
 
 To rose and daffodil. 
 
 And whiles we've daundered up the glen 
 Where flowers nod by Shawburn, 
 
 And where the blossoms grow sae white 
 On many an ancient thorn. 
 
 We'd cross the brig and thread the wood, 
 
 And climb to Friarshaw, 
 Where we can see the Minto Hills 
 
 And rugged Ruberslaw. 
 
 The uplands wi' their sportive lambs, 
 
 The quiet sylvan vale, 
 Where birds sing in the summer morn 
 
 That flushes hill and dale. 
 
 And where around lang Lilliesleaf 
 
 With lavish hand is flung 
 A wealth of grace more dear to me 
 
 Than aught that ere was sung. 
 
 I sit alone and dream, and dream 
 Of friends that shared with me 
 
 The pleasures that have set their seal 
 On gracious memory. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 41 
 
 I know not if we'll meet again 
 By glen and greenwood tree, 
 
 Or hear fuU-chroated birds pour forth 
 Their hearts in melody; 
 
 But in that lovelier land afar, 
 Where all is dear and fair, 
 
 My heart shall call them unto me, 
 And I shall meet them there. 
 
 ROBIN REDBREAST. 
 
 'TjI^ RIGHT tints come ower the autumn leaves ; 
 The farmer garners in his sheaves; 
 
 The hip, the haw, the rowan red 
 Are sweet to see in dell and shaw — 
 I like to hear the vera craw 
 
 Cawin' homeward overhead. 
 
 And robin, perched on yon tree tap. 
 Flings his rapt song in nature's lap ; 
 
 No happier bird than he, I ween ; 
 His song is bliss without alloy, 
 Upspringing from a heart of joy 
 
 As glad as when the leaves were green. 
 
 And not alone in springtime glades, 
 x\nd not alone in autumn shades. 
 But oftentimes in winter days 
 
43 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 To some high leafless branch he'll come 
 When a' the other birds are dumb 
 
 And cheer us wi' his blithesome lays. 
 
 O, robin! that my soul could sing 
 In winter of the coming spring 
 
 From off some consecrated height 
 A song as true and glad as thine, 
 Then heaven should fill this heart of mine 
 
 With like abandon of delight. 
 
 W^RITTEN IN AN ALBUM. 
 
 "TTF thou would'st in thy heart 
 Feel summer's balmy glow, 
 
 " Forget last winter's snow," 
 And read thou this suggestive book 
 In some reposeful nook 
 
 Where dream-thoughts calmly flow, 
 As flows the rippling brook. 
 
 Singing its quiet song 
 
 The whole day long 
 To listening flowers that grow 
 
 'Mong grass and sedge 
 
 Fringing its edge. 
 
 The book's twice dear in friendship's eyes, 
 For here high thoughts we find 
 Of many a cultured mind 
 
 Traced on each page by friends we prize. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 43 
 
 We read the lines, their thoughts we see 
 Reflected well in what they write, 
 
 As in the lake each flower and tree 
 Is duplicated to our sight. 
 
 Reading between the lines, we trace 
 Many a history, many a face ; 
 For memory reads distinct and clear 
 Many a thing not written here. 
 
 Here gathered flowers bloom sweet and fair 
 As flowers bloom in a garden plot 
 
 And to the store I dare to add 
 This small forget-me-not. 
 
 HOW NOT TO DO IT. 
 
 /Yll HEN a man has gane a wee bit wrang 
 
 And his fauts ye need tae tell, 
 Mind and gie him nae better kail 
 
 Than ye can sup yersel ; 
 For if ye do, it's ten to ane 
 
 Ye'll only make him rebel. 
 
 Say naething to hurt his self-respec' 
 
 If ye can help it ava, 
 An' when ye come to the sair bit 
 
 Scartna the place that's raw, 
 To gratify yer ain puir spite 
 
 Enlairging eve-ry flaw. 
 
44 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 For gnidsake pit on nae michty airs 
 As nane were guid but yersel, 
 
 An' never forget the golden rule ; 
 For it needs nae witch to tell 
 
 That naething is half sae like to succeed, 
 For it acts on a man like a spell. 
 
 For ordinar, folk are easy led, 
 But they're no sae easy driven ; 
 
 Their legs and airms ye may sned, 
 But ye wunna drive them, even 
 
 Wi' a' the force ye can muster, 
 To sic a guid place as heaven. 
 
 SPECTACLES. 
 
 TN kindly conversation two divines 
 
 Who serve the Lord on different lines 
 
 Together sit at a soiree ; 
 
 A parish priest is Mr B., 
 
 And Mr Y. a staunch U.P. 
 Says Mr B. to Mr Y.— 
 
 "Your spectacles I'd like to try." 
 
 Says Mr Y. to Mr B.— 
 " By all means try you mine, 
 And I would like a look through thine.'' 
 
 " Agreed, and we shall see 
 
 If mine fit you or yours fit me." 
 So, as th» gentlemen proposes, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 45 
 
 The spectacles are soon transferred 
 To dififerent noses. 
 
 Says Mr B. — " I cannot see 
 
 At all with yours." 
 Says Mr Y.— " No more can I 
 With yours. But O, if you could only see with mine, 
 You'd see how all that's best in churches do combine 
 To make the grand U.P. denomination 
 The very best church in the whole creation." 
 " Hold, hold," says Mr B.. 
 For sure am I, if you could see 
 As I can see through mine, 
 You'd see that soon or late 
 The church established by the State 
 Shall every sect absorb and dominate." 
 O, gentlemen, I do suppose, 
 The spec's that do each reverend nose 
 So gracefully bestride fit different eyes, 
 To what each sees he testifies ; 
 
 But truth has many sides, 
 And men from dififerent points of view 
 
 Look at one side that oft the other hides. 
 Then deem no side unseen untrue, 
 But both with me agree, 
 That blessed are the eyes that see 
 
 All round the truth. 
 Their's is the light that fills 
 
 The heart with ruth 
 And God-like charity. 
 
46 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 HENRY'S piRTHDAY. 
 
 ^PTGAIN the year wi' noiseless feet 
 
 Brings Henry's natal day ; 
 He cam' when the flowers cam' 
 In the bonny month o' May, 
 When a' the woods were ringing 
 Wi' sangs the birds were singing ; 
 While the flowers looked up an' listened, 
 Through draps o' dew that glistened 
 Fresh on every spray. 
 
 A wee bit mite o' life he was, 
 
 Laid into open airms 
 That shield him yet wi' muckle care, 
 An' muckle love frae mony a snare 
 
 That tempts wi' false unholy charms 
 The thochtless heart, the careless fit, 
 An' hurts the chaps that has nae wit 
 
 Wi' mony griefs an' harms. 
 
 May wisdom licht the way he gangs, 
 
 An' truth be his sure guide, 
 While courage keeps his leal heart strong 
 
 Whatever fate betide. 
 Till at his journey's end he rests 
 
 Wi' love on every side. 
 
 An' as wi' ready welcome love 
 
 Was waitin' for him here, 
 Even so may love await him 
 
 Within Heaven's higher sphere, 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 47 
 
 While angels roond aboot him crood, 
 Wi' gladsome voices singing clear — 
 
 Welcome, brother, leal an' true, 
 
 We are waiting here for you, 
 An' a' the wuds are ringing 
 Wi' sangs the birds are singing, 
 
 An' fresh wi' draps o' dew 
 
 The bonny flowers upspringing 
 To thee their gifts are bringing 
 
 Aboot thy feet to strew ; 
 
 All thy wants we'll gently tend. 
 
 Singing — Welcome, brother, leal an' trtie 
 Welcome to our Fatherland. 
 
 THE BANE O' ST GILES. 
 Q THE bane o' St Giles, 
 ^ The bane o' St Giles, 
 Makes the face o' the faithless 
 
 Runckled wi' smiles. 
 Tiie great sea serpent may wallop away. 
 The papers aboot it have naething to say, 
 Nae maitter although its length 
 
 Is a hunder miles, 
 Its place is ta'en up 
 
 Wi' the bane o' St Giles. 
 O, the bane, the blessed bane, 
 That aince was a bit o' the saint that's gane 
 
 To the dear kens where, 
 
48 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 An' left this bane — worth every bane 
 
 In a hale kirkyard. 
 Dear Jacob Primmer, ye whiles 
 Look in at St Giles 
 
 To spy oot the images there ; 
 When ye gang in again 
 Ye may spy oot the bane, 
 
 If its no' elsewhere. 
 The bent o' the times nae doot ye can read 
 In a bane that's been deid 
 A thousand years, 
 
 An' something mair ; 
 But the worldly wise 
 
 Will likely maintain 
 That some needy penscraper 
 
 Has invented the bane 
 For the guid o' his paper. 
 
 FAULTFINDERS. 
 
 GfOME folk take a wonderfu' pride 
 In huntin' up other folk's flaws, 
 There's naething but guid escapes them — 
 
 Even it they scart wi' their claws ; 
 Wi' smiles an' smirks, an' words like dirks, 
 They will scart yer hert on the raws, 
 An' expect folk tae gie them applause 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 51 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 W E may preach yer tongue into rheumatics 
 
 ^ To gossiping Mistress Bain, 
 Exposing her fauts and her faiHngs, 
 
 But ye'll preach to her in vain. 
 She'll think every word ye say applies 
 
 To tattling Jenny MacMain, 
 An* she'll haud up her hands in horror 
 
 At sins nae waur than her ain. 
 
 An' Jenny puir body is just as pleased, 
 
 An' as shure as shure can be, 
 That yer preaching was meant for the other, 
 
 In the vera first degree ; 
 For every ane sees their neebor's bit slips, 
 
 But their ain they dinna see ; 
 An' often ane sees ane's neebor's bit slips, 
 
 Wi' a certain kind o' glee. 
 
 But where we see in oor neebor a faut. 
 
 Or ony bit want o' grace. 
 We should honestly look to oorsel's an' see 
 
 What we might be in their place, 
 An' be ready to wipe frae body and soul. 
 
 Every uncomely trace 
 O' what we consider in other folk. 
 
 Folly or black disgrace. 
 
52 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 ILL-USED FOLK. 
 
 ///I HEN folk are used wi' doing what's richt 
 
 They think nae mair aboot it ; 
 It never enters their honest heart, 
 
 That ony ane will doot it ; 
 They need nae brazen trumpet, 
 
 Nor e'en a horn to toot it. 
 
 But if ever a body keeps herpin' on 
 
 The way that folk takes him in. 
 Be shure he cheats when he gets the chance ; 
 
 An' aye the looder his din 
 Believe him the less, an' be 
 
 The mair convinced o' his sin. 
 
 The folk that are heartless an' cruel, 
 
 Ca' other folk for the same ; 
 An' they that are greedy an' grasping 
 
 Sic like are aye first to blame ; 
 They ca' them at nae allowance. 
 
 An' wonder they think nae shame. 
 
 If they have a richt to an inch, 
 They groonge if ye gie na an ell ; 
 
 But if ye have a richt to a yard, 
 They'll thrimmel ye off an inch an' tell 
 
 To a' that it disna concern, 
 How greedy ye_are yersel'. 
 
BOMBER REYMES. hi 
 
 If ye should hauf yer kingdom wi' them, 
 They'll think they deserve it a' ; 
 
 An' they'll rack their brains till they fancy, 
 Somewhere or other a flaw ; 
 
 Then instead o' thanks for yer kindness. 
 They'll ca' ye as black as a craw. 
 
 Their souls are lean and scraggy affairs — 
 
 If souls they have ava ; 
 They think that a' things should fly to them, 
 
 Whenever they like to ca' ; 
 An' if ony ane gets a share o' what's gaun, 
 
 Ane hears nae end o' their jaw. 
 
 An' a' that's guid in themselves they see 
 Through goggles that magnify, 
 
 Till mites look as big as camels, 
 An' midges like guid milk kye ; 
 
 But your invisible fauts, 
 
 They see with the naked eye. 
 
 A RHYME FOR A' CONCERNED. 
 
 |l THERE'S a wonderfu' ingenuity 
 
 In finding roads to the deil, 
 An' a wonderfu' lot o' ways, 
 
 In learning the way to steal ; 
 Ane wad think the chief end o' man, 
 Was to grab at a' that he can, 
 
 An' wriggle through life like an e^I. 
 
ft* BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Frae folk that have gathered siller 
 Wi' brain, industry, an' thrift, 
 
 The brainless, the thriftless, an' idle 
 Wad grab wi' organised theft ; 
 
 As if the chief end o' the bees, 
 
 Was to keep the drones at their ease — 
 Nae wonder that honesty's glift. 
 
 The rich an' the puir are members 
 
 O' the same body policic. 
 An' should leave thegether in peace ; 
 
 But instead o' that they kick, 
 The donnert mortals never will learn, 
 That kicking the pricks can only earn, 
 
 A jaggy road to Auld Nick, 
 
 It's a daft like thing for the heid 
 To scorn the hands that toil ; 
 
 An' as daft like for the hands, 
 The heid o' its richts to spoil ; 
 
 The hands o' toil an' the wheels o' wealth, 
 
 Are needit baith for the common health, 
 An' shouldna each other foil. 
 
 The goose that lays the golden eggs, 
 In puir folks pooch pits siller ; 
 
 They wad be daft to clip her wings. 
 An' waur than daft to kill her ; 
 
 If ye have corn to grind for meal, 
 
 Water maun come to the water wheel, 
 An' ye maun hae a miller. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 1» 
 
 Now, for the guid o' a' the race 
 
 They absolutely need 
 To be upricht, aefauld an' straightforward 
 
 In thought, in word, and in deed ; 
 An' kindly an' helpfu' an' true, 
 While wi' the golden rule they subdue 
 
 A* selfishness an' greed. 
 
 MRS GRUNDY. 
 T'M shure sic tred as folk has 
 
 To please Mrs Grundy, 
 She must be obeyed 
 
 Baith week-day and Sunday; 
 Against her behests 
 
 They daurna play cheep, 
 An* wherever she gangs 
 
 They follow like sheep ; 
 The question they ask is no 
 
 "Is't richt or is't wrang?" 
 But " What wull she say?" 
 
 Then at it slap bang. 
 
 To a' kinds o' extremes 
 
 Undreamt of in dreams. 
 To please her they'll gang ; 
 
 In the warm days o' simmer 
 They pit gloves on their hands, 
 For sae she commands ; 
 
M BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 They build theirsel's up like a rick, 
 Or tie theirsel's up like a stick, 
 
 Contract or expand. 
 Or crumple their feet, 
 
 Till they hardly can stand ; 
 They wad swap their salvation 
 To be in the fashion 
 
 An' please the auld kimmer. 
 
 But I think the unholiest thing o' a'. 
 Is squeezing their waists unnaturally sma', 
 It's the daftest like enormity, 
 The pride they take in deformity ; 
 They grudge neither labour nor wealth, 
 They grudge neither reason nor health, 
 In trying to please Mrs Grundy. 
 
 Then, if somebody dees 
 To enrich legatees, 
 
 O sic a hurry and deavement 
 For black claes and crape 
 In the fashionable shape, 
 
 To publish abroad their bereavement. 
 
 If their herts are laden wi' grief. 
 
 If the gladness o' life has been chilled, 
 Wi' a blank that canna be filled, 
 
 To the voice o' reason they're deaf — 
 But they hear Mrs Grundy, 
 An' they rig oot on Sunday 
 
 In black whatever the cost ; 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 57 
 
 Pay, or no pay, 
 They're bound to obey 
 For what wad folk say 
 
 Were she to be cros't ? 
 
 The debt they maun thole. 
 Hunger body and soul 
 
 To please Mrs Grundy. 
 
 'Twad be better I'm shure 
 
 For baith rich and puir 
 
 To try a' debateable things 
 
 By reason an' sense. 
 What's richt let us do, 
 What's wrong let's eschew^ 
 
 An' carena a preen 
 What ony ane says 
 In blame or in praise 
 
 But calm and serene 
 Haud on oor ain ways. 
 
 GOSSIP. 
 
 /jpi HEN neebor meets neebor they tatter 
 
 The neebor that isna there, 
 An' mirror themselves in every word 
 
 Mair truly I do declare, 
 Than the neebor they tatter sae sair. 
 
fi8 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 They speak what their herts contain, 
 An' mindna the golden law; 
 
 They gloat ower their neebor's fauts, 
 An' blacken every flaw — 
 They wad blacken the very snaw. 
 
 An' its less frae hardness o' hert 
 Than for something else to say ; 
 
 Still why should they feast on carrion, 
 An' make sic a grand display 
 O' a spirit that's better away. 
 
 An' maybe the neebor dissected 
 Is doing the selfsame thing ; 
 
 Tipping wi' gall an' venom 
 Everybit as ruthless a sting. 
 
 Truly this world is bad eneuch, 
 But oh! what a world it wad be 
 
 Did every ane hear what was said 
 By the tongues that wag sae free; 
 
 I wat the licence they take 
 They wad like gey ill to gie. 
 
 I rather think it wad be 
 
 A jumble o' wrath and spite, 
 
 Wi' every ane ready to say 
 It was a' their neebor's wite 
 That life was mair black than white. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 69 
 
 Oh ! this wearyfu', wearyfu' wrangness ; 
 
 That the time were here I wus, 
 When we'll think an' speak o' others 
 
 As we'd Hke them to speak o' us ; 
 When a' oor herts will be true as steel, 
 An' a' oor tongues kindly an' leal. 
 
 A GOWK'S DAY SONNET. 
 
 /~)NCE on a first of April, long ago, 
 
 A troop of girls combining work with fun. 
 
 Resolved to make the day a jolly one, 
 And, slyly smiling, tripping to and fro, 
 "A Gowk" was written large by Jenny Crow, 
 
 And pinned upon the dress of Betty Bun ; 
 
 And Betty all unwitting what was done 
 Adorned Jenny just exactly so ; 
 The rest, by Jenny's squints, were asked to jeer 
 
 At "Gowk" on Betty's back; and quite as sly 
 
 Did Betty squint, and as unconsciously ; 
 And while the two, complacent smile and nod. 
 The rest with merriment at both explode — 
 
 Alas! sic gowks are common all the year. 
 
60 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 THE SNOWDROPS. 
 
 TTTHE snowdrops know their time to come, and come 
 ■^^ Whatever the weather may be ; 
 First footprints they of the welcome spring, 
 
 Bringing joy and gladness to me ; 
 The seasons come and the seasons go, 
 And here they are in spite of the snow. 
 
 However soundly the wee things sleep, 
 
 They are quick to hear and obey 
 The Master's voice when He calls them forth 
 
 To brighten our hearts with hopes of May ; 
 Brave, modest evangels, pure and still, 
 By shewing God's love they do his will. 
 
 And the royal seal of Heaven they bear 
 
 When bringing God's message to me, 
 In the darkest hour He bids me trust 
 
 His love, though the way I may not see — 
 He bids me trust with never a fear — 
 For Winter is past when Spring is here. 
 
 Our hearts too should be quick to know 
 
 Where our helpfulness is needed ; 
 And ready to do what good we can, 
 
 Though our help may pass unheeded ; 
 And if we do right because 'tis right, 
 Our spirits will halo our lives with light. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 61 
 
 SUMMER IN THE SOUL. 
 /^UR pleasures are enhanced by change. 
 
 And this glad summer scene 
 That greets our eyes, could never fill 
 
 Our hearts with joy as keen, 
 Did Winter not with stormy blast 
 Make bare the dale and dean. 
 
 The earth is wrapt with loveliness 
 
 In robes of Summer's weaving, 
 All speckled o'er with sunbright flowers 
 
 The common green relieving. 
 
 Chewing their cuds, contented kine 
 
 On buttercups and daisies lie : 
 The lambs frisk round the sober sheep, 
 
 While roses hail the butterfly. 
 
 And mingling with the breeze 
 
 That softly sighs 
 Through leafy trees, 
 
 Where sing the birds, 
 Where hum the bees, 
 
 The rippling streams 
 Enchant our ears 
 
 Like music in sweet dreams. 
 
 All seem combined to gift 
 
 Delights of sight and sound, 
 And pour on each responsive mind 
 
 The love the flowers expound, 
 
62 BORDER RHYMES, 
 
 Even as the waters calm reflect 
 Hill, flower and waving tree ; 
 
 Or as the morning dews ensphere 
 The sun in gems of purity. 
 
 So from clear depths of love divine 
 
 The pure in heart respond, 
 And mirror back from this life here, 
 
 The higher life beyond. 
 
 Although our lips are dumb, oppressed 
 
 With nebulous emotion — 
 Unformed thoughts, like drops that lie 
 
 One with the restless ocean — 
 
 We know this loveliness contains 
 A soul — a hidden power — 
 
 An effluence that constrains 
 The heart to feel in every flower, 
 
 The love which every flower explains 
 
 To souls that are akin to God, 
 Hearts touched with altar fire, 
 
 That thrill and glow by secret power 
 Breathed through the living lyre. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 LOUISA. 
 
 "T* ken a wee bit lassie 
 
 That I yke wonderous weel, 
 Her face is unco bonny, 
 
 An' her heart is unco leal ; 
 She loves the flowers that love doth strew 
 
 Along the road to cheer her ; 
 At every step they sweetly shew 
 
 That God is ever near her, 
 They wither in her tiny hand. 
 But in her heart they live and lend 
 
 Their sweetness to endear her. 
 
 O, may her opening life unfold, 
 
 As opes the daisy, with 
 A white fringed heart of gold ; 
 May a' her thoughts be growing seeds 
 O' kindly words an' helpfu' deeds, 
 
 Her heart the home of purity, 
 If pain and loss 
 Must be her cross ; 
 May good grow out of pain. 
 And every loss be turned to gain, 
 
 And every cross to victory. 
 
64 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 HEART GIFTS. 
 
 " Do me justice always ! bid my heart — their shrine — 
 
 Render back its store of gifts, old words and looks of thine ; 
 Oh ! so all unjust — the less deserved the more divine." 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 
 C\ H ! is it just, dear love, to ask 
 
 My heart, that was their shrine, 
 To give thee back such store of gifts — 
 
 Dear words and looks of thine ; 
 I tell thee nay, it cannot be. 
 
 Through all my life they twine. 
 
 I cannot give them if I would. 
 
 They're woven in my heart, 
 And I must cease to live ere aught 
 
 Can tear the threads apart ; 
 Be just, nor ask a thing so wild, 
 
 So full of pain and smart. 
 
 It cannot be, when least deserved 
 
 Such gifts are most divine. 
 Like flowers whose rootlets clasp and pierce 
 
 The heart, such gifts were thine ; 
 The life, the bloom, the fruit of them 
 
 Now prove the gifts are mine. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 65 
 
 JESSIE. 
 
 T LIKE the winsome wee Jessie, 
 
 For she's guid, an' bonny an' clean, 
 An' I like the winsome bit smile 
 That brichtens the look o' her een. 
 
 Her cheeks are far bonnier to me 
 Than the first rose o' simmer sae fair. 
 
 An' her auld farrant heid is shining 
 Wi' a treasure o' curly hair. 
 
 O, mony a ane wad be glad 
 To ca' the bit lassie their ain, 
 
 An' there's few that have seen her aince 
 But wad like to see her again. 
 
 If her wee bits o' feetie are spared 
 To travel life's lang weary way, 
 
 May her life be mellow an' sweet 
 
 When she rests at the close o' the day, 
 
 For the lot o' oor life is sorrow, 
 
 An' it often seems to me 
 That the greatest favourites o' Heaven 
 
 Have the heaviest weird to dree. 
 
 But the soul is strengthened by trial, 
 An' the heart is sweetened by sorrow ; 
 
 The lowering clouds drop rain to-day 
 That the flowers may bloom to-morrow. 
 
66 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 An' O, may the angels of God 
 Have the lassie aye in their care, 
 
 An' fauld their wings round aboot her, 
 Stainless and sweet for evermair. 
 
 ROZINANTE. 
 
 TTTHERE was a priest in Teriland, 
 
 An' had he leeved lang syne 
 He'd been a brave Crusader, 
 An' gaen to Palestine. 
 
 He was a keen equestrian, 
 An' o' his skeel was vaunty ; 
 
 An' when he mounted his good steed— 
 His trusted Rozinante, 
 
 If e'er a gate stood in his way, 
 He stuck at nae sick straes, 
 
 But owre he flew, an' ne'er thought on 
 The colour o' his claes. 
 
 In coorse o' time he thocht to gang 
 
 An' see St James' Fair ; 
 An' maybe it might happen, 
 
 He'd sell or swap his mare. 
 
 An' sae, wi' bargains in his heid, 
 
 To do as he was thinking, 
 He mounted Rozi ae fine morn. 
 
 An' off they went like winking. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 67 
 
 He gaed aboot among the horse, 
 An' men whose boast was cuteness, 
 
 To keep an even hand wi' them 
 Wad need a like astuteness. 
 
 Soon Rozinante changed hands, 
 
 Seller an' buyer pleased 
 To think how cleverly they had 
 
 Each ane the other squeezed. 
 
 Then wand'ring up an' doon the fair, 
 
 There, bye an' by he saw 
 A mare that seemed frae heid to tail 
 
 Without a single flaw. 
 
 He looked its mooth, he looked its legs, 
 
 Examined weel its feet; 
 An' then he tried its paces 
 
 Alang a Kelso street. 
 
 An' efter prigging doon its price, 
 
 A bargain forthwith made ; 
 Bestrode its back, an' homeward bound 
 
 Wi' conscious pride he rade. 
 
 An' aye the nearer hame he got, 
 The mare increased her paces ; 
 
 Blithely he hailed his man an' cried — 
 " Will she win Teri races .'' " 
 
68 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 John clawed his heid an' took a snuff, 
 
 Then said, " She's unco like the auld yin " ; 
 
 " O, John, she's clean a diflerent colour, 
 An' man, she is a yauld yin," 
 
 " Nae doot," said John, " she kens the road 
 
 To her ain heck an' mainger ; 
 Light doon an' gie the beast its wuU, 
 
 We'll see if it's a stranger." 
 
 It went straight to the water trough, 
 An' slaked its drooth wi' waitter ; 
 
 Then marched into its ain auld sta' 
 As nocht had been the maitter. 
 
 They laughed ; but pride a wee 
 
 The horseman's fun controlled ; ^ 
 
 For he, like Rozinante, 
 
 Had e'en himself been sold. 
 
 John said, when telling ower the tale 
 
 As he clawed oot his bicker. 
 The look upon his maister's face 
 
 Wad made an auld naig nicker. 
 
 LANGLANDS. 
 "(^H, Langlands ye're a graceless man 
 
 An' a graceless man are ye ; 
 If ye wunna pay the kirk its due 
 The kirk's curse yc maun dree. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 69 
 
 For first a Monk an' syne another 
 
 The Abbot has sent to thee, 
 An' now the Abbot has come himsel 
 
 Frae Melrose Monastrie." 
 
 When the Abbot met the perverse laird 
 In his sanctity trusted he, 
 
 He ne'er thocht that a h'and profane 
 Dared touch the proud divinity 
 That ruled the Melrose Monastrie. 
 
 He didna coont on the layman's sword 
 That sprang frae its scabbard free, 
 
 An wi' ane swift an' deidly stroke 
 Made his heid frae his body flee. 
 
 " There now, ye've raised a hornet's nest 
 
 Aboot yer lugs I ween, 
 The Abbot's kain ye'd better paid - 
 
 To the last bawbee yestreen." 
 
 Now Langlands sprang on his fleetest steed 
 
 An' is off to Edinbro toon 
 To sue for pardon frae guid King James, 
 
 For he was ane wily loon. 
 
 I wat he made the fire to fly 
 
 Frae the strakes o' his horse's heels, 
 
 When by the Soutra hill he flew 
 As he'd been chased by deils. 
 
70 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 An' when he cam to Holyrood, 
 
 I wat he didna tarry 
 Until he laid his case afore the King 
 
 As cunning as auld Harry. 
 
 " Pardon, my liege, for a graceless deed ; 
 
 I pray thee a pardon free, 
 For the insult I hae gien to the Abbot 
 
 O' Melrose Monastrie, 
 
 " I couldna thole his priestly greed ; 
 
 His threatening made me scoff ; 
 I gied my airm ane angry swing 
 
 An' knockit his bonnet off." 
 
 The King he laughed ane gleesome laugh- 
 
 Richt merrily laughed he ; 
 " If that's yer crime, yer prayer I grant, 
 
 Ye shall hae ane pardon free." 
 
 Now Langlands was ane siccar man. 
 An' ane siccar man was he, 
 
 He ne'er said a word until he got 
 In his pooch his pardon free 
 Sealed wi' the seal o' his Majesty. 
 
 Then thinking it time to finish off 
 
 The story of the bonnet, 
 He said, wi' a twinkle in his een, 
 
 "The Abbot's heid was in it." 
 
BORDER RHYMES. Vl 
 
 A MAN SHOT. 
 
 '70CK had to gang through to the toon 
 
 For things his mother needit ; 
 The road was past the bogly Howe — 
 
 A place he sairly dreedit ; 
 An' efter he'd his shopping dune 
 
 'Twas derk ere he wan there, 
 An' he, like Tarn o' Shanter, 
 
 Aboot him glowered wi' care 
 
 Lest bogles catched him unaware. 
 He durstna even whustle 
 For fear it raised a rustle 
 
 O' unseen wings o' fearsome things, 
 An' a' the weird an' eerie stories 
 
 He'd ever heard cam in his mind ; 
 An' aye the thocht that ghosts or fairies 
 
 Were closing roond, like souching wind. 
 Made his hert beat like ony drum, 
 An' his sweat reek like ony lum ; 
 An' duist when at the derkest spot 
 Oot o' the derkness cam a shot : 
 The bluid ran trickling doon his breeks. 
 The tears ran coorsing doon his cheeks. 
 His only trust was in his heels ; 
 He thocht a half a hunder deils 
 An' a' the horrors o' the Howe 
 Were gathering round about him now. 
 He ran, an' ran, an' ran 
 As never terror-stricken man 
 
72 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Had run afore ; 
 He ran, an' ran, until he wan 
 
 In at an open door, 
 
 An' there fell flat upon the floor ; 
 Faint wi the loss o' bluid he lay, 
 Wi' hardly pith eneuch to say, 
 
 As tenderly he touched the spot, 
 What was the cause o' his alarm. 
 
 True indeed he had been shot 
 
 But wi' a cork, an' what he thought 
 His life bluid oozing warm, 
 Wasna bluid, but only barm. 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 I ^ IFE is a scramel to find oor level, 
 Which some never seem to do ; 
 They grumel an' girn, an' greet an' cavil, 
 
 An' keep theirsels in a stew ; 
 Like great big bairns they do nocht but snivel, 
 The length o' their fit they wadna travel 
 To find what they're fit to pursue. 
 
 If ony roond man should happen to be 
 
 Put into a four-square h'ole, 
 I think, if his heid an' his hands are free. 
 
 An' if he has ocht o' a soul. 
 Some way or other he may surely see 
 The ill chance o' his life to modify, 
 
 Or else he's as blind as a mole. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 78 
 
 Of course we're no a' torn into the place 
 
 That we are the fittest for, 
 But it's nae use wearing a dolefu' face 
 
 An' making oorsels a bore ; 
 Let us do oor best wi' oor best o' grace 
 To make hindrance only wi' mettle brace 
 
 The nerves o' a conqueror. 
 
 An' the battle will make oor sinews strong ; 
 
 The race make oor feet the fleeter; 
 If we shear away obstruction an' wrong 
 
 Oor souls will be a' the meeter 
 For the place abune where we hope to gang, 
 The road will seem short we ance thocht sae lang, 
 
 An' rest after toil will be sweeter. 
 
 AUTUMN LEAVES. 
 
 Q AUTUMN leaves! how beautiful 
 
 ^ Ye grow to die ; 
 The gentle winds 
 
 Breathe low and sigh 
 As ye rustle down from the trees 
 To rot under the feet 
 
 Of the passer by, 
 
 I call to mind the sweet spring-time, . 
 When ye cast off your little hoods 
 And clothed with green the gladsome woods 
 
 That merged into the summer prime. 
 
74 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 The blithesome summer glows 
 
 With life's perfumed breath, 
 But autumn fills our hands 
 With good, and shows 
 
 The loveliness of death, 
 
 When death is but the casting off 
 The outer form that grows 
 
 Around the living tree. 
 My heart is moved to upward thoughts, 
 O withered leaves, by thee! 
 Ye serve your end, 
 And God's own hand 
 Ripens and sets you free 
 
 So gently that you never know 
 The sense of severance or pain ; 
 Ye fall and die, 
 But year after year the trees still grow. 
 
 And every year the boughs are clothed again 
 With their own leaves, but not 
 
 The leaves that lie 
 Under the feet 
 Of the passers by. 
 
 Even so do we cast off 
 
 This mortal life ; and yet 
 The growing soul shall clothe itself 
 
 Anew in raiment fit ; 
 
BORDER RHYMES. lb 
 
 And by repeated change 
 
 Of vesture grow 
 Strong as the hght — 
 
 Pure as the snow. 
 
 AILIE AND ME. 
 
 /^ H, oor herts are heavy and sair ! 
 
 A' things are changed for evermair ; 
 Twae o' oor bairnies are gane^ 
 An' day an' nicht we make oor mane, 
 Ailie an' me. 
 
 Johnnie scarce could stagger across the floor 
 
 When his twae wee sisters cam, 
 He airtit aye for the open door 
 
 To look for me, for he was his dada's lamb, 
 An' weel he likit to lie on my breast — 
 My wee lamb now is wi' God at rest. 
 
 We had oor hands weel filled wi' wark, 
 But love made oor labour sweet, 
 For we likit the patter o' little feet, 
 Ailie an' me. 
 O, what planning we had for the bairns — 
 We were prood o' oor bairns, 
 Ailie an' me. 
 
76 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Johnnie's queer bit says 
 An' his innerly ways 
 We'll mind a' oor days, 
 Ailie an' me. 
 
 But now when we think on't, the angels 
 
 Wad surely be near 
 Pitting the thochts in his heid 
 
 That made him sae dear ; 
 For now that he's gane 
 
 It a' seems sae clear 
 That ministering angels should like 
 
 To be pettlin' him here. 
 
 Puir wee Jeanie, only fifteen months auld, 
 Had to warstle for breath 
 
 Ae lang weary nicht, 
 Till the angel o' death 
 Took her and left a sair blank in oor fauld 
 To Ailie an' me. 
 
 The vera next week the angel cam back 
 
 For Johnnie, for Johnnie the licht o' my een; 
 
 Oh, the cluds then grew starless an' black, 
 An' my hert could do nocht but compleen! 
 
 I'll never forget his bits o' sensible says ; 
 
 I canna forget his kind bits o' ways, 
 For he was the licht o' my een. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 77 
 
 It's a comfort to ken they're but taen 
 
 Oot o' ae faither's house to another's ; 
 The bairns were guid, an' the angels are guid, 
 
 An' they'll tend them wi' care like a mother's. 
 We've but ae lamb left in oor fauld, 
 
 An' we hap her at nicht wi' the tears in oor een, 
 To keep her wee feetie frae finding the cauld, 
 For whae kens but the angels aboot her unseen 
 May whisk her away 
 Ere the break o' the day 
 Frae Ailie an' me. 
 
 Little we ken what's afore us, 
 
 And to kenna is maybe as weel ; 
 But the Faither that's taen them 
 Frae the faither that's haen them 
 
 Oor herts will comfort an' heal 
 In His ain guid time an' way ; 
 
 For His is a Faither's love sae leal, 
 
 An' He kens a' that we feel, 
 Ailie an' me. 
 
 Lang syne folk used to say 
 
 When evil spirits were seen, 
 If ye named the name o' God 
 
 They wad vanish frae fore yer een. 
 Sae the memory o' oor pet lambs shall lie 
 
 In oor herts speaking His name for ever, 
 Keeping away ill thochts, bringing guid anes nigh, 
 
78 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Till we too cross the boundary river 
 To meet them again as angels bright 
 
 In the green marged strand of oor Fatherland, 
 Ailie an' me. 
 
 THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. 
 
 rrjHE Lord's my herd, nae ill I'll fear, 
 
 His lambs He cares for weel ; 
 I'll thole nae vvrang gif He is near 
 To keep me bien and leal. 
 
 He'll lead me where the grass grows green 
 
 Amang the daisied howes. 
 An' where atween its bonny banks 
 
 The siller burnie rows. 
 
 An' gif I miss my road and gang 
 Where prowling beasts o' prey 
 
 Are watching to devour the lambs 
 That daunder far astray, 
 
 He'll bring me back wi' canny care 
 
 To where I'm richt an' safe, 
 E'en though in wilfu' ignorance 
 
 I murmur sair and chafe. 
 
 But for my sake and for His ain 
 
 He'll gently bring me richt, 
 
 An open wide my wondering een 
 
 Wi' touch o' heavenly licht. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 79 
 
 Then though I gang the dreerest road — 
 E'en through death's deep mirk vale — 
 
 I wunna fear, for weel I ken 
 His love will never fail. 
 
 I ken it's aye a safe, safe lamp 
 
 To licht the way I gang, 
 An' though the shadows flit aboot 
 
 They canna do me wrang ; 
 
 For death is but a shadow made 
 
 By licht that fa's on me 
 Frae my herd's lamp, that guides my feet 
 
 To where nae shadows be. 
 
 Where'er I gang His hertsome love 
 
 Will keep me aye frae ill ; 
 His crook an' staff will keep me safe 
 
 In every howe and hill. 
 
 My soul He'll feast wi' what is best. 
 
 An' on my heid He'll pour 
 The oil o' grace ; afore my foes 
 
 He'll make my cup run o'er. 
 
 Goodness an' mercy a' my life 
 
 Shall free my soul frae care. 
 An' in my Faither's hoose at Hame 
 
 111 rest for evermair. 
 
80 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 SABBATH BELLS. 
 
 *1D ING out, sweet Sabbath bells! 
 I love to hear 
 Your voices clear 
 On the hushed air, 
 Calling to prayer. 
 The Father's voice ye seem to me, 
 Calling His children to His knee 
 To rest awhile 
 Under His smile 
 
 From earthly care ; 
 From muscle strain 
 And aching brain, 
 From toil and strife 
 Of daily life, 
 From wandering far 
 'Mid hurtful jar. 
 O weary, weary children ! come 
 As children come, with eager feet 
 Unto their father's home to meet 
 Each other with fraternal love 
 
 Beneath the father's eye ! O come ! 
 There's rest and peace 
 And life's increase 
 With God " Who is our Home." 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 81 
 
 THE ANGELS. 
 *ZJ'S we sat by the winter fire 
 '^^ In converse free, 
 
 My friend, with quiet grace 
 
 Addressing me, 
 Said, " If we resist an impulse to do right 
 We turn away an angel bright." 
 
 " The thought is good," my heart 
 Made quick reply, 
 
 And angels in the air 
 Seemed hovering nigh. 
 " Hell is paved with good intentions " 
 
 And culpable delay. 
 Ah me ! how these intentions tell 
 
 Of sorrowing angels turned away. 
 My soul is poor indeed 
 
 If my best friends depart, 
 And leave me with a cold 
 
 And withered heart ; 
 And yet how oft we lightly shut our eyes 
 
 And will not see 
 Their shining wings, but rudely bid 
 
 Them go away that we 
 Less holy guests may entertain, 
 
 Thinking at some convenient time 
 The angels will come back again. 
 
 Rather far, with open heart 
 And shining face, 
 
 Let's give them ready welcome 
 To the highest place. 
 
82 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 THE HIGHER SENSE. 
 
 TTTHERE'S beauty here for common eyes, 
 
 And beauty for the eyes that see 
 The soul of love that hidden lies 
 
 Among the leaves of flower and tree. 
 
 The poet's soul is quick to hear 
 Kind nature's never ceasing song ; 
 
 By heaven's concordances his ear 
 
 Is soothed, his heart made leal and strong. 
 
 He sees the Father face to face, 
 
 Lovely beyond our highest thought ; 
 
 The more his lineaments we trace, 
 The more they are in us inwrought. 
 
 O, blessed gifts to poets given — 
 
 The open eye, the holy light ; 
 The key that opes the gates of heaven, 
 
 The love that robes the soul in white. 
 
 They see beyond the clouds of sorrow 
 Into the Father's palace portal ; 
 
 If pain is here to-day, to-morrow 
 Pain and grief like death are mortal. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 83 
 
 A SONG FOR SOMEBODY. 
 
 /^F a' the singers e'er I heard, 
 
 There's nane can sing like thee, lassie ; 
 Ye mind me o' the bird that sang 
 
 High on the rowan tree, lassie. 
 
 High on the rowan tree. 
 
 Wi' sic abandon o' delight 
 
 He liltit up his sang, lassie; 
 The heavens abune were made mair bricht, 
 
 The earth below less wrang, lassie. 
 
 The earth below less wrang. 
 
 The thochts o' hills an' brattlin' burns 
 Where grows the heather bell, lassie, 
 
 Made a' yer hert a thrill o' joy ; 
 The music was yersel', lassie, 
 The music was yersel'. 
 
 O, had I but the whitest pen 
 Taen frae an angel's wing, lassie, 
 
 I'd write a sang aboot yersel' 
 
 An angel's sel' might sing, lassie, 
 An angel's sel' might sing. 
 
 My thochts, as on some bonny flower. 
 Wad shine like draps o' dew, lassie ; 
 
 For heaven's ain licht wad make them bricht 
 If they were sung by you, lassie, 
 If they were sung by you. 
 
84 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 •' SOONER OR LATER." 
 
 TX BRANCH all white with blossoms grew 
 Upon a garden wall, 
 Love broke it from the parent tree 
 
 To deck a lordly hall, 
 And all the hope of autumn fruit 
 Seemed gone beyond recall. 
 
 Another branch beside it grew, 
 
 In beauty's bloom its fellow. 
 It lived through all the summer till. 
 
 When leaves were golden yellow, 
 It bent beneath a load of fruit, 
 
 Luscious, ripe, and mellow. 
 
 Through light and shade, through toil and strife, 
 
 We see an aged man 
 Has reached the eventide of life — 
 
 His full allotted span. 
 While angels call away the youth 
 
 That hope set in the van. 
 
 Lord Tennyson bore blessed fruit 
 
 For all the coming years, 
 Till glory crowned a noble life 
 
 Among the gifted seers, 
 While Arthur Hallam passed away 
 
 Among a mist of tears. 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 86 
 
 But who can gauge the riches 
 
 That came from grief's sad dower, 
 
 Unto the friend that loved him so 
 When life was all in flower, 
 
 And Heaven-sent rains of sorrow 
 Gave love its grandest power ? 
 
 Our poor blind hearts arraign too oft 
 
 The doings of the King, 
 When, were our vision clearer, 
 
 We might see everything 
 Works out a higher good to make 
 
 Our hearts with gladness sing. 
 
 MY LITTLE FREEND. 
 
 T HAVE a little freend, 
 
 Her name I daurna tell ; 
 But her witching, winsome ways, 
 Per mair than what she says, 
 
 Have ower me cast a spell, 
 
 An' I canna help mysel'. 
 
 Nae wonder that I like 
 
 The lassie wondrous weel, 
 For somehow or another 
 We're sae pleased when we foregather- 
 
 O, her hert is true as steel, 
 
 An' aye sae kind an' leal. 
 
86 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 I micht rave a simmer day 
 
 O' her mooth, her een, her brow, 
 
 But the graces o' her mind, 
 
 Wi' sic purity combined. 
 Has set my hert alow- 
 Like a bleezing tap o' tow. 
 
 Now syne the lassie's mine 
 The wunter wunds may blaw, 
 
 Oor herts shall intertwine 
 
 Wi' a love that's a' divine, 
 An' warm eneuch to thaw 
 The cauldest frost an' snaw. 
 
 FAITH AND ACTION. 
 
 TTTHE acorn grows a tree, 
 
 Faith of action is the seed, 
 And our lives, whate'er they be, 
 
 Expound our faith in word and deed ; 
 Then let's be careful what we sow, for we know 
 
 What we sow we reap, and what we reap we keep. 
 
 PRETTY NANCY. 
 
 "T^AE doot ye'll like fu' weel to ken 
 Whae now has ta'en my fancy ; 
 I needna tell, for ye may guess 
 It's nane but pretty Nancy. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 8? 
 
 O, life is oft a thorny road, 
 
 But aye may luck unchancy 
 Gang scudding by the other side 
 
 And never glower at Nancy. 
 
 As life is but a wairsh aflair, 
 
 Withoot a bit romancy, 
 May Love spread oot her whitest wings 
 
 Aboot the heart o' Nancy. 
 
 May never one discordant note 
 
 Disturb life's consonancy, 
 Till wi' a sang, swan-like, she'll gang 
 
 Where angels wait for Nancy. 
 
 CONIE. 
 
 ^\ IF folk kenned whae I like weel 
 
 * They wadna wonder ony, 
 For a' folk kens how guid an' leal 
 Is oor ain winsome Conie. 
 
 There's no' a ane in a' the land — 
 At least there is na mony — 
 
 Sae clever baith wi' held an' hand 
 As oor ain lo'esome Conie. 
 
 The wushes g^id I could indite 
 
 To fill her Hfe sae bonny, 
 Wad take a simmer day to write- — 
 
 Sae weel we like oor Conie. 
 
88 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 O' a the lassies that I ken 
 I'd choose for my life's crony, 
 
 To keep me tidy but an' ben, 
 Nane but my kindly Conie. 
 
 SPRING. 
 
 rjjHE angels come down with harps of gold 
 
 And the flowers wake up to listen, 
 The trees their fresh green leaves unfold, 
 And the daisies with dewdrops glisten. 
 Our hearts are moved with the joyous strain, 
 And forced to join in the glad refrain. 
 O, the fair spring-time, the gay spring-time, 
 When heaven and earth so sweetly chime. 
 
 There's a rush of life-like eager feet 
 
 That hasten to hail the 'hest of spring, 
 When all things fair and all things sweet 
 Their gifts in nature's exchequer fling. 
 And leal hearts bathe in beauty and song, 
 Till every fibre grows fair and strong 
 As flowers that are fed by Heaven's own dew 
 When the old earth's garb for the year is new. 
 
 When beauty and song fill earth and air, 
 A thousand musical harps are strung 
 
 In oneness with all things good and fair. 
 And songs of gladness are gladly flung 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 89 
 
 From the hearts that see their home afar, 
 Through the gates the angels have left ajar, 
 When, with hearts attuned to choirs above. 
 They waken the earth with songs of love. 
 
 REFLECTION. 
 
 TTTHE placid waters mirror back 
 
 The shadows of the trees, 
 And in their depths we sometimes see 
 Leaves rippled with the breeze. 
 
 The careless eye sees but the lake ; 
 
 Beauty greets the artist's eye ; 
 When love looks thro' the shimmering leaves, 
 
 There is a heaven of sky. 
 
 E'en so the common eye sees but 
 
 The surface form of things ; 
 Beauty rewards the keener gaze. 
 
 Love sees the angel's wings. 
 
 God sends his light to open eyes, 
 The purest heart sees most of good, 
 
 The leal heart reads the law of love, 
 By love the law is understood. 
 
90 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 DESIGN. 
 
 "TTN these wise times our scientists do flout design, 
 The plant brings forth the flower, the flower the 
 seed, 
 
 The seed the plant again, and so their creed 
 Revolves in endless circles fine. 
 If from nothing something was evolved 
 That caused everything, the myst'ry's solved. 
 And there's no need for an original overmind. 
 But if neatly folded up we find 
 In protoplasm all motion, soul and life, 
 And all the elements of internecine strife, 
 Where the strongest live and the weakest die, 
 Obeying a hidden law unconsciously ; 
 
 Unless our souls are grossly blind, 
 All the more surely must we see 
 
 The need of one all-comprehending overmind. 
 
 The power that fashions matter to its will 
 
 Is stronger than matter that exists but to fulfil 
 
 The purpose of its unseen lord, 
 Whose power is hidden till revealed 
 
 In outward deed or written word. 
 Matter is the kingdom of a king concealed ; . 
 
 He apprehends and rules the laws 
 That cannot be repealed. 
 Holding the reins of force within His hand, 
 
 He wills — temples and cities rise ; 
 
 The lightnings serve Him from the skies ; 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 91 
 
 He drives His navies o'er the seas 
 From strand to strand ; 
 He crowns himself with knowledge grand, 
 For knowledge is the magic wand 
 That with a master's hand He wields ; 
 
 And nature hastens to obey 
 
 The magic of its Master's sway, 
 And gladly its allegiance yields. 
 If then in man this kingliness we find. 
 
 Who shall be fool enough to say 
 There is for man no overmind ? 
 
 Link by link we trace the chain, 
 
 And every link may bear the strain 
 
 Of all, but who holds the first link in His hand, 
 
 Watching o'er all His mind has planned ? 
 
 The seed folds up the plant securely. 
 
 Each one according to its kind, 
 And folded in its heart most surely 
 
 Law and allegiance are combined ; 
 Who, in its bosom, wrapped potentiality, 
 And made earth, air, and sun to verify 
 The hidden word of prophecy ? 
 
 The organ planned with careful perspicuity 
 
 Is dumb and answers not its end 
 Till breathed into by souls in unity 
 
 With the designer, and who can apprehend 
 His purpose and work out his aim ; 
 Proving the nature of their minds the same. 
 
9S BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 'Tis thus we know we are the sons of God — 
 By serving Him we apprehend His will, 
 
 By harmony our souls are overflowed 
 When we, in love. His purposes fulfil. 
 
 A PARAPHRASE ON PAGE 234 OF " LATTER 
 DAY PAMPHLETS," BV T. CARLYLE. 
 
 rijHE aim of all reformers is, or ought to be, 
 Just laws, with this we humbly do agree. 
 To legislate for only one particular class 
 Is wrong, but legislate for all the mass. 
 And thus by lawful equity attain 
 For all mankind the truest, greatest gain. 
 For this we need the ablest man — a seer — 
 To make our laws a truthful transcript clear, 
 Of laws divine. The fittest man to be 
 Our helmsman on the roaring sea of life 
 Is hard to find, and yet incessantly 
 The unseen powers admonish us to try. 
 Strict penalties o'ertake us if we stray, 
 And do not try to do the best we may, 
 To find and crown him king, and bow the knee 
 In offering him our hearts' best loyalty. 
 Only the honour worthy are of heaven 
 The aristocracy to whom is given 
 The government whereby the human race 
 Is raised by valour up to strength and grace. 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 
 
 For when the wisest, bravest, lealest, best 
 
 Bear rule, the land is prosperous and the people blest 
 
 Then every popinjay and railway king 
 
 May on their well-earned gibbets writhe and swing, 
 
 To earth admonitory in heaven's name. 
 
 Showing the end of villainy is shame ; 
 
 The wretch that hungry Want goads on to steal 
 
 Is saintly to such traitors to the commonweal ; 
 
 Scoundrels supreme whose dark atrocity of greed 
 
 Insatiable the hoodwinked world did lead 
 
 In ways of gilded baseness seeking gain 
 
 Where nought was possible but loss and pain. 
 
 For scrip, claret, honour, and such small ware 
 
 They led their foolish dupes into a snare ; 
 
 Now all their speciosities unsealed. 
 
 And all their dark deformities revealed, 
 
 Proclaim aloud to all the world abroad 
 
 That not the devil is king, but God ; 
 
 Therefore be not scoundrels howe'er gilded o'er, 
 
 But honourable to life's inmost core. 
 
 THE SWORD OF TRUTH. 
 
 I F thy one aim be good and true, 
 
 Hold on and have no fear ; 
 The stars of heaven shine out for you, 
 To make thy pathway clear. 
 
94 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And all the angels of the Lord 
 Watch thee with helping hand, 
 
 Let all thy ways with theirs accord, 
 While ye for right contend. 
 
 If wrong and hindrance bar thy path, 
 Like ravening beasts of prey ; 
 
 The sword of truth all power hath 
 To smite them from thy way. 
 
 Resistless as Excalibar, 
 
 In hands by right made strong, 
 It mows down on the field of war 
 
 All hinderance and wrong. 
 
 He fearless may his way pursue 
 
 In spite of everything, 
 Who has the sword that can subdue 
 
 The foes that flout the King. 
 
 MATTER AND SPIRIT. 
 
 TTTHE poet said " The soul is form, 
 
 And doth the body make " ; 
 And Stephen's soul shone bright as he 
 
 Before the council spake ; 
 His seemed to be an angel's face — 
 So lovely and so full of grace. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 95 
 
 For every thought, and word, and deed 
 Do leave their true impress 
 
 Upon the soul, the face, the form 
 Whatever tongues profess ; 
 
 The God-annointed eye can see 
 
 The truth in life's complexity. 
 
 In other lives our words are woven 
 
 For good or ill, and we 
 Are answerable in part far what 
 
 The true result may be ; 
 Then let no thought, false or unkind, 
 Within our hearts a harbour find. 
 
 MY BOOKS. 
 
 T'VE many friends ; I love them well, 
 How well I have no words to tell, 
 
 Or even think in shapely thought, 
 But all the rich world's gold were vain 
 To what they give my soul of gain ; 
 
 Within its finest fibre wrought. 
 
 That I exist they never knew. 
 Yet they are with me leal and true, 
 And them I. know and dearly see 
 
96 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Their inner thought, with watchful heed. 
 And feel them helpful in my need, 
 With all their lore enlarging me. 
 
 They're with me in their highest mood, 
 To lead me to my highest good, 
 
 They give to me their very best, 
 And fitly teach me how I may 
 Make beautiful my life each day ; 
 
 They guide my feet in every quest. 
 
 They sing to me when I am glad. 
 They comfort me when I am sad ; 
 
 I give to them my kindest looks. 
 For all the gifts their wisdom strews ; 
 I thank them with a heart that glows, 
 
 For love has gilded all my books. 
 
 TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 TF we love God we will be like 
 
 The flowers that breathe perfume, 
 And all around with kindliness 
 
 Our hearts in deeds will bloom ; 
 A pleasant face, with goodness bright, 
 
 Like sunshine chases gloom. 
 
BOJtDER RHYMES. 97 
 
 In giving joy to other souls, 
 Joy comes to us unsought ; 
 
 The cross is h'ght that love shines on — 
 True love with love is bought ; 
 
 And round our souls a garment, white 
 With righteousness is wrought 
 
 There's many a soul, like daisies shut 
 Beneath the gloom of night. 
 
 Spreads out in silence silver rays 
 To catch the rays of light ; 
 
 Their poor blind hearts will open eyes, 
 Glad to receive their sight. 
 
 And, as of old, the beacon's blaze 
 Flashed on from hill to hill, 
 
 So kindliness, from soul to soul, 
 Lights up the darkness still ; 
 
 While error flees before the force 
 Of consecrated will. 
 
 OUR EXEMPLAR. 
 
 'S^ESUS, whose holy life has made 
 A ladder for our souls to rise 
 
 From earth to heaven with open eyes ; 
 A Priest, He on the altar laid 
 Himself, with holiness arrayed — 
 
 A spotless soul by love made wise — 
 
98 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 A sacred life in God's emprise, 
 Upon whose life our life is stayed. 
 It shews what heights the race can reach 
 
 Through abnegation and a cross, 
 In loving Him, whose life can teach 
 
 That life is built on lower loss ; 
 The life we live for man and God 
 With good for self shall be o'erflowed. 
 
 The man with open eyes may well 
 
 The unity of all things see. 
 
 And from what is, what yet must be 
 May be well able to foretell ; 
 The pure in heart possess a spell 
 
 That opens up, as with a key, 
 
 The heart of many a mystery, 
 And many a truth within its shell. 
 And He, whose loyal life was true, 
 
 Saw how the laws were made to serve, 
 And how obedience clears our views 
 
 And fills our life with strength and verve. 
 His heart was pure. His eye was clear, 
 He is the star by which we steer. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 VOICES AND ECHOES. 
 
 " There are many echoes in the world, and but few voices." 
 
 GcETHE. 
 
 fTTHE prophet's voice with message clear 
 Is heard above the wrangling rife 
 Of mingling echoes in the strife, 
 By willing heart and open ear. 
 
 With heart on fire aloud he cries 
 
 His message to the human race. 
 
 But busy in the market place 
 Are men with neither ears nor eyes 
 
 For aught but what with using dies — 
 Short-sighted folks who do not see 
 The truth that makes the spirit free — 
 
 That makes the loyal-hearted wise. 
 
 Oh ! blest is he whose voice can bring 
 
 A thousand echoes from the hills, 
 
 That with responding echoes fills 
 The heart with all the verve of spring. 
 
 And happy he who opes his ears 
 
 To hear the words that wisdom brings, 
 And to their teaching wisely clings, 
 
 And by their shining wisely steers. 
 
 For wisdom's ways are safe and good, 
 Even simple souls who walk therein 
 Know that they walk with souls akin, 
 
 In true and kindly brotherhood. 
 
100 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 (^OD gives us eyes to hail the light, 
 
 He gives us hands to work his will ; 
 He gives us hearts to love the right 
 And feet to climb up every hill. 
 
 Then lay aside each hindering weight, 
 
 And run to gain the King's " Well done " ! 
 
 Knowledge widens man's estate, 
 And shews us what to choose and shun. 
 
 Knowledge is the rough material 
 
 Placed by the toiling hand, 
 But wisdom must the soul build up, 
 
 And brain with building blend. 
 
 For knowledge is as hands and feet, 
 And wisdom as the overmind — 
 
 The flower of knowledge to complete 
 Our fitness for each task assigned. 
 
 FATE. 
 
 |i^ATE is a harp of many strings, 
 
 That freewill fingers touch to strains 
 Of tragic grief or sweet refrains, 
 Of songs like waft of angel wings. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 101 
 
 Fate is the law — the stable rock 
 That freewill, like the ivy plant 
 With clinging tendrils consonant, 
 
 In mobile arms doth firmly lock. 
 
 Fate is the mill where we our corn 
 
 Do grind of thought and word and deed, 
 But fate grinds us if we impede 
 
 The wheels that nothing can subborn. 
 
 Revolving shaft and whirling wheel 
 No favour show, for law is blind, 
 And careless souls they catch and grind 
 
 Regardless of their woe or weal. 
 
 The laws of God like angels stand 
 Ready to serve our every need, 
 Responding with unerring speed 
 
 To the commanding Master's hand. 
 
 Fate is the warp wherein we weave 
 The woof of chartered freewill, 
 That clothe with robes of good or ill 
 
 Our souls with what our souls believe. 
 
 We weave our lives into God's laws, 
 And day by day the shuttle flies — 
 With woof of right or wrong it plies, 
 
 With the result true to its cause. 
 
102 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 We cannot hide the things we do, 
 For all men see the robes we weave ; 
 About our souls they firmly cleave, 
 
 As to the flower its native hue. 
 
 Death powerless is to separate 
 The soul from character attained 
 By deeds within the soul ingrained — 
 
 By freewill woven into fate. 
 
 THE PILGRIM. 
 
 O PILGRIM on the world's highway, 
 * Be pure, and true and strong, 
 
 And have no fear of anything 
 But fear of doing wrong, 
 Keep marching-time with song. 
 
 Cast thou aside each hindering weight, 
 And, with thy feet well shod. 
 
 Fix thou thy steadfast eye upon 
 The guiding stars of God, 
 That brighten all the road. 
 
 The way is often rough and steep. 
 Through tangled flower and thorn ; 
 
 But on the steep hillsides the clouds 
 With sunshine are o'erborne, 
 And chased as if in scorn. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 103 
 
 Gather into thy heart the flowers, 
 
 And let their fragrance sweet 
 Adorn thy soul with grace, and make 
 
 Thy life an offering meet 
 
 To lay down at God's feet. 
 
 Fear not the clouds that hide from thee 
 
 The sunshine for a while ; 
 They bring the showers that feed the flowers 
 
 That by the wayside smile. 
 
 And shorten many a mile. 
 
 Our souls were barren, did not God 
 
 Send blessed showers of tears. 
 To sparkle in the kindly light. 
 
 When sunshine reappears 
 
 To chase away our fears. 
 
 We are but children looking up 
 Into our Father's face ; 
 
 We walk by faith, as children do- 
 God, give thy children grace 
 To flee from all things base. 
 
104 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION. 
 
 TTT 0-DAY is born of yesterday, 
 And father of to-morrow ; 
 And if from rectitude we stray, 
 Our children suffer sorrow — 
 We lengthen our account with theirs, 
 For all our sins have rightful heirs. 
 
 No man lives for himself alone — 
 He sows his life within the race, 
 
 And he shall reap as he has sown 
 Honour or deep disgrace. 
 
 Oh ! soul, in springtime, take good heed, 
 
 In furrows deep to sow good seed. 
 
 REGISTRATION. 
 
 I i iKE automatic pens, our lives 
 
 Record whate'er we think or do 
 What we avoid, what we pursue — 
 The soul stores all in its archives. 
 
 Though hid from every mortal eye, 
 The evil thought is noted down, 
 The hasty word, the angry frown. 
 
 The deed unkind, the false reply. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 105 
 
 However false may be the soul, 
 It keeps its record true as fate ; 
 It cannot there equivocate, 
 
 But every word it must enroll. 
 
 Still we may hope to over-write. 
 As palimpsests are written o'er, 
 The past henceforth with holier lore, 
 
 As darkness is o'ercome with light. 
 
 LAW. 
 
 *T^ATURE keeps a just account 
 
 Of credit and debit ; 
 Every thought and deed is weighed, 
 And in its place is writ. 
 
 Down it goes to curse or bless 
 The heart from which it springs, 
 
 And we must reap with tears or joy 
 The harvest that it brings. 
 
 We may not flout the smallest things — 
 From small things great things grow ; 
 
 And reproduce for good or ill, 
 Like seeds we careless strew. 
 
106 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 A kindly deed may courage give 
 To wanderers in the night, 
 
 A kindly word upon their path 
 May prove a beacon light. 
 
 The deed unkind, the word untrue, 
 Writes death upon the scroll ; 
 
 A just and kindly spirit writes 
 Salvation on the soul. 
 
 Knowledge with love and loyalty, 
 Grows in us stores of wealth ; 
 
 The more we give, the more we get 
 Of larger life and health. 
 
 THOUGHTS. 
 
 rrjHE builder builds with plumb and line 
 
 So may I build this life of mine. 
 The life that's built with leal heart stands 
 Like walls built up with honest hands. 
 
 Beyond the grave in other spheres 
 The true soul meets, and has no fears 
 To meet the holy eyes that see 
 How thought with word and deed agree. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 107 
 
 When friend meets friend in Heaven's pure light 
 Some trait unknown may meet the sight 
 With which we cannot sympathise, 
 To fill the heart with strange surprise. 
 
 But, should we lack affinity 
 That may our friendship modify, 
 We may to other souls draw near, 
 Where heart reads heart with vision clear. 
 
 Where every heart is pure as snow 
 No hurt from heart to heart can flow. 
 For every heart will find a heart 
 That is its honest counterpart. 
 
 The friend I loved I shall not miss, 
 For her, there shall no lower bliss 
 Enfold her heart. W^e both shall know, 
 Without a pang, what hearts outgrow. 
 
 TRUE PRAYER. 
 
 ^^UR thoughts and deeds are prayers true. 
 That bring to us the answers due. 
 Though we may not at once attain 
 What we, with earnest aim pursue, 
 
 God's angels whisper "Try again," 
 No loyal effort is in vain. 
 
108 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 The wingless word for ever fails, 
 But winged with love it aye prevails, 
 
 And brings from God an answer meet. 
 For winds of Heaven fill outspread sails, 
 And praying hands and praying feet 
 Find welcome at the Mercy Seat. 
 
 Angels of God around us stand. 
 To strengthen every praying hand ; 
 
 Swiftness they give to praying feet ; 
 Their aids with all our efforts blend 
 To sow our fields and grind our wheat, 
 And every want with promptness meet 
 
 HIS WILL BE DONE. 
 
 " Fortunately for me, when I was very young I learned to 
 repeat the Lord's prayer, and truly to mean it when 1 said • Thy 
 will be done,' and this I still say, and so nothing ever really 
 troubles me." 
 
 Bismarck. 
 fn^E who sits on high and reigns 
 Over all created things. 
 Knows all our errors, all our pains — 
 
 The want that strives, the wrong that stings, 
 The good that love from trouble wrings : 
 His will be done. 
 
 He knows the things we daily need — 
 What's good to get or wise to shun ; 
 His angels teach our souls to read 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 109 
 
 How we may live in Him as one — 
 As loving Father, faithful son : 
 His will be done. 
 
 We well may trust a Father's love- — 
 The love that has the power and will 
 
 To bless our lowness from above, 
 The open hand with good to fill, 
 And needed strength to combat ill : 
 His will be done. 
 
 We trust Him in the darksome night : 
 We trust Him in the dazzling day ; 
 
 The clouds may hide Him from our sight, 
 
 And we may wander from the way — 
 
 His rod will turn us when we stray : 
 
 His will be done. 
 
 We ask His care, in thought and deed, 
 With open heart and ready hand ; 
 
 Shut heart and hand do but impede 
 The good, the good Lord wills to send, 
 The light by which we understand 
 His will be best. 
 
 We may with eager hands and cries 
 Wish something that we have not won ; 
 
 There is no honour in the prize 
 
 That's given for what we have not done — 
 An earned crown for me or none : 
 Nay, but His will be done. 
 
no BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Trials come our souls to test, 
 
 And often what we deem our loss 
 
 Is but the love that doth arrest 
 Our feet when hasting after dross ; 
 'Tis then love lays on us the cross : 
 His will be done. 
 
 When Heaven's own light shall round us glow, 
 And angel hands clasp ours in Heaven, 
 
 Our souls, on looking back, shall know 
 How we grew strong when we had striven 
 Beneath the cross that love had given : 
 His will be done. 
 
 THE MARTYRS. 
 
 /jR I HEN darkness hides the pilgrim's way 
 
 He leans upon his guide. 
 And in the battle with his foes 
 
 He never quits his side ; 
 So clung the martyrs to their God 
 
 When they for conscience died. 
 
 When all around is ease and calm 
 
 We have no care or thought. 
 But highest life and strongest thew 
 
 With toil and pain are bought, 
 And golden threads by trial oft 
 
 Within our souls are wrought. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. Ill 
 
 The noble men whose life-blood dyed 
 
 Auld Scotland's hills and dales, 
 Had in their loyal hearts the love 
 
 And light that n§ver fails ; 
 They seemed to see the promised land 
 
 Without dividing veils. 
 
 The glory to their souls revealed 
 Expelled the thought of pain, 
 
 And persecution wrought for them 
 And us an endless gain ; 
 
 The fiery tongues of flame but burned 
 The chaff, the dross, the stain. 
 
 The loyal spirit triumphed o'er 
 The flesh, the world, and wrong. 
 
 And striving with its foes but made 
 The striving spirit strong. 
 
 And taught the soul called up to Heaven 
 Exulting strains of song. 
 
 All men must die early or late, 
 
 And suffering draws to God 
 The loyal heart, and it is well 
 
 When we can kiss the rod, 
 And meekly follow in the steps 
 
 Where holy men have trod. 
 
112 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 A PRAYER. 
 
 r\ FATHER, if it pleaseth Thee, 
 
 i In Thy great goodness send to me 
 
 An angel, musical and wise, 
 
 To fill with light my inner eyes. 
 And teach my heart true loyalty ; 
 
 To touch my lips with altar fire 
 
 And give to me my heart's desire, 
 For what Thou givest I would give, 
 
 That other souls may see, 
 And know, and love, and live. 
 Do Thou in Thy great love say " Come," 
 
 And I will answer, " Here am I," 
 And my full heart, no longer dumb, 
 
 Shall speak Thy words in glad reply. 
 
 O, Father, everywhere the weeds 
 
 Usurp the goodly land, 
 While men are wrangling over creeds, 
 
 Watchful of dogma, careless of deeds, 
 
 Falsehood on every hand. 
 Rampant and brazen 
 
 Like baleful clouds impend. 
 O, fill my hands with goodly seeds, 
 
 That I may scatter wide and free ; 
 Give Thou the sunshine and the shower, 
 And all the land with plenty dower, 
 
 That other hands may bring to Thee 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 113 
 
 The harvest sheaves with harvest glee, 
 And though I sow while others sleep, 
 
 Joy shall be mine when they shall rise, 
 And my full harvest gladly reap. 
 
 THE MOTH. 
 
 *TDOOR fluttering moth, your one desire 
 
 Is to get near the burning flame ; 
 But know you not that you expire 
 Soon as you get at what you aim } 
 The blaze consumes your fragile frame, 
 But maybe life's small spark of fire 
 Shall mingle with what you admire, 
 And that in thee we freely blame. 
 May be the power that overcame 
 The lower life that clogged the higher. 
 
 I, too, fly from the outer night. 
 And flutter ronnd the fount of light ; 
 
 I wonder if Heaven's central orb 
 
 Shall in itself myself absorb — 
 Call home my soul to rest and live 
 In God, no longer fugitive. 
 
 We do not know what yet may be. 
 But building on what we have learned. 
 
 We trust the way we do not see, 
 And know we'll get what we have earned. 
 
114 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 The law is just, and makes for good 
 When loved, obeyed, and understood ; 
 Angels unseen may ope our eyes — 
 May give us light and make us wise 
 To see and know and understand 
 
 How 'tis obedience justifies : 
 And how a leal heart makes to bend 
 The laws, that we do apprehend, 
 To take our yoke and plough our land. 
 
 DAILY DUTV. 
 
 I ^ ET no needless fears for the morrow 
 
 Hinder thy duty to-day ; 
 It's surely in vain that you borrow 
 The fears that keep you at bay : 
 The future may have in it sorrow, 
 But it need not the present dismay. 
 
 We live but a day at a time : 
 
 Each day its own burden should bear : 
 Prematurely to take it's a crime ; 
 
 Our strength we need not impair, 
 When hill after hill we should climb 
 
 With limbs as free as the air. 
 
 Take the days one by one as they come : 
 
 Forecast not the future with fears : 
 Why should we fret and look glum, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 115 
 
 And drown the glad present in tears ? 
 Because the dark future is dumb, 
 Why people with goblins its years? 
 
 Live well in the present, and let 
 
 The morrow take care of itself ; 
 But never step o'er, nor forget, 
 
 Nor carelessly lay on the shelf 
 The things to be loyally met, 
 
 Though they bring neither praises nor pelf. 
 
 To-morrow grows out of to-day ; 
 
 And if its progenitor's good 
 The child is bound to display 
 
 The likeness of filialhood ; 
 And it on its offspring should lay 
 
 Accumulant blessings accrued. 
 
 To-day we scatter our seed ; 
 
 To-morrow we gather and sow ; 
 We sow and we reap the grain and the weed, 
 
 Hind'ring and helping onward we go. 
 Hind'ring others ourselves we impede ; 
 
 By helping each other we grow. 
 
 THE DAISIES. 
 TTTHE daisies by the dusty road 
 
 Their dainty silver rays unfold, 
 To catch the sun in hearts of gold — 
 Evangels from the heart of God. 
 
116 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 The hearts grow glad, the feet grow strong, 
 Of weary pilgrims as they pass 
 And read God's word among the grass, 
 
 While love flows through their lips in song. 
 
 The way were long for tired feet, 
 Were it not lighted with the glow 
 Of wayside flowers, that sweetly grow 
 
 Where God and man in Nature meet. 
 
 The love that meets our daily need 
 With flower, and fruit, and spirit light, 
 Opes the leal heart with love of right, 
 
 And, with the law, writes out our creed. 
 
 The hearing ear, the seeing eye, 
 
 In self and song and flower may read 
 The holiest bible, truest creed — 
 
 God's word to man, and man's reply. i 
 
 God breathes His law through every place ; 
 
 Through flower and tree, through storm and calm 
 His laws are words in Nature's psalm, 
 
 Man, the refrain, with Godward face. 
 
 If, building on the stable law, 
 
 The faith that grasps the hand of God, 
 True love, the heart's divining rod, 
 
 Around his soul all good shall draw. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 117 
 
 MY FIRST ACROSTIC. 
 GERTRUDE is a dear wee lass, 
 Elate with spirits all aglow, 
 Racing o'er the daisied grass. 
 Tripping light as falling snow. 
 Round and round she flits about, 
 Unfolding many a dainty grace ; 
 Defiance in her merry shout, 
 Excitement in her happy face. 
 
 Glad am I to see thee blithe, 
 Let come what will in after years ; 
 And now, with every limb so lithe. 
 Delight thyself with thy compeers ; 
 Young and bonny, bright and gay, 
 Sprite of gladness, romp away. 
 
 Violets ope their eyes in spring 
 In the garden and the glade, 
 Odours sweet they sweetly bring — 
 Largess to the little maid ; 
 Every bird its song will sing 
 To Violet from its leafy shade. 
 
 TRUST. 
 "J^E not afraid! above the storm 
 Supreme God reigns ; 
 His love ordains 
 The laws that help but do not harm 
 The souls that work with His right arm. 
 
118 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Be not afraid ! however dark 
 
 May be the night, 
 
 Dawn comes with Ught, 
 And at heaven's gate the singing lark. 
 
 Be not afraid nor cease to sing 
 
 When winter raves 
 
 O'er new made graves, 
 For love is over everything. 
 
 Be not not afraid, but keep in tune 
 
 With laws that move 
 
 In tuneful groove. 
 Through songs of May and flowers of June. 
 
 Be not afraid! all things rejoice 
 
 In Nature's plan, 
 
 And meant for man 
 The gladness of their varied voice. 
 
 Be not afraid ! angels of God, 
 
 From hill and dale 
 
 And flowery vale, 
 Sing round thee love's divinest ode. 
 
 In cycles of eternal good 
 
 Times come and go, 
 
 And we shall grow 
 By laws we've served and understood. 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 119 
 
 Subdued and yoked to our leal will, 
 
 Like music sweet, 
 
 To words most meet, 
 For songs of praise on Zion hill. 
 
 THE KEY. 
 
 *gr HOLY spirit is the key 
 
 That opes the gate of heaven, 
 And to the soul that seeks to see 
 The Lord, 'tis freely given, 
 
 A holy spirit is the health 
 
 Of every soul that's leal, 
 It sheds a kindly effluence 
 
 Upon the common-weal. 
 
 A holy spirit oils the wheels 
 That grind the bread of life ; 
 
 A holy spirit soothes and heals 
 The hurts of toil and strife. 
 
 It is the breath of God, and brings 
 To souls that yearn for right. 
 
 An atmosphere for angel wings 
 To guard them day and night 
 
120 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 O, weary soul that blindly gropes, 
 
 Pray thou for spirit grace 
 To lead thee through the maze of life, 
 
 With light from God's own face. 
 
 O ! blest are all to whom is given 
 The key that opes the gates of heaven. 
 
 THE SEASONS. 
 
 /^i'HEN Nature, rising from her sleep, 
 Dons the green leaves of spring, ' 
 The daisies and the violets creep 
 About her feet, the young lambs leap. 
 And birds wake up to sing. 
 
 The summer with its wealth of flowers 
 
 Is flushed with loveliness; 
 The humming bees, the balmy showers, 
 The vocal woods at evening hours. 
 
 Sing beauty's holiness. 
 
 But autumn crowns the glowing year 
 
 With beauty all its own, 
 The heart of man with gifts to cheer, 
 And wisdom for the ears that hear 
 
 God's voice in undertone. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 121 
 
 CREEDS. 
 
 'Pf THOUSAND loyal souls may have 
 
 Each one a different creed, 
 And all, if held with hearts that serve 
 
 With, holy word and deed. 
 Converge in God, like different roads 
 That to one centre lead. 
 
 'Tis well to walk with firm tread 
 The way we've found most true ; 
 
 'Tis also well we should respect, 
 With all forbearance due, 
 
 The path that other pilgrims may 
 As honestly pursue. 
 
 It has been truly said of old 
 
 That all roads lead to Rome, 
 And all the various Christian creeds 
 
 Beneath Heaven's azure dome 
 Are but the tracks where pilgrim feet 
 
 Are all night walking Home. 
 
 AFTER MANY YEARS. 
 'T'N the same old place 
 
 Where his boyish face 
 I've seen so oft in the house of prayer, 
 With father and mother. 
 And sister and brother — 
 As they worshipped together there. 
 
122 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 With a quick step back 
 
 O'er the beaten track, 
 Memory brings full many a scene 
 
 Of the long ago, 
 
 When youth was aglow. 
 With rosy sport on the village green ; 
 
 Or the time when he, 
 
 At his mother's knee, 
 Sang — '*Here we suffer grief and pain ;" 
 
 The pain was brief. 
 
 And the swift relief 
 Was like the sunshine after the rain. 
 
 But since that day. 
 
 When, young and gay, 
 He lived in the light of love's own smile. 
 
 He has suffered loss, 
 
 And borne his cross, 
 Uphill o'er many a weary mile. 
 
 The same hymn now 
 
 He sings, I trow. 
 With a deeper sense and feeling. 
 
 And every word, 
 
 Has a memory stirred. 
 Some scene long past revealing. 
 
 Now father and mother, 
 Friend and brother, 
 Have through Death's mystic portal gone, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 123 
 
 And o'er their dust, 
 To guard the trust, 
 He rears a memorial stone. 
 
 REVELATION. 
 
 /^OD is not shut within the boards 
 
 Of any book ; 
 We still can read His words 
 
 In sea and brook ; 
 By hill, and vale, and forest glade — 
 In all things that His hand hath made — 
 In flowers that open to the light. 
 In stars that sparkle through the night ; 
 We see Him when the lightnings flash, 
 We hear Him when the thunders roll. 
 And in the deep recesses of the soul 
 
 We feel Him near, 
 And to the pure in heart 
 
 He giveth vision clear ; 
 The pure in heart of every age 
 
 He still inspires. 
 And loyal lips He touches still 
 
 With sacred fires ; 
 Knowledge and love 
 
 Still draw aside 
 
 The veils that hide 
 His glory from the eyes — 
 
 And hearts that are too gross 
 
 To see or feel their loss — - 
 
124 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 As holy men of old could read His will, 
 
 So holy men can read it still ; 
 
 For every eye by Him made reverent 
 
 Can see how earth with heaven is blent, 
 
 And write as true a revelation 
 
 As has been written since creation ; 
 
 The pure in heart, 
 The good and wise, 
 
 Who read His will 
 With reverent eyes, 
 Like priestly mediators stand 
 Interpreters at His right hand. 
 
 "MY BEAUTIFUL BOY." 
 
 [Perhaps the most beautiful thing that Emerson ever wrote was 
 a threnody on the death of his little boy, Waldo, six years of age. 
 
 " The gracious boy who did adorn 
 The world whereinto he was born, 
 
 Who gazed upon the sun and moon 
 As if he came unto his own, 
 
 And wandered backward as in scorn 
 To wait an £ecn to be born." 
 
 His loss seems to have been the greatest trial of his life, and 
 long years after, when he himself cams to the boundary line that 
 divides the seen from the Unseen, he took farewell of his friends and 
 then smiled and said, " Oh ! my beautiful boy."] 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 125 
 
 W EAR after year had covered up 
 ^ Its heaps slain in the fight ; 
 The young grew old, the old stepped through 
 The darkness into light. 
 
 Here eyes are dim with tears, our feet 
 
 Are weary with the road, 
 But years may not their impress leave 
 
 On cherubs dear to God. 
 
 And still within the father's heart 
 
 His boy was young and bright 
 As when the cloud obscured the stars 
 
 And hid him from his sight. 
 
 The pilgrim at his journey's end, 
 
 Beneath the evening star, 
 Waits at his Father's door till Death 
 
 The gates of life unbar. 
 
 He takes farewell of loved ones here, 
 Then through the veil withdrawn, 
 
 He sees his boy all beautiful 
 Wait for him in the dawn. 
 
 The gloom of death, the glow of life. 
 
 The loveliness, the joy 
 Draw from his eager lips the cry, 
 
 " O ! my beautiful boy." 
 
126 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Love welcomes here the helpless child, 
 
 And in the realms above, 
 The one that draws aside the veil 
 
 May not be Death, but Love. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 /jPI E lift our eyes to Heaven and cry 
 For gifts to fall in open hands : 
 God always hears, but what we ask 
 
 Ofttimes withholds, and yet transcends 
 Our prayers ; we ask a gift, the power 
 
 To win a higher good He sends. 
 
 He doth not put the bread into 
 
 Our mouths ; He gives us fields to sow ; 
 He gives us heads, and hands, and seeds, 
 
 To earn whate'er the laws bestow ; 
 And, if due service law receives. 
 
 Our barns with good will overflow. 
 
 He does not grind our corn, but gives 
 Us heads and hands to make our mills ; 
 
 He does not lift us up, but gives 
 Us feet to climb life's highest hills : 
 
 We first must earn the things we want. 
 And then our hands He freely fills. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 127 
 
 Knowledge unlocks the hands of laws 
 To do our will, when we know how 
 
 To give the homage they require : 
 Like docile herds, they freely bow 
 
 Their trusty necks to take our yoke, 
 For us the fields of fate to plough. 
 
 To earn the good that we receive 
 
 Makes us both rich and strong, 
 And what we earn more surely doth 
 
 Unto our earning souls belong ; 
 And strength accumulates to make 
 
 A wall between our souls and wrong. 
 
 For gold and silver, land and sea, 
 
 Our souls at death must leave behind. 
 
 But what we earn abides with us. 
 
 And grows in heart, and hand, and mind ; 
 
 Such treasure, with God's help, we keep 
 Against all enemies combined. 
 
 THE WORDS OF THE LORD. 
 
 nQHOUGHTFUL men of old imbibed 
 
 The words of God through seeing eyes, 
 And with a pen of gold transcribed 
 
 The words that make the world wise ; 
 So sure were they of what they saw, 
 They styled their transcript God's own law. 
 
128 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 But what they read we still may read, 
 Within, without, the wise decree — 
 
 A guide-book fit for every need, 
 In mind and matter written free, 
 
 In all we see, and feel, and know 
 
 Of things above and things below. 
 
 To praying hearts the Lord gives love ; 
 
 To praying eyes the Lord gives light ; 
 To souls that look beyond, above 
 
 Material things, a sense of right 
 To love what's good, to hate what's wrong. 
 And gather strength by being strong. 
 
 God doth Himself to us reveal 
 
 As freely as He did of old 
 To holy men whose hearts were leal, 
 
 Who saw the only age of gold 
 Was in the kingdom of the Lord 
 For all who read and love His word. 
 
 " O, come, and let us worship Him " 
 With truest love and service leal. 
 
 That our whole life may be a hymn 
 That shall His love to man reveal ; 
 
 Come, lift the heart and bend the knee, 
 
 The bond of love shall make us free. 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 120 
 
 SONG FOR THE SEASON. 
 
 rnHE field and the forest 
 Are dreary and bare ; 
 There's frost in the earth 
 
 And frost in the air ; 
 The wee bits o' birds 
 
 Seem niddert wi' care, 
 And the bleak auld year 
 
 Now reaches the post, 
 
 To gie up the ghost, 
 
 Wi' the snaw in his hair. 
 
 He's been true as the sun : 
 Of all that's been done, 
 
 An unbribeable registrar — 
 
 Of peace and of war, 
 Of grief and of gladness, 
 Of wisdom and madness. 
 
 Record and presage 
 Has filled up his scroll, 
 
 He has written a page 
 For every soul. 
 
 Just and true every line : 
 
 Every word that has jarred 
 On some good design ; 
 
 Every deed that has marred 
 Some action divine. 
 
 Goes down inexorably. 
 Nothing forgotten, nothing untrue ; 
 
130 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Nothing more, nothing less than is due ; 
 And the tears of an angel 
 
 No word can efface, 
 But some holy evangel 
 
 Good deeds may o'ertrace, 
 And right may upgrow 
 
 On the green grave of wrong ; 
 What with sorrow we sow 
 
 We may gather with song. 
 
 Now friend with friend is vieing 
 With many a kindly greeting, 
 
 As thick as snow flakes flying, 
 Like angels angels meeting, 
 
 From heaven above and earth below 
 With prayers to love entreating, 
 
 That good each life may overflow. 
 
 And make it pure as falling snow. 
 
 May neither wrong nor jar 
 The young year's record mar ; 
 May heart, and mind, and hand 
 In holy effort blend, 
 To make each life an offering meet. 
 To lay down at the Master's feet ; 
 Then happiness, unsought, will come 
 With His well pleased encomium — 
 " Faithful one, well-done." 
 
RDER RHYMES. 131 
 
 SOWING. 
 
 "Cast forth thy act, thy word into the ever-living, ever-work- 
 ing universe ; it is a seed-grain that cannot die. Unnoticed to-day, 
 it will be found flourishing a banyon grove — perhaps, alas ! a 
 hemlock forest — after a thousand years." CAKLyLE. 
 
 C^ SOWER, going forth to sow 
 
 With thy compeers in life's wide field, 
 
 Think of the harvest that will grow, 
 
 And what the ripened seeds will yield — 
 
 True bread of life, or only weeds 
 
 That bend their heads with baneful seeds. 
 
 'Tis not for one short year ye sow, 
 
 But for all men and for all time ; 
 Be wise and true, and good seed strew — 
 
 Not poisonous seeds of grief and crime 
 That fill the sluggard's heart with woe, 
 And hem him round with many a foe. 
 
 To him who scatters precious seed 
 
 A precious harvest shall be given, 
 And he men's hungry souls shall feed 
 
 While storing compound gain in heaven ; 
 He shall be blest who wisely spends 
 Himself in filling other's hands. 
 
 Who gives himself, himself shall gain 
 
 Life's larger increment of good, 
 As he who scatters wide the grain 
 
 Receives the harvest's plentitude ; 
 With gifts and help all nature waits 
 For him whose life co-operates. 
 
132 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 MEND THE BRUISED SHELL 
 WITH PEARL. 
 
 Suggested by Ralph Waldo Emerson, He said he " could 
 mend his shell with pearl." 
 
 TTTHE oyster, finding in its shell 
 
 Some bruise, or grain of sand, 
 That it is powerless to expel, 
 Can, with rich nacre, mend 
 The flaw, until it grows a gem 
 Fit for a queenly diadem. 
 
 Sometimes when laid aside by pain, 
 
 We learn to sing a song 
 That overcomes our loss with gain. 
 
 And makes the leal soul strong ; 
 With spirit nacre overlaid, 
 The pain a precious thing is made. 
 
 A bitter word, with malice spoken, 
 
 Leaves on the soul a flaw : 
 Within the character a token 
 
 That tells of broken law ; 
 What then can make the hurt soul well.^ 
 Mend with pearl the bruised shell. 
 
 For selfish ends, unkindly deeds. 
 
 The soul doth wound and bruise. 
 But healing balm from love proceeds, 
 
 That hearts from hearts transfuse. 
 True kindliness is like a spell 
 That mends with pearl the bruised shell. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 133 
 
 Oh ! happy he to whom is given 
 
 Recuperative powers, 
 The baneful weeds, with seeds from heaven, 
 
 To overgrow with flowers, 
 That do with rising incense tell 
 That love has healed the bruised shell. 
 
 SIGHT AND SOUND. 
 
 "TFvE who from birth is deaf and blind, 
 Imprisoned in the silent night. 
 Can little know what sound and sight 
 Reveal to open heart and mind. 
 
 The green fields and the rolling seas. 
 The hills and vales and forest trees, 
 
 The flowers below, the stars above. 
 The rills that down the hillside flow, 
 The sunsets with the skies aglow. 
 
 The face and form of those we love. 
 
 The song of bird, the hum of bee, 
 The murmur of the restless sea, 
 
 The west wind breathing summer air, 
 The organ's pealing notes of praise, 
 The songs that congregations raise, 
 
 The voice of love, the words of prayer. 
 
134 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Unknown and unimagined all, 
 
 For wrapt in silence dark and deep, 
 No latent sense can vigil keep, 
 
 To guard the soul that is in thrall. 
 
 His joy and wonder who can tell, 
 When light the darkness shall dispel. 
 
 While music fills new opened ears, 
 The lovely sights that meet his eyes 
 Shall fill his soul with wrapt surprise, 
 
 As kings rejoice o'er new found spheres. 
 
 Even so, when this worn body dies, 
 God's hand may touch our ears and eyes, 
 
 And give the soul unhindered sense. 
 When lovely things shall meet our view, 
 And music fill the senses new, 
 
 With joy immeasurable, intense. 
 
 Ear hath not heard, eye hath not seen. 
 Nor thought conceived the joy, I ween. 
 
 The pure in heart shall hear and see, 
 When every sense shall be unsealed, 
 And heaven around shall lie revealed 
 
 To the leal heart by death made free. 
 
 m 
 
 PRAYING DEEDS. 
 HE Overmind our prayer hears 
 Expressed in feelings, thoughts, and deeds- 
 Exponents of our realest needs, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 135 
 
 Realer than words ; as true as tears 
 Of sorrow from a heart that bleeds 
 For sin, that higher life impedes. 
 
 The evil thought, the shameful act, 
 Pray for their due consequent meeds. 
 Like seeds that grow to baneful weeds ; 
 
 And harboured hate doth hate attract. 
 For every sin its name inscribes 
 Within the soul that sin imbibes. 
 
 The upright aim, the kindly thought. 
 
 The self-denial, and the grace 
 
 That scorns to do aught mean or base, 
 Get answers in the soul inwrought 
 
 That make it lovely as the light 
 
 That shines on flowers with dewdrops bright. 
 
 There's no result without a cause ; 
 
 We make or mar with our freewill ; 
 
 We live our lives for good or ill. 
 According as we love God's laws. 
 
 Environment may task our skill 
 
 When adverse winds our sails do fill, 
 
 But we can signal in distress 
 To One whose help is ever near — 
 A Pilot who can safely steer 
 
 Into the port of righteousness, 
 
 Where clouds disperse and stars appear, 
 And songs of welcome fill the ear. 
 
136 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Maybe at death we'll leave below 
 Entanglements that hinder here, 
 And in a more congenial sphere, 
 
 With minds enlarged and hearts aglow, 
 Beneath a sky serene and clear 
 We'll find it joy our barks to steer. 
 
 Though in the land beyond the grave 
 We still may err, and error leads 
 Through ignorance to sinful deeds. 
 
 Well-balanced souls are strong to save, 
 
 With wills made true and hearts made wise 
 From death that under falsehood lies. 
 
 Sin from our system may be driven, 
 As we from fevers here get free ; 
 Our souls may gather health and be 
 
 Reclaimed, renewed, enlarged, forgiven, 
 And with a cumulative grace 
 Grow up from place to higher place. 
 
 IGDRASIL. 
 
 C^YMBOLS are round us everywhere, and we 
 ^"^ Can read the unseen from the seen and bow 
 Before the majesty of Overmind 
 Transfusing law through all created things. 
 By Igdrasil — the Scandinavian tree — 
 Life, law, and fate are fully symbolised. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 187 
 
 It binds in one the heaven, the earth, and hell, 
 Its roots deep down with Hela 'mong the dead ; 
 Its branches reaching up to highest heaven. 
 And spreading wide o'er all the Universe ; 
 The serpent gnawing at its roots, with all 
 Its dark unholy brood, at constant war 
 With life ; as constantly the Nomas, from 
 The Sacred Well, sprinkling its boughs until 
 They drop down honey dew from heaven 
 Among the sons of men, whose destinies 
 They grave on shields beneath the tree. 
 
 They grave the destinies of men on shields : — 
 Law is a shield to every faithful soul ; 
 And law is fate wherein we weave freewill. 
 As woof is woven in warp, made fast from beam 
 To beam, 
 
 Our thoughts, our deeds, are prayers that draw 
 The real consequent answers down from heaven. 
 And as the Jews raised up Jerusalem's walls 
 With sword in hand, so we, with hearts that pray 
 And hands that work do weave our lives into 
 The will of God. 
 
 We are but viewless souls 
 That take material form for one brief day 
 Among the spreading bows of Igdrasil. 
 We work and sing, and laugh and weep, until 
 At eventide we lay aside our cross — 
 Our toilworn, workday dress, and rest all night 
 Till morning wake us up to other scenes. 
 
 The ceaseless whirr of life is like the hum 
 
138 BORDER RHYMBS. 
 
 Of bees on lindens that the summer lades 
 With flowers. 
 
 The frost king comes when leaves are ripe 
 And at his icy breath they tremble down 
 Into the silent kingdom of the dead. 
 At times great gusts of passion pestilent 
 And helmless raves recklessly, like demons, 
 Through all the boughs of Igdrasil, 
 " Trailing its blossoms in the dust." 
 
 There, too, 
 The righteous lightnings flash and quiver 
 Against unholy deeds ; the viewless air 
 Is lashed to fierce tempestuous storms as if 
 By deadly war of kings invisible ; 
 Till all the honey dews of heaven grow red 
 With blood, and fall, like molten lead, upon 
 The hearts of peaceful souls who mourn the dead. 
 
 And there are soft and warm salubrious winds 
 Of grand enthusiasms that bend its branches 
 Down with gifts for men. 
 
 Times, too, of holy calm. 
 When love spreads her white wings and sings her songs 
 With birds that perch upon its topmost boughs. 
 Sending heart lyrics into heaven, while men 
 Look up entranced to see the heavens bow down 
 To hear ; friend grasps the hand of friend, they work 
 As brothers should, with one grand aim for good 
 To all. And as they work they sing. Strong men 
 Do bend the branches as they will, because their 
 strength 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 139 
 
 Is one with law, and all the gods work with them. 
 Justice and Mercy meet and do not clash ; 
 Righteousness and Peace bind earth to heaven, 
 And all the chords of life are freely blent 
 In one most perfect harmony. 
 
 NANCIE. 
 ^T)Y heart keeps croonin' ower a sang, 
 
 For ane we a' like weel ; 
 Her he'rt doon to her finger tips 
 Is kind, an' true, an' leal. 
 An' blest be a', 
 Baith great an' sma', 
 That live to love my Nancie. 
 
 We like to pit oor money in 
 
 Banks where best interest's given ; 
 An' every blessing Nancie wins 
 Is bankit safe in Heaven. 
 Angels abune 
 Keep writing doon 
 The kindly deeds o' Nancie 
 
 But O, there never was a life 
 
 Where grief ne'er made inroad ; 
 But if grief come, may angels come 
 Alang wi' it frae God, 
 
 An' love be near 
 To dry the tear 
 That weets the cheek o' Nancie. 
 
140 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE DAISY. 
 
 "T* LOVE the flowers by the wayside growing, 
 And I stoop to hear what the daisies say, 
 
 When winter winds are rudely blowing 
 The daisies alone by the wayside stay. 
 
 And there's never a day in all the year 
 When we meet them not 
 In some quiet spot, 
 
 When he that hath ears to hear may hear 
 Holy hymns from their pure lips flowing, 
 While all the time they keep on sowing 
 
 In the open heart through the open eye 
 
 The seeds of flowers that will never die. 
 
 Oh, fondly we call them the eye of day — 
 
 They look to the sun with gold hearts glowing, 
 Hearts of gold in white robes showing ; 
 
 But when laden clouds fill the dripping skies, 
 
 They fold up the gold with tears in their eyes. 
 O, well may I learn from their quiet gaze, 
 How as fitly to fill my lowly place, 
 And as meekly to bear my quiet lot 
 With a grateful heart that murmurs not ; 
 
 May my heart too be gold arrayed in white. 
 Mine too a voice in nature's polyglot ; 
 
 And never a word may I speak or write 
 
 That may not stand in God's holy light. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 141 
 
 THE SEASONS. 
 
 Cif PRING unfolds the fresh young leaves. 
 
 And summer unfolds the flowers, 
 Autumn binds her heavy sheaves, 
 
 And all are ours, all are ours. 
 The gifts of the year are manifold, 
 And the gifts of autumn are framed in gold. 
 
 When we have garnered our harvest gains. 
 The wind may wail through the leafless trees. 
 
 And winter may soak the earth with rains. 
 Or her silvery veins to crystal freeze, 
 
 And fold in snow the vale and the hill, 
 
 While sleeping nature is hushed and still. 
 
 When the nights are long, by our warm hearth 
 We wait in hope for another spring. 
 
 When bud and blossom shall clothe the earth, 
 And birds among the green leaves sing. 
 
 But all the seasons of all the years 
 
 Shew like a poesy besprent with tears. 
 
 And angel eyes from the stars look down 
 On all the years of our life below. 
 
 And greet with a tear, a smile, or a frown. 
 The growth of the seeds our thinkings sow. 
 
 Some seeds have wings and fly afar ; 
 
 Some words sow peace, and some sow jar. 
 
142 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 For no man lives to himself alone, 
 
 The air is impregned with what we think ; 
 
 Oh, never a thought may our lives condone 
 From which an angel of God might shrink. 
 
 O, pilgrim soul, by the wayside sow 
 
 Seeds that to flowers and fruits will grow. 
 
 Keep in thy heart the songs of spring ; 
 
 Let summer flowers in thy bosom blow ; 
 For spring and summer to autumn bring 
 
 All the gifts that from autumn flow. 
 Then store up the gifts of the whole round year, 
 For wintry times when the snows are here. 
 
 A PARAPHRASE OF THE FOLLOWING. 
 
 "Oh, unwise mortals that forever change and shift, and say 
 'yonder, not here.' Wealth, richer than both the Indies, lies 
 everywhere for man, if he will endure. Not his oaks only and his 
 fruit trees, his very heart roots itself wherever he will abide ; roots 
 itself, draws nourishment from the deep fountains of Universal 
 
 Being The wealth of a man is the number of thingg 
 
 which he loves and blesses, which he is loved and blessed by." 
 
 Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 /~\H mortal, most unwise. 
 
 Seeking change with restless eyes, 
 Homeless, wandering here and there — 
 
 What seekest thou ^ 
 Rest from care } 
 Scenes piquant and fair .-' 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 143 
 
 Foolish and blind canst thou not see 
 
 The blame of discontent abides with thee ? 
 
 For round thee everywhere 
 Ready to fall into obedient hands 
 Is all you run to get in distant lands. 
 Be patient, loyal, ready to battle or endure. 
 And daily sunrise is not more duly sure 
 
 Than growth of sequent health and wealth 
 Into the heart that's pure. 
 
 As fruit and forest trees 
 Strike deep their roots in earth 
 
 And wave their branches in the breeze, 
 So be no more at strife 
 With laws that make for life. 
 But deep in Universal Being 
 
 Take root and grow 
 Into the wiser seeing 
 
 That makes thy heart to glow 
 With love to all ; 
 For all the love we get is wealth, 
 And all the love we give is health. 
 Even love for mountain streams 
 
 And wild cascades. 
 For breezy woods 
 
 And flowery glades. 
 Let man, and bird, and beast 
 
 Find kindly home within thy breast ; 
 When love makes duty understood 
 
 Tis freely done, and open hands 
 
 Are freely filled with good. 
 
144 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 AUTUMN. 
 
 O 
 
 SOFTLY the autumn winds are sighing- 
 * Like sylvan nymphs 'mong forest trees. 
 And gently the ripened leaves are dying 
 
 And floating down the withering breeze. 
 Thickly they lie on the trodden road — 
 Leaves from the polyglot book of God. 
 
 The poplar leaves, like flakes of light 
 
 That fall from heaven to earth in showers ; 
 
 The elms as golden are and bright 
 
 As the glowing tints of summer flowers ; 
 
 The oak, the ash, and the rowantree, 
 
 The beech, the plane, and the pine are blent, 
 
 Sweet, picturesque, and opulent. 
 
 O brook that sings to the falling leaves, 
 
 I fain would know the word of your song ; 
 The words of wisdom in Nature's book 
 You sing so sweet as you glide along. 
 O leaves that fall by the flowing brook, 
 It is not the seeing heart that grieves 
 When garnering up its harvest sheaves. 
 
 The leaves are fresh in the dewy spring \ 
 
 Flowers flush the fields in the summer time ; 
 
 On quivering wings the skylarks sing ; 
 Bees gather sweets in the luscious lime ; 
 
 But autumn crowns the beautiful year, 
 
 Bringing her gifts when the leaves are sear. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 145 
 
 Age is a sheddingf of ripened leaves — 
 
 The worn out leaves from our lives that fall ; 
 
 Age is a garnering up of sheaves, 
 A storing up of our capital. 
 
 But all through the year our praying hands 
 
 Must work for the good the good Lord sends. 
 
 SUMMER. 
 
 ^N grassy lanes when days are lang 
 
 I like to walk at even 
 Where roses blend with hawthorn bloom 
 Till earth seems blent with Heaven. 
 
 God's angels shake the tree of life — 
 
 It's blossoms fa' in showers 
 On open hearts that gather in 
 
 The essence of the flowers. 
 
 Laburnums hang their tasselled gold 
 
 'Mang greenery fair to see, 
 An' mony a bonny bunch o' bloom 
 
 Wechts doon the rowan tree. 
 
 The gleesome bairns gang oot to look 
 
 For nests alang the hedge ; 
 They paidle barefit in the burn 
 
 Beside the yellow sedge. 
 
146 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 There's grace in every movement 
 
 An' gladness in their een, 
 As buttercups an' daisies 
 
 They gather off the green. 
 
 The birds sing oot sae blithely 
 
 Frae every bush an' tree, 
 The flowers look up to listen 
 
 To the heart melody. 
 
 O bonny birds, ye are sae glad, 
 
 Nae wonder that ye sing ; 
 A' nature seems the harp o' love 
 
 Wi' sangs on every string. 
 
 My heart absorbs respondingly 
 
 Bird-like the joy o' living ; 
 The best o' life we freely get, 
 
 The highest joy is giving. 
 
 There seems a sweeter stream o' love 
 
 Through a' the leafy June, 
 To lift oor hearts through flowers and songs 
 
 To Faither's love abune. 
 
 Why should we fear for anything 
 
 When round us everywhere 
 The angels o' His love appear 
 
 In a' that's gude an' fair. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 147 
 
 VERSES. 
 
 "^^E honest, loyal, true, and kind 
 
 In secret thought, in word and deeds; 
 The kindly heart, the honest mind, 
 
 Like magnets draw life's truest meeds ; 
 The soul that loves the right shall find 
 
 That flowers grow from flower seeds. 
 
 The present, in the past surceased, 
 Lives now to feed the coming day, 
 
 As flowers and fruits are all released 
 From seeds we hide within the clay ; 
 
 And growing souls by time increased 
 Shall wider fields of good survey. 
 
 The laws of God like guide-posts stand ; 
 
 Obedience keeps us homeward bound ; 
 Love is the spirit's magic wand 
 
 That all the laws of life expound — 
 It gives a foretaste of the land 
 
 Where the leal soul is robed and crowned. 
 
 The shadows lengthening eastward show. 
 As hour by hour the day declines, 
 
 The way we've come, the way we go ; 
 And night hangs out her starry signs 
 
 That make the traveller's heart to glow 
 While thinking of the light that shines 
 
 Where sweet home faces radiance flings 
 
 O'er all until the very silence sings. 
 
148 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 CHANGE— NOT LOSS. 
 
 TTTHE rill is lost in the river, 
 
 The river is lost in the sea, 
 And heaven draws up the ocean 
 To rain it again on the lea. 
 
 Is life no more than an ocean 
 That falls on a thousand hills, 
 
 Refreshing the flowers as it flows 
 To the river in murmuring rills ? 
 
 If so, there is no great nor small, 
 We are only parts of a whole. 
 
 And we lose ourselves when we die 
 In the one imperial soul. 
 
 And though we may rise from the sea 
 And be rained again on the hills, 
 
 We are not the self-same drops 
 That flowed in the self-same rills. 
 
 I could not care for the bit of soul 
 That walked beside me unseen 
 
 As I cared for the friend I loved 
 
 And lost when the leaves were green. 
 
 Ourselves we do not lose, I ween, 
 In the river or in the sea ; 
 
 Two raindrops touch to one, but zue 
 Do keep our own identity. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 149 
 
 And the soul that rose to Heaven 
 
 When our hearts were torn with pain, 
 
 Will be the same that vanished 
 If it comes to the earth again. 
 
 For life is not the revolution 
 
 Of a ceaseless water-wheel, 
 But a growth of individual soul 
 
 Within Heaven's commonweal. 
 
 The spirit of our lives aye falls 
 Like mist and rain on the hills, 
 
 And flows to the heaving ocean 
 In a thousand rivers and rills. 
 
 And as long as the hills endure 
 It is caught in clouds from the sea, 
 
 And in ceaseless round is rained 
 Again on the flowery lea. 
 
 A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD 
 SOLILOQUY. 
 
 rrrO be or not to be ? That is the question ; 
 Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer 
 The inconvenience of outrageous fashion, 
 Or to take up arms against the threatened 
 -Crinoline, and by opposing end it ; 
 
150 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Banish it, we say ; and think to end with it 
 
 A thousand troubles that do, instead of 
 
 Natural ease and grace, make us like 
 
 Puppets above great overgrown umbrellas, 
 
 Truly this were a consummation 
 
 Devoutly to be wished ! But dare we 
 
 Take up arms against the gods of fashion 
 
 And all who bow the knee to graceless ugliness ? 
 
 There's the rub ; so few have grit enough 
 
 To brave the censorship of Mrs Grundy, 
 
 No matter what bears her imprimatur. 
 
 Then ever and anon bad dreams may come 
 
 Of her absurd ascendancy to break our rest, 
 
 After we've shuffled off the bars of steel 
 
 That bound our poor subservient souls 
 
 To huge balloons exposed to all the winds 
 
 That in a trice might blow us up 
 
 To fiery Mars or the cold sterile moon, 
 
 The thought's too horrible to entertain. 
 
 Shall we then bear the ills of crinoline 
 
 Lest otherwise we swing far past the golden mean } 
 
 Nay! Why should we grunt and sweat beneath 
 
 The hateful thing, when we might with a bodkin 
 
 End it .? Still the dread that after it 
 
 The whipping-post, may stay our hands and make 
 
 Poor cowards of us all ; and thus the native hue 
 
 Of resolution is sicklied o'er 
 
 With the pale cast of thought. But are not angels 
 
 Our ideals of loveliness and grace, 
 
 And who ever saw angels in crinoline ? 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 151 
 
 Why then not openly rebel against 
 The tyranny of gracelessness in every form, 
 And with this enterprise of pith and moment 
 Turn the currents that run so much awry 
 Into channels of true grace and symmetry ? 
 
 A SOWER WENT FORTH TO SOW. 
 
 TN every thought we think, 
 
 In every word we say, 
 In every deed we do 
 We very truly pray ; 
 And whatsoe'er we wish or will 
 We get the fitting answer still. 
 
 Our thoughts, our words, our deeds 
 
 Go from us past recall 
 To leave in other minds 
 An influence for all; 
 In our own souls the wrong or right 
 Grows into weeds or blossoms bright. 
 
 "Curses come home to roost," 
 
 Blessings come home to rest ; 
 And what we sow we reap — 
 Harvest our seedtimes test ; 
 If we sow nought the land grows weeds, 
 If we sow good we sow God's seeds. 
 
152 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 His seeds are kindliness — 
 
 The golden rule and true ; 
 Do ye to all as ye 
 
 Wish all to do to you ; 
 And learn with meek and lowly mind 
 To be longsuffering and kind. 
 
 With charity that loves 
 
 In truth a neighbour's name, 
 And hates to hear a word 
 That blackens it with shame ; 
 With Christ-like self-forgetfulness 
 Be Christ-like in thy helpfulness. 
 
 Be pure in heart to catch 
 
 The seeds that others strew, 
 That it an hundredfold 
 
 Within thy heart may grow ; 
 Morn, noon, and night receive and sow 
 Good seed, and God the increase will bestow. 
 
 A HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 *jCI* HOLY spirit is the sign and seal 
 ^ That makes us kin to all the Christs in God 
 
 Who bear the cross and trust his staff and rod, 
 And with true kingliness do set their heel 
 Upon the head of wrong. It doth reveal 
 The Father's love on the leal heart bestowed, 
 While life with its sweet effluence is o'erflowed 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 153 
 
 With health that clears the air for common weal, 
 God breathes upon our souls and we do live ; 
 
 We breathe God's breath and all the air is health, 
 The good we freely get we freely give — 
 
 Unfailing kindliness and true soul wealth. 
 A holy spirit is the key to Heaven ; 
 Its want, the sin that cannot be forgiven. 
 
 THE BUILDERS. 
 
 ^^NE man with driftwood builds his house 
 
 On heedlessness and lust ; 
 The shapeless thought, the careless word, 
 
 The deed unkind, unjust ; 
 No matter how they fit the wall, 
 
 He takes what comes on trust 
 
 Another man with righteousness 
 
 Builds life as on a rock ; 
 Each stone is made to fit its place, 
 
 Wisdom guides each stroke ; 
 And when the floods and tempests come 
 
 It braves the fiercest shock. 
 
 When troubles come the thoughtless man 
 
 Drifts with the driving storm, 
 But he who builds on righteousness 
 
 Need fear no loud alarm ; 
 The wrecks around may thickly lie, 
 
 But him no storm can harm. 
 
154 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 "Tj IKE warp and woof our lives 
 Are woven with our days ; 
 We clothe our growing souls 
 
 With thoughts and words and ways. 
 
 No skill of man avails 
 T'unweave the woven past ; 
 
 The word, the deed, the spirit 
 Remain in colours fast. 
 
 The meanness that can stoop 
 To call the aid, by malice driven. 
 
 Of falsehood, fraud, and guile 
 To circumvent the will of Heaven. 
 
 The hurtful selfishness 
 
 Of low sensual greed 
 Makes an ill woven web 
 
 Of rotten word and deed. 
 
 And every thought that wrongs 
 Another man with blame 
 
 The soul exudes, absorbs, 
 
 And weaves to its own shame. 
 
 Then, O my soul, be strong ! 
 
 Arise and with firm will, 
 Scorn back each thought of wrong, 
 
 And God's high best fulfil. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 155 
 
 The robe thy words and deeds 
 Are ever weaving here 
 
 Shall indicate thy place 
 Within the higher sphere. 
 
 Let every thread be strong 
 And beautiful with truth, 
 
 And whiter than the snow 
 With gentleness and ruth. 
 
 WATCHFULNESS. 
 
 " Guard well thy thoughts ; our thoughts are heard in Heaven." 
 
 Young. 
 
 /^UARD well thy thoughts, for, like winged seeds, 
 They fly in words and grow in deeds. 
 
 And ever reproduce their kinds 
 For good or ill ; and thou, their root 
 And source, may reap the gall or fruit 
 
 That grow from them in other minds. 
 
 As ye would reptiles loathe and kill, 
 So loathe and scorn all thoughts of ill, 
 
 Casting out the poisonous things, 
 Lest their vile progeny should claim 
 Descent from thee, and seal the blame 
 
 With multiplicity of stings. 
 
156 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Nor only such dark demons exorcise, 
 But pray to God for open eyes 
 
 And love for what is good and pure ; 
 Then shall thy thoughts, like white winged birds, 
 Bear strength and grace in saving words 
 
 To every heart that harbours them. 
 
 PRAYING HANDS. 
 
 //; 1 ORKING hands are praying hands. 
 
 And to their prayer Heaven unbends, 
 Answering our best praying deeds 
 With what our soul and body needs. 
 
 Our prayers are different as our lives, 
 And only the Christ-like spirit thrives; 
 The heart that's black with malice nursing 
 Blindly prays for black self-cursing. 
 
 The heart that's white with love for all 
 Love answers to that spirit's call ; 
 The life that's spent for good to others 
 Is heard by finding all men brothers. 
 
 We know what plants will grow from certain seeds, 
 Even so the answer comes to praying deeds ; 
 For, what our lives do ask is given, 
 Then let us ask nought less than Heaven. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 167 
 
 LET THE DEIL GET HIS DUE. 
 
 TTT HERE'S some folk that's aye crying oot 
 
 Wi' a tenderness really profane 
 For mercy ; they wad droon the hale world 
 
 Wi' mercy to save a sinner frae pain, 
 Although the sinner, I wot, 
 
 Has neither heart, havins, nor brain. 
 
 They'd pit everything off the balance 
 
 An' make life a jumble o' sweet, 
 Wi' nae distinction ava 
 
 Saint and sinner alike they wad treat ; 
 An' to speak o' hanging a murderer 
 
 Is eneuch to make them greet 
 
 For my pairt, I think it's fer better, 
 
 When needfu', that justice should turn the screw. 
 An' let every sinner suffer 
 
 By drinking the browst that they brew ; 
 For however bad the deil may be, 
 
 It's but richt he should get his due. 
 
 It's the height o' presumption to set 
 
 Oorsels up abune the Lawgiver, 
 And tell Him what He shouldna do 
 
 While we steal the shafts frae His quiver, 
 Pluming oorsels on a tender heart 
 
 While deed frae desert we wad sever. 
 
158 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 It's richt that the harvest should be 
 The same as the seed that we saw, 
 
 If we saw nettle seed in the spring 
 We'll have nae wheat harvest ava ; 
 
 There's truth and justice in nature, 
 An' naething's mair helpfu' than law. 
 
 Nae doot there is plenty o' room for mercy 
 
 If wedded to justice and truth, 
 But mercy that's aye ignoring 
 
 Justice, is wanting in truest ruth, 
 While the mercy that draws the sinner frae sin 
 
 Is a glory to baith age an' youth. 
 
 LAWS. 
 
 I ^ AWS are like unseen angels 
 
 Of God that work for good, 
 And we are safe and blest 
 
 When they are understood ; 
 They ever stand and wait 
 To ope for us Heaven's pearly gate. 
 
 To him whose ears can hear, 
 To him whose eyes can see, 
 
 All nature speaks in accents clear 
 Words of calm veracity ; 
 
 The flowers that fringe the dusty road 
 
 Are each a written word of God. 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 159 
 
 The stars that sparkle in the sky, 
 The eyes that meet them there 
 
 Fold in their light things 'deep and high 
 That shall unfold elsewhere, 
 
 And every word of God is true 
 
 And claims from us the credence due. 
 
 Fools in their carnal hearts may say 
 
 " There is no God, no Heaven," 
 And thoughtless take their downward way; 
 
 But to the pure in heart is given 
 Wisdom, to see and understand 
 The laws that have their source and end 
 In love, that all things comprehend. 
 
 MOVE FIRMLY ON. 
 
 /T^OVE firmly on and do what is right, 
 
 No matter what others may say ; 
 The stars of Heaven shall guide thee by night 
 
 And the blaze of the sun by day ; 
 For God shall be with thee wherever thou art 
 To bless thee in brain and bless thee in heart. 
 
 Shirk not the toil ; proudly scorn the scorn 
 Of fools ; nay, if need be, fear not to die ; 
 
 From the death of the low the high is born, 
 And the life so earned is pure and high ; 
 
 But long or short, may thy life in good 
 
 Be spent for the human brotherhood. 
 
160 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Our hearts are stirred by heroic deeds 
 As was the pool by the angel of healing ; 
 
 And actions grow from the living seeds 
 That are fed by a flush of feeling. 
 
 'Tis good to have open hearts and eyes 
 
 To honour and love the brave and wise. 
 
 Hundreds may reap where one may sow; 
 
 Freely we get, let us give as free ; 
 For as we scatter our soul shall grow 
 
 In health and in true nobility ; 
 For unto the soul that gives is given, 
 And who sows on earth shall reap in Heaven. 
 
 THE LAWS OF GOD. 
 
 ^^OD'S laws are perfect and do good to all 
 
 Who walk by law ; they meet us everywhere 
 Like finger-posts that point to Heaven. We do not 
 
 break 
 The laws, we break ourselves against their firm 
 Unerring sequence. The factory wheels do serve 
 Our needs ; but if we thoughtlessly or heedlessly 
 Or wickedly permit these wheels to catch 
 Ourselves we are destroyed. Therefore let us 
 Beware lest we be drawn among the wheels 
 God made to grind for us the bread of life, 
 And crushed to death by unregarded laws. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 161 
 
 The laws of man should be a close transcript 
 
 Of laws divine — relentlessly upright, 
 
 Divinely helpful to obedient souls> 
 
 Sure punishment to all who disobey. • 
 
 *■ • 
 
 When men begin to multiply and starve 
 On patches of ill-cultured soil as starved 
 As they are, God commands an exodus ; 
 And if they do not rise and go where there 
 Is room for all, 'tis only right they bear 
 The stern results of their shortsighted 
 Disobedience ; and it were spurious 
 Mercy and benevolence to feed them 
 With the pauper's dole, and for a time 
 Avert the curse that ought to fall upon 
 Material wants, only to let it fall 
 More surely on the pauperised soul. 
 
 True mercy, helpful and beneficent, 
 
 Will make men listen to the voice divine — 
 
 Send ships to take them to a wider land 
 
 And help them to subdue it, and to have 
 
 Dominion over all they do subdue ; 
 
 And thus, with willing hands and upright hearts 
 
 Become a strength, a glory to our own 
 
 United, duty-loving Fatherland. 
 
 There is no happiness for man apart 
 From duty to the perfect laws of God ; 
 They are not patriots who would feebly shirk 
 The stern responsibility of laws 
 That crush the guilty to protect the good. 
 
162 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Let the blow fall where 'tis earned, nor tax 
 
 The law-abiding man to pamper crime. 
 
 We do not want the tortuous tactics of 
 
 A party man. We want a patriot 
 
 Strong, brave and true, who will not yield to noise 
 
 Nor turn aside from his straightforward course 
 
 To palter with a base expediency, 
 
 Or skin a sore that festers to the bone. 
 
 If Ireland's soul is sick with crime and shame 
 To give it sugar plums will only be 
 Encouragement to rank disease. Rather 
 Give justice and a sword to shield the good, 
 To quell the bad and keep the peace ; and say — 
 "This is the way, walk ye in it," and thus 
 Your souls shall live, and only then by laws 
 Obeyed shall Ireland prosper and be blest 
 
 A HOLY LIFE. 
 
 XT' HOLY life makes its own atmosphere, 
 And every soul that cometh near 
 Is softly blessed unawares. 
 With incense on the altar stairs. 
 Our spirit is exponent of our creeds ; 
 Our prayers are expressed in deeds. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 163 
 
 And whatsoe'er we ask is given, 
 
 And grows into our souls as hell or heaven 
 In constant harvests that accumulate. 
 Our freewill sows and reaps in fields of fate. 
 
 It may be worthless weeds or wheaten sheaves ; 
 
 It may be perfumed flowers or only leaves. 
 
 The life we get from God is our estate, 
 
 To keep, and dress, and cultivate : 
 If we do well we eat the fruit 
 That grows by faith from reason's root ; 
 The spirit of our lives is the sure test 
 If we have done or failed to do our best 
 
 CONVICTION. 
 
 /^lE strive for victory, that flower which crowns 
 
 The growth of earnest life ; our hands lay hold 
 On Heaven, and take by force the love of God, 
 Even as the plant uplifts its praying hands 
 And grasps a glory from the kindly sun : 
 God wills it so, and gladly gives to him who wins. 
 The light of Heaven is round the pure in heart, 
 And they with open eyes behold their Lord. 
 The earnest will works out convictions ; 
 Doubts paralyse the feet, but we are free 
 And fleet and fearless by true-hearted, open-eyed 
 Conviction ; not mere sluggish, dark, unreasoning 
 Dogmatism, but that grand fruit which grows 
 Upon the tree of high endeavour. 
 
164 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 We may delight in praise, and dread the blame 
 Of friends, and neighbours, and the race, 
 When on the land debateable, but when 
 Our open eyes have seen the Lord, and been 
 Within His holy place convinced of truth, 
 Then all denunciation or applause 
 Is no more heeded than the changeful wind 
 Upon an April day. The seeing soul 
 Made wise by love is anchored firmly in 
 The gracious heart of the ALMIGHTY. 
 
 SILENT INFLUENCE. 
 'TTJIS not alone by word and deed 
 Our lives spread good or ill ; 
 Our spirits make an atmosphere. 
 The outcome of the inner will, 
 And all who come within this sphere 
 
 Do feel its silent power ; 
 The silent light makes beautiful 
 The silent growing flower. 
 
 But he who harbours evil thoughts 
 
 Breathes out a pestilence ; 
 His eyes are dimmed with cherished sins 
 
 That warp intelligence. 
 While he whose heart is clean and true, 
 
 Who will not harbour ill, 
 Who every thought of wrong expels 
 
 With salutory will, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 165 
 
 Bears round himself an atmosphere 
 
 Of health and gladsome peace, 
 That helps the souls drawn unto him 
 
 To rise to life's increase. 
 The heart grows pure, the eyes grow clear 
 To see God everywhere, 
 
 All robed in glowing spheres of light 
 
 And Nature's vestments fair. 
 
 For He enspheres Himself in love, 
 
 And laws magnificence 
 Breathed from His heart around Himself 
 
 In true beneficence. 
 
 THE LILIES. 
 
 QONSIDER how the lilies grow- 
 No rushing feet, no toiling hands, 
 But quietly, as flakes of snow 
 
 From quiet clouds of heaven descend 
 
 To clothe with white the winter lands. 
 God's voice is heard in Nature's laws — 
 
 A still small voice but firm and strong, 
 And true and good ; it gently draws 
 
 The heart that hears to right from wrong, 
 And turns the wail of woe to song. 
 
166 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And who hath ears to hear can hear 
 
 The flowers sing praises as they grow, 
 In tones that fall distinct and clear 
 Upon the heart that yearns to know 
 The love that makes the lilies blow. 
 
 TIME. 
 
 *BrS time moves on with steady pace, 
 
 We gather ill or good ; 
 The years to come grow from the past, 
 And all the past include. 
 
 And evermore our soul hands do 
 
 With thought, and word, and deed, 
 As woof weave in the warp of life. 
 
 Resulting blame and meed. 
 For all the faults I've woven in 
 
 My life I humbly grieve. 
 For not one thread of all the web 
 
 Can any power unweave. 
 
 But, like asbestos passed through fire, 
 My life shall come out pure 
 
 From death ; and all my soul has won 
 Shall in my soul endure. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 167 
 
 THE WEB OF LIFE. 
 
 I | IFE is a web we weave with woof 
 
 Of good and ill, of prayaf and song ; 
 And oftentimes we feel reproof 
 
 And pain by what we've woven wrong. 
 The past we never can unweave, 
 However deeply we may grieve. 
 
 Life is a halting strain we draw 
 
 From God's grand harp of many a sttring — 
 Every string a perfect law, 
 
 From which imperfect fingers bring 
 111 apprehended notes of sadness, 
 Blended with trustful peace and gladness. 
 
 Life's an ^olian harp played on 
 By winds of shifting circumstance — 
 
 Tempests that rage, and wreck, and moan — 
 Or gentle zephyrs that enhance 
 
 All life's best gifts and sweetest graces, 
 
 Wreathing with flowers the storm's rude traces. 
 
 Life, like the circling year goes round— 
 The bud and song in springtime sweet, 
 
 The summer with her garlands crowned, 
 And autumn with her golden feet ; 
 
 Then winter with his icy hand 
 
 Mows down the herbage of the land. 
 
168 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Life is a gathering up of wealth, 
 Enlarging all our inner store ; 
 
 Wise gathering keeps the soul in health, 
 And keeps it growing evermore. 
 
 There is no limit to the soul's expanse — 
 
 The growing soul rends circumstance. 
 
 When death comes with his golden key 
 To ope the golden gates of day, 
 
 Our eager souls shall struggle free 
 And fly to meet the dawning ray ; 
 
 And friends we loved while plodding here 
 
 Shall fold us in a sweeter love 
 
 Within a brighter sphere. 
 
 TRUTH. 
 
 " Little Jaae will be beginning to have many notions of 
 things now. Train her to this as the corner stone of all morality 
 — to stand by the truth, to abhor a lie as she does hell fire. 
 Actually the longer I live I see the greater cause to look on 
 falsehood with detestation, with terror, as the beginning of all 
 else that is of the devil." 
 
 Thomas Carlyle, to his brother. 
 
 jgTAND by the truth ; the truth is strong, 
 And all that's false is weak and wrong ; 
 Truth looks from the eyes and sets its seal 
 On every face that is true and leal. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 169 
 
 All lovely things it makes cohere ; 
 Faith leans on it without a fear ; 
 Tis the centre of all that's good in man ; 
 It guides the stars in the stellar plan. 
 
 Were truth withdrawn from God's creation, 
 All things would fall to swift negation ; 
 But He is love as well as truth, 
 And safely our hearts do rest in His ruth. 
 
 Then let our thoughts, like precious seed, 
 Spring into truth in word and deed ; 
 And ne'er may we seek to hide our blame 
 With a lie that doubles and blackens shame. 
 
 The wriggling soul that weaves deceit. 
 Like nets, around its wayward feet, 
 Is caught, and hindered, and disgraced, 
 By futile confidence misplaced. 
 
 Who lies must reap the fruit of lies — 
 
 A soul debased with darkened eyes ; 
 
 To those who love the truth reward is given. 
 
 Eyes open to the healthful light of Heaven. 
 
 The hateful things that shun the light 
 Crawl round the feet that love the night. 
 But beauty lines the Heavenward way 
 For feet that love the perfect day. 
 
170 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 "WE SPEND OUR YEARS AS A TALE 
 THAT IS TOLD." 
 
 TTTlME with his book beside us stands 
 
 Turning the leaves with steady hands 
 
 For us to write on as we go. 
 With ceaseless pen our lives note down 
 Each thought, each deed, each passing frown 
 
 Each weak resistance of the foe ; 
 
 Each duty done with footsteps slow. ■< 
 
 Down must go the false word spoken ; 
 Down must go the false love taken ; 
 
 The work that cannot bear the light. 
 The skulking meanness hidden ; 
 The sneer by us unchidden ; 
 
 The wish malign that fain would blight 
 
 Whate'er is beautiful and right. 
 
 Thoughts and feelings leave their trace 
 
 On the soul and on the face ; 
 The bent line, the deed unholy 
 
 Let not blur the daily page 
 
 That each must write from youth to age ; 
 Let neither young nor wrinkled folly 
 Fill the last page with melancholy. 
 
 But nobly live in word and deed, 
 So that our souls absorb the meed — 
 
 Absorb the kindly, helpful Spirit 
 That hopeth good, nor thinketh ill, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 171 
 
 But fain would raise the downward will 
 To reach up and inherit 
 The guerdon that awaiteth merit. 
 
 And when the tale is fully told, 
 May it be every word in gold, 
 
 That well the Master's eye may meet, 
 To whom may every page reveal 
 Some deed on which to set His seal — 
 
 The whole a history complete, 
 
 To lay with gladness at His feet. 
 
 "TO HIM THAT HATH SHALL BE GIVEN." 
 
 "^PvE that hath soil can buy the seed : 
 
 Seed cast in earth returns tenfold ; 
 But he that hath the sorest need 
 
 Hath neither land, nor seed, nor gold. 
 Labour is all his store, and that he'll give 
 To him that hath, that he may live. 
 For 'tis a law endorsed in Heaven, 
 That unto him that hath is given. 
 
 Wealth gathers wealth, draws more and more 
 
 The poor man's toil into its net. 
 He that has wealth of learned lore 
 
 With greater ease shall knowledge get. 
 And whoso hath a talent lying useless by 
 Must give to him that hath that it may multiply 
 
172 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And he who hath a cultured mind, 
 Gathers from him with only hands ; 
 
 The kingly man shall rule his kind, 
 And homage get from all the lands. 
 
 But whoso harbours in his heart 
 Curses, curses on himself shall draw 
 With ruthless sting and greedy claw- — 
 
 While round the man whose heart is full 
 
 Of blessing, angels shall flock to bless ; 
 They compass all his steps with peace ; 
 They crown his life with life's increase, 
 
 And all his boughs are bent with fruitfulness. 
 
 LINES FOR THE SEASON. 
 
 /jPI ITH firm resolve to do thy best. 
 Begin the coming year ; 
 
 The purpose high is helped by Heaven- 
 Eyes that look up are clear. 
 
 The way is smooth for willing feet, 
 The brave have least to fear. 
 
 On truth and right take thou thy stand 
 
 With honest heart and helpful hand. 
 
 Our lives are measured not by years, 
 
 But by our fruitful deeds, 
 And by capacity of life 
 
 To apprehend our needs, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 173 
 
 And root from out our wayward hearts 
 
 The overgrowing weeds. 
 The life that has but length alone 
 Is poor indeed when all is done. 
 
 Then live thy life wide, large, and full. 
 
 And pure and high of mood ; 
 Let every day attest some gain, 
 
 And every hour some good. 
 And though thy path be steep and rough, 
 
 Still bravely bear thy rood — 
 It is the loom on which is woven 
 The robe that clothes the soul when proven. 
 
 OBEDIENCE. 
 
 QBEDIENCE in the hands of love 
 
 Unlocks the gates of Heaven, 
 And what obedience asks in love 
 
 Is freely, gladly given. 
 The laws like angels give their hands 
 
 To help souls who have striven 
 To gain the heights where light appears 
 To make us wonder at our fears. 
 
 God's law is like an instrument 
 That we must learn to know 
 
 Ere music of a noble life 
 From its true keys can flow ; 
 
174 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 It gives a voice to speak the love 
 
 That in our bosoms glow, 
 And deftest fingers music brings 
 Most sweetly from the heart that sings. 
 
 The laws of God are foreordained — 
 
 A warp in which we weave 
 Our own freewill, and from our heart 
 
 We make a robe to cleave 
 Around our souls, that, by our dress 
 
 Our lives men may perceive. 
 Into our robes we weave our creeds, 
 If honest hands weave honest deeds 
 Into God's warp, we get God-speeds. 
 
 The omnipresent laws of God 
 
 Are His Almighty hands 
 That work together with the soul 
 
 Whose will with His will blends ; 
 But fall with penal weight on him 
 
 Who with the law contends. 
 Love stretches helping hands to draw 
 Our love within His helpful law. 
 
 The omnipresent laws of God 
 
 Are his all-seeing eyes, 
 To Him our inmost thoughts in light 
 
 For ever open lies. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 175 
 
 The soul that from His presence flees 
 
 In folly's meshes dies, 
 But whoso walks before His face 
 Grows beautiful with life's best grace. 
 
 EVOLUTION. 
 
 rrjHE dark earth throbs with life 
 
 Ere the green blade points to heaven. 
 And blossoms fill the land with joy 
 
 Before the luscious fruit is given, 
 First the blade and then the ear 
 Ripening into plenteous cheer. 
 
 Nature keeps her promise true 
 
 And sends her gifts when they are due. 
 We watch and work and wait 
 
 Through the life and bloom of living 
 Until we reach the further gate, 
 
 Then crowd our life's best giving 
 Into the lap of those we leave, 
 
 That they with God-magneted eyes 
 May our best autumn gifts receive, 
 
 And learn to live and rise 
 
 Strong, beautiful, and wise, 
 To bear whatever rood 
 The Father sends for good. 
 
176 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 
 
 ONWARD. 
 
 [ASY to man is paper goodness, 
 But hard the daily strain — 
 The blinding, grinding pain — 
 The self-denial evermore 
 
 From the outer gates of life 
 Even to its inmost core. 
 
 Not what we wish, 
 But what is right ; 
 
 Not the darkness, 
 But the light ; 
 Not ease and painless rest, 
 But what our Father deemeth best. 
 
 Courage, O tired heart, 
 With Godward eye press on ; 
 He'll give thee strength to totter to His feet. 
 And hear thy meed, '• Well done." 
 
 DOING AND BEING. 
 
 TTTHAT must I do.? In distant lands 
 
 The heathen perish and my hands 
 Are idle. At home the heathen in the street 
 With shrivelled heart and naked feet 
 
 To help I know not how. 
 The heathen, too, in highest places 
 With rotting core and many faces 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 177 
 
 Look for a smile and bow, 
 And none of them my help can reach ; 
 I cannot stop the blandly smiling face to preach. 
 O, troubled and perplexed heart, 
 
 Love God and good shall grow from thee 
 Like boughs and blooms and seeds 
 
 From out the living tree. 
 Thy life nurtured and hidden God shall teach 
 Where other teaching cannot reach. 
 
 WORK. 
 
 /jflj ORK and despair not 
 
 Though the seed be thine 
 And the harvest mine, 
 Still work and care not. 
 
 Your hand has gleaned the grain 
 
 That grew from seed. 
 
 Of word and deed, 
 Of other toiler's hand and brain. 
 
 Whether we sow or reap 
 
 It matters not 
 
 One single jot, 
 If in the Master's field we keep. 
 
178 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 FRET NOT. 
 
 I^RET not o'er thy sorrow, 
 Nor fear for the morrow 
 See sorrow and pain 
 Come laden with gain, 
 And the beautiful sunshine 
 Laughs after the rain. 
 
 We must have the rain ; 
 
 It wets us and frets us, 
 But we must have the rain ; 
 
 The green leaves, 
 The radiant flowers. 
 
 And the heavy sheaves 
 Come not without 
 
 The bountiful showers. 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 STRUGGLING and striving, 
 ^^"^ Drawing and driving, 
 Floating and diving, 
 
 Down the stream of time ; 
 In sorrow and gladness. 
 In wisdom and madness, 
 To the ocean of truth 
 
 Or the ocean of crime* 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 179 
 
 Away, away. 
 Day after day, 
 
 To the gladsome light 
 Of our Father's home, 
 
 Or the unblest night 
 Of a penal doom. 
 Souls of men bethink thee now, 
 While yet the cloud retains the bow. 
 
 VIA DOLOROSA. 
 
 /Y/l ITH reverent steps and slow, 
 
 With mourning heads bent low, 
 
 Bear away, bear away 
 To earth all that can die. 
 
 The soul no longer brooked delay, 
 Death oped the door that life might fly 
 
 From the poor tenement of clay — 
 Dropping its heavy chains, 
 Its hindrances and pains, 
 
 To grasp the Father's outstretched hand. 
 And rise above the jar and strife, 
 And weariness of lower life, 
 
 Into the peaceful Fatherland. 
 
180 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 THE TRINITY. 
 
 "TjOVE is the spirit of God, 
 
 The human race is His Son ; 
 The spirit, the race, and God are one, 
 
 In Him we find our unity 
 
 In infinite complexity. 
 
 ASPIRATION. 
 
 g'SPIRE ! 'tis noble to aspire ; 
 
 Only the chosen ones of God 
 Have hearts touched by His altar fire. 
 
 Aspiring, we most truly pray. 
 
 Though oftentimes the answer comes 
 By starless night and stormy day. 
 
 But he who gets the highest place 
 
 Must stand the hardest test, 
 And whoso hath is given grace. 
 
 Angels are with us in the night ; 
 They may not bear our cross. 
 But their calm presence makes it light. 
 
 And when they flash their shining wings 
 
 About us in the dark, 
 We see the wealth that trial brings. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 181 
 
 THE COLLIE DOG. 
 
 ^ CROWD were gathered at a station, 
 Each one self absorbed and silent, 
 The only sociable living thing, a dog — 
 A genial collie dog — that made himself 
 A friend for all disposed for friendship 
 His kindliness drew kindliness 
 From silent hearts, and for his kindliness 
 He got a smile, a pat, a kindly word. 
 The dog did good, and he by doing good 
 Got good, and every man a better man 
 Was made for feeling kindly. A woman 
 Cleaned the carriage windows, and as she cleaned 
 She sang ; her child ran here and there, 
 And toddled in before a coming train. 
 The mother sang and cleaned, the dog saw 
 And flew to save the frightened child 
 That started into safety ; the train crashed o'er 
 The noble self-forgetful friend of man, 
 And left it dead upon the rails. 
 But the fame of that good deed spread 
 O'er the world and made it better. 
 
 TRANSITION. 
 
 //| I HEN the ripe soul is ready to obey 
 
 The homeward call, there is no need for fear 
 To guard the gates of death, for through the chill 
 And darkness God has stretched His hands and touched 
 
182 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 The loyal eyes with light that shews the love 
 Beyond, and filled the soul that's homeward bound 
 With eagerness to go and leave behind 
 The dark and mystical perplexities 
 Of this uncomprehended life of hard 
 Probation, where all our energies are taxed 
 To learn the language of the higher sphere, 
 And speak it in our lives before the world. 
 When we have learned its grammar from the laws 
 Of God that make for good, we're ready with 
 Our harp-like souls to feel the breath of heaven 
 Make music in our hearts, and clothe us with 
 The pure white robes of songs that thrill and throb 
 Through every string of life ; while all the air 
 Is sweet with flower-like fragrance, and lovely 
 With a gladsome spontaneity. 
 
 " BE OF GOOD CHEER." 
 
 ^1 VEN as the needle to the northern star. 
 
 So turns our souls unto the perfect man 
 For guidance in the way of life. His words 
 Breathe the sweet air of heaven ; above the din 
 Of lower life we hear them, " Be of good cheer 
 For I have overcome the world — 
 Poverty despite and cold indifference 
 I've overcome ; I fear not poverty : 
 'Tis nobler far to toil for bread than toil 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 188 
 
 To kill the time that hangs so heavy 
 
 On the idle hands of worldly wealth. 
 
 Hungry want has slain its thousands, 
 
 But overfulness lays its tens of thousands low. 
 
 What men call wealth I covet not ; why should 
 
 I hoard encumbrance by the way } Only 
 
 What grows into my soul by way of strength 
 
 I'll gladly, lightly, carry home with me ; 
 
 I envy not the rich bedazzlements 
 
 Of pride that do so needlessly exact 
 
 More irksome care than care of toil 
 
 For daily bread, and if some blameless cause 
 
 Hinder the daily toil and stop the daily bread 
 
 I can but die ; yet well I know that death 
 
 May wing his shafts in vain until the work 
 
 The Master puts into my hands is done. 
 
 Therefore I lean on God and have no care, 
 
 But how I best may weave His will into my life. 
 
 The foolish hate of men I also have 
 
 O'ercome ; it hurts me not, it but recoils 
 
 On their own heads. Therefore I render not 
 
 Hate for their hate, nor spite for spite ; 
 
 I only pity them, they know not what they do ; 
 
 And what was hardest far to overcome 
 
 I overcame when I could tearless bear 
 
 The cold indifference or blame of those 
 
 Whom Nature linked to me with fleshly ties. 
 
 Their wide divergency of thought from mine 
 
 Seemed the result, in part, of organism, 
 
184 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Circumstance and different eyes 
 Perceiving differently. 
 
 Neither the cross 
 To live on, nor the cross to die on do I fear ; 
 Love lightens every cross, when I the world 
 Have overcome, with calm, clear eyes 
 Of reasonable trust in God. 
 Be ye also of good cheer, and even 
 As I have overcome do ye o'ercome, 
 With eyes made clear with a pure life, 
 And calm with well-established trust in God, 
 Built on the firm rock of law and reason. 
 Fear nothing, but do right and live your life 
 For good to those who thank thee not, not less 
 Than for all those who prize the gift." 
 
 A PARAPHRASE ON PAGE 78 OF "LATTER 
 DAY PAMPHLETS," BY T. CARLYLE. 
 
 *y''M sick, O friends, of all this jargon, 
 
 Disastrous of philanthropy — 
 This universal brotherhood — 
 This sugary reign of amity. 
 
 This paradise, not unto those alone, 
 
 Of Heaven deserving well, 
 But paradise to all and sundry — 
 
 Thus defrauding death and hell. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 185 
 
 No doubt, most sugary friends, you'll think 
 
 My language rather strong, 
 But your ideas of paradise 
 
 Are altogether wrong. 
 
 No paradise for anyone I think, 
 Who won't do right without it 
 
 To such I say, "Just go your ways, 
 And say no more about it." 
 
 Brethren distressed, 'tis all untrue 
 This loathsome sugary nonsense. 
 
 There is no brotherhood for me, 
 With such as have no conscience. 
 
 With base and foolish men I will 
 
 Not live in any brotherhood ; 
 From such a baneful fellowship 
 
 I never yet got any good. 
 
 I look on them with pity and some hope, 
 Not yet absorbed in deep disgust ; 
 
 Otherwise in unappeasable aversion, 
 And enmity most truly just 
 
 Brotherhood ! the thought be far from me ! 
 
 Adam's children ? alas, no need 
 To call to mind the fact, and hence 
 
 This rage against the perverse seed. 
 
186 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Gone over to the dragons vile — 
 The Father's house forsaken, 
 
 And the old serpent's slippery part 
 Against us they have taken. 
 
 Till they return from miry sloughs, 
 How can they ever brothers be? 
 
 They are enemies most deadly 
 
 To their own selves, to you and me. 
 
 But while hope lasts, them I will treat 
 
 As brothers fallen insane ; 
 But till they seek the Father's house, 
 
 A brother's love were vain. 
 
 When my small hope of them is lost, 
 I'll cut them off in God's own name, 
 
 With tears and wrath grown sacred. 
 And mixed with pitying blame. 
 
 I do not dare, with Satan's slaves 
 
 In partnership to stay. 
 Lest I become, as it is written, 
 
 Partakers of their plagues for aye. 
 
 PATIENCE. 
 
 'J^ATIENCE, O fretful soul, so full 
 
 Of restless eagerness, thy cry for light 
 Is heard ; and though the shadows move 
 But slowly ofi the bright sunshine, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 187 
 
 Yet move they do most certainly. 
 
 Patience, O soul that darkly shivers 
 
 In the wintry blast ; the springtime comes 
 
 With all its fresh young- life, praising the love 
 
 That never fails. With trustful hope cast thou 
 
 Thy seed into the fertile furrows, nor think 
 
 The seasons lagg if all thy barns are not 
 
 Repletely full while yet the blade 
 
 Is green. Wait patiently, nor thrust 
 
 The reaping hook among the grain before 
 
 The harvest sun has filled the growing ear. 
 
 Time moves along with steady pace, heedless 
 
 Of praise or blame, while love supreme 
 
 Impregns the clouds we dread with 
 
 Fruitful rain. Nay, murmer not if harvests fail, 
 
 Or if they seem to lagg till other hands 
 
 Bring home thy sheaves : thou too dost reap 
 
 What other hands have sown, and if 
 
 The Master's work is done, be glad, nor vainly 
 
 Try to force the hand of God : we spoil the flower 
 
 If we unfold the bud before its time. 
 
 Good ripens slowly ; things most perishable 
 
 Grow quickest ; Jonah's gourd grew in a night, 
 
 And perished in a day ; the oak that grows 
 
 For centuries and serves the wants of man. 
 
 For centuries more is better than the gourd. 
 
 The soul that's ripened quickly serves 
 
 A poorer use than that which long years' 
 
 Training fits for kingly purposes. 
 
188 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Therefore be patient, doing each duty 
 As it rises, and be assured the time will come 
 When all the good that thou hast done 
 Shall ripen in thy soul to strength 
 And comeliness. Then though the day 
 Of thy endeavour be long and wearisome 
 The eventide shall bring thee rest 
 Well earned and honourable. 
 
 A PARAPHRASE ON THE ii6th AND 117TH 
 
 PAGES OF " SARTOR RESARTUS," BY 
 
 T. CARLYLE. 
 
 TTTHIS is how we put our claim for happiness, 
 
 By certain averages and valuations, 
 Of our own striking we calculate 
 
 What is by right our dues — not obligations, 
 If we get more than what we claim 
 The overplus we happiness may name. 
 
 But deficit is misery 
 And some one is to blame, 
 Our own desserts we value thus: 
 
 But then there is so much 
 Conceit in each of us. 
 No wonder if the balance dip 
 
 The wrong way, and we feel abused ; 
 Many a blockhead crying loud — 
 
 " Was every worthy gentleman so used .-' " 
 Blockhead ! dost thou not see 
 It all comes of thy vanity. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 189 
 
 And what thou fanciest thy desserts to be ? 
 
 Fancy rather thy dessert is to be hanged 
 (Which is indeed most Hkely). 
 
 Then would'st thou not 
 
 Feel grateful to be shot ? 
 Or fancy thou deservest to be hanged in hair, 
 Then hemp would seem worth earnest prayer. 
 
 The fraction of life, as such 
 Can be increased in value, not so much 
 
 By increasing your numerator 
 As by lessening your denominator, 
 Unless my algebra prove false with me. 
 
 Unity itself divided by zero 
 
 Will give infinity. 
 If, then, thou would^st have 
 
 The world beneath thy feet, 
 .Make thy claim zero 
 
 And thy victory is complete. 
 
 JACK THE GIANT QUELLER. 
 
 r\ JACK was brave an' Jack was leal, 
 
 * He had a heart as true as steel, 
 An' a' that kenned him liked him weel. 
 
 At nicht when he was at his play, 
 To lairn his tasks he was cried in, 
 
 Then giant Pleasure blocked the way ; 
 
190 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Jack didna wait to hear his din, 
 
 But turned aboot an' ran him doon, 
 Tramping ower his vera croon — 
 He kenned defeat was in delay. 
 
 Next cam' to him in quick rotation 
 A host o' giants clad in mail — 
 
 Addition and multiplication, 
 
 Subtraction an' division, 
 
 The whole tribe couldna make him quail ; 
 
 He took his slate wi' grand decision, 
 
 An' blattered doon his coonts like hail, 
 An' sune he had them ane an' a' 
 
 Subdued by strength o' heid an' hand, 
 Each ready at his lordly ca' 
 
 To wield for him a giant's brand. 
 
 Then giant Grammar dour appeared — 
 He thocht his look wad make Jack feared ; 
 Jack cluffed his lugs wi' common sense. 
 Subdued him in the present tense, 
 An' brought him to his bended knee 
 
 And riped his pooch for recompense 
 An' chance o' war's indemnity. 
 Jack wasna like thae silly fules 
 That hate like soot a' kinds o' schules. 
 An' nurse their indolence wi' sorrow, 
 And pit off a' things till the morrow. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 191 
 
 Then giant Letter cam', and Jack 
 Thocht he, for size, was croonim, 
 
 He got a lot o' ink an' said 
 He'd do his best to droon 'im. 
 
 He set to work wi' a' his micht, 
 
 As sune as he cam' hame at nicht, 
 
 He tripp't him up, an' held him docn, 
 An' wi' a steel pen nailed the loon. 
 
 Jack was a match for every ane — 
 
 He was determined he wad win ; 
 At first he thocht them a' his foes, 
 An' so it chanced they cam' to blows. 
 
 But when they saw his gallant deeds, 
 
 They vowed that they wad serve him weel 
 For a' their hearts were true an' leal, 
 
 An' they'll stand by him in his needs. 
 
 Now ower them a' supreme he reigns, 
 Mair loyal subjects there are none. 
 They make the kingdom he has won. 
 Lang may he rule wi' heart an' brain. 
 An' keep his kingdom free frae stain. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 
 
 " *T^EVER man spake like this man : 
 
 This surely must be He 
 Who Israel shall redeem 
 
192 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And set our nation free ; 
 Come let us spurn the Roman yoke, 
 And bow to Him the knee." 
 
 It was not as an earthly king 
 
 That Jesus came to reign, 
 No ; earthly honours moved him not, 
 
 Nor greed of earthly gain ; 
 And when He saw the mob's blind zeal. 
 
 His soul was moved with pain, 
 
 And passing through their eager ranks 
 
 He took himself away. 
 Up to a lonely mountain side 
 
 To meditate and pray ; 
 And sent his followers o'er the lake 
 
 That storms lashed into spray. 
 
 They also like the thoughtless throng, 
 
 His mission did misdeem, 
 And wondered where their place would be 
 
 When Israel he'd redeem ; 
 He'd surely keep them near himself 
 
 And realise their dream. 
 
 But love denied their mute request, 
 
 And kept them lowly still, 
 Nor set them where they could not stand, 
 
 In spheres they could not fill. 
 To be dragged down with fickle fame 
 
 And trampled on at will. 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 193 
 
 Better to breast the waves God sent 
 
 That beat against our life, 
 Than to be hustled by the mob 
 
 In ups and downs of strife, 
 With curses on incompetence, 
 
 And self-abasements rife. 
 
 The kingly man is king o'er all 
 
 The forces of his soul. 
 They to his will obedience yield, 
 
 Bowing to his control ; 
 Such was the kingship Christ would have 
 
 Them make their aim and goal. 
 
 When we subdue to heavenly rule 
 
 Our passions and our wills, 
 The kingdom's built within our souls. 
 
 And every fibre thrills, 
 With God who moves upon the sea, 
 
 While life's rough storms He stills. 
 
 Ourselves must be the centre of 
 
 Whate'er we rule as king ; 
 Our growing kingdom spreading out 
 
 An ever widening ring. 
 While all the land with ready hand 
 
 Allegiances bring. 
 
 For all that we subdue is ours 
 
 In earth below, in heaven above ; 
 The earth we take by intellect, 
 
194 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And heaven we take by love : 
 Our title to the realm we rule 
 Within our soul is wove. 
 
 We widen our inheritance 
 
 By well directed force. 
 And what we take by force of arms 
 
 The laws of heaven endorse ; • 
 So under God we freely reign 
 
 In law's benignant course. 
 
 We cannot all have earthly crowns, 
 
 But every soul can gain 
 A crown of life with title clear 
 
 Writ on our heart and brain, 
 In symbol true of golden deeds 
 
 That ever shall remain. 
 
 SYMMETRY. 
 
 |-vEADS, hearts, and hands have each some one 
 who pleads 
 Their individual cause, nor understands 
 That all the needful three in fitness blends 
 To show the manifolded man in deeds 
 That grow as flowers grow from the living seeds. 
 Each in his triple unity of strands 
 Has its own part in service, or commands 
 Earning consequent punishments or meeds. 
 
BOEDER RHYMES. 195 
 
 Life should unfold itself and freely grow 
 A perfect, well-concerted harmony ; 
 
 And all we do or feel or know 
 
 Should tend to usefulness and dignity, 
 
 That over graceful lives shall sweetly throw 
 
 A robe of Christlike deeds as pure as snow. 
 
 JOHN HOWARD PAYNE. 
 
 TTTHE beasts have lairs ; the birds have nests ; 
 ^^ This man with feelings strong. 
 Homeless, at a stranger's door. 
 Wrote a world-moving song. 
 
 He thought of all the thousand homes : 
 
 Centres of Heaven on earth ; 
 Where love abides and labour rests 
 
 Around the glowing hearth. 
 
 But yet for him 'mong all the homes 
 
 Was none with homely cheer, 
 Where loved ones listened anxiously 
 
 His welcome steps to hear. 
 
 Without a coin to buy a bed, 
 
 He made a song of home — 
 The sweetest yearnings ever heard 
 
 Beneath Heaven's azure dome. 
 
196 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 MEDITATION. 
 TTTHE well-known faces disappear in darkness, 
 
 And never more do mortal eyes rest on 
 The forms we used to meet on life's highways ; 
 No more we raise our head to listen to 
 The well-known step ; their voice falls on our ear 
 No more, but in life's quiet hours they glide 
 From out the still recesses of the mind. 
 To fill once more the vacant chairs, and speak 
 As in the days that come no more ; again 
 The smile is lit and we respond with smiles. 
 But who knows if the dream is all a dream ? 
 Our eyes are holden with a veil of flesh 
 That separates soul from soul, and it may be 
 The body shields the growing soul until 
 The soul grows out of it into the light, 
 As the protecting calyx shields the flower, 
 And withers when the flower attains maturity. 
 The spirit of our lives, unseen but felt, 
 Is round us like an atmosphere 
 Of good and ill, and souls may fly as swift 
 As thought from star to star, all serving God 
 Like rays of light, that gather up our cries 
 And bless us in His name by night and day. 
 We do but dimly guess from what we know. 
 And this we know, goodness and power are both- 
 Like God — invisible to mortal eyes. 
 And only are revealed to unseen soul 
 Suceptibilities by how they bend 
 Material to the unseen will. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 197 
 
 O, blest is he whose memory recalls 
 With kindliness — with tears and smiles of love — 
 The kindliness of him who rayed his kindliness 
 O'er many a heart where his thoughts grew 
 To fragrant flowers that sweetened all the air. 
 How beautiful is kindliness ; how near akin 
 To good, the charity that shuts its eyes on sin, 
 And glorifies all nobleness and true endeavour 
 With smiles of glad recognizance — 
 That with vicarious tears would fain blot out 
 From every life the stains of evil deeds.. 
 How sweet the memory of the upright man ! 
 Kind thoughts — like daisies — grow upon his grave 
 And open hearts of gold to golden light, 
 But wraps the gold in white robed purity 
 When darkness chills the tender heart of love. 
 O, Heavenly light come down on upturned eyes 
 And show how lovely all true wisdom is! 
 How peaceful all her ways ! that do converge 
 In God, the fountainhead of every good. 
 
 JUSTICE. 
 
 '|— (OR all we get we surely pay, 
 
 And promptly too, willing or not, 
 Who willing does his debts defray, 
 Shall interest get on every jot; 
 
198 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 But he who shuns, or seeks delay, 
 
 No poor blind subterfuge nor plot 
 Avails him, nor shall shield his soul 
 That must disburse, with interest, the whole. 
 The giving soul aye gathers more ; 
 
 While he, withholding more than meet, 
 Or giving grudgingly, his store 
 
 Doth suffer loss and sore defeat, 
 With soul, too, sordid to deplore 
 
 The loss that doth his soul deplete. 
 Fools try with wingless feet to scale the skies ; 
 The wise do preen their wings with fearless eyes. 
 
 GIVING AND GETTING. 
 
 "J^TS no every ane that kens how to gie, 
 
 And how to accept as few ; 
 Some gie wi' supreme condescension. 
 
 As if they were better than you — 
 As if they were the cream o' creation, 
 
 An' you but the bleared residue. 
 
 Some folk can gie the sma'est thing 
 Wi' a grace that's worth fer mair 
 
 Than a costly gift by itsel' ; 
 
 Some gie as if their hearts were sair 
 
 To pairt wi' the reek frae their kail ; 
 An' some gie for vanity fair. 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 199 
 
 A gracious thing should be gracefully dune, 
 An' promptness doubles the grace, 
 
 An' the pleasure we have in gieing 
 Should shine on a kindly face, 
 
 An' make in the heart that gets the gift 
 A holy and beautiful place. 
 
 It's never the gift's intrinsic worth 
 Alane we should judge an' weigh, 
 
 But the kindliness roond aboot it. 
 Like the gracious sun in May 
 
 That draws frae the throbbing heart o' earth 
 The flowers in their sweet array. 
 
 B. thocht to gie hersel' pleasure ance, 
 An' bocht for some fifteen pence 
 
 A sma' bit present to gie to C. ; 
 C. took it wi' cauld indifference, 
 
 An' D., whose eggs have a' twae yowks, 
 Remarked, with malice prepense, 
 
 " Sic things, for twae shillings a dizzen 
 Are bocht ; that's duste the price." 
 
 B. felt baith anger, contempt, an' grief, 
 For she thocht the thing vera nice ; 
 
 An' the speech was meant to annoy her 
 An' make the speaker look wise. 
 
 I wadna like to have been the man 
 
 Wi' the puir soul that said it ; 
 He lightly spoke o' a weal meant gift. 
 
200 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 An' wi' false weights he weighed it, 
 An' the pleasure the saying gied him 
 Was what the venom made it. 
 
 There's some puir mortals think they should be 
 
 Like magnets ordained by law, 
 That whatever is guid or bonny 
 
 They to their ain sel's should draw. 
 They take, but gie naething but grummells 
 
 If the gifts ye gie are sma'. 
 
 But were a' the hale world to stick 
 
 To their hurchin hides, 1 ween 
 The liberal soul wad be richer far 
 
 Wi' a heart baith kind an' clean ; 
 For the man whose wealth is a' ootside 
 
 Is no worth a pointless preen. 
 
 But the liberal soul devising good 
 
 Shall be baith leal an' fair, 
 An' the blessed angels crood aroond 
 
 The leal heart evermair. 
 For the best gifts in the sight of God 
 
 Is love on the altar stair. 
 
 SYMBOLS. 
 
 *6> HOUGHTS are revealed to souls in many ways ; 
 
 In uttered words ; in symbols seen ; 
 Earth, air, and sea are full of them ; 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 201 
 
 The flowers that lift their heads to heaven 
 
 And ope their blossoms to the generous sun, 
 
 The trees with spreading boughs where birds build 
 
 nests, 
 And sing glad songs of love that stir the heart 
 With thoughts of heaven ; the river with 
 Its ceaseless flow, never the same, and yet 
 Ever the same, like ceaseless generations 
 Of men that come and go in ceaseless flow ; 
 The stars above with quiet eyes and pure 
 That look down on the river and the race 
 Noting the changes that we do not see ; 
 All are the words of God — His book 
 That we are here to learn to read and love. 
 We stretch up praying hands to Him for light ; 
 For open eyes, for loving hearts to see 
 His will, and run with willing feet to do 
 His grand beneficent commands. 
 We, too, build up our thoughts in towns, 
 In cities ; in mills that grind out thoughts 
 Amid the whirr of wheels ; we make the wind, 
 The wave, the running stream, the lightning flash 
 Bow down and serve us ; we walk with God. 
 And elements that might devour us 
 We make to grind our corn. Vea, and we build 
 Cathedrals where pillared aisle and fretted arch 
 Reveal our love with praying hands, and hearts 
 That cry for utterance in language known to God : 
 Where every part bears witness to a train 
 Of sequjcnt thought ; doors for entrance, 
 
202 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Windows for light, and bells for invitation, 
 
 The whole surmounted by a cross, at once 
 
 A prayer and a symbol, a symbol 
 
 Of the lowly gate through which the highest 
 
 Life once passed to glory. Symbols are words, 
 
 Jesus, the beloved of all the wise, 
 
 Wcis symbol and thing signified, a holy 
 
 Word of love made flesh, and holding in his bosom 
 
 The one divinest thought of God full of 
 
 The holy effluence of His holy spirit, 
 
 Showing thus the Father's image in the Son. 
 
 We too are sons bearing the same likeness. 
 
 But blurred, alas ! by error and by sin. 
 
 A HOLY LIFE. 
 
 '^ HOLY life has silent power to bless ; 
 
 And sweetness giving, is not poorer made. 
 
 But like the scented flowers whose fragrance lade 
 The air, and still the power to give possess, 
 Enriching souls that know with loveliness, 
 
 And wooing them from husks that feed the swine, 
 
 To higher thoughts that nourish souls divine. 
 Even so, an atmosphere of healthfulness 
 Is round the soul whose quiet life is spent 
 
 In leal allegiance to the laws of God. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 203 
 
 We, seeing, feeling, climb the steep ascent 
 
 And scorn the roughness of the upward road, 
 If we but reach the heights where love awaits 
 To open wide for us Heaven's pearly gates. 
 
 LOYALTY. 
 
 'T'F sickness, pain, and poverty 
 
 Quench not thy spirit's fire ; 
 If toil nor hindrance break the spell 
 
 That bids thy soul aspire. 
 Obey the voice that bids thee rise, 
 And light shall meet thy praying eyes. 
 
 Be pure in heart and cast aside 
 Freely each hindrance base : 
 
 The heart that harbours sin is not 
 The heart that sees God's face. 
 
 With true obedience wash away. 
 
 The sins that stain thy soul with clay. 
 
 God's help is hindered and repelled 
 By hearts that harbour wrong ; 
 
 The priest that feeds the flock should be 
 By purity made strong. 
 
 And who would reign as kings must be 
 Kingly with truth and purity. 
 
204 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 HEZEKIAH, THE SON OF AHAZ, 
 
 Cut down the groves, and broke in pieces the brazen serpent 
 that Moses had made, for unto those days the children of Israel 
 did burn incense to it : and he called it Nehushtan (a piece of 
 brass). — 2 Kings xviii. 4. 
 
 C^YMBOLS are good when used to teach 
 Truth that our souls should know, 
 
 To raise them from the earth below, 
 And bring soul good within our reach 
 That we may understand the speech 
 
 Of angels, that shows us how to overgrow 
 
 The weeds that evil thoughts do sow, 
 While our whole lives the truth should preach. 
 But when the truth forgotten lies 
 
 Within the symbol that remains. 
 The symbol seals the thoughtless eyes — 
 
 Weaves round the soul relentless chains, 
 'Tis then a fetish that men bow before. 
 An empty husk for wise men to deplore. 
 
 REST AT LAST. 
 
 TTHTHEN all the weary night we toss in pain. 
 
 From restless side to restless side, and wish 
 For morning light ; and when day dawns to wish 
 Again for night ; and fevered with the pain 
 We count the slow and w^eary hours until 
 The eventide, when pain and fever stayed, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 305 
 
 We feel soft folds of sleep, sweeter than touch 
 Of mother's love, creep over every sense, 
 Till tired eyelids drop o'er weary eyes. 
 And we in calm oblivion sleep till morn ; 
 So, after all the tossing cares of life 
 We know the blessed eventide shall come, 
 When we shall see the watchful galaxies 
 Of Heaven crowd round our souls, 
 Singing dear songs of praise to him 
 " Who giveth His beloved sleep." 
 
 BEFORE AND AFTER. 
 
 TTTHE old look back with wistful eyes 
 
 To golden times long past, 
 Where discords in oblivion lies. 
 And memory sees but summer skies 
 
 And scenes too bright to last 
 That glamour glorifies. 
 
 But youthful eyes look forward to . 
 
 A golden age to be, 
 While, like the sun on morning dew 
 Hope gilds each day with brightness new, 
 
 There is no storm to see, 
 No cloud to mar the view. 
 
206 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 The golden age is only for 
 
 A golden life of good ; 
 At God's right hand for evermore 
 There is of good a boundless store 
 
 For such as have all wrong withstood 
 And loyal are to the heart's core. 
 
 THE WORDS OF THE LORD. 
 
 C\ HAPPY is the man who has 
 
 ^ His soul attuned to hear 
 The harmonies that come from God 
 Through all the rolling year. 
 
 Whose heart is thrilled with every word 
 
 God-written here below, 
 Whose eyes are open to the light 
 
 That life and health bestow. 
 
 O, blessed words of love we see, 
 That makes our hearts attune 
 
 To all the gladness of the year 
 In 'the gladsome month of June. 
 
 In every flower a Bible lies — 
 God's law in living words — 
 
 The loveliness of bird and flower 
 With law and life accords. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 207 
 
 The laws of God are everywhere. 
 Within, around they be, 
 
 God grant us open ears to hear. 
 And open eyes to see. 
 
 REFLECTION. 
 
 rjTHE sunshine on the drops of dew 
 
 Mirror the source of day ; 
 So may the love of God in you 
 Give back His image pure and true, 
 And all His light repay. 
 
 SMALL THINGS. 
 
 TN smallest things be faithful to 
 
 The trust reposed in thee ; 
 The smallest things do indicate 
 
 What kind of man you be, 
 And everywhere the Master's eye 
 
 Our secret thoughts can see. 
 
 If ye are faithful over one 
 Small province of the king, 
 
 He'll make thee ruler over ten, 
 And tithes of everything. 
 
 Both small and great the faithful soul 
 Shall to the Master bring. 
 
208 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And he who hath gets ever more 
 For goodness crowds round good ; 
 
 The more we give the more we get 
 The love of brotherhood. 
 
 By him alone whose heart is pure 
 Is this truth understood. 
 
 A STRONG WILL. 
 
 VgvHE strong will and the brave heart 
 Are better than muscle and bone, 
 But muscle and bone do their part 
 Under the will that nought can thwart ; 
 They lay obstructions prone 
 And over them walk to a throne. 
 
 Kingdoms are for the brave and true, 
 For they alone can reign ; 
 
 As every soul must first subdue 
 
 His kingdom ere its revenue 
 Of honour he can gain 
 For hand and heart and brain. 
 
 If we would reign with God we must 
 
 Be fearless and upright, 
 And pure in heart with purpose just, 
 Allied to Him with holy trust, 
 
 And round us clean and white 
 
 A life that loves the light. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 209 
 
 SEEDTIME AND HARVEST. 
 
 ^^OD gives to all seed-corn to sow, 
 
 But we must till our field with care, 
 And root out weeds that grow up there 
 If we glad harvest time would know. 
 
 And by the wayside 'mong the grass 
 We may sow seeds that grow to flowers 
 That catch the sunshine and the showers 
 
 To cheer the pilgrims as they pass. 
 
 For pilgrims weary and footsore, 
 Waiting 'neath the evening stars 
 Till death the Father's door unbars, 
 
 The rest is sweet when travel's o'er. 
 
 'Tis sweet within our hearts to feel 
 Love waits for us with open arms 
 At home with dear home charms, 
 
 To fold us in the love of all the leal. 
 
 WORK. 
 
 TJTHATE'ER you have a mind to do 
 
 Bring to it mind, 
 For only he whose soul is true 
 Success shall find. 
 
210 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 In all your work, concentrate all 
 
 Your forces 
 In harmony with law, then shall 
 The stars for thee reciprocal 
 
 Fight in their courses. 
 
 And you with Him Who holds the reins 
 
 Of every force 
 Take sides, and your obedience ordains 
 
 Success of course. 
 
 'Tis love alone the law fulfils, 
 
 For it compels 
 Obedience, that with eager wills 
 
 All wrong repels. 
 
 For love meets love as magnets draw 
 
 The grains of steel ; 
 Love is the starting-place of law, 
 
 The God to Whom we kneel. 
 
 And thus our highest, only good 
 
 Is unity 
 With Him Whom love makes understood 
 
 In purity. 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 311 
 
 PSALM XV. 
 
 I ^ ORD, who shall dwell within Thy house, 
 Upon Thy holy hill ? 
 The man who walking uprightly 
 
 Is eager to fulfil 
 The law of God with heart of ruth, 
 And spirit wise with heavenly truth ; 
 
 Who speaketh not with double tongue 
 
 Behind a neighbour's back, 
 Nor doth him harm in any way, 
 
 Nor listens to the black 
 Reproach of enemies that do 
 With malice keen his soul pursue. 
 
 Who hates the ways of wicked men, 
 
 But honours them that fear 
 The Lord ; who suffers loss for truth 
 
 Because the truth is dear ; 
 Who will not take unholy gain 
 Nor pleasure from a neighbour's pain. 
 
 The man who thus controls his life 
 
 Shall never more be moved ; 
 And he shall reign in heaven because 
 
 On earth he hath been proved 
 And stood the test of truth, and won 
 The crown of life — the Lord's " Well done." 
 
212 BORDER RHYMES 
 
 MALICE. 
 
 jr THINK the deil's amang us enow, 
 
 The deil an' his angels baith ; 
 For ilk ana ca's anither I trow, 
 
 An' nane escapes without skaith. 
 Folk's aye ready eneuch to allow 
 
 They're sinners, but wi' the same braith 
 They will trail their neebour in through 
 Some dirty bottomless slough — 
 
 It's eneuch to warrant an aith. 
 
 If yeVe fauts ye canna weel kiver 
 Ye're a perfect deilsend o' delight ; 
 
 But O ! if ye're guid or clever 
 Ye'll hear nae end o' their spite. 
 
 They'll pit theirsels in a fever 
 
 To make ye fer blacker than night, 
 An' bring ye doon frae yer height 
 
 Wi' a poisoned shaft frae their quiver. 
 An' a' the while they're polite. 
 
 They thinkna the measure they mete 
 Will be measured to them again, 
 
 Though they ken that slander's as sweet 
 An' gangs as weel wi' the grain 
 
 To others that like every treat 
 O' backbiting they can obtain 
 Though as black as the heart o' Cain, 
 
 Till every ane in the street 
 Is spotted wi' mony a stain. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 21S 
 
 Oh ! if we'd but make it oor aim 
 
 Oor neebour to love as oorsel, 
 An' assist them the vera same, 
 
 Oor kindness wad act like a spell. 
 If we'd honour oor neebour's name, 
 
 An' only wad strive to excel 
 In shielding each other frae blame, 
 An' having heart smiles for their fame. 
 
 It needs na a wutch to tell 
 
 How the blessing wad come to oorsel. 
 
 HEARTS OF GOLD. 
 
 TTTHE daisy opes its heart of gold 
 
 And spreads its silver rays 
 To gather light, and gladly hold 
 
 The gifts the light conveys ; 
 It makes the most of what is given 
 To make the earth the gate of heaven. 
 
 We too should ope our hearts to good 
 
 And love to feel the light, 
 Living in kindly brotherhood 
 With souls all gold and white, 
 Ready aye to catch the glow 
 Of light that shines on souls below. 
 
214 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Men may have loyal hearts of gold 
 And dwell in lowly places, 
 
 And ray out blessings manifold 
 With unpretending graces, 
 
 Enriching all who love to see 
 
 Heavenly coin in currency. 
 
 But it is good to climb the heights 
 When called upon to rise ; 
 
 Our view is widened and requites 
 The strain on eager eyes ; 
 
 The highest hill by man e'er trod 
 
 Gave largest life and nearest God. 
 
 HOPE OF SPRING. 
 
 /jfll INTER is gone with his frozen breath, 
 
 Life grows up from the grave of death ; 
 
 The blithe birds sing 
 
 To welcome the spring, 
 And every bud unfolds to hear. 
 
 The trees hang out their bannerettes, 
 
 The primrose follows the violets, 
 Each spear of grass holds a dewdrop clear 
 Over the rivulet singing near. 
 
 In every breeze 
 
 That stirs the trees 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 215 
 
 We hear the spring with glad young voice 
 Calling on nature to rise and rejoice. 
 We too are young while our hearts can sing, 
 Unfolding leaf and flower 
 In the glorious spring. 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 '|-^ATHER, our Father ; dearest name ; 
 The fountain-head of all that's good; 
 We come to Thee as children should, 
 In fearless confidence to claim 
 The love that blots out all our blame. 
 
 May true love hallow evermore 
 The Name that binds with silken bands 
 Our souls to Thee, while serving hands 
 And filial hearts yearn to adore 
 From life's circumference to its core. 
 
 Thy kingdom come ; come Thou and reign 
 Within our eager hearts and give 
 Us grace for Thee alone to live ; 
 Casting before Thy feet the gain 
 That grows from lealest heart and brain. 
 
 Our highest pleasure may it be 
 To keep Thy law and do Thy will, 
 And unto other souls instil 
 Thy love, that each pure heart may see 
 Thy face, and worship only Thee. 
 
216 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 For daily bread we look to Thee ; 
 Father, we will not look in vain, 
 For Thou wilt give what shall sustain 
 This life, and bread of life that we 
 May love the truth that makes us free. 
 
 Oh! blot out with our contrite tears 
 The sins we mourn before Thy shrine ; 
 Teach us with charity like Thine 
 Kindly to think of our compeers 
 And help them through the coming years. 
 
 Oh! give us strength in all temptation 
 For our weak wills too subtly strong ; 
 Deliver us from hindering wrong ; 
 
 And make our life in life's probation 
 
 A living, loving consecration. 
 
 Thine be the kingdom. Thine the might, 
 In earth below, in heaven above ; 
 Reign over all, O God of love ; 
 Dispel the darkness with Thy light, 
 Shine forth with all Thy glory bright. 
 
 THE CROSS. 
 
 fTTHE noblest souls are ever driven 
 Apart, into some desert place. 
 Muscle and brain with nerve to brace 
 Ere they can reach the highest heaven. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 217 
 
 Alone with God on Sinai's height 
 
 Was Moses ; and hid by Cherith's brook 
 Elijah was ; and John, with stern rebuke 
 
 To godless men, was lonely in the fight 
 
 Jesus, of man the grandest type, 
 Unfolded in the desert places 
 His loyal soul's entrancing graces, 
 
 And made Himself our architype 
 
 Mahommed brooded in a cave ; 
 
 In a Zambesian hut our own 
 
 Brave David Livingstone 
 Returned the sword his Master gave. 
 
 Leal Livingstone the true and good 
 Sowed wide and free the living seeds 
 Among dark Afric's noxious weeds 
 
 Before the truth was understood. 
 
 From north to south, from east to west. 
 With words of life in his crusade 
 The symbol of the cross he made, 
 
 And now begins to manifest 
 
 The restlessness of wakening life; 
 
 Now men begin to see the grain 
 
 That soon will ripen into gain 
 Among the clinging weeds of strife. 
 
218 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 But seed must in the furrows lie 
 
 Long" time, and many days be green, 
 Before the harvest here is seen 
 
 The sower's faith to justify. 
 
 And Stanley told of one who sowed 
 Nor saw result for six long years, 
 But in a day his meed appears — 
 
 Nine hundred souls the truth avowed. 
 
 MRS GRUNDY IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 YN the British House of Commons, 
 With their noses all like gnomons 
 
 Pointing to the Speaker's chair, 
 Sit the cream o' a' the race 
 Wi' what they can o' grace 
 
 Of making laws to take a share. 
 
 There they sit in grand palaver 
 
 Each the other side to plague wi' claver; 
 
 But the honourable of that place 
 Got a shock the other Monday, 
 When the mighty Mrs Grundy 
 
 Was bearded to her face. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 219 
 
 Tis said that Britons rule the waves. 
 And they never, never can be slaves — 
 
 Except to Mrs Grundy ; 
 So each noble British heart 
 Got an awfu', awfu' start 
 
 At what happened there on Monday, 
 
 When Mr Radclifife Cook sat down ; 
 Heedless he of Mrs Grundy's frown 
 
 When she saw his billicock, 
 Though every startled eye 
 In that august assembly 
 
 Felt an electric shock. 
 
 But he didna care a whustle 
 For a' the fearfu' bustle ; 
 
 His homage he refused flat, 
 And in spite o' Mrs Grundy 
 On that memorable Monday 
 
 Kept on the offending hat. 
 
 She micht rave till she was dumb, 
 He wadna wear a lum 
 
 On his held to please her ; 
 He thocht Britons werena free 
 That wad bend to her the knee, 
 
 So he wore the billicock to tease her. 
 
220 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 THE INDIAN CHIEF. 
 
 ■gTFTER the man of God had told 
 The Indian chief his story, 
 The chief stepped from the listening throng, 
 Rugged with age and hoary. 
 
 " My hair," he said, " was once as black 
 
 As is the plumage of the crow. 
 And now grandchildren say it is 
 
 As white as winter snow. 
 
 " Did you not say that your God was 
 
 Our Father ? " " I did," the white man said. 
 
 The chief replied — " 'Tis new and sweet, 
 We knew Him not and were afraid. 
 
 " We saw Him in the lightning's flash, 
 We heard Him speak in thunder ; 
 
 The tempest and the blizzard filled 
 Our hearts with fear and wonder. 
 
 " But now the Spirit that we feared 
 
 Our Father is, and this to know 
 Is very beautiful ; may I say more ? " 
 
 " Say on, I come the truth to show." 
 
 "You say Our Father) He is yours, but 
 
 Does that mean He is mine?" 
 " Yes, He is yours." " Well then. He is 
 
 Poor Indian's and thine, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 221 
 
 " Is that quite true ? " " Yes, 'tis true." 
 "Then we are brothers, aren't we ?" 
 
 " Yes, we are brothers." " May I say more ? " 
 " Speak on, you have a friend in me." 
 
 " Well then you have been long, white brother, 
 
 In showing brotherhood 
 By bringing o'er the sea this Book 
 
 To your red brother in the wood." 
 
 LIGHT AND LAW. 
 
 TTTHE holy men of old whom love made wise 
 
 Saw God, and walked with Him because their 
 hearts 
 Were pure and loyal to His light and truth ; 
 While other men were blinded by gross lives, 
 And wandered, stumbling in the dark afar 
 From Him and light and happiness and peace. 
 
 The Bible writ by holy men is but 
 A transcript of the Bible writ by God 
 In matter, mind, and heart ; in good and ill, 
 In life and death, reiterating evermore 
 The steadfastness of laws ordaified immutable, 
 And mdiV\s free-ivill io choose security 
 By unison with law, or to be crushed 
 
222 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 By disobedience. We live by faith, 
 The disobedient die by faith misplaced. 
 There is no lack of faith, but lack of wisdom. 
 Men are so prone to follow wandering lights — 
 Prophets that lure unwary souls into ^ 
 
 Forbidden ways where punishment awaits 
 The soul that sins against himself and God — 
 Rather than chosen sons of God — prophets 
 Who are like guiding stars for pilgrim feet. 
 
 Oh ! that all men were wise to choose the light 
 That shines from heaven above, rather than that 
 False ignis fatuus gleam that wanders o'er 
 The miry sloughs of sin, which fools do follow 
 Greedily to their own hurt, for lack of wisdom. 
 
 The light of heaven shines for all, and he 
 Who loves it most can best transcribe 
 The laws of God ordained for men to walk 
 Therein with wise free-will. Wise men and fools 
 Do prove themselves by whom they hang their trust 
 upon. 
 
 Were all men lovers of the wise whom they 
 Could safely trust and work with for one end. 
 Then would the light to open eyes unfold 
 The purposes of God, and we could write 
 Our name with His, endorsing all His will. 
 Knowing His will by reading His word, we then 
 Might freely say and truly of what we read — 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord." 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 BAIRNS AT PLAY. 
 
 ^T«)LAY on, O blithesome bairnies play! 
 I'm glad to see ye a' sae gay ; 
 
 This is the time for sport and glee. 
 When the young flowers are sweetly springing 
 An' birds abune their nests are singing, 
 
 Be ye as glad an' blithe as they ; 
 An' dance an' sing as lithe an free, 
 
 In a' yer movements there is grace, 
 Like lambs that gambol on the lea, 
 Or birds that flit frae tree to tree. 
 
 There's been nae time for cluds to trace 
 Wrinkles an' shadows on yer face, 
 An' oh ! may it be lang ere blame 
 Write wrinkly shadows on yer name ; 
 May never double face nor biting tongue 
 Leave some puir heart wi' sharpness stung. 
 May kindness keep yer hearts frae spite, 
 That love may keep yer hearts frae blight ; 
 In word an' deed be just an' good, 
 An leeve wi' a' in kindly brotherhood. 
 
 When e'ening brings the bairnies hame, 
 May nane hing doon his held for shame ; 
 
 Wi' fearless love may a' gang in, 
 After a faithfu' day's work done — 
 
224 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 After a just day's wage is won, 
 
 To rest among the near akin, 
 Wi' Faither's love fauldit as sweet 
 As mothers fauld their bairnies' feet. 
 
 WHAT SHALL AVAIL? 
 
 ^JTHAT shall it avail me 
 
 Fifty years hence 
 If I lived and died in poverty 
 Or opulence ? 
 
 Much it shall avail me 
 
 If I lived true, 
 And gave to all in thought and deed 
 
 What was their due ; 
 
 And if I used the talents given 
 
 With purpose high. 
 And rendered back to God His own 
 
 With usury. 
 
 God, help thou me to stand upright 
 
 Before Thy face, 
 And claim a son's inheritance 
 
 By doing nothing base. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 225 
 
 THE SEASONS AGAIN. 
 
 £^ACH springtime clothes the forest trees 
 
 ^^^ With fresh green leaves 
 
 That make swefet music in the breeze. 
 
 And interweaves 
 With song of birds the hum of bees. 
 
 The summer comes with shine and showers 
 
 And dews at morn 
 That deck with gems the blushing flowers, 
 
 The scented thorn, 
 And all the earth with beauty dowers. 
 
 The autumn comes with heavy sheaves — 
 
 The crown of hope — 
 The trees let fall their yellow leaves 
 
 Like words that drop 
 From weary men on harvest eves. 
 
 We too, by change, do live and grow, 
 
 And should expand 
 And ripen in the summer glow, 
 
 While all the land 
 We, with autumnal goodness strow. 
 
 FORWARD. 
 
 T SEE the mark aimed at afar, 
 
 Above the world's loud hum, 
 Between me and the lovely star 
 
226 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 I count not on the strife and jar 
 That must be overcome. 
 
 With wings half fledged I fain would fly- 
 Where I must climb and creep, 
 Still, evermore with upturned eye, 
 Heedless of hindrances that lie, 
 I would, at one fell sweep 
 Surmount the giddy steep. 
 
 I wonder if I ever will 
 
 Learn patience and restraint, 
 And be content to climb uphill 
 Till I have gained the higher skill, 
 Without sigh or complaint. 
 
 I cannot keep from looking up ; 
 
 I stumble on in pain, 
 While disappointment's bitter cup 
 I constantly am made to sup ; 
 
 I fall, but rise again. 
 
 With aching heart and bruised feet, 
 
 I climb with progress slow; 
 I never will admit defeat, 
 Nor turn away in weak retreat, 
 I'll reach the goal although 
 
 My path by thorns be overgrowr. ; 
 
 Through frost and fire I'll go ; 
 Though hindrances be thickly strewn 
 I'll fearless throw the gauntlet down, 
 
 Defying every foe. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 227 
 
 Though "here I fail to reach the mark 
 
 Before I reach the grave. 
 I struggle on however dark 
 Until on life's rough sea my bark 
 
 Surmounts the highest wave 
 
 And leaves me on the golden shore 
 
 Where I with opened eyes 
 May see true effort evermore 
 Kept laying up a secret store, 
 While angels in disguise 
 
 Kept warding off a poor success, 
 
 That effort might attain 
 A higher, grander usefulness, 
 And evermore get new access 
 
 Of muscle, nerve, and brain. 
 
 I then may see success was reared 
 
 On failures hard to bear. 
 And that the very things I feared 
 Were angels of the Lord that steered 
 
 My bark past every snare. 
 
 MY WORK. 
 
 "T* feel impelled to write, but what 
 
 If some rude hand — 
 Some careless soul that does 
 Not understand 
 
228 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 The work I do, the path I tread, 
 
 The battle that I fight 
 
 With darkness through the night, 
 
 That I may ray God's light — 
 Shall come when I am dead 
 
 And cast aside or burn 
 As worthless things 
 The children of my brain ; 
 
 Some cloven foot may spurn 
 My work and be 
 Too gross to feel the pain 
 Made by the brand of Cain. 
 Deep in my heart a voice I hear 
 Speaking to me in accents clear. 
 
 " Thy life ig larger than material wants 
 
 Can satisfy, 
 Receive Heaven's holy visitants, 
 
 They shall indemnify 
 Thee largely for the lack of earthly good 
 
 With higher wealth to be attained 
 Mayhap by poverty, and understood 
 
 When in a higher sphere 'tis gained. 
 
 Learn thou as birds 
 
 Do learn to sing 
 In darkened cages, 
 
 And freely fling 
 Thy songs to coming ages. 
 
BORDElt RHYMES. 22D 
 
 Trust thou the love that made 
 
 Thee coin thy heart in words. 
 Trust thou nor be afraid, 
 
 They yet like tempered swords 
 Shall mingle in the strife 
 Of onward striving life. 
 
 In faith cast thou thy seed 
 
 In the cold ground, 
 And in due time 
 
 The harvest will come round ; 
 Thy work belongs to God, and He 
 
 Will care for it, and give 
 Its increase unto thee. 
 
 Have thou no fear 
 For soon or late 
 
 There must appear 
 At Heaven's own gate 
 The harvest of divine co-operation 
 In all its grand accumulation." 
 
 I dare not, cannot disobey 
 
 The Heavenly call 
 In God's own field to work all day ; 
 
 And when the evening shadows fall 
 I'll homeward turn my tired feet, 
 
 And rest, till I, mayhap, with sleep 
 Refreshed shall rise up strong to greet 
 
 The rising of a grander sun 
 And grander work in higher spheres 
 
 With new life to be done. 
 
230 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 GOD'S TREASURE-HOUSE. 
 
 I ^ AWS lock the treasure-house of God, 
 And knowledge is the master-key 
 To every seeking soul bestowed 
 With benedictions full and free. 
 
 Law, like the strong and docile ox, 
 
 Receives the yoke from knowing hands, 
 
 And patiently the field unlocks 
 
 For harvests that the good Lord sends. 
 
 The laws of God, like angels, wait 
 To do the will of him who knows 
 
 How he their powers can subjugate, 
 And get the good their work bestows. 
 
 Knowledge is the rough material 
 
 Placed in the toiling hand ; 
 But wisdom must the soul build up 
 
 And brain with building blend. 
 
 CLOTHES. 
 
 TF we sow chaff we reap no grain ; 
 If we sow death no life we reap, 
 The husk shall never rise again 
 
 To clothe the soul it could not keep. 
 At death we rise from death as from 
 A chrysalistic state to God, our home. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. S31 
 
 The body's but the pilgrim's gabardine 
 When travelling eastward to the holy shrine. 
 
 But when the gates of life death doth unbar 
 We lay aside the soiled and worn out rags 
 That to the winged soul would be but drags 
 
 And fly to meet the morning star. 
 Maybe our friends who have their home 
 
 With God will watch our coming from afar, 
 And hail with songs of love and joy 
 
 The victor from the field of war 
 
 Where we have won with many a scar 
 The trophies that we gladly yield 
 To God, who is our strength and shield. 
 
 Mayhap, within the higher sphere 
 A body round the soul shall grow ; 
 We may but hope, we do not know, 
 But building on our knowledge here 
 We " greet the unseen with a cheer." 
 
 But there as here our spirits weave 
 
 The robe of character to show 
 The status that our souls achieve. 
 
 Be true and make them pure as snow. 
 
 CRACKS. 
 ///I HEN dusting the things in my room, 
 
 If onything there has a crack, 
 I hide it as weel as I can 
 
 By turning it roond to the back. 
 
232 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 But the seamy side o' oor nature 
 
 In fiction is turned to the licht, 
 Till earth seems peopled wi' demons 
 
 That jumble up wrang wi' richt. 
 
 I doot it's a notable instance 
 O' demand that's made by supply : 
 
 Oh, folk will do muckle for siller 
 In pandering to what is awry. 
 
 The ten commandments for pleasure 
 
 Are broken ; e'en love is draggled through 
 
 Alang wi' fraud an' murder, 
 The deadly disgusting slough. 
 
 Sic prurient exhibitions 
 
 Only pits wrang in folk's heid. 
 An' they eat the bait o' the deil 
 
 Wi' thochtless hunger an greed. 
 
 " Dinna pit him below the pump," 
 Said ane when he meant the reverse. 
 
 So sic fiction teaches a lesson 
 Just as completely perverse. 
 
 Oh ! why do folk fill up their hearts 
 
 Wi' sic dirty, rubbishy things 
 Like serpents ta'en into their bosoms 
 
 To poison their lives wi' their stings. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 233 
 
 I dinna condemn a' fiction, 
 
 It has its legitimate place ; 
 But I'd like to see the best side o' life 
 
 Instead o' the ugly an' base. 
 
 The best an' the highest guid in life 
 
 Is gi'en to the pure in heart, 
 An' why wi' a' abominations 
 
 God's purpose in life pervert 
 
 THE POLE STAR. 
 
 jgHINE out, O bright pole star ; 
 "^ Hindrance my way may mar 
 
 But cannot hide thy light ; 
 My eyes with steadfast gaze 
 Hang on thy kindly rays 
 
 That brighten all the night. 
 
 Earth's treasures are but dust — 
 Corrupting moth and rust ; 
 
 Where thieves with greed made blind- 
 Foes to the common weal, 
 Break through God's laws and steal, 
 
 Poor fools ! an empty rind. 
 
 We're here for one short day 
 To learn, but not to stay ; 
 We seek another land. 
 
234 BORDER RHYMES, 
 
 Why, then, impede our way 
 With burdens that decay 
 And that is contraband. 
 
 Wisdom bids lay aside 
 
 Avarice, malice, pride, 
 And every hindering weight. 
 
 And with a Heavenward face 
 
 Step out with easy grace 
 And heart inviolate 
 The earth to subjugate. 
 
 ANOTHER CARLYLE PARAPHRASE. 
 
 "T* LOOK from my tower 
 On that monster hive 
 Where wasps and bees 
 
 Promiscuous strive, 
 And I see their wax and honey making, 
 Their poison brewing and sweet cake baking. 
 From the palace, music 
 
 While pomp is pleased to eat 
 Down the low lane 
 
 To the door-sill seat 
 Where the widow knits 
 
 For a livelihood, 
 While palace inferiors fare 
 
 On better food. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. ^6 
 
 Yes ; I see it all, for there's none so high 
 As the Schlosskirche weathercock and I. 
 Booted and strapped the courier comes 
 
 With joy and sorrow in leather bags 
 To the king in purple 
 
 And the man in rags. 
 The sybarite baron with velvet palms 
 And the soldier with timber leg begging alms. 
 
 UNEQUAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 C^OME souls there are who cease to grow 
 
 When they have reached the body's prime ; 
 And other souls who yearn to know 
 
 The open secrets of all time ; 
 They flourish in perpetual blow 
 In summer's heat, in winter's snow. 
 
 They reach out to a larger life ; 
 
 They read the living words of God ; 
 They may look backward in the strife 
 
 To draw the laggards on the road, 
 Who have no restless fluttering wings, 
 And no response for higher things. 
 
 But the dear love of long ago 
 To pity in the larger soul, 
 Has grown for want of kindred glow 
 
236 BORDER RHYMES 
 
 In him who yearns for no high goal — 
 Who little thinks of wrong or right, 
 And breathes no prayer for more light 
 
 So high, so low, so far apart ; 
 
 No point where they can meet as one ; 
 A coolness grows within the heart 
 
 When all the early bonds are gone. 
 The richer soul can only sigh 
 For loss of what was doomed to die. 
 
 " Love is love for evermore," said one, 
 
 Perhaps when he was young, 
 Maybe the springtime love of yore 
 
 When friends about my young life clung 
 Has been my own reflected back 
 And shedding light along its track. 
 
 Alas, alas ! the larger light 
 
 Reveals, sometimes, repellant traits ; 
 The poorness of the parasite 
 
 That hinders with unholy weights^ 
 With no response for higher moods — 
 No loyalty for brotherhoods. 
 
 The plant that sends its tender shoots 
 Through the dark earth into the light 
 
 Can have no fellowship with roots 
 
 That have no heart for sunshine bright. 
 
 O soul ! communion keep with such 
 
 As with thee God's bright garments touch. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 237 
 
 It seems to me that all the way 
 We must step out with equal pace, 
 
 If love would live with no decay 
 Until we reach the resting place, 
 
 And are at one with Christ in God 
 
 Where life with love is overflowed. 
 
 SABBATH. 
 
 /j^ITH joy we hail this Sabbath day 
 
 That brings the weary toiler rest ; 
 When jar and strife are overborne. 
 
 And in God's house each welcome guest 
 May freely take the bread of life 
 To fit him for the week-day strife. 
 
 This day is like a wayside inn 
 
 Where weary travellers rest awhile, 
 
 And shut their ears to worldly din 
 
 To lean their hearts on Heaven's sweet smile 
 
 Reflected bright from flower and tree, 
 
 From hill and vale and silver sea. 
 
 As children in the house of God, 
 
 We wait to hear our Father's will, 
 Having our feet with courage shod 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Ready to climb life's rugged hill. 
 Our hand in His we have no fear 
 In darkest night or sunshine clear. 
 
 FEAR NOT. 
 
 /^■"E are too prone 
 
 To fear and moan 
 And live the coming day 
 
 Before it come. 
 We wonder where 
 
 The way will lead, 
 And where the store 
 
 For all our need. 
 
 But dark and dumb 
 
 To all our fears 
 The coming days, 
 
 The coming years, 
 Before they come. 
 
 Live well to-day 
 
 And let the morrow bring 
 Whate'er it may ; 
 
 Be loyal to the king, 
 And be it understood 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 From angel wings 
 
 Helpful things 
 Are scattered for our good. 
 
 And He who clothes the lilies, feeds the birds, 
 Shall give both soul and body food. 
 
 JESUS. 
 
 rrf HE noblest words that man ere spoke 
 
 Enchained the wondering throng, 
 Who hung upon the lips that woke 
 
 The slumbering echoes into song. 
 They trusted this was He 
 Would set their kingdom free, 
 
 He was so good and strong ; 
 And unto Him the power was given 
 To open wide the gates of Heaven. 
 
 Their hopes clung round Him night and day; 
 They strow palm branches in His way ; 
 
 With regal pomp and loud acclaim 
 
 They lavish blessings on His name ; 
 Their garments on His path they fling, 
 And hail the Son of David king ; 
 
 Only the learned and reputed wise 
 View him with fear and scorn. 
 
 And the illiterate herd despise. 
 
240 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Wisdom may come in other ways 
 Than by the learning of the schools, 
 
 For erudition often makes 
 
 Of shallow men but learned fools, 
 Mechanic slaves of lifeless tools. 
 
 Unlettered toilers may have more 
 Of loyalty for what is right 
 
 Than men who sit on heaps of gold 
 With telescopes to aid their sight 
 When peering into the dark night 
 
 Knowledge is good when light from Heaven 
 Illumes and hallows all we know ; 
 
 The more we have the more we get ; 
 The more about our way we strow 
 The more our stores shall overflow. 
 
 And he who patient vigil keeps 
 
 And dares the conflict with strong will — 
 Who working with the laws of God 
 
 Can set his cross on life's high hill. 
 Has won his crown and reigns by right 
 O'er all he has subdued by might. 
 
 We have not talents all alike. 
 But whether we have one or ten 
 
 We'll get the King's " Well done " if we 
 Are loyal to His trust, and when 
 
 We lay our earnings at His feet 
 
 Our happiness will be complete. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 241 
 
 SIN. 
 
 C^IN with his left hand offers gain ; 
 
 Hid in his right he bears a scourge ; 
 And he will make you pay in pain, 
 All he on your acceptance urge. 
 
 Gold oft he liberally giveth 
 
 To him who stains his soul with crime ; 
 As he giveth so his victim liveth, 
 
 Wasting eternity for time. 
 
 Oh ! why make loads that none can bear 
 Through the strait way — the narrow gate ? 
 
 Nude souls alone can climb the stair 
 Where crowns the noblest souls await 
 
 A ROSE. 
 
 ' ^ ROSE grows at my window pane, 
 *^"^ And all the day 
 
 It seems to say : 
 « You do ; I be ; 
 
 I am beautiful for thee." 
 And the dear words 
 
 Of a flower so fair 
 Filleth my heart 
 
 With psalms of prayer. 
 
242 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And I heed far less 
 
 The thorns of life 
 When the roses bless 
 
 Me in the strife ; 
 And I feel around me everywhere 
 Father's love and Father's care. 
 
 Rose after rose comes and goes, 
 
 And leaves a sweetness of repose 
 
 In the heart that loves and knows 
 The beauty of completeness. 
 Blessed are the ears that hear 
 
 What the dear flowers say ; 
 And blessed are the hearts that open 
 
 To their message night and day. 
 
 EACH. 
 
 ^^UT of the same earth, 
 Into the same blue 
 Light of heaven grow trees of every form 
 
 And flowers of every hue ; 
 And every kind of fruit, 
 
 Good for food or pleasant to the eye. 
 For man and bird and brute, 
 
 Within man's reach doth lie. 
 And all according to God's law 
 Their own constituents draw 
 
 From elements around, 
 In the light and in the ground ; 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 243 
 
 And over each created thing 
 
 Is man — the crown and king — 
 To learn the laws, 
 Their aim and cause, 
 
 That he with knowledge true 
 
 May bridle and subdue, 
 As willing subjects to his reign, 
 The laws that to his heart and brain 
 
 Do yield a revenue. 
 
 A PARAPHRASE. 
 
 '^ LTHOUGH I speak like angels singing, 
 
 And have not love, I only am 
 As sounding brass — an empty ringing ; 
 
 A senseless, soulless, brazen sham ; 
 I have not yet the key to heaven — 
 No loveless soul can be forgiven. 
 
 If I could tell of things to be. 
 And mysteries read of all below ; 
 
 Tis only love can wisely see, 
 'Tis only love can wisely know 
 
 The soul of knowledge deep and true, 
 
 Refreshing life with heavenly dew. 
 
 Had I the faith that could remove 
 
 Mountains, it were but work in vain, 
 And Heavenly sonship could not prove ; 
 
244 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 The heart is better than the brain ; 
 Out of the heart the spirit flows 
 
 That lights the way the pilgrim goes. 
 
 And though I give my goods to feed 
 The poor, and build up fanes of prayer, 
 
 Sowing my wealth abroad like seed, 
 To make the earth more sweet and fair, 
 
 Yet without love no harvest home 
 
 Unto my loveless soul will come. 
 
 Although the labour of my life 
 
 I give for some most righteous cause ; 
 
 Yea, die upon the field of strife 
 For truer, wiser, better laws. 
 
 Yet loving not the true and good 
 
 My life and work were one falsehood. 
 
 Love is the atmosphere of God, 
 Which, if we breathe, we live, 
 
 And all our life is overflowed 
 
 With health that love alone can give ; 
 
 It is the very God in whom 
 
 We live like flowers that breathe perfume. 
 
 It bears itself with seemliness ; 
 
 Grieves not for self, but evil done 
 That renders poor souls Fatherless 
 
 And blind beneath the shining sun ; 
 At wrong and shame it will not smile, 
 Nor gloat o'er aught that's mean or vile. 
 
LOUDER UHYMilS, 245 
 
 Though feeling much, love suffers long — 
 Though suffering much is always kind, 
 
 Nor feels revenge, enduring wrong ; 
 It looks below the priskly rind ; 
 
 It vaunts not vainly of itself. 
 
 Nor stretches greedy hands for pelf. 
 
 The right that's hid by seeming wrong 
 It sees, rejoicing in the truth ; 
 
 It never fails, but grows more strong 
 By the calm exercise of ruth ; 
 
 Though grace and strength abide above, 
 
 The heart and crown of life is Love. 
 
 LOVE. 
 
 '|— (OR love to our Father in heaven, 
 '"^ And love to our brother below, 
 Is the one great good that is given. 
 The one great debt that we owe. 
 It steers us safe to the golden shore, 
 'Tis the key that opens our Father's door. 
 
 We trust that our hope is not vain. 
 And that e'en deeds with a crooked aim, 
 
 That are the fruit of the toiling brain. 
 
 May be rooted in love, and thus may claim 
 
 The good that to love is surely given — 
 
 The key that can open the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
246 BORDER RHYMES 
 
 CREEDS. 
 
 /^OOD friends whose lives are better than the 
 
 creeds 
 They do profess with easy prejudice, 
 Have never tried to square their practice with 
 The creed they have, it may be, never read ; 
 And cornered with a creed untenable, 
 They draw false inference from premises 
 As false, and claim a victory o'er men 
 Who build upon the rock impregnable 
 Of truth. The blind, well-meaning fools 
 Do urge the wise to shut their eyes and walk 
 By faith, ignoring reason and the light. 
 The foolish with their one poor talent hid 
 Urge him with ten to hide his too, nor'give 
 His Master gain when he accounts with Him. 
 We must be true unto our trust whate'er it be — 
 One talent or ten. If we do hide what we 
 Are given to trade with for our Master, 
 'Tis at our peril. We cannot shut our eyes 
 To that. As well expect the mighty oak 
 To squeeze itself into the small acorn 
 From which it sprang, as think to stay the soul 
 From God ward evolution. In vain 
 The lowly daisy counsels the tall oak 
 To have humility and dwell among 
 The grass like it. It cannot be. It must 
 Obey the law within itself and rear 
 Its branches to the sun, and clasp the light 
 
BORDER RHYMES 24V 
 
 Of heaven. It must be true unto itself. 
 'Tis false humility, and false to God, 
 And to ourselves 'tis false, to lower ourselves 
 Below the truth and stay our upward growth 
 To please the foolish pride of lowliness. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 /^ ■ E lift our hands to Heaven and cry for light, 
 
 For open eyes, and hearts made wise to love 
 The truth ; but scarcely realize that we. 
 Like our Exemplar, must receive the gifts 
 We crave in husk of trial hard to bear. 
 All that we get we must, by help of God, 
 Earn for ourselves, nor be like men whose souls 
 Exist, but do not grow, upon the pauper's dole. 
 Take courage, O my soul; know thou that help 
 From Heaven shall never fail the loyal soul 
 That strives for good. The praying hands of men 
 Are ever met by helping hands from God. 
 
 HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 C^OMETIMES when God breathes on our hearts 
 
 and we 
 Receive the inspiration of His love, 
 We speak some common words, but fill them with 
 The verve of our own spirit caught warm and true 
 
248 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 From God's own heart; and they, like live coals from 
 
 The altar, make the hearts of other men 
 
 To burn with love. 'Tis good that intellect 
 
 Should flash its light before our eyes, and claim 
 
 And get its due of admiration ; but 
 
 Holy spirit breathed through holy men gives life 
 
 Unto the poorest words that man can speak. 
 
 For God is love, and love is crown supreme 
 
 Of life. As flowers do wreathe with finished grace 
 
 The plant, so love doth wreathe with beauty's dower 
 
 The finished grace of life. 
 
 TRUST. 
 
 *TpOWER, wisdom, and beneficence 
 
 Everywhere I see, 
 Like angels of the Lord that bring 
 My Father's gifts to me. 
 
 My Father knows what things I need. 
 
 And with a father's hands 
 Freely my every want supplies — 
 
 Yea ! all my needs transcends. 
 
 Then why should over-anxious thoughts 
 My days with fears o'ercast ? 
 
 I'm safe within my Father's love 
 Till every cloud is past. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 249 
 
 There free from care I'll rest, and trust 
 The love that might be veiled 
 
 By passing clouds from weary eyes, 
 But never, never failed. 
 
 THOU IN ME AND I IN THEE. 
 
 Q LORD of all, O Love divine, 
 
 My soul cleaves fast to Thee ; 
 The angels everywhere are Thine ; 
 I too am Thine and Thou are mine. 
 
 I need not troubled be, 
 For as the living branches grow 
 
 Out of the living tree, 
 Even so, O Father, Source of all. 
 
 My soul abides in Thee. 
 And if a withered leaf should fall. 
 Or if some sin like insect small 
 Should gnaw the young and tender shoot 
 Or eat the bud and spoil the fruit. 
 Not mine alone the hurt and loss, 
 For I am Thine and Thine my cross. 
 
 Together we do grow as one ; 
 
 Together sit on the same throne 
 Of knowledge, love, and loyalty — 
 
 Thou crowned with the excellency of right, 
 I lowly at Thy feet, 
 
 And living in Thy perfect light. 
 In Thee my live complete. 
 
250 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 SENTIMENTAL GRUMBLERS. 
 
 TTTHINK ye that it pleases God to say 
 That ye are weary with the strife, 
 And all the toilsome cares of life, 
 And fain would cast your cross away. 
 
 Weary of the strife, faint heart ? 
 
 Unworthy thou to bear a sword. 
 
 If in the battles of thy Lord 
 Ye shrink to take a soldier's part. 
 
 Weary art thou of earthly care ? 
 Unworthy labourer in the field 
 That thou should'st till and make to yield 
 
 A harvest with thy Lord to share. 
 
 The way is long, thy burden great 
 Ye say, and dost thou grudge to bear 
 Thy load, yielding to weak despair, 
 
 Would'st thou with wrong capitulate } 
 
 Be brave, be true, thy sword belongs 
 
 To God, ask Him, He'll give thee strength to hew 
 
 Down hindrances ; thy way pursue 
 Till victory crown thy life with songs. 
 
 Work thou for good and have no fear ; 
 
 God gives to all true work increase ; 
 
 And in true work alone is peace ; 
 Service shall make thy pathway clear. 
 
BOBBER RHYMES. 251 
 
 And if thy way be long, lean thou 
 Upon thy strong- and willing- Guide, 
 Nor vainly wander from His side. 
 
 To His mild yoke be wise and bow. 
 
 He sees the eyes that intercede. 
 
 He helps the hands that do His will ; 
 To feet that fly from doing ill 
 
 He gives the swiftness that they need. 
 
 He gathers not the harvest where 
 
 No seed His gracious hand has sown ; 
 Seedtime and harvest are His own, 
 
 We too are His and own His care. 
 
 If we have only one poor pound. 
 We must not hide but use it well 
 And make its wise increase fortell 
 
 The servant's work approved and crowned. 
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 CfOME folk that canna argue say — 
 ^~^ " Nae maitter how wise an' expert 
 Ye may be, ye may argue a' day 
 An* never a man ye'll convert." 
 
 But weel ken I, ye canna get 
 
 A loaf frae the wheat until 
 It's shorn, an' thrashed, an' dichted, 
 
 An' ground to meal in a mill. 
 
252 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 FALSEHOOD. 
 
 "PALSEHOOD baits its hook with truth, 
 And cruelty with words of ruth, 
 
 We need a holy spirit to divine 
 The false beneath its lying hood^ 
 The poison wrapt in seeming good, 
 
 O Father, may the gift be mine. 
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 
 
 " It msrtters not to us who are immortal, 
 Which side of the grave we stand on." 
 
 J. B. Selkirk. 
 
 njRUE indeed, what matters it 
 
 When we have friends on either side, 
 And we as pilgrims walk through life 
 
 With all the stars of Heaven to guide 
 Us homeward bound, homeward bound. 
 
 Absurd it were to linger here 
 At eventide when home is near 
 And we are homeward bound. 
 
 Why fear to step across the grave .-' 
 'Tis but the place where we disrobe, 
 
 To dress again for what we crave. 
 
 Then let our heart's last feeble throb 
 With joyful hope all fear confound 
 When we are homeward bound. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 253 
 
 The flowers shoot through the cold dark ground 
 And have no doubt, no shrinking fear ; 
 
 So may we rise and feel around 
 
 Expanding souls, Heaven shining clear. 
 
 As we are homeward bound. 
 
 Or like the chrysalis that wakes 
 From its long sleep and gladly breaks 
 
 Its prison walls to feel its wings 
 
 And all the joy that freedom brings, 
 Why then should we, the children of the King, 
 
 Bewail our lot when homeward bound ? 
 Nay, rather let our glad hearts sing 
 
 As we step o'er the grassy mound. 
 Homeward bound, homeward bound. 
 
 A BLUE-BOTTLE FLY. 
 
 W OU'VE been buzzing about all day 
 ^ With musical wings, blue-bottle fly, 
 Shall I kill you ? No indeed, not I, 
 
 I'll list your song ; so buzz away. 
 
 Between my finger and my thumb 
 'Twere easy for me to destroy 
 Your life, and every sound of joy 
 
 In one brief moment render dumb. 
 
254 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 But the wisest man with all his art 
 Could never make a form so true ; 
 Nor could he that small form endue 
 
 With life, and glad songs in its heart. 
 
 It's all very well when you come alone, 
 You jolly old blue-bottle fly, 
 But coming in scores you should die, 
 
 Every one of you, skin, wing, and bone. 
 
 For I'm not a Brahmin, you see ; 
 
 I'm not afraid to kill a fly 
 
 Lest the ghost of my grandma occupy 
 Its form, and be trampled out by me. 
 
 You are all alone, blue-bottle fly. 
 And yet you are happy, and sing 
 As a sprite of joy were in your wing, 
 
 You fear no morrow, though when you die 
 
 No comrade will care ; no heart will break, 
 No small fly tear for you be shed ; 
 No doggerel dirge of rhyme be read 
 
 Above your grave for your dear sake. 
 
 Never mind, old fly, you are safe to-day ; 
 
 I'm glad you have such a flow 
 
 Of spirits, and I like to know 
 Your life was meant to be glad and gay. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 255 
 
 Still I wonder if your gladness 
 Has no dark undertone — no strain 
 Of half remembered grief or pain — 
 
 No counterfoil of hidden sadness. 
 
 No, there seems to be no sign 
 
 Suggesting aught but good intention ; 
 Or even of life's extention 
 
 Beyond death's dark dividing line. 
 
 A spark of life by law impressed 
 
 Ye seem, with gladness printed there ; 
 No wearing toil, no seeming care 
 
 The joy of living to molest. 
 
 As dies the spark, do you e'en die "i 
 
 Or does your life at death return 
 
 To life's great sea, through death's dark bourne. 
 And the occult mists that wander by, 
 
 As the river, the lake, the sea 
 
 Are upward drawn to Heaven 
 
 To be to the earth regiven 
 In cycles large and good and free } 
 
 Surely the king is a kindly king 
 Who has, for thee fitted so well 
 Thy house of life, where thou dost dwell. 
 
 And given thee glad songs to sing. 
 
256 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 There now, I've wondered much of thee 
 You old blue-bottle corpulent ; 
 But have you ever one moment spent 
 
 In wondering aught about me ? 
 
 TRUE LIFE. 
 
 TTJHE poet's words of truth will live 
 
 All down far distant ages, 
 And evermore true largess give 
 
 Of wisdom from his pages. 
 Many a poet is forgotten 
 Yet lives in thoughts by him begotten. 
 
 Surely the man can never die 
 
 As long as his true thoughts live on 
 
 As vestures round the soul do lie 
 That from his inner life have grown : 
 
 Like light that robes the sun of day, 
 
 Or stars that gem the evening grey. 
 
 And while his thoughts give spirit fare 
 
 For hunger to assimilate, 
 He lives, though men know not nor care 
 
 Who did their food predestinate. 
 The present time grows from the past 
 And doth the coming time forecast. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 257 
 
 BUILDING. 
 
 Y"! ND evermore the rising walls 
 
 Are builded up on our beliefs, 
 With porticos and capitals — 
 
 Outstanding sorrows and reliefs, 
 Till we our trowels lay aside 
 And from our labours softly glide. 
 
 And other men do take our place 
 
 And build on what our souls have built — 
 
 True work the rising walls to grace, 
 Or only shams with falsehoods gilt, 
 
 Then feeble hands do limply drop 
 
 And night's dark gates for them do ope. 
 
 So on, and on, forever on — 
 
 Relays of workers evermore ; 
 Each soul must be, builder or stone. 
 
 And happy he who makes a door 
 For souls at night to enter in 
 To life, and rest with souls akin. 
 
 SHINING SOULS. 
 
 ITT HE heart that can throw a halo of light 
 ^^ On whatever it deigns to fall. 
 Can love the stars in the depth of night 
 And make them appear more pure and bright 
 With a magic as true as 'tis mystical. 
 
258 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 O, great is the gift of a heart that dowers 
 The earth with its spirit leal and sweet ; 
 Better it is than princedoms and powers ; 
 
 Like sunbeams it falls in golden showers 
 Unfolding the fairest of earthly flowers — 
 
 A carpet of beauty for angels' feet. 
 
 Or like sunbeams shining on drops of rain 
 
 That make bright bows on the leaden sky ; 
 So love that shines on sorrow and pain 
 Binds earth to Heaven with a silver chain 
 That doth the darkness glorify. 
 
 As magnets draw from heaps of dust 
 
 The smallest particles of steel, 
 So the Overlove ever true and just 
 The best of us and the truest must 
 
 Draw to itself for the common weal. 
 
 DETRACTION. 
 
 )^ HERE'S folk that grab at every flaw 
 
 Detracting frae their neebor's merit, 
 Wi' malice black as ony craw ; 
 
 They show a mean, ungenerous spirit 
 
 They like to draw folk doon below 
 Their ain low and unholy grade ; 
 
 Nae maitter whether freend or foe. 
 
 They probe the sairs wi' poisoned blade. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 259 
 
 An' if a faut they canna find, 
 They gie a vague an' general sneer ; 
 
 To a' that's guid they're deef an' blind, 
 They only like to stab an' teer. 
 
 Detraction seems the meat an' drink 
 They feed their guidless souls upon, 
 
 An' wanting words they smile an' wink 
 An' gloat on rotten carrion. 
 
 But though they dearly like to breathe 
 
 The poison o' detraction, 
 An' in yer hert their swords to sheathe. 
 
 They beat a' for exaction. 
 
 They think that ye should bend the knee 
 
 In humble adulation — 
 Praise a' they say an' a' they be 
 
 Wi' self depreciation. 
 
 Oucht else they wunna tolerate, 
 Nae maitter if it's richt or wrang, 
 
 Theirsels maun aye predominate — 
 The hero o' a flattering sang. 
 
 Alas ! if they sow nettle seeds 
 
 Nettles will surely grow and sting ; 
 
 Just retribution for their deeds 
 To their malicious souls will cling. 
 
260 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 CONCEIT. 
 
 I^OME folk think a' other folk gowks, 
 
 And loodly their trumpet they blaw ; 
 They think their ain eggs have a' twae yowks, 
 
 An' other folk's nane ava, 
 O, sic wonderfu' stories they tell, 
 
 An' sic wonderfu' things they hev dune, 
 That nae ane else could do but theirsels. 
 
 Self is the keynote o' every tune. 
 
 When they meet their dooble they canna bear 
 
 To hear frae another mooth 
 Their ain kind o' cracks ; they declare 
 
 The half o' them's no the truth. 
 When we find in another a failing, 
 
 We should look to oorsels an' see 
 If we're no in another assailing 
 
 Fauts we have in a waur degree. 
 
 LIVE TRUE. 
 
 '|~^ROM God's own treasure-house is lent 
 
 To us, for usury, a day ; 
 When evening comes and all is spent 
 
 Our thoughts and deeds we should survey 
 And shew to Him what we retain 
 Within our souls of loss or gain. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 261 
 
 For every moment that we spend 
 We backward step, or forward go — 
 
 With life or death ourselves we blend 
 And make the law our friend or foe. 
 
 Only the soul at one with God 
 
 Makes progress on the Heavenward road. 
 
 The bow unbent its spring retains— 
 The soul must have its times of rest 
 
 When recreative power it gains 
 To live its life with truer zest 
 
 Lest the monotony of toil 
 
 The sunshine of our lives should spoil. 
 
 We need not rush with heedless feet 
 On work we are not fit to do, 
 
 But every task we duly meet 
 
 Let's meet with ready will and true, 
 
 God's laws, like angels, ever wait 
 
 All efforts true to consecrate. 
 
 The crown we win ourselves must make, 
 The help of Heaven is freely given; 
 
 And we the higher life partake 
 If we for it have toiled and striven. 
 
 We reach a heritage divine 
 
 By climbing up with God's design. 
 
262 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 "HE WHO TILLETH HIS LAND SHALL 
 HAVE PLENTY OF BREAD." 
 
 TTTHE untilled land produces weeds 
 
 That mock the sluggard's sorest needs ; 
 The soul with faculties unused 
 Is self-defrauded, self-abused. 
 
 When fields with weeds are overgrown, 
 And souls to evil deeds are prone, 
 The weeds must be eradicated, 
 The soul with right be penetrated. 
 
 On land and life we must bestow 
 True labour and right seed to grow. 
 Until the harvest wealth accrue 
 To the clear eye and the strong thew. 
 
 When we can find a fitting sphere 
 
 To work therein is life's best cheer. 
 
 But if, with high endeavour we 
 
 From base environment can struggle free 
 
 The joy of strength attained may crown 
 More fully us who trample down 
 The hindrances that bar our way 
 Through the lone night till dawn of day. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 263 
 
 ANALOGY. 
 
 TTTHE plant that has no budding eyes 
 
 For the warm sunlight dies. 
 The man whose heart is never drawn 
 Outside himself for love of man, 
 Or bird, or beast, or humble plant 
 Suffers an eternal want, 
 And dies conserving self. 
 
 If thou would'st live let budding loves 
 
 Grow from thee into light 
 Till kindly thoughts and helpful deeds 
 
 Make all around thee bright. 
 
 CAUSE AND EFFECT. 
 
 " *L./ICKLE fortune," — sair misnamed — 
 
 By feckless souls is often blamed 
 For gieing some folk golden store 
 An' leaving others bare and puir, 
 But I o' this am certain shure 
 
 There's nae result withoot a cause ; 
 
 The idle scholar gets the tawse. 
 
 True some seem born for easy chairs, 
 An' some for worry, work, an' cares ; 
 But folk that are the maist to blame 
 Are aye the first wi' greedy claim j 
 
264 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Howe'er it be it's true the same, 
 Where there's a sequence there's a cause 
 As shure as thorns are grown frae haws. 
 
 Frae honest labour, lowest doon. 
 There is a road to life's best croon ; 
 An' a' may rise in some degree 
 If they will stir their fins an' be 
 Like men that wunna turn agee, 
 For very shurely what ye saw 
 Shall grow the same by Nature's law. 
 
 An' he that thinks that guid things a' 
 
 Into his open mooth should fa' 
 
 While he lies listlessly below 
 
 The tree o' life where guid things grow, 
 
 Expecting what he didna sow 
 
 Will find where he has naething sawn 
 
 That weeds will grow on field an' lawn. 
 
 But let the man be up an' doing. 
 Some lawfu' guid intent pursuing ; 
 If he his work can understand. 
 An' freely ply his heart an' hand 
 Heaven its best gifts will freely send, 
 For he that seeks shall shurely find 
 The guerdon for the earnest mind. 
 
 Then let oor hearts be leal an' strong 
 To tackle life with sword and song, 
 And we may get the prize in wealth, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 265 
 
 Or better still in true soul health, 
 A treasure free frae fear o' stealth. 
 Oor ain soul is oor safest bank, 
 An' as oor wealth, so is oor rank. 
 
 DO RIGHT. 
 
 I i OVE God, and do what's right 
 
 E'en though the priest on Sunday, 
 The world on Monday, 
 Wi' meddling Mrs Grundy 
 Should disapprove ye quite 
 And sweer that black is white. 
 Be true to your ain sel, 
 Believe your inner light. 
 In spite o' earth and hell. 
 
 Believe in God, the apex of perfection, 
 Your loyalty insures protection. 
 
 Whoso is on His side 
 Shall all things overcome — 
 
 Flesh, greed, indifference, pride — 
 And get His true encomium, 
 
 " Good and faithful one, 
 
 Well done, well done. 
 
 Reign over all that thou hast won." 
 
266 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 THE WAR. 
 
 *Y^0 promise trust for the downward race 
 
 That leads from the sunlit height ; 
 Nor ever trust captain in the war 
 That fights not for truth and right. 
 
 There is no gain 
 
 For souls insane 
 That fight on the lawless side, 
 
 Or who shirk the campaign 
 
 For fear of the pain, 
 To sail with the flowing'tide. 
 
 If thou would'st win in the race of life 
 
 With truth let thy feet be shod. 
 If thou would'st win in the battle of life 
 Fight under the banner of God. 
 There is no loss 
 Of aught but dross 
 If we bear the cross 
 Where the sons of light have trod. 
 
 WEAVING. 
 
 /^■"E'RE here the laws of life to learn, 
 
 And weave within their warp our weft. 
 As we their secret ways discern 
 
 We'll weave our web with fingers deft, 
 And so the Master's meed will earn 
 
 Within our souls, by Him, infeft. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 267 
 
 God's truth is stamped on all His laws 
 Where we conforming lives should weave 
 
 And strive to make them free from flaws 
 Of guileful deeds meant to deceive 
 
 The world, to gain the world's applause — 
 A poor ambition to achieve. 
 
 The soul that yields to falsehood's sway 
 Can never weave to stand the test ; 
 
 It blindly gropes in twilight grey 
 And weaves a robe by self impressed 
 
 That cleaves around it with dismay 
 To advertise the laws transgressed. 
 
 Within the heart God's laws demand 
 The love of kindliness and truth 
 
 That makes the loyal understand 
 The soul of law is kindly ruth, 
 
 Service that holds by God's right hand 
 By holding claims eternal youth. 
 
 O, love the truth ; the truth is strong 
 And beautiful, it brings us near 
 
 To Him to Whom our souls belong ; 
 We see His face ; His voice we hear, 
 
 Our loyal hearts are filled with song 
 And we can see with vision clear 
 
 Angels of God about us throng. 
 
268 BORDER RHYMES 
 
 TOIL. 
 
 ^QT year of toil is worth an age 
 
 Of listless idleness with household fires ; 
 Better the field where hosts opposing rage 
 Than peace where all the nobleness of life expires. 
 
 SEMBLANCE. 
 
 ^T)AIST folk are apt to keep in shoals, 
 
 An' thochtlessly sail wi' the stream ; 
 For if they're only like other folk, 
 
 They think they're a' that they seem ; 
 But think for yersel an' they'll say yer wrang, 
 
 For ye mauna disturb their dream. 
 
 They think if they're only fauldit up 
 
 In the empty husk o' a creed — 
 If they gang to the kirk on Sunday 
 
 That's a' that they want or need, 
 They dinna think to control their thochts — 
 
 The untrue word, the unkind deed. 
 
 But had they to risk their life wi' a rope, 
 
 They'd examine every strand ; 
 Or if they wanted some work to do 
 
 They wad train baith heid an' hand ; 
 Nor wad they expect a crop to grow 
 
 If they didna sow the land. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 269 
 
 Now I think its every ane's interest 
 To see that their creed is true ; 
 
 An' to see that God's holy spirit 
 With holiness their's imbue ; 
 
 An' that to baith God an' Caesar 
 They render a' that is due. 
 
 For a' oor thochts are written doon, 
 An' the spirit root o' oor thocht ; 
 
 An' the white robes o' the risen soul 
 By the loyal life is wroucht ; 
 
 An' Heaven is freely gi'en to a' 
 That Heaven have truly soucht. 
 
 KIN. 
 
 TN those we love, 'tis qualities we love, 
 
 A subtle spirit inspires the moral principles 
 Of truest men, and gives life's common-places 
 A beauty that love alone can apprehend. 
 
 Sometimes our friend is but a mirror 
 Wherein we see reflections of ourselves, 
 And the deluded heart goes out 
 As unto one akin, when suddenly 
 The native soul takes its own hue 
 And stricken love recoils and dies, 
 While o'er its grave we weep regretful tears : 
 Nay ! love never dies ; one channel is but found 
 
270 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Disqualified and frozen, but it will find 
 Mayhap, a worthier, where it may bring 
 Refreshment to some heart more truly kin. 
 
 Let us thank God for His benignant hindrances, 
 His revelations of the truths o'er which 
 Our purblind souls may sometimes grieve, 
 Love finds its level ; God's will be done. 
 
 EVENTIDE. 
 
 rjjHE pilgrim at the gloaming grey, 
 Weary and worn and footsore, 
 Drops down at his Father's door, 
 Tired with the long and toilsome day. 
 
 And ever 'mong the shadows deep 
 A muffled sentinel awaits 
 To open wide the ponderous gates 
 
 For weary pilgrims fallen asleep, 
 
 That angels with white robes may come 
 To clothe the soul all shriven, 
 And waken it in Heaven 
 
 With restful songs of home, sweet home. 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 2Y1 
 
 THE GATES. 
 
 rnWELVE gates into the city of God, 
 
 There's no night there and no decay ; 
 Twelve gates into the beautiful city 
 
 That are never shut at all by day. 
 And angels at every portal stand 
 To welcome pilgrims from every land — 
 From every land and from every creed ; 
 All are welcome who feel their need. 
 
 Whoso is athirst may come. 
 
 OUR ALPHABET. 
 
 ^^OD'S effluence in Nature's laws 
 
 We see in adumbration ; 
 And there we learn the alphabet 
 
 That spells his revelation, 
 And in the higher life of man 
 
 We read His incarnation. 
 
 In Him we live and move, 
 In Him we have our being ; 
 
 We live in Him and He in us, 
 The laws of life decreeing. 
 
 We are responsible as sons 
 
 With wills as free and eyes as seeing. 
 
272 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Rightness upward draws 
 
 The soul that's pure and leal ; 
 
 But he whose soul is full of flaws 
 On death has set his seal. 
 
 Still pardon waits within the laws 
 The penitent's appeal. 
 
 VESPERS. 
 
 TTTHE night cometh ; the toilsome day 
 Draws to a close, and one by one 
 The stars come out with evening grey, 
 And vesper bells ring out the sun. 
 
 The angels from the heavens inlaid 
 With spheres of light at evensong 
 
 Come down, the soul to serenade, 
 Till sleep blot out all sense of wrong. 
 
 When we awake beyond death's portal 
 With every sense enlarged and clear 
 
 We shall be clothed with life immortal. 
 And perfect love shall banish fear. 
 
 For purest, lealest love is given 
 
 Where all are pure and leal and good, 
 
 For God is there and God is Heaven, 
 And Father of the brotherhood. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 273 
 
 NATURE IS QUIET CREATING ; LOUD 
 IN DESTROYING. 
 
 C^ILENTLY the sweet flowers grow 
 
 Unfolding all their quiet grace, 
 And silently their odours flow 
 
 Around them in their quiet place. 
 There is no noise, no jar, no strife, 
 They live to God their quiet life. 
 
 Nor wake a thought of aught that's base. 
 
 The earthquake rends the hills asunder ; 
 
 The wind lays mighty forests low ; 
 
 The flaming fires flash to and fro : 
 God speaks from Heaven to earth in thunder ; 
 
 When host meets host with cannon's roar 
 
 Earth trembles to its utmost core ; 
 The sons of peace look on in wonder 
 
 And wish the glory of the true — 
 The glad millenial time were here 
 When men shall beat the sword, the spear 
 
 To implements that do subdue 
 The quiet laws that wait to be 
 The slaves of sons the truth makes free 
 
 To recreate the world anew. 
 
274 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 NOISE AND SILENCE. 
 
 TTTHE winds with loud and rushing gusts 
 Crash through the startled air ; 
 
 And earthquakes shake destruction round, 
 While beasts are startled from their lair, 
 
 And sleep that thoughtless eyes have bound 
 Is driven from eyelids everywhere, 
 Then men are driven to cries of prayer. 
 
 And then the still small voice of God 
 Whispers to the soul's deep core 
 
 The words that it may coin in deeds 
 
 And make its practice living creeds. 
 And Heaven to earth again restore, 
 
 While law and love supply our needs 
 That look to Him for evermore. 
 
 Like wind and earthquake, fire and flame, 
 With trumpet voice the Baptist came ; 
 Gentle and still, with quiet deeds, 
 Jesus brought balm for all our needs ; 
 Thunder and lightning clear the air. 
 The gentle rain makes all things fair. 
 
 OPEN EYES. 
 
 C\ MAN, with eyes God made to see, 
 
 Look through the flowers that gem the grass 
 To make the old earth dear for thee, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 2V5 
 
 Look through them as you look through glass, 
 And read words writ by God's own hand 
 If thou hast love to understand. 
 
 All through the songs that nature sings 
 
 A grander song for open ears 
 Comes from the heights of Heaven and brings 
 
 A blessing to the soul that hears. 
 To ears that love has oped is given 
 The soul of songs they sing in Heaven. 
 
 FOR GOD. 
 
 ^IVE thy best thought 
 And look for nought 
 
 From thy compeers. 
 
 The seed may lie for years 
 Ere it grow green with leaves, 
 Then come the blades, the ears, the sheaves 
 
 With harvest blessings fraught. 
 Do good because 'tis right, 
 
 And not for praise ; 
 
 Nor grudge if after many days 
 Other hands 
 Shall reap thy lands. 
 
 Work thou for God — 
 Be thou with Him at one ; 
 
 <\ 
 
276 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Whoever does His work, 
 Rejoice if it is done. 
 
 His perfect law 
 
 Shall upward draw 
 The soul that grasps His hand 
 Into the Fatherland, 
 
 STEERING HOME. 
 
 /^AST on an island of the sea 
 Of dark and deep eternity, 
 A compass I have found 
 And I am homeward bound. 
 
 My bark is frail 
 
 And scant of sail, 
 
 My faith round God is wound 
 
 And I am homeward bound. 
 
 Storms oft arise 
 
 When threatening- skies 
 
 Lower all around, 
 
 But I am homeward bound. 
 
 The sea is wide, 
 
 Yet ships collide ; 
 
 But my small boat 
 
 Keeps still afloat, 
 
 And I am homeward bound. 
 
BORBElt HHYMBS. 27? 
 
 However dark the night, 
 Like sweet home-Hght 
 Shines overhead the stars 
 Beyond life's frets and jars — 
 They guide me home. 
 
 The gates fly wide, 
 When on the tide 
 My boat a triumph car 
 Shall clear the harbour bar, 
 Bearing me home. 
 
 And there in Heaven 
 My friends all shriven 
 My soul absolved shall greet 
 With gladness made complete 
 By love at Home. 
 
 REVELATION IN MAN. 
 
 ^^OD'S highest revelation is 
 
 The noblest of the human race, 
 The man who harbours nothing base, 
 Whose life is his propitiation, 
 
 Christ our ideal is — the highest 
 
 In wisdom, justice, truth, and power, 
 And every grace in sweetest flower, 
 
 The likest God and nighest. 
 
278 BORDER RHYMES 
 
 In loving Him we love the Lord — 
 Our brother He ; our Father's son ; 
 So near to God in purpose one, 
 
 Adoring Him, God is adored. 
 
 MATTER AND SPIRIT. 
 
 /T\ATTER and spirit robe the mind 
 Of God, who is the inner soul — 
 The over-Lord whose written scroll 
 The coming ages will unfold. 
 
 The green earth and the mighty sea; 
 
 The stars above, the flowers below ; 
 
 The seasons as they come and go — 
 All, all are sacred unto me. 
 
 And man, the son of God, with brain 
 Annihilating space and time, 
 With God unfolding powers sublime, 
 
 With works that earn eternal gain. 
 
 And love evolving spirit leal — 
 
 The highest good the crowning grace. 
 The light that shines from God's own face, 
 
 That doth Himself to us reveal. 
 
 For spirit is the highest test — 
 The hall-mark to the true soul given ; 
 The key that opes the gates of Heaven, 
 
 The garment of the wedding guest. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 2^9 
 
 SONS OF GOD. 
 
 f^ UR souls, unseen, are known by what we do ; 
 
 The sun afar is by his affluence known ; 
 And God, prime mover over all, by His 
 Transcendence seen in nature and the souls 
 Of many-sided man, and known by His 
 Sublime self-monograph writ over all. 
 And we can touch the hand that writes in prayer ; 
 Our heads can plan a sequence to His plan — 
 For He has planned our souls with such a power, 
 Our hearts can throb with His ; and shall we then 
 Despise our prospects high, nor care to know 
 That we descend from Him who crowned creation 
 With the soul of man .-' And shall we speak 
 Of " death " and " grave " as terms of final doom ? 
 True sons of God can never die ; they share 
 The Father's immortality. From time to time 
 They shed their withered leaves that they 
 Be clothed upon with robes that better suit 
 Their growing life. And who shall rashly doubt 
 The evidence so clear that presses round 
 The soul on every side, while in the soul 
 A still sweet voice whispers conviction "i 
 Shall the ethereal soul die when its clothes 
 Are laid aside "i And shall it have no power 
 To don the wedding robe when passing through 
 The vestibule into the palace of the King } 
 Is it not meet that we should lay aside 
 Our poor attire, and don our best when we 
 Attend the King } Yea, and I think we make 
 
280 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Our own admission robe, weaving each day 
 The woof into the warp of life. O soul ! 
 See to it that thy robe be rentless, stainless, 
 Strong in its texture and graceful in its folds. 
 
 SONNET. 
 
 /jpi HERE leal hearts live by God's own law 'tis well; 
 Peace and prosperity to them are given, 
 
 And all things smile beneath the smile of Heaven, 
 While anarchy is but another name for hell 
 In which foul sphere accursed spirits dwell 
 
 Who charge the clouds with wrong till they are riven 
 
 By Heaven's avenging wrath ; they are self-driven 
 Against the laws that crush the infidel. 
 O God, Thy laws are just, make thou us strong 
 
 And quick to do Thy will when Thou dost call 
 To rise and smite the upas tree of wrong, 
 
 Where men, whom ignorance and sin enthral, 
 Do wilful crouch beneath its deadly shade. 
 
 O with Thy healing touch make all men sane ; 
 By wisdom let the surging plague be stayed. 
 
 And all the race freed from the curse of Cain. 
 
 SONNETS— HINDRifNCE. 
 
 ^^ Y eyes are fixed upon the guiding star 
 
 That shines in heaven, and leads me ever on; 
 And will lead me until the night is gone. 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 881 
 
 Onward I keenly press through strife and jar — 
 Nearer I press, yet still it seems afar ; 
 
 And oftentimes I feel so much alone, 
 
 And all my life with hindrances o'ergrown, 
 That were not life a pilgrim's holy war 
 That lies between me and my Father's home 
 
 I would lie down and die outside the gate — 
 Careless to live, careless to overcome — 
 
 Till dreamless sleep my life should dissipate. 
 Courage, I say ; that star must surely be 
 
 The eye of God that lights the way for me. 
 
 * ♦ ♦ * 
 
 Ofttimes we aim at bronze, and fret 
 
 When turned aside for gold. Our souls are blind ; 
 
 And when we grope about and only find 
 Hindrances that hindrances beget, 
 Each hindrance seems an angel to beset 
 
 The tree of life. Not so. They bar the way 
 
 Where our unwary souls would blindly stray ; 
 Each hindering angel with his sword of flame 
 Hinders only to help us to our aim — 
 
 Helps us to hew down hindrances that bar 
 
 Our homeward way, and foes that try to mar 
 Our life with suicidal deeds of shame 
 When we God's love with deeds of love should claim ; 
 
 And fearlessly and wisely brush aside 
 
 Each hindrance that the face of God doth hide. 
 
 * # ♦ ♦ 
 
 Sometimes we ask a gift with clamorous prayer — 
 Our prayer is heard, and yet the gift refused ; 
 
282 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 But in our souls instead there is infused 
 Nerve health — gifts oft with hindrances ensnare, 
 And feeble souls with nervelessness impair. 
 
 Better it is to work for strong soul thews, 
 
 And justly earn the strong soul's revenues. 
 Better to earn a title than to heir 
 
 An empty name with soul corrosive rust ; 
 Better the heaviest cross that man can bear 
 
 Than grovelling cry for gifts that are but dust. 
 The prize by effort won grows in the soul ; 
 
 To take an unearned gift is scarcely just ; 
 The man is poor that needs the pauper's dole, 
 
 But he is rich that earns his honest wealth, 
 
 And strong in muscle, brain, and heart with health. 
 
 THREE SONNETS. 
 
 I. 
 
 '/Y| IHILE looking back through all the golden haze 
 
 Beyond the weary space that intervenes. 
 We give the past more than its due of praise, 
 
 And clothe with rosy grace life's youthful scenes. 
 In music heard o'er hills and vales and streams 
 The false notes die, the true are borne along ; 
 So die the jars in retrospective dreams. 
 
 And springtime sweetness swells life's evening song. 
 If there was aught of bitterness or pain, 
 'Tis but remembered with a wistful smile, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 283 
 
 While all the joy brings cent, per cent of gain — 
 
 Blest heritage for souls that have no guile. 
 Oh, happy he " who leaning on his guide," 
 Rests in an afterglow at eventide. 
 
 II. 
 
 Two souls, like seedling plants, together grow. 
 
 And to the common eye seem much the same ; 
 But they take different courses when they go 
 
 Into the crush, with each a different aim. 
 Each one develops his particular powers 
 
 Until the difference is as great as is 
 The different colours of two different flowers ; 
 
 Some traits seem new, while other traits we miss. 
 When first they meet, after long years of change, 
 
 When youth has faded into hoary age — 
 Gone the old buoyancy — each to each seems strange 
 
 Two weary pilgrims nearing their last stage. 
 At scenes of long ago they both unbend. 
 But that's the only theme where they can blend. 
 
 III. 
 
 'Tis qualities we love, and they may change 
 
 With changing years : the plastic soul may take 
 Another hue from sources new and strange. 
 
 And of itself another self may make — 
 Another changed self that may but be 
 
 A feeble paraphrase of someone near, 
 As long ago it was but that of me, 
 
 Now blotted out without a sigh or tear. 
 
284 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 The change may be for better or for worse, 
 But leaves no likeness of the friend of yore. 
 
 Oh, weary change, with nought to reimburse 
 The debt of love that nothing can restore. 
 
 We meet — I cannot grasp an empty glove ; 
 
 Of all I loved there's nothing left to love. 
 
 SONNETS. 
 
 /^NCE I imagined that to squeeze a thought 
 Into the rigid space of fourteen lines 
 
 Was much like cutting yews into designs 
 Elaborately ugly, resembling nought 
 In earth or air or sea by nature wrought. 
 
 Or like the slender tendrils of the vines 
 
 Forced into most unnatural confines ; 
 Or caging the lark that high in heaven ought, 
 On quivering wing, to fill with overflow 
 
 Of its own joy the palpitating air, 
 While all the leafy summer scene below 
 
 Felt the sweet largess on its bosom fair. 
 I thought form should not mould the mind's warm 
 
 glow; 
 Better far that mind should make the form grow. 
 * * * * 
 
 But now I think 'tis nice to have a plot — 
 A diamond or a star of sweet heart's ease, 
 Where art and nature harmonise to please 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 285 
 
 The heart attuned to chord with such a spot, 
 
 That seems a sonnet in God's polyglot ; 
 
 Where the pure heart with purest vision sees 
 How pliant nature with true art agrees 
 
 In harmony, without a jarring note ; 
 
 For nature when idealised by art 
 
 Sends finer thrills through every cultured heart. 
 So a good thought may fitly find a place 
 Within the sonnet's fourteen lines of space, 
 
 As in a setting fit and opulent — 
 
 The setting of the set the complement. 
 
 UNPUNCTUALITY. 
 
 *Ye)UNCTUAL yourself, you do sincerely hate 
 A dawdling want of punctuality 
 In others. A certain time you specify 
 
 To go somewhere ; you're up to time and wait, 
 And wait, and wait to see your friend appear — 
 Your temper's going — gone, that's very clear ; 
 
 You ban the selfishness that's always late; 
 
 Your friend's worst failings crowd into your mind, 
 And imperfections by the score you find 
 
 On which with irritation you dilate. 
 At last, in wrath, you do resolve to go 
 And leave the selfish soul that tries you so 
 
 With thoughtless carelessness that arrogates 
 
 A right that wantonly exasperates, 
 
 W^hen up he turns ^U smiles and perspiration, 
 
 H 
 
286 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Unconscious he of doing- aught that's wrong ; 
 Takes no account of having kept you long ; 
 
 Begins his chronic explanation. 
 
 He never sees the frown upon your brow, 
 And never dreams that you will disallow 
 
 His right to give you provocation. 
 
 Someone he met, that spoke and spoke till he 
 Forgot the hidden wings of time could flee 
 
 Far, far beyond his calculation, 
 And then he said " Goodbye " and fled in haste — 
 Ran every blessed step as he'd been chased ; 
 
 Now here he is with late precipitation, 
 
 The sweet disciple of procrastination. 
 
 SWEET VIOLETS. 
 TTTHE violets in the verdant lap of spring 
 
 Flaunt no aggressive colours on the eye, 
 
 But, meekly, on the soft winds lingering nigh 
 Breathe out their hearts when birds begin to sing. 
 
 O violets, that heart to heart hath given. 
 
 Your odours fan the soul with breath from Heaven, 
 While thoughts, like fays from every petal peering, 
 Whisper spirit words in spirit hearing. 
 The blent aroma silently enspheres 
 
 A power that smoothes the crumpled cares of life ; 
 That mingles balm with sorrow's burning tears, 
 
 Pours sacred oil on stormy waves of strife ; 
 And all the atmosphere is fragrant made 
 With violets in the heart that never fade. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 287 
 
 SUNSETS. 
 
 C\ BLESSED sun ! before thee darkness fled 
 When, like the benedictions of a king, 
 
 Thy light fell down to fructify the spring ; 
 Earth smiled, with all her fairest flowers outspread. 
 
 Responding to thy splendours far above. 
 
 As souls respond to God's far-shining love. 
 Man toiled, joyed, wept beneath the blessings shed 
 On him by thy beneficence o'erhead. 
 Careless, until beyond the western hills 
 
 Thy passing left such afterglow of light 
 He felt the pressure of the infinite that fills 
 
 The heart with thoughts as with bright stars the 
 night ; 
 Unmindful was he of the noonday sun, 
 But moved to rapture when the day was done. 
 
 O soul that walked with God ! in high degree 
 Evolving good for all in words and deeds ; 
 Training to sweet content our hungry needs ; 
 
 Pure as the dawn, and strong in purity. 
 And wisely good in sowing precious seeds 
 To crowd from out our heart the baneful weeds. 
 
 Thy course was like the sun's, straight on and free, 
 
 Thy spirit like the light made darkness flee. 
 We did not gauge thy worth until the night 
 When thy calm light shone on our cloudy grief. 
 
 Making the atmosphere around us bright 
 W^ith such an all-entrancing afterglow 
 
288 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 From the unseen shore, enlarging our beh'ef, 
 Transforming all our pain and all our woe, 
 Till faith was sight and we could let thee go. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 TTTHE streams, the winds, the birds, the trees, 
 ^^ The lowing kine, the bleating sheep, 
 The rolling thunder and the roaring seas 
 
 Touch soul and sense with music deep — 
 A-wed to thoughts that sweetly please, 
 
 Like words enfolded in the sweep 
 Of melody that flows from fingers deft 
 
 That on some perfect instrument 
 Weaves thought with sound as warp with weft. 
 
 Simple strains do charm the ear, 
 But higher moods demand to hear 
 True rhythmic wisdom clothed in words 
 
 That speak in music fit and clear ; 
 That touch like dreams; that strike like swords; 
 
 That lift the arm ; that wake the tear ; 
 That bind the soul with silken cords 
 
 To lawful liberty, which is 
 The music of the higher life 
 Where is no jarring note of strife. 
 
 Our lives, with willing hearts, should be 
 
 Like songs of perfect harmony. 
 
 Attuned, O God, to love of Thee, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 289 
 
 THE UNSEEN SOUL. 
 
 ^T^USCLE, sinew, brain, and motor nerve 
 
 Are but the wondrous tools we touch and see 
 
 Created by the Overmind to be 
 Revealers of the unseen mind and verve; 
 And well the purpose of the soul they serve. 
 
 They yoke the lightning to his kingly car, 
 
 And bring him knowledge from the morning star. 
 They sound the sea and gauge the restless storm, 
 And all the master's messages perform ; 
 And if from their ordained use they swerve, 
 
 Too oft the unseen master is to blame 
 For misdirection culpable and wrong 
 
 That weaves around himself a net of shame 
 That, as his will grows weak, grows gross and strong. 
 
 O unseen lord of many slaves, be kind 
 
 To them and loyal to the Overmind. 
 
 THE RAINBOW. 
 
 *nr CLOUD was by a lovely rainbow spanned. 
 And every several drop that helped to form 
 The coronet upon the passing storm 
 Of its own brilliancy felt proud and grand 
 In binding earth to heaven with such a band, 
 As if some sweet inherent merit 
 Made lovely all its soul and spirit. 
 When lo ! a higher cloud obscured the sun, 
 
290 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And every raindrop lost its radiant hue, 
 And fell from heaven feeling itself undone. 
 
 The glad earth caught them in its bosom true, 
 And all the flowers spread out their leaves to greet 
 The downcast rain with benedictions sweet. 
 
 Sunshine and rain spanned heaven with a bow, 
 
 Sunshine and rain were woven in the flowers below : 
 All things combine to make God's laws complete. 
 
 When from some dark-browed cloud our tears, like 
 rain, 
 
 Troubles with stormy thoughts our atmosphere, 
 
 Full oftentimes we feel a glory near 
 That tempers all our bitter grief and pain 
 With soul-ennobling loveliness and gain. 
 
 'Tis God's own smile on every trembling tear 
 
 That makes our sorrows beautiful appear. 
 We lift the heaviest cross with ready grace 
 
 And bear it up life's steepest roughest hill ; 
 If thus we may but see His gracious face 
 
 And feel His peaceful presence with us still. 
 Love binds the soul to God with sorrow's chain 
 
 As earth is bound to heaven with drops of rain. 
 
 Upon the falling rain the sun shone bright, 
 Spanning the heavens with a resplendent bow 
 That made the dull grey cloud with glory glow. 
 
 So shines upon our souls God's gracious light, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 291 
 
 And is refracted and reflected so 
 
 To all the many coloured creeds we know 
 
 That bind the heaven above to earth below. 
 
 We vainly think of all the various creeds 
 That ours alone is adequate and true, 
 
 Nor see refracted in our thoughts and deeds 
 The light that shines upon our cloudy view. 
 
 Oh ! that by us 'twas clearly understood 
 
 That every creed that loves the light is good. 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 XSX} 
 
 HEN weary with the strife my tired eyes 
 
 Looked up to God through all the silent night, 
 
 Waiting for Him to touch the east with light, 
 His heedful love heard all my moaning cries 
 And shewed me how on hindrances to rise^ 
 
 And view all round from such a vantage height, 
 While His own hand touched my poor eyes with sight ; 
 And the wide prospect made my spirit wise — 
 I saw the way He led me by the hand 
 
 Through thorny paths, up rugged heights and steep. 
 He gave the seed I scatter o'er the land — 
 
 The harvest in my soul I keep ; 
 And now I know the toil, the grief, the pain 
 Are slaves of God that lade my soul with gain. 
 
292 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 When, in the night, beneath the starry heaven, 
 
 Where, through the clouds, moonbeams uncertain 
 
 quiver 
 Among the boughs that span Life's flowing river, 
 
 With praying hands, like Jacob, I have striven 
 With Jacob's God to be all purely shriven : 
 That wisdom, grace and strength, and truth might 
 
 ever 
 Bind my poor life unto the great Lifegiver : 
 
 That all the gifts for which my soul has striven 
 
 Might be returned to Him with usury. 
 
 I stumbling strove with toil and weariness. 
 With pain and sore heart dreariness ; 
 
 God touched my eyes with light, and I could see 
 
 These were His angels sent to answer me : 
 Who strive to overcome them is full wise — 
 The vanquished angels freely give the prize. 
 
 TRIED. 
 
 J-JULL many a time my heart was sorely tried 
 
 When cherished hopes, like morning drops of 
 dew. 
 Glistened and dried, or, like grey phantoms, flew 
 Before my face with promises that lied, 
 Though for the promises I could have died. 
 I felt that where a shadow was a true 
 Substance must most surely be, which to pursue 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 
 
 Was worth all effort. All hindrance I defied 
 
 And marqhed straight to the goal heedless of pain, 
 Of toil, of hopes, like withered leaves that fell 
 Around some lonely hermit's desert cell, 
 
 And all inducements to relax the strain 
 
 To win, I heard God say unto my soulj " Repell 
 
 All whispers that would clog thy life with sin, 
 
 Then shall the pearly gates fly wide to let thee in," 
 
 LAW. 
 
 "Yg^LEASURES are ever found at God's right hand ; 
 No matter in what place or world we be. 
 The loyal soul at God's right hand is free ; 
 
 For God's right hand is law that cannot bend 
 
 To wrong, but will service with service blend. 
 The restless wheels go round by wise decree 
 In grooves that only serving souls can see, 
 
 And he alone, who best can understand 
 The law, giving heart service leal and true. 
 Is safe and helped — service for service due ; 
 
 But he whose life runs counter to the law 
 
 Is caught within the wheels' unceasing round — 
 Is crushed, and round the whirling shaft is wound 
 
 And cast from life into the arms of death 
 
 By wheels where healthful bread of life is ground. 
 
294 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 IMMORTAL DEATH. 
 
 TMMORTAL death ! 'tis terrible to think 
 
 How men, from eastern figures, understood 
 Eternal torment : holy men who could 
 
 Boldly declaim on such a theme, nor shrink, 
 
 But rather gloatingly o'erlook the brink 
 Of deep despair, nor see the magnitude 
 Of woe that never found an interlude — 
 
 A depth of woe that could no lower sink. 
 
 Better to look on sin as that which makes 
 
 The soul a rotten branch, that pure wind shakes 
 From off the living tree into the mire — 
 Gathered by death and cast into the fire, 
 
 And there consumed to all unconscious dross, 
 
 This is eternal death — eternal loss. 
 
 EXPRESSION. 
 
 I ^ ABOUR to give thy thought the best expression 
 In fittest words that may take root and grow 
 
 In other minds until it overflow 
 And find embodiment and full possession 
 In noble deeds, stamped with its own impression, 
 
 That, like bright suns that shed a kindly glow 
 
 All round, on hearts above and needs below, 
 To foster kindly deeds in long succession. 
 We have no happiness unless we toil 
 
 In labour hard, or sweat, for some good end ; 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 295 
 
 'Tis then we plant our seed in fruitful soil 
 And our will with the will of Heaven blend ; 
 
 Then increase comes, with Heaven's anointing oil, 
 In harvest of good that all our thoughts transend. 
 
 DO RIGHT. 
 
 "TjET no weak wavering mar a good resolve, 
 But fearlessly and firmly do the right 
 
 With willing promptness and with all thy might ; 
 To fear and hesitate is to involve 
 The soul in obstacles that do revolve 
 
 And twine themselves around thee in despite 
 
 Of thy poor wavering attempts to fight. 
 Firm purposed effort shall alone absolve 
 Whoever turns from wrong resolved to win 
 
 Release from bonds that do the soul disgrace — 
 From false and wily blandishments of sin, 
 
 To freedom in the light of God's own face. 
 Kingship is never won by soft content, 
 But by resolve with truest effort blent. 
 
 KINGDOM. 
 
 //) I E only reign o'er what we can subdue 
 
 By brain and hand to freely gladly give 
 Allegience we can claim as justly due, 
 By bond of ableness most positive. 
 
296 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And we shall surely reign at God's right hand 
 By right of laws we serve and understand. 
 The wider that our kingdom is we rise 
 The nearer God, with purer, opener eyes, 
 Laying our gifts upon the altar stair 
 With bended knee before the absolutely fair, 
 Claiming with all the fearlessness of love 
 The right to reign, as sons of God, above 
 The clouds of ignorance and wilful wrong, 
 By right of His inherent self making us strong. 
 
 WORK. 
 
 /jfl I ORK is the nutriment on which we grow, 
 
 That man is poor who has no aptitude or will 
 
 For work that waits for his particular skill ; 
 The work we're fittest for, that best we know 
 Is work that shall with good our life o'erflow. 
 
 When we in it God's purposes fulfil. 
 
 For work unfit the primal curse is still 
 To toil with sweat writ sorrow on our brow. 
 The work that's done with a complying heart 
 
 For God is good, and brings sweet peace and light. 
 In idleness the soul remains apart 
 
 From God, and only earns the curse of blight. 
 O, soul, with all thy powers be quick to serve 
 Thy Master well, with willing heart and nerve. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 297 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF OUR DAYS. 
 " TXT HE spirit walks of every day deceased 
 *~^ And smiles an angel or a fury frowns," 
 
 The spirit of to-day to-morrow crowns 
 With life and health, and store of good increased, 
 Or makes us foes that will not be appeased ; 
 
 Then make each thought, each word, each deed 
 
 A helpful angel for the next day's need ; 
 Build thou an altar on the past surceased 
 Where thou may'st lay thy life, with God at one, 
 
 And feel in every nerve salubrity 
 And power to trample all obstructions down. 
 
 When this day's soul the next shall sanctify, 
 While all the tempter's darts, pointless and light. 
 Do fall upon the loyal shield of right. 
 
 RETROSPECT. 
 
 "jTTTiS greatly wise to talk with our past hours 
 
 And ask them what report they bore to 
 Heaven," 
 
 'Tis wise to use the hours as they are given 
 In freely consecrating all our powers 
 To Him who sends His grace in growthy showers ; 
 
 And every soul that hath with evil striven 
 
 Shall be with help and pardon shriven. 
 And far above earth's brawls, and pomps, and towers, 
 His soul shall grow with upward growing things, 
 
 For all our days are steps on which we rise 
 
298 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 To thrones, where we shall sit and reign as kings, 
 
 According as our hearts are leal and wise. 
 So live that every hour's report shall be 
 Of coming good a certain prophecy. 
 
 OBSTRUCTIONS. 
 
 OBSTRUCTIONS are as angels that we meet 
 
 On life's low hollows, and on life's high hills ; 
 
 We wrestle with them till our higher wills 
 Gain over them a victory complete. 
 
 By right of strength we take their secret skill 
 
 And bid them all our purposes fulfil ; 
 They watch our eye, our lordship they entreat, 
 They run our messages with willing feet ; 
 We wrestle with them at the gates of life, 
 
 With all the promised land spread out before. 
 When we subdue them in the friendly strife 
 
 Their faces shine with service evermore. 
 Kings are no kings unless while here they do 
 A kingdom from the wilderness subdue. 
 
 THE LAKE. 
 
 TTTHE lake beneath the moon is calm and clear 
 
 As if it held in store the light of all the day, 
 And here and there are clumps of sallow willows 
 Like ships iu miniature on some small inland sea, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And every twig is mirrored faithfully 
 
 In the still waters, as if the bush were double — 
 
 The bush above, its duplicate below. Speak loud, 
 
 Echo reflects your words as if the dead 
 
 Within the lone churchyard were mocking you. 
 
 Reflection sees the long procession 
 Moving slowly east from village homes 
 Left desolate, to this still congregation , 
 Of the dead, where weary pilgrims 
 At the door of God's own house cast off 
 Their dusty robes to enter into rest. 
 
 O living soul make thy life beautiful, 
 For every word and deed, is mirrored in 
 The inland lake of life, and makes for good 
 Or ill, in the great sea of universal being. 
 
 TRUTH. 
 
 TTTHE man who stands upon the truth is strong ; 
 All stable things and right are on his side. 
 
 And will the final victory decide 
 For him,, though falsehood with her brazen throng 
 Of ugly, slimy things, that crawl among 
 
 The dust and dirt of life, and, fearful, hide 
 
 In unclean corners, may the truth deride. 
 And slander souls that fight against all wrong. 
 As Luther did at Worms, when priest and prince 
 
 Assembled were the fearless man to crush : 
 
300 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Firm as a rock he met the impetuous rush, 
 And made the fiercest of his foes to wince, 
 " So help me God," he said in word and act, 
 " I cannot, and I never will retract." 
 
 TIME. 
 
 (^IME moves along with sure and steady pace, 
 Heedless ; nor stays for joy ; nor hastes for 
 grief ; 
 
 When coming seems so long, when past so brief; 
 Youth, fearless, hails it with a glowing face. 
 Girding itself as one that runs a race ; 
 
 Sees but the summer flower, the autumn sheaf; 
 
 But age, with pensive thought in the sear leaf 
 Doth read a thousand memories that retrace 
 The steps of time — the wise man's heritage. 
 Youth's rosy cheeks and heart that brims with glee 
 And pride of strength so lithe and blithe and free 
 Should weave white robes for honourable age. 
 The weary pilgrim nearing his last stage, 
 
 In sight of home, laden with gathered store. 
 
 Would not be wise to ask for one mile more. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 301 
 
 TEMPTATION. 
 
 CfOULS balanced true in ever part are strong; 
 Efficiently they keep the capitol 
 
 With all their vassals under wise control, 
 Nought tempts the tempter to entice to wrong ; 
 But round ill-balanced souls temptations throng, 
 
 And where the walls are weak their arts employ 
 
 To weaken weakness and what's good destroy. 
 O soul ; though sweet may seem the syren's song, 
 Ope not the gates but throw the gauntlet down, 
 
 Defying treachery with noble scorn. 
 Be brave, fight well and win the victor's crown. 
 
 Having no fear but to be overborne, 
 Then shall thy scars attest the title given 
 To such as win by force the right to Heaven. 
 
 GOD'S LAWS. 
 
 TTTHE laws of God in everything inhere — 
 
 The will of God is everywhere enshrined 
 And to the open eye reveals the Master's mind, 
 Like songs that thrill the heart and please the 
 ear. 
 But wait within the instrument till he appears 
 Whose hand is trained to loose the strains 
 confined 
 
302 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And silent, until they are with soul combined 
 Then the dumb organ speaks in accents clear. 
 All nature is an instrument that's made 
 
 With laws, and keys that do the laws unlock, 
 To set the singing angels free to aid 
 
 The knowing hearts that can their aid invoke. 
 
 The Oversoul has breathed law, 
 
 Through all we feel and see and know ; 
 Through birds that fly and flowers that blow ; 
 
 Through " Nature red in tooth and claw " ; 
 
 In earth and air and forest shaw, 
 
 In stars that shine, in suns that glow, 
 In brooks that murmer as they flow, 
 
 In everything that man ere saw, 
 
 Is folded up a steadfast law, 
 And everything the eye can see 
 
 Is printed by God's holy hand. 
 
 And full of wisdom strong and free, 
 
 That we must toil to understand 
 
 How soul with law may sweetly blend. 
 
 Nature is God's teaching book. 
 It lies before us open wide 
 Ready to be the leal soul's guide, 
 And give its gifts to such as look 
 For them, with hearts that will not. brook 
 To be denied whate'er betide. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 303 
 
 To fools it doth its wisdom hide, 
 For they run counter to its law 
 
 In wilful ignorance that must 
 Most surely on their folly draw 
 
 The sequent punishment that's just. 
 But he who reads with heart on fire 
 
 Shall see the angels waiting, stand 
 
 Ready to serve at God's right hand — 
 Shall hear them say, " Come up higher 
 And get from God thine heart's desire." 
 
 LEADERS. 
 
 jC^OMETIMES a giant of the human race — 
 A son of God, appears to guide and lead 
 
 To higher planes of onward word and deed 
 The sons of men ; with steadfast soul to chase 
 The darkness from the land, and in its place 
 
 To flood with light the truths that pilgrims need ; 
 
 Heedless he is of blame, acclaim, or meed, 
 Intent alone to lead men to the Father's face : 
 How gladly should we hail the kingly man — 
 
 How gladly should assenting reason run 
 
 Loyal as light is to the lordly sun — 
 With eager feet to follow near the van ; 
 
 And when the clouds receive him from our sight, 
 
 Let's write his eulogy in deeds of light. 
 
304 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 KEYS. 
 
 (TOASTERS of song arise who take the keys, 
 
 And with strong hands unlock the thunder 
 cloud, 
 
 And from its bosom helpful angels crowd 
 Eager the master mind to serve and please, 
 Bearing his messages o'er land and seas. 
 
 They do his battles with the night, dark browed, 
 
 And drive it to the jungle disendowed. 
 When the strong man the willing angels seize 
 Heaven smiles, the young earth wonders at each act. 
 And marks with sweet completeness their compact. 
 
 When man subdues, with love, the angel band 
 They blend with concrete service thoughts abstract. 
 
 Swift to obey the master's magic wand 
 Of knowledge, that proves his lordship over all 
 That answers freely to his lordly call. 
 
 SABBATH. 
 
 TTTHE Sabbath morn fills all the Sabbath air 
 ^^ With a sweet restfulness and heavenly calm- 
 To earthly care a blessed and welcome balm. 
 Within ourselves, without, and everywhere 
 The soul of sacred peace broods calm and fair, 
 As if creation sang her holiest psalm, 
 While all the way for pilgrim feet the palm 
 Branches are strewn up to the altar stair, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 305 
 
 Where we our lives a willing offering lay 
 With hearts that yearn to be at one with God, 
 
 And walk with fearless feet within his way, 
 As pilgrims walk along a pleasant road, 
 
 Knowing that home and love are at the end, 
 Where love with love shall sweetly blend 
 With love that doth all other love transcend. 
 
 LEAVES. 
 /^I HEN autumn leaves grow ripe they die, 
 
 They have gathered the light, the heat, and the 
 rain. 
 
 And stored them up to make leaves again ; 
 They have lived their life, and now they lie 
 A carpet of death for the passer by. 
 
 In their fresh young life they made a fane 
 
 That quivered with many a gladsome strain ; 
 But now they rot 'neath a leaden sky. 
 But death shall transmute them to life once more, 
 
 For life is nourished by death and change ; 
 Waves come and go by the lone sea shore ; 
 
 Leaves come and go by the forest grange ; 
 The trees live on in the ebb and flow. 
 As the tide of life swells to and fro. 
 
 So the soul shall live while the form dies, 
 
 And draw round itself a raiment meet, 
 With room for the large heart's larger beat. 
 In a higher sphere, where clearer eyes 
 
306 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Shall see how the pure heart wins the prize ; 
 
 While angels of love shall hasten to greet 
 
 Life emerged from wraps grown obsolete — 
 Wraps forgot by the soul grown wise. 
 Why should we cling to rags outworn 
 
 When the Master calls us home from pain, 
 From a prison dark to freedom's morn, 
 
 From needful loss to eternal gain ? 
 If the soul would live the form must die — 
 " Dust to dust, the soul to its home on high." 
 
 EVIL. 
 
 " Evil is seen ' as cloud across God's orb ; no orb itself.' " 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 CfATAN is wrong personified and should 
 
 Not as a person worsting the Most High 
 
 Be understood, but as reeking to the sky 
 A foul miasma, clouding over good. 
 Obscuring truth with sin's falsehood. 
 
 Truth is an orb ; sins are clouds that fly 
 
 'Tween us and it to blur and mystify. 
 And wandering fools with vain pretence delude. 
 Sin is disease that fastens on the life. 
 
 And we must overcome the festering sore 
 By a wise watchfulness and constant strife. 
 
 Till we are sound and whole to our hearts' core, 
 And victors stand before the King all shriven. 
 And hear Him say, " Well done, ye have won Heaven." 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 30Y 
 
 CHARITY. 
 
 fTTHE weakness of our will when trials test 
 Our loyalty to what is good and right 
 
 Should teach us charity when we would smite 
 With scorn a fallen brother, or would jest 
 At wrong, enjoying with malicious zest 
 
 His downward plunge from some high height — 
 
 Bright promise lost in dark temptations night, 
 Where talents meant for good are grown a pest. 
 May we walk warily, for who can tell 
 
 But he, the man whom we so much deride. 
 Was strong where we are weak, and might excel 
 
 Where we could gain no foothold by his side. 
 O, let our weakness teach us to be strong, 
 To succour weakness when assailed by wrong. 
 
 LIMITATION. 
 
 fTTHE water from the fountainhead may be 
 
 Fresh drawn and pure, and clear as morning 
 light ; 
 But yet ye cannot fill with all your might 
 Pitchers beyond their own capacity. 
 And there are minds whose hard rigidity 
 Have no expansion for new views of right, 
 And eyes that seem to have no power of sight. 
 In vain the light to truth doth testify. 
 
308 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Eyes have they, but they neither see nor know 
 What larger, more elastic minds perceive ; 
 
 They have no hunger for the ceaseless flow 
 Of dignity that loyal souls achieve. 
 
 O, shall we blame the ignorant content 
 
 Only less than we do a life ill spent ? 
 
 RICHES. 
 
 (^ HY barns may burst with hoarded heaps of grain 
 And coin thy coffers fill like flakes of snow. 
 
 All earthly good to theeward ceaseless flow. 
 Thy body never feel a moment's pain, 
 Thy strength no needful labour's overstrain ; 
 
 Still he whose task it is to till and sow 
 
 Thy fields, and must each day some want forego, 
 May have a richer soul and kinglier reign, 
 O'er wider regions that his power subdues. 
 
 For that alone is to be counted wealth 
 That with true nutriment the soul imbues 
 
 With wisdom, nobleness, and vigorous health. 
 It matters not the want or have of gold. 
 The test of kingliness is life controlled. 
 
 That man is rich who has the blessed gift 
 Of drawing to himself true, loving friends. 
 Whose helpfulness around him binds 
 
 Love's silken bonds. No winds can turn adrift, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 30& 
 
 No current sweep away, however swift, 
 
 The soul that anchorage securely finds 
 
 In sweet community of hearts and minds, 
 Where clouds are rent, and love looks through the rift 
 O, blessed gift to see with friendship's eyes 
 
 The beauty and the blessing everywhere ! 
 The sweetness and the light that charm the wise 
 
 When shared with friendship's eyes are doubly fair. 
 Love is the golden key that opes the heart ; 
 Hate bids the helpful ones of God depart. 
 
 "GREET THE UNSEEN WITH A CHEER." 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 VA ES, we may " greet the unseen with a cheer," 
 ^ For all the way our eyes have seen afar 
 The steady light in heaven of our pole star 
 
 By which our onward course we steer. 
 
 Though rough and steep the way we have no fear, 
 But trample o'er whate'er our way would bar, 
 And all that we subdue in peace or war 
 
 Shall make the light of heaven more sweet and clear ; 
 
 And each accession of new strength we find 
 Shall be a key to ope another door 
 
 That shall disclose new glories to our mind, 
 And riches that we keep for evermore ; 
 
 And when the morning star shall disappear 
 
 In light, we'll greet the dayspring with a cheer. 
 
310 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 CONSUMING FIRES. 
 
 " God, who is a consuming fire for all evil ; 
 Tophet, which is a consuming fire for all good." 
 
 /^PXXIMES when hearts grow poor and cold, 
 God heats affliction's sacred fire, 
 
 To burn the dross of vain desire 
 And leave more pure and bright the gold. 
 We cry in pain when flames enfold 
 
 The soul as on a funeral pyre ; 
 
 They burn the dross to bring us nigher 
 The love that shall no good withhold. 
 Then let us kiss the chastening rod, 
 
 It saves us from the fires of hell 
 That burn up every trace of God. 
 
 Better the fire that burns the shell 
 Than fire that burns the image and the name 
 Of God out of the soul with ruthless flame. 
 
 THE RACE. 
 
 I ^ IFE is a race ; we see the goal afar ; 
 
 Obstructions hem us in on every side — 
 Temptations, waywardness, and worldly pride ; 
 With these our souls must wage a constant war, 
 Trampling them down where'er they rise to bar 
 Our onward course. By what impedes we're tried. 
 And he who wills to win must lay aside 
 Each hindering weight and keep on life's pole star 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 311 
 
 A watchful eye, nor turn aside for aught — 
 Heedless alike for idle praise or blame, 
 
 Careful alone to do the thing he ought. 
 For him there is no failure and no shame, 
 
 For he runs well who runs with all his might 
 
 And keeps the course according to his light. 
 
 SOWING. 
 C\ SOWER going forth to sow thy seeds ! 
 'Tis for eternal harvests that ye sow ; 
 
 As is the seed, so shall the harvests grow. 
 Watch well thy thoughts, they are the germs of deeds; 
 Cast out the thoughts that are the germs of weeds 
 
 As ye would drive away a deadly foe 
 
 That would with withering blight thy field o'erflow, 
 And leave unsatisfied man's hungry needs. 
 Sow thou thy seeds with the first dawn of day. 
 
 When evening comes withhold not thou thy hand ; 
 Sow thou from rosy morn till evening grey, 
 
 And as ye sow let prayers to heaven ascend, 
 Nor grudge that other hands shall reap thy field — 
 Seedtime can give what harvests cannot yield. 
 
 MIRACLES. 
 (T^EN vaguely speak of miracles, and say 
 
 They prove the Bible is God's word direct 
 From Heaven, inspired, infallibly correct; 
 And if our souls refuse the vague array 
 
312 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Of words that come between our eyes and day, 
 We're branded infidels that do infect 
 Our sphere with heresies that do reject 
 
 The word of God, whose kingship we betray. 
 
 While we do claim to see a clearer light 
 And know in miracles a higher law, 
 
 We see God's words in letters shining bright 
 Everywhere, and bow in love and holy awe. 
 
 The natural is what we can touch and see — 
 
 The supernatural, life glad and free 
 
 In and over all, life's " open sesame." 
 
 KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 *TpLANTED in midst of Eden grew the tree 
 Of knowledge of evil and of good. 
 
 What wonder if the reasoning spirit should 
 Ask why knowledge should forbidden be 
 When lower wants had satisfaction free ^ 
 
 'Tis pleasant to the eye and good for food. 
 
 And nature's secrets may be understood 
 By knowledge. Were our eyes open we could see ; 
 'Tis good to see, and knowledge gives us light ; 
 
 Then should we be as gods, and it were well 
 To be as gods in wisdom and in might. 
 
 By knowledge we all lower life excel. 
 If then on knowledge good and evil grows, 
 We will endure the thorns to have the rose. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 313 
 
 Knowledge of good is always good, but why 
 Knowledge of evil ? Knowing one implies 
 Knowledge of the other ; the shadow lies 
 
 Among the sunshine, and against a lie 
 
 The truth — to see the one we must descry 
 The other ; death is but a shadow thrown 
 Across our view by life that God shines on. 
 
 Good we must know to do ; evil to fly. 
 
 Had we no power to choose 'tween good and ill, 
 We were, indeed, but worthless clods of clay ; 
 
 But having power to choose with a free will. 
 We prove our kinship to the Lord of day. 
 
 If we would be leal sons of God we must 
 
 With all our heart prove faithful to our trust. 
 
 STRENGTH. 
 
 rijRUE manhood centres in free will, 
 
 And muscles gather strength by use ; 
 
 For strength we court the perilous. 
 Nor count that toil which proves our skill. 
 'Tis moral gain to vanquish ill. 
 
 We know that victory shall transfuse 
 
 Abiding strength in our soul thews — 
 Give wings to mount the steepest hill. 
 To feel our strength is keen delight. 
 
 Swine wallow in a wealth of food, 
 
314 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 But man must scale the Pisgah height 
 And grandly see that God is good. 
 To reach the heights we must aspire 
 By bowing to a life that's higher. 
 
 KINGSHIP. 
 
 /^HE strong wise man is kingly, and can make 
 All his environments to hew his wood 
 
 And draw his water, and freely take 
 His yoke, and serve him as his subjects should. 
 But he who is not strong nor wise can only yield, 
 
 And from his feeble grasp let fall the tool 
 He is too weak and indolent to wield. 
 
 Environments rule him ; he cannot rule. 
 And he who will not serve and cannot reign. 
 
 Will kick against the pricks and fume and fret, 
 With rebel temper spending force for pain. 
 
 To wind about his feet a tangled net. 
 We reign by right o'er all we can subdue, 
 But kings for service must give service true. 
 
 THE WISEST MAN. 
 
 '^gvIS not the wisest man that soonest gains 
 The common ear, the loud applause 
 That to himself encomiums draws ; 
 But 'tis the man with common brains 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 315 
 
 Who speaks what all men dumbly feel, 
 Who unto them themselves reveal, 
 
 And every nebulous thought explains 
 In words that make men feel that they 
 The very things themselves might say 
 
 Could they have bound the words in sequent chains. 
 The noblest man is he whose gifts 
 The common mind from lowness lifts 
 
 To wiser views and higher, nobler planes 
 
 Of thought. Though bound in iron chains, he reigns. 
 
 SLOW TO BLAME. 
 
 /// IHEN in a brother man we see aught wrong. 
 There may be meaner wrong in us if we 
 Smile in repeating what amiss we see. 
 
 We may perchance be weak where he is strong. 
 And if, at wrong in us, he smile elate, 
 We think the cruelty exceeding great. 
 
 'Tis this should teach our hearts how pitiless 
 It is to gloat o'er weakness, when as weak 
 We are ourselves. When we have aught to speak 
 
 Let us not with black-hearted eagerness 
 
 Delight to blaze abroad a brother's shame, 
 But meekly, with a lowly self distrust. 
 Speak only, and with sorrow, what we must, 
 
 Respecting as our own our neighbour's name. 
 While trying all we can with love to win 
 An erring brother quietly from sin. 
 
316 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 WEARINESS. 
 
 Q\ HOW the weary yearn for peace and rest 
 
 * When aching limbs are bent beneath a weight 
 
 Of toils that ever do accumulate, 
 When nerve and muscle vainly do protest 
 
 Against the burdens that subordinate 
 
 The higher life that should predominate. 
 It too is weary, and is dispossessed 
 By lower wants to lower straits compressed ; 
 
 The heart, too weary to be passionate, 
 Can only feel that sleep, intense and deep. 
 
 Is the one good alone that's understood — 
 The only harvest that the soul can reap, 
 
 When bowed to earth beneath life's threefold rood ; 
 O, weary one, the way is short, if steep. 
 
 His yoke is easy, and it makes the load 
 
 That thou must bear gall thy bent shoulders less ; 
 
 Learn thou of Him who felt life's weariness — 
 His yoke was love, and every step He trod 
 Bound Him more closely to the strength of God, 
 
 As forward still with gentle lowliness 
 
 He went with holy self-forgetfulness. 
 While from His life a wealth of healing flowed. 
 And all who bathe within that healing stream 
 
 Shall feel the balm of rest in every sense 
 Steal o'er their conscious souls like joy's glad dream ; 
 
 While angels strow Heaven's own munificence 
 On every limb, on tired heart and brain ; 
 The toil is blest that Heaven crowns with gain. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 317 
 
 STORMS. 
 
 ^jXPECT the storms of life while staying here, 
 And when they come ye need feel no surprise ; 
 
 Tis good to see all round with open eyes. 
 'Twere easy on life's open sea to steer 
 
 Were there no storms, no rocks, no privateer ; 
 
 The sailor knows such things exist, and tries, 
 
 With knowledge of the ship, the seas, the skies, 
 To keep from every hindrance clear. 
 Knowledge and loyalty to laws concerned 
 
 Give power to reign as kings o'er all we know, 
 And when such knowledge we have truly learned 
 
 We do inherit earth and all below. 
 We set our feet on sublunary things. 
 To know and to obey has made us kings. 
 
 DRAGONS' TEETH. 
 
 /^UR thoughts are seeds we sow with our compeers, 
 And folded in each seed there surely lies. 
 
 Strictly exact, the punishment or prize ; 
 Forgiveness waits for our repentant tears. 
 But love cannot blot out the sins of years. 
 
 We only can with firm resolve arise 
 
 And on the home star fix our eager eyes — 
 With sword in hand return through hostile spears 
 Of serried ranks of armed foes that grew 
 
 From dragons' teeth, sown by our evil deeds ; 
 
318 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 But with the sword of God and purpose true 
 We may hew down our enemies like weeds, 
 
 And with Heaven's help each hindrance base subdue, 
 Until our homeward way no foe impedes. 
 
 CHARACTER. 
 ^j^HATE'ER'S the character, it leaves 
 It's impress on the form and face, 
 
 Pure heart and seeing eye can trace 
 The lines of thought and act it weaves, 
 In face and form as it receives. 
 
 And harbours what is good or base 
 
 Within a heart of guile or grace, 
 That good or ill itself conceives. 
 Then let us watch our wayward leaning. 
 
 And keep our lives unstained and straight, 
 And in God s field still keep on gleaning 
 
 The strength that makes us consecrate 
 Our lives to life's true aim and meaning, 
 
 And everything subordinate 
 To service with a love divine. 
 That makes both soul and body shine. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 /// 1 E to our neighbours pray each day, 
 And we each other's prayers hear ; 
 If I can answer my compeer, 
 Much more shall He who taught to pray 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 319 
 
 Hear me and all my fears allay. 
 
 Yea ! shall not He who made the ear 
 
 Hear when I cry for guidance clear ? 
 And shall not He who made the way 
 Lead me, His child, by heart and hand ? 
 All the way His laws like angels stand — 
 
 Each law from Him a delegate ; 
 And in His name they answers send 
 
 When we with them co-operate, 
 And with their power our knowledge blend. 
 
 FORCE. 
 
 rrTRUE force, invisible, alone is strong ; 
 
 We do not see the wind that waves the trees 
 
 Nor yet the will that gives out its decrees, 
 Judging, choosing between right and wrong, 
 Steering its course amid the busy throng. 
 
 That from each moving cause effect forsees, 
 
 And by the forelock Time can seize, 
 And bind the law to will as with a thong. 
 Matter is but the garb, the tool of will. 
 
 There's nought so flexible as law. 
 And he who has the key and needful skill 
 
 Can bend it to his yoke and make it draw 
 His plough, and sow his seed, and turn his mill. 
 
 For unto him that hath is knowledge given, 
 
 And valour opes the rose-wreathed gates of Heaven, 
 
320 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 THE OVERMIND. 
 
 ^ MAN can make a watch, 
 
 The steps of time to match ; 
 
 But greater than the watch is He 
 
 Who measures time so accurately, 
 And He who with such power 
 
 Of brain and hand 
 Did this man freely dower 
 
 Surely must transcend 
 His work, and do beyond what we 
 Conceive, until beyond the veil we see. 
 
 KINDLINESS. 
 
 rrjHERE is more kindliness about us than we know, 
 We are too apt misjudging- reticence 
 
 That shrinks from all parade of excellence, 
 Though underneath the quiet garb doth glow 
 A kindliness not meant for idle show. 
 
 That we may lean upon in confidence. 
 
 And feel in every nerve the influence 
 That life with brotherhood doth overflow. 
 Better it is to do than merely say 
 
 The kindliness that keeps the world in tune. 
 And gives all needed help without delay ; 
 
 For promptness magnifies the given boon. 
 And he who gives and he who gets is blest 
 With Heaven's bright benison on both impressed. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 321 
 
 INDIVIDUALITY. 
 
 TTJHE man who daily bread doth eat 
 
 Can seldom know whose toiling hands 
 Have sowed, or reaped, or ground the wheat ; 
 
 But well his need he understands. 
 And streams refresh all down their course, 
 Though beast and flower know not their source, 
 
 But when they merge into the sea 
 
 They lose their own identity. 
 But man, whose thoughts do fill the flow 
 
 Of life, keeps his distinct existence, 
 Even as the sun dispenses glow 
 
 And keeps its own consistence. 
 And thoughts may flow into a sea 
 Of thought and man a man remain 
 As true in hand and heart and brain. 
 
 REVELATION. 
 /^OD'S revelation on our inner eyes 
 
 May come as sweetly as the gentle dawn 
 
 Of a long summer day upon the lawn. 
 To wake the flowers with kisses from the skies ; 
 It grows upon the growing soul and lies 
 
 All round the pure in heart, a halo bright 
 
 That, imperturbed, reposes in the light, 
 And with a child-like trust grows strong and wise. 
 O, blessed light, I hail thee in God's name ! 
 
 A father's love to me thy radiance sent ; 
 
322 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 By it my heart is kindled to a flame, 
 
 As my work here nears its accomplishment. 
 The stars flash out their splendour all the way, 
 To guide my homeward steps with steady ray. 
 
 ANXIETY. 
 *T^0 not be over anxious for the morrow, 
 Nor ills imagine that may never be, 
 
 Nor yet imagine that ye shall be free 
 In days to come of every pain and sorrow, 
 But take the evil as it comes, nor borrow 
 
 Burdens long miles before they're laid on thee. 
 
 Still be prepared for each contingency, 
 And put thy fruit seeds in the ground to spring 
 To sheltering trees, where glad birds build and sing 
 
 'Mid blossoms that delight the glad young year, 
 And store the summer's opulence to fling 
 
 In autumn's lap the mellow fruits that cheer 
 Our souls at eventide, as round the glowing hearth 
 We sit, while outside snow wraps up the frozen earth. 
 
 A RACE. 
 iS BAND of men to run a race 
 
 Have stripped off all impediment, 
 With soul and body all attent, 
 And every nerve in utmost brace ; 
 Turned to the winning post each face 
 With hope and courage opulent — • 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 323 
 
 All circumstances pertinent, 
 And no discounting of disgrace. 
 Though only one can win the prize 
 
 They start, each one with thought to win— ^ 
 No thought have they of sacrifice, 
 
 That would seem worse to them than sin, 
 And for a transient renown 
 They risk their all to win the crown. 
 
 But all who run the heavenward race 
 
 Unfailingly shall win a prize ; 
 
 Though falling oft, they fall to rise 
 If falling with a heavenward face ; 
 They help each other in their place, 
 
 For helpfulness is to their feet 
 
 As wings to make them strong and fleet ; 
 It bears them on with speed and grace, 
 
 And as they help each weaker brother, 
 The angels bending down from heaven 
 
 To help are vieing with each other, 
 With help to helpers freely given, 
 Until they reach the winning post 
 With welcomes from the heavenly host. 
 
 STRICT. 
 
 TTTHE Lord, to mark iniquity. 
 
 Is strict, His laws like angels stand, 
 Recording with unerring hand 
 Each thought and deed, to certify • 
 
324 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 That wrong has no immunity 
 
 From justice ; each sin must stamp its brand 
 
 On every thought that's contraband, 
 And tends the soul to stupify. 
 But when our pilgrim feet do turn aside 
 
 From the straight road, then angels come 
 With love our waywardness to chide, 
 And helpfulness to guard and guide 
 
 Us in the way that leads us home. 
 
 THE KEY. 
 
 /^NLY the fool within his foolish heart, 
 
 (The wish was father to the thought) has said 
 " There is no God." The wise man feels and knows 
 There is a power from whom we come, to whom 
 We kneel, whose breath we feel in every nerve ; 
 Who made the soul of man to understand 
 His kingliness by spelling out the laws 
 That are, like helpful angels, ever at 
 The master call of him who knows their secret. 
 They crush the ignorant, but serve the wise ; 
 Their secrets they unfold to him who holds 
 The key — the " open sesame " — of knowledge. 
 A thousand genii run to do his will ; 
 He bids them bear him over land and sea ; 
 They make him tools and turn his factory wheels ; 
 They bear his words with lightning speed around 
 The globe, as quickly bear his voice and tone 
 
BORDER RHYMES, fih 
 
 For many miles, or for an hundred years 
 Conserve them ; they build a bridge across the sea ; 
 They weigh the sun and track the distant stars — 
 All this for him who can command them. 
 There seems no'limit to the power of man 
 In time or space. Not only is the earth 
 Subdued, but heaven above and seas beneath 
 Must own his sway, and give him service true. 
 And the mysterious power that bids them serve 
 Is all unseen as winds that sweep the heavens ; 
 And may not souls akin to us, though hid 
 From view, move round us night and day, and be 
 Protecting monitors ^ For we ourselves 
 Are known but by the clothes we wear, and by 
 The deeds that do obey our veiled will. 
 And even so is He from whom we come 
 Known by His royal robe, flower spangled and star- 
 gemmed. 
 And woven with the rythmic law that makes 
 The grand sphere songs that thrill the viewless soul 
 With visible and audible adoration. 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 C\ N this island of the sea 
 Of the great eternity 
 We camp for one brief day, 
 At even we sail away. 
 
326 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 A. G. 
 
 '|— j^ROM careless eyes of common men, and all 
 
 The withering glare of all the years to come, 
 We have thee in our hearts portrayed and hid, 
 For ever young and lithe and full of life ; 
 The bright smile in thine eyes shall never fade, 
 But evermore a sweeter grace, like golden mist, 
 Shall halo every thought of thee, our friend 
 Unseen, who walks with God beyond the veil. 
 
 We speak of thee in accents soft and low 
 Lest we profane, by noise or jar, what God 
 Has raised to Heaven and rendered holy. 
 
 The books we read together fill our eyes 
 With tears, but only tears of loyalty ; 
 For thou, where'er thou art, art still our own. 
 Brave deeds were loved by thee, for thou wert brave ; 
 And all brave deeds remind us of thee. 
 And everything well done recalls thy deftness. 
 
 The register of heights beside the door 
 Brings back sweet memories of the bypast years 
 Where grew thy soul up to its present stature, 
 While step by step knowledge and grace kept pace, 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 32? 
 
 Supplanting ignorance and bringing thee 
 
 Nearer to God and nobleness. And when each test 
 
 Of progress was passed " Well," the pride and joy 
 
 Were ours as much — and more — than yours. 
 
 And as the last dread cloud drew near to take 
 
 Thee from our sight, your heart and ours were folded 
 
 In the Father's love ; and chastened spirits heard 
 
 The Master's words promoting thee — " Well done." 
 
 When the veil fell, and we were left alone, 
 
 But all the heavens were filled with glory. 
 
 When the cloud came that took thee from our sight. 
 We thought the cross laid on our writhing hearts 
 Was iron, cold and hard and crushing ; 
 But when the angels came with shining wings 
 They flashed a glory round thy soul that showed 
 'Twas gold, and wreathed with flowers, and death was 
 
 but 
 A rising from the dead to high promotion. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Dear friend, our souls look back with weary eyes 
 To thy life's dawn that rose so bright and clear, 
 When earth seemed fairer for thy presence here ; 
 We dreamt of flowers, and fruits, and summer skies. 
 Nor thought the spring-time flower in spring-time 
 dies ; 
 But soon, alas ; our dreams were blanched with fear 
 When death, with sombre wing, to thee drew near, 
 
328 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And smote our trembling hearts ^ith sore surprise ; 
 The rosy dawn was overwhelmed in night. 
 
 Our souls cried out, as souls cry out in pain ; 
 But, from the clouds, while passing from our sight, 
 
 We heard thy voice, with high exultant strain, 
 Praise God ; we looked to earth, 'twas black with 
 
 scars : 
 We looked to heaven, and heaven was bright with 
 
 stars. 
 
 * •)(■ * * 
 
 Dear friend, thou who didst vanish from our sight 
 
 A year ago, a year ago ! how swift 
 
 The year has sped from that dark night of pain 
 
 When heavy laden moments crept slow on 
 
 Like years, canst thou not rend the veil and come 
 
 For one short hour to tell us how it fares with thee ? 
 
 Whenever, in the past, thy face was homeward turned 
 
 Thine eager feet were winged with swiftness — 
 
 Thy home is in the hearts that love thee, 
 
 And hearts there are in that fair land of light 
 
 That ope for thee and draw thee into rest. 
 
 Our weakness claims the succour of the strong. 
 And thou, ofttimes, perchance, mayst linger near 
 Though unperceived by horny eyes of sense. 
 And o'er our wilfulness with Christlike sorrow grieve. 
 When our weak hearts would stray from God and 
 
 right 
 Thy pleading love may energise our wills 
 With healthful rectitude ; and in the heat 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 329 
 
 Of inward strife, help us to victory. 
 
 Ah ! who can tell ? We plod on in the dark, 
 
 And trust the stars of God till the day dawn, 
 
 When we shall meet thee in thine own bright sphere. 
 
 O friend, unseen by mortal eyes. 
 
 Though we, mayhap, by thee are seen, 
 
 We know not where's thy sphere on high 
 Where thou dost work strong and serene. 
 
 But faith and reason bids us know 
 That whether thou art far or near 
 
 Advancement has not quenched the glow 
 That warmed thy heart for loved ones here. 
 
 And as our thoughts go forth to thee 
 Beyond the stars encircling earth, 
 
 So thou mayst come to us as free 
 
 When gathered round the friendly hearth. 
 
 May thy pure presence drive away 
 All thoughts that stain the heart, and might 
 
 Unbend the will and lead astray 
 Us who on that leave-taking night, 
 Promised to meet thee in the light. 
 
330 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 We pass through days and years as travellers pass 
 
 Through lands unknown, As magnets draw we draw, 
 
 And strive to draw only the beautiful and good 
 
 That they grow part of us, like nerve and muscle. 
 
 To make us worthy of the friend who used 
 
 To sit with open face and ready smile 
 
 Beside our hearth mingling his thought with ours. 
 
 His place is vacant now ; three times we've circled 
 
 Round the sun since we went with him to 
 
 The mountain top from which he rose and left 
 
 Us gazing into heaven. He circles round 
 
 The Sun of Righteousness, and rests upon 
 
 The healthful light that nurture's life 
 
 Sublime and strong. We still keep plodding on 
 
 Our weary way o'er steep and thorny paths 
 
 That end on far-off hills that greet the rising sun, 
 
 While he, his prison doors unbarred by pain, 
 
 Sped over all impediments to God. 
 
 We keep him in our hearts to keep our hearts 
 
 Most pure and true, lest we, by harbouring 
 
 Thoughts of ill, should grieve the blest in heaven, 
 
 And falling from our upward way, be lost 
 
 In night, and never see his face again. 
 
 O friend, within Heaven's affluent light 
 
 With angels for thy peers, 
 Dost thou remember our dark night — 
 
 Our many hopes and fears ? 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 331 
 
 The onward flow of fleeting years 
 
 Leave on us their impress ; 
 Now bright with joy ; now writ in tears ; 
 
 Now sunk in weariness. 
 
 All here is change ; we cannot stay 
 On time's rough troubled stream ; 
 
 Our barque sails on as on the day 
 Grief smote our hopeful dream^ 
 
 But in our heart thou art enshrined 
 
 Unchanged ; still the same, 
 And holy thoughts our love hath twined 
 
 Like garlands round thy name. 
 
 We, blindly, neither saw nor knew 
 Thy wings were plumed for flight, 
 
 And that for thee, so leal and true. 
 The heavens were opening bright. 
 
 We fain would know what thou dost know, 
 
 And see thee in thy place, 
 And looking up we onward go 
 Till death shall draw the veil and show 
 
 Our welcome in thy face. 
 
 The moments calmly glide 
 From hour to hour ; 
 
 The seasons come and go— 
 The summer flower, 
 
332 BORDER RHYMES 
 
 The winter snow — 
 All, all is change 
 On earth below. 
 
 Time leaves its trace 
 
 Upon the hair, 
 Upon the face. 
 
 The limbs less lithe, 
 The eye less bright, 
 
 All show the day 
 Wears to the night. 
 
 We all do fade 
 
 As fade the leaves. 
 And in the harvest field 
 
 Death reaps the harvest sheaves ; 
 But thou, dear friend, 
 
 Whose early loss 
 Laid on our hearts 
 
 A heavy cross, 
 Art folded in a love 
 
 That changes not. 
 Thy face and form 
 
 We treasure to the last, 
 And dream of thee 
 
 As thou wert in the past. 
 
 Death came before 
 The harvest field 
 Was ripe to yield 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 333 
 
 Its harvest store. 
 
 And in the opening year, 
 
 When the young leaves were green, 
 
 And trouble unforeseen. 
 He cut the green corn in the ear, 
 And raised thee to a higher sphere. 
 
 And when at night our Father calls 
 
 His children home. 
 
 We'll haste to come 
 And meet upon life's sunny shore 
 The friend that Death shall then restore. 
 
 And love's keen eye shall trace 
 Through grand development 
 Of soul life opulent 
 
 In thy form, in thy face, 
 
 In thy strength, in thy grace. 
 The friend that vanished on that night 
 When Heaven received thee from our sight. 
 And thou wilt reach a helping hand 
 And bid us welcome to our Fatherland. 
 
 Flowers cluster round the feet of spring, 
 Birds on the trees for gladness sing, 
 AH nature wakes with hymns of praise. 
 
334 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Life, joy, and song are everywhere ; 
 The voice of spring is in the air 
 Whispering to sunbeams dancing there. 
 
 Seve.n times round the central sun 
 The earth its steady course has run, 
 
 And here, again, blithe May comes round, 
 But he whose step was lithe and free, 
 Whose laughing eye was full of glee, 
 We do not hear ; we do not see. 
 
 While here our eyes are holden so. 
 We faintly see and dimly know 
 
 How souls unseen the seen transcend. 
 At death we do not cease to grow ; 
 We only leave the husk below ; 
 
 We merge in light and understand. 
 
 The concrete soul rays thoughts like light 
 That round it make a halo bright. 
 
 The soul akin to God is strong ; 
 And passing swift from star to star 
 May bring us blessings from afar, 
 
 And make us set our feet on wrong. 
 
 We dream of what his life may be. 
 We do but dream, but we shall see 
 
 When death falls off us as falls from 
 The chrysalis its cerements rent. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 335 
 
 When new life, large and opulent, 
 Shall see our friend with eager feet 
 Rushing through angel crowds to greet 
 
 Us first, and bid us welcome home. 
 
 REV. ROBERT MUIR. 
 
 Died 2ist December, 1882, in his 50TH year. 
 
 *TX CHRIST-LIKE man has laid aside his cross, 
 And weary with the way, has fallen asleep 
 Among his loved ones here, to wake among 
 His loved in Heaven, where all the best 
 Shall hail him brother. 
 
 For want of him 
 Earth seems the bleaker ; but Heaven is richer. 
 
 With manly gentleness he bore his cross 
 Through all the weary years till came this year 
 Of jubilee, when the ripe soul, ready 
 To fall into the Master's outstretched hand, 
 Claimed liberty, and could no longer be 
 Holden from his beloved Fatherland. 
 
 His life was beautiful ; and all the way 
 His upward path was strewn with flowers of truth 
 And kindliness — the sweet forget-me-nots 
 That grow within the heart and will not die. 
 
336 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 M. A. 
 
 CfO young, so fair, so full of gentle grace, 
 
 And life all opening up with dreamy light — 
 Alas, so soon quenched in untimely night — 
 For memory now, with love, can only trace 
 On empty air his fragile form and face. 
 
 No spectre grim repellent to the sight 
 
 Walked with him till that sacred Sabbath morn 
 When he from weariness to rest was borne ; 
 One sent from God preened his white wings for flight 
 And bore him far away from scathe and blight. 
 
 Promotion comes when evening shadows fall, 
 But he was crowned long ere the noon of day. 
 As if the angels could not brook delay. 
 
 And he, responding to their heavenly call. 
 
 Was thrilled with far-off music mystical. 
 
 Now dear as are dream songs by angels sung. 
 
 Or flowers that sweetness breathe through morning 
 
 dew, 
 Are thoughts of him whom loving hearts best knew. 
 
 A halo round his life have such hearts flung 
 
 To keep him ever fair and ever young. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 337 
 
 REV. ROBERT BLACKSTOCK. 
 
 Y HEAR the kirk belf toll, but he 
 Who used to answer to its call 
 And break the bread of life to all '" 
 
 Hears it no more ; no more we see 
 
 His manly form ; his voice no more 
 We hear ; and standing in his place, 
 His flock look on a stranger's face 
 
 Through tears, while they their loss deplore. 
 
 More sad than all, the heavy loss 
 To dear ones that he loved so, 
 Whose hearts now feel life's winter snow 
 
 While writhing underneath the cross. 
 
 He is not dead ; he lives above 
 
 The pain, the wail, the jar, the strife ; 
 And He who oped the door of life 
 
 For him, could not be death but love. 
 
 JOHN WOODGER, 
 
 Coachman to Mark Sprot, Esq. of Riddell, 
 for fifty-eight years. 
 
 *TFvIS long day's work is done ; the night has come 
 And his day's wage. For fifty years and more 
 He served his master well —no mere eye service his — 
 No need for that, for he was guileless and upright ; 
 
338 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And there was in his soul the faithful love 
 
 That never felt itself. In all he did 
 
 The honest heart made service free and fine. 
 
 And serving thus his master here, he served 
 
 His Master in the unseen kingdom of the just ; 
 
 To Whom, from all his many active years 
 
 He now returns to make his full report 
 
 With manly frankness, and trust the love that never 
 
 fails 
 To clothe the honest man with grace and happiness. 
 
 His cheerful greeting and his ready joke 
 Will be remembered long by all who felt 
 The influence of his individuality. 
 Genial and robust. His kindliness 
 Will always be recalled with kindliness ; 
 And smiles will kindle round the words he spake, 
 But now, on earth, speaks never more. 
 
 CHRYSOSTOM. 
 
 r^HRYSOSTOM— mouth of gold— from which 
 
 ^ there fell 
 
 Life giving words of God more precious far 
 
 Than purest gold ; his heart a temple was, 
 
 Where, in sweet truth and purity enshrined, 
 
 The holy spirit of the Lord abode 
 
 Making his life a consecration and 
 
 A beacon light amid surrounding night. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 339 
 
 But men on life's high hills must bear the storms 
 
 Of life, the burning heat, the searching light ; 
 
 And he alone the ordeal can stand 
 
 Who stands allied to God and girt about 
 
 With strength from Heaven, and wisdom which is 
 
 strength. 
 And Chrysostom was strong ; and loyal as strong 
 With all the loyalty of love ; brave too he was 
 And would not flinch an inch though all the powers 
 Of earth and hell combined against him. 
 " The floods," he said, " assail, the tempest roars 
 And breaks above us, but we do not fear. 
 Because we hold by Him Who is our rock. 
 The sea may rave and dash its waves against 
 Our Rock in vain — they only break themselves. 
 Shall I fear death .-' My life is hid with Christ 
 In God — to die is gain. Or shall I fear 
 Exile .'' The earth belongs to God, and all 
 That it contains is His. Nor do I fear 
 The loss of earthly good ; nothing into the world 
 I brought, and out of it can nothing take, 
 I fear not poverty ; I laugh at wealth. 
 Death appals me not, unless 'tis needful 
 I should live to work the work of God. 
 With faith unshaken let us meet whate'er 
 The time to come will bring of good "or ill, 
 When Peter walked upon the sea, it was 
 Not till the failure of his faith that he 
 Began to sink. Let us be strong in trust 
 Satan has failed to overthrow our town, 
 
340 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 And now he hopes to shake the Church ; 
 Pillars of faith support its walls of living- souls. 
 Though all the world should rise against my life 
 My heart is steadfast and I shall not fear. 
 If 'tis God's will that I should go, I'll go. 
 Or if He wills that I shall stay, I'll stay. 
 Where'er He wills that I shall be, I'll be. 
 I'll give the Church my life if 'tis required ; 
 Death is the gate of life, and after death 
 I still shall love the Church of God." 
 So spake the man of God. Exile was his, 
 The last days of his pilgrimage were full 
 Of cruel pain, dragged on from place to place 
 Through burning heat, and drenching rain, 
 Till suffering called on death to bring him rest. 
 *' For all things praise the Lord," he said, 
 Then fell asleep on earth to wake in Heaven. 
 
 JOHN WYCLIF. 
 
 ///■"hen men grow blind by living in the dark, 
 
 God sends a son to give them light, and touch 
 Their horny eyes with salve of love to quicken vision. 
 But for a time they neither apprehend 
 Nor comprehend nor love the light that is 
 Too holy for their easy lives; they crave 
 No kinship unto God, but rather say — 
 " Here is the son ; come, let us kill this troubler 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 341 
 
 Of our peace, and so the vineyard shall be ours." 
 
 But he is sent of God, and must fulfil 
 
 His embassage, heedless of consequences. 
 
 He does not love the cross, yet does he choose it ; 
 
 It bars his path until he takes it up, 
 
 When in his hands it grows a Jacob's ladder 
 
 With which he scales the heavens, while helpfully 
 
 The angels come and go on it for him. 
 
 Girding his growing soul with growing strength. 
 
 He cannot holden be of any base environment — • 
 
 " The gates of brass before him burst. 
 
 The iron fetters yield." Zealots may bind 
 
 And burn his body, but his soul is free, 
 
 And no decree of fate can bind it more than 
 
 Could burnt flax bind Samson when the men 
 
 Of Judah and the Philistines were on him. 
 
 Such an one was Wyclif, the creed that bound 
 
 Less loyal souls, to him was as burnt flax ; 
 
 Its priests were sons of Belial ; and what 
 
 Men called the Church was but a heartless system 
 
 Of extortion to glut the sinful priests 
 
 With hydra-headed vice and shame. 
 
 Wyclif's creed was love to God ; a holy life 
 
 Its outcome. He might misapprehend 
 
 The Father's plan ; but love is wise to hear 
 
 The Father's voice, and quick to feel His hand 
 
 Even in the dark, and so is confident 
 
 And fearless. His heart had caught and loved 
 
 The light that holy men of God had stored 
 
 For every age, and what his soul had found 
 
342 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 So precious, he desired all men to share. 
 
 Henceforth his life was consecrated to the needs 
 
 Of men whose shepherds fed them not, 
 
 But rather preyed on them with greedy jaws. 
 
 He, as ambassador from God, must stay 
 
 Until his work was done. Death threw his shaft 
 
 In vain, until the hour of his recall. 
 
 And once when stricken down even to 
 
 The very gates of death before his time, 
 
 The monkish rookeries were stirred with joy ; 
 
 And, like four hooded crows, four regents 
 
 Of the four religious orders came and told him 
 
 To recant, for " death was on his lip." 
 
 Their creeds sat easy on their lives, and so 
 
 Would his, they thought, but their poor souls were no 
 
 Meet gauge for his. With livid lips he made 
 
 His servant raise him up upon his bed. 
 
 Then fixing his keen eyes upon the priests, said — 
 
 " I shall not die, but live and testify 
 
 Against your evil deeds." And testify he did. 
 
 Astonished and confused, they fled and left 
 
 Him victor. He rose and gave an English 
 
 Bible to the English people. He sent poor preachers 
 
 Over all the land to teach men love of light. 
 
 And fill their hearts with peace, although 
 
 The monks declared it heresy to speak 
 
 Of Holy Scripture in the English tongue. 
 
 But their so tender souls could see no heresy 
 
 In bartering Heaven and earth for worldly gain. 
 
 Blind leaders of the blind ! in vain they strove 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 343 
 
 Against the light John Wyclif drew from Heaven 
 And flashed across the land — light welcomed 
 Into faithful hearts that scorned the burning pile, 
 Brave martyr souls that now shine bright 
 As morning stars of England's Reformation, 
 
 Worn and weary through all his latter years 
 He stood alone steadfast and true, 
 Maligned by monks, reproved by friends, 
 In constant expectation of the dungeon 
 Or the stake. " Let the blow fall," he said ; 
 " I wait its coming." But, like the father 
 Of the faithful, when his will was tried 
 The sacrifice was not required, and when 
 The Master called, He called him as he stood 
 And ministered before the altar. 
 
 His quest had been the holy grail 
 Of truth, that precious chalice which contained 
 The healing love of God for man, and gave 
 To him who sought strength to triumph 
 Over all impediments. The quest 
 Attained, his soul grown strong rent from itself 
 The worn-out flesh, and rose to Heaven, 
 Clothed in the white robes of a holy life, 
 To mingle with the sons of God, and see, 
 Abide, and grow in grand perpetuation 
 The healthful influence of a brave, true man. 
 Five hundred years ago he entered into rest, 
 And still we love his memory. 
 For such as he belongs to every age 
 As guiding stars in the waste ways of life. 
 
344 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 WILLIAM TYNDALE. 
 
 |-^OUR hundred years ago the Church had grown 
 A sort of Archimedes' screw to fill 
 The greedy coffers of the priests, who feared 
 The Bible lest its light should show 
 What thing the people's trust was wound about, 
 When Tyndale came and flashed its light across 
 The land. Gentle, brave, invincible, 
 Loyal and true to his convictions was he. 
 The kindly Lady Walsh, with perfect trust 
 In her preposterous judgment, and an air 
 Of wisdom incontrovertible, lectured 
 The large-minded, far-seeing, pure-hearted. 
 Humble man of God. '/ What ! there are doctors 
 Worth one hundred pounds — ay, even some worth 
 Two hundred pounds a year; and think you. 
 Master William, is it reason we should believe 
 You rather than such ? " " No, it is not me 
 You should believe; but then Saint Paul, Saint Peter, 
 And the Lord Himself confutes them," said Master 
 William. 
 He stood his own successfully against 
 All cloven-footed falseness. He loved the light, 
 And could not hide his all-absorbing love. 
 A learned priest was sent to win him back 
 To the dark tortuous ways of Popery, 
 But soon he shut the mouth that came 
 To silence him ; his baffled foe in rage 
 Cried out — *' Better it were to do without 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 345 
 
 The laws of God than of the Pope." Tyndale, 
 
 The gentle, roused to indignation, said — 
 
 " I do defy the Pope and all his laws ; 
 
 If God but spare my life, I shall take care 
 
 That e'en the boy that holds the plough shall know 
 
 More of the Holy Scriptures than yourself." 
 
 His talents and his learning might have raised 
 Him up to any earthly dignity, 
 But his ambition was not earthly. 
 He only wished for some ten pounds a year, 
 And some lone Patmos where he might translate 
 The word of God in peace, and give his life 
 And work to those who did not know the worth 
 Of such a gift — a gift like altar fire 
 To kindle Heaven in every open heart 
 But " aye the kingliest kings are crowned with 
 
 thorns," 
 And he who gave his life for men, by men 
 Was hunted like a beast of prey from place 
 To place until his work was done. 
 When from Cologne he fled in haste with his 
 Half-printed Bibles, Cochleus wrote 
 To Henry and to Wolsey, to hinder 
 "The most baleful merchandise from entering 
 Any English port." Vain thought ! What arm 
 Of man can keep the sun from shining ? 
 The Bible entered into English ports — 
 Ay, and into English hearts as well ; 
 Its leaves were for the nation's healing — 
 
346 BORDER RHYMEti. 
 
 In spite of king and priest, of earth and hell. 
 
 They could but chase the conqueror through 
 
 The gates of Heaven, where there was joy to greet 
 
 The mighty man who unto God returned 
 
 With water drawn from Bethlehem's well, 
 
 In spite of all the hostile hordes of Philistines; 
 
 And as the centuries roll on, his name 
 
 Shall sanctify the lips that speak it reverently. 
 
 LUTHER. 
 
 'T'RON lies hid in the dark earth till man 
 
 With kingly 'hest calls it into the light, 
 And, by fierce heat and heavy blows, forges 
 The shapeless mass into a thousand forms 
 Of beauty and utility, to serve 
 His multiform needs; and so the noblest lives 
 Are softened by fierce heat of strife, and beat upon 
 And buffeted by all the storms of life — 
 Toil, poverty, and all the hydra-headed hindrances 
 Beset their every upward, onward step, 
 Till thus tried, tempered, and attuned they take 
 Command, and act like kings within their spheres. 
 And kings they are! Strong men that mow obstruc- 
 tion down, 
 Making it food for serving circumstance. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 347 
 
 Hindrance wipes out the feeble soul ; but such 
 As overcome are crowned. 
 
 Luther was strong ! 
 His brave, true soul allied itself to God ; 
 And from the lowly cot he rose and shook 
 Kingdoms and thrones. He beat a hole 
 In every hollow drum*; nor man nor devil he 
 
 feared. 
 He cared not though it rained Duke Georges f 
 Nine days running, he would through such a rain 
 Ride into Leipsic. And he would go to Worms| 
 Though devils were as plentiful as tiles 
 Upon the houses ; he knew whose sword he bore. 
 All the fierce dragon powers of earth and hell 
 He scorned and flouted, and yet his heart 
 Was full of humble gentleness and love ; 
 He yearned for peace, but never shrank from war. 
 He fought as one who fights for peace; and when 
 
 * Luther, indignant at Tetzel's noisy and shameless traffic in 
 indulgencies, said " God willing, I will beat a hole in his drum." 
 
 + Duke George was a great enemy of his, he wrote, " I have 
 defied innumerable devils ; Duke George is not equal to one devil. 
 If I had business in Leipsic I would ride into Leipsic though it 
 rained Duke George's nine days running." 
 
 :J: When his friends tried to dissuade him from going to the Diet 
 of Worms he said, " Were there as many devils in Worms as there 
 are tiles on the roofs of the houses, I would go." Devils were very 
 real personalities to Luther. 
 
348 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Death brought the laurel wreath, he gave the king 
 
 his sword 
 And fell asleep in peace, beloved by Heaven, 
 And we, who heir the good he won for us, 
 Do now with grateful hearts remember him, 
 And thank the king for his brave life and true. 
 
 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, 
 
 TTTOLL the bell, and hush the nation's voice, 
 
 The grand old man, full of years and ripe 
 For Heaven, is raised into a higher sphere 
 To reap the harvest of his sowing here, 
 And only dust is left in Death's cold hand. 
 He was a many-sided man, with firm beliefs. 
 And courage to speak them fearlessly. 
 From what he deemed the right he never flinched— 
 Right was the pole-star of his life. 
 He fought to raise the trodden down and give 
 The victims of false laws the freedom of true men. 
 Spell-bound men listened to his silvery eloquence 
 And forceful grasp of thought. He never struck 
 Below the belt. He scorned all mean expediency. 
 And never yet his bitterest foe could truly note 
 A single stain upon his moral character ; 
 And when his sword was sheathed in shadows 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 349 
 
 All who felt its edge or parried its fell thrusts 
 
 Forgotten were as foes, and only loved as men. 
 
 While the brave warrior, resting on his shield, 
 
 Lay listening for tne Master's call 
 
 To " come up higher," the Master's will was his. 
 
 He praised the Holiest in the heights. 
 
 And in the depths he trusted him. 
 
 The wide world's sympathy was round 
 
 This man of God with wistful eyes, loving 
 
 To do honour to the passing of a king, 
 
 Whose reign henceforth shall be o'er all 
 
 His stainless life has won for Heaven. 
 
 And now the loyal soul from the worn body 
 
 Is raised from death, and clothed upon 
 
 With all the good he did while fighting here 
 
 Under God's banner. Peace, perfect peace, 
 
 Was his at eventide when the call canie 
 
 To hear his Master's meed and share His joy. 
 
 HENRY FAWCETT. 
 
 TTTHE nation mourns a patriot, wise and good. 
 Snatched from us in the crisis of our fate ; 
 A brave, strong man who did not turn aside, 
 But marched straight on when darkness fell on him 
 In the full flush of hope in early life. 
 
350 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 A meaner man by such a fate had been 
 
 Subdued, but he strode over loss to victory. 
 
 The sun rose in the east and strewed his way 
 
 With good until he reached the west at eventide. 
 
 The glad light fell on man and bird and beast 
 
 And lovely flower, but his dark eyes were closed 
 
 Against it. The calm clear stars looked down 
 
 On him, but met no answering brightness 
 
 In his benighted orbs. The hills and vales. 
 
 The rills that ran in music to the broad'ning rivers ; 
 
 The restless sea ; the rippling lakes that bathed 
 
 The mountain's feet, to other eyes were grand 
 
 And beautiful, but not, alas, to his. 
 
 And when his eager steps were homeward turned 
 
 His sunless eyes were never wrought to smiles 
 
 At sight of all the dear familiar scenes ; 
 
 And sweet home faces all aglow with love, 
 
 More deeply tender for his sad privation. 
 
 Hid from him, too, the changeful light of mind 
 
 Upon the kindling face of statesman 
 
 And philosopher. 
 
 But though his blindness 
 With its double lock shut out the light of day, 
 A grander light responded gladly to 
 His hungry inner eyes and filled his soul 
 With power to serve his country well. And now 
 We thank him for his legacy of good, 
 While mourning still a strong man taken from us 
 In his fruitful prime, when most we needed strength 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 351 
 
 And skill, that stronger strength to move us forward 
 In the press of progress. But what he did 
 Remains with us, his best memorial. 
 
 GENERAL GORDON. 
 
 //| I E always need such men as Gordon was, 
 
 To shew what heights humanity can reach, 
 And by pure force of character to draw us up 
 To larger freedom with the perfect law. 
 Brave, strong, and true, with purpose pure he lived 
 For God and man, scorning all vain 
 Conventionality of word and deed. 
 He went straight on where duty led, and never flinched 
 Or turned aside for any obstacle. 
 Environments that hindered other men 
 Bent down to serve him, and ways that seemed 
 Impassable, straightened and smoothed themselves 
 Before his wise o'ermastering will; his fearlessness 
 Was God's best covering for his head when death 
 Was rained around him. The distant past 
 Sends glamour to the heroes that we love, but he 
 Lived in our day, before our eyes, and words 
 Are poor to praise his many-sided nobleness. 
 His life W£^s saintly, knightly, kingly. 
 
352 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Cosmopolitan, his soul was never lured 
 
 From duty's steep and stormy path by gold 
 
 Or honour. Nay ! gold or honour never 
 
 Lured his straight soul into duty He would not 
 
 Sell himself; Christ-like he gave himself 
 
 To all the poor and needy, to king and slave 
 
 Alike, and thought not of reward : the work 
 
 He set himself to do, when done, was all 
 
 He wished or cared for. He was content to toil 
 
 In sorrow, could he but smooth the way 
 
 For other feet, and guide them Heavenward to 
 
 The only peace. A soldier he, who, in 
 
 The blessed name of peace, took up the sword 
 
 To strike for peace. His single greatness ruled 
 
 The fickle, faithless hordes ofttimes surprising foes 
 
 Into innocuousness. What he ivas 
 
 Lent force to what he did. He gave himself 
 
 For all, in utter self-forgetfulness, 
 
 To further Heaven on earth. The hearts of men 
 
 Of every clime and rank were drawn to him 
 
 By force of sympathy — a sympathy 
 
 That tortured his own kindly heart with sight 
 
 Of human suffering. They loved and trusted him, 
 
 And were the richer having such a soul 
 
 To love, and better they for having loved him. 
 
 He set his foot upon the serpent's head ; 
 
 It stung his heel, but could not sting his soul 
 
 At one with God. Treachery oped for him 
 
 The gates of high advancement; and now, at last, 
 
 His weary soul finds rest, ^nd all his noble deeds 
 
BORDER RHYMES, 863 
 
 Like precious gifts flung from a kingly hand, 
 Do clothe and crown his noble soul with love 
 While all the angels nearest God rise up 
 To call him blessed. 
 
 DR JOHN KER. 
 
 *jP[' ROUND the will of God the circling year 
 Revolves with many a smile and tear — 
 The spring and summer, times of gladness ; 
 
 The autumn, with its golden sheaves. 
 
 Its mellow tints and falling leaves, 
 And winter with its tears of sadness. 
 'Twas autumn when earth's fruits were stored ; 
 And through the harvest field the Lord 
 Of harvest walked, and, well pleased saw 
 
 Among the sons of men, a son whose life 
 Was woven with the perfect law — 
 
 A man with large, well formed soul ; 
 Rich, mellow, pure, and ripe and leal, 
 W^hose gentle words for human weal 
 
 On human hearts fell soft like rain 
 From heaven, with easy grace 
 
 And fine simplicity of strength ; 
 While love shone in his face — 
 
 A love that well might win 
 
354 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 The souls of wayward men 
 
 From slimy sloughs of sin 
 To pearly gates of Heaven, 
 
 Where love alone can enter in. 
 
 He walked with God while leaves were falling ; 
 He heard the Heavenly voices calling ; 
 
 Death burst asunder earthly ties. 
 And suddenly he rose to Heaven 
 
 While friends looked up in sad surprise 
 And saw the streak of shining light 
 
 His life had left below the cloud 
 That hid him from their strained sight. 
 
 His soul was weary; 
 
 We may not grudge the rest that's given 
 To him — another John — 
 
 Beloved of earth and Heaven. 
 
 PROFESSOR LAWSON. 
 
 jj^E was a teacher sent from Heaven to show 
 
 How much of Heavenly worth could dwell 
 In human form. He was a king and reigned 
 By right of love divine in every heart 
 That came within the circle of his calm 
 Harmonious life. His heart was large and pure ; 
 
BORDER RHY3IES. 355 
 
 His lips were true, and from them flowed 
 The mellow wisdom of the pure in heart. 
 And young aspirants for the staff and crook 
 Knew that he walked with God and deeply felt 
 The reverence of deep love. His spirit was 
 Reflected in their lives, as he himself 
 Reflected the pure rays that shone on him 
 From Heaven, while all through life their souls 
 Were fed by memories of this gentle 
 Man of God, in whom there was no guile ; 
 And through them, ever circling wide and wider, 
 All the land was blessed by him who so 
 Did please the Lord with a most holy life. 
 
 REV. JOHN LAWSON. 
 
 TJTTHERE Ettrick with the Yarrow blends, 
 
 Singing the song they sang in olden times 
 When Leslie fought against the foes of truth, 
 Lawson has been a name revered and loved 
 For ages. And now the last of that long line 
 Of saintly servants of the Lord has passed 
 Through death's dark portal into light. 
 He is not dead, but stript of death, and clothed 
 With the white robe of a consecrated life. 
 
 By forest, hill and hope, and stream. 
 He tended, with leal heart, his Master's flock. 
 
356 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 If any strayed into the wilderness, 
 
 With gentle words he brought them back 
 
 And laid their tears of penitence upon 
 
 The altar stair, and when God looked on them 
 
 They shone as shines the drops of dew 
 
 When morning sunbeams span the Yarrow hills 
 
 With rainbows. 
 
 With Christ-like touch, 
 The stricken heart he soothed, wreathing the cross 
 With flowers that grew where tears had watered them. 
 And now, at eventide he calmly rests, 
 While memories of his kindly deeds are poured. 
 Like precious ointment, round the feet of God. 
 And love is gazing up to heaven through clouds 
 That, like the Red Sea waves, parted to let 
 The King's ambassador pass through 
 Into his Master's presence, where every 
 Faithful son receives the meed — " Well Done." 
 
 DARKLY WE SEE. 
 
 jC^ENSE bounds our sight, we cannot see beyond 
 The present time except but darkly through 
 
 The occult mists that thicken round our view. 
 Nor can we see how laws to laws respond 
 Except through mists to where love sits enthroned. 
 
 But what we know grows out of what we knew, 
 
nORDER RHYMES. 357 
 
 As truth most surely grows from what is true — 
 
 As flowers reveal the seeds from which they grew. 
 And hearts that loved us here have left a bond 
 That they, more helpful grown beyond the veil, 
 
 Shall hover round us with an influence sweet. 
 And guard us well when foes unseen assail. 
 
 And guide from hidden dangers wayward feet. 
 O friend beloved, unseen, I yearn to know 
 If this be so, if this be really so. 
 
 JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. 
 
 Y-j LIFE so calm, so strong, so pure, 
 Gives out a light that is retained 
 
 When Heaven another soul has gained. 
 The light remains, and shall endure 
 In many a heart with lodgement sure 
 
 Absorbed as flowers absorb the day, 
 
 Transmuting every kindly ray 
 To their own bright investiture. 
 And he who prayed '"Lead, kindly Light,' 
 
 Had light enough to walk with God 
 And trust him in the darkest night 
 
 With willing feet o'er roughest road. 
 We thank him for the halo round 
 A holy life, at rest and crowned. 
 
358 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 JOHN BRIGHT. 
 
 /^lE mourn the man of peace who fought for peace 
 
 With healthy vehemence and fearlessness 
 That would not be subdued ; heedless of clamour 
 He did what seemed the best, and never yet 
 Did dirty weapon soil his spotless hands. 
 No meanness stains his memory ; " No speck 
 Is on his shield," His was no crooked course ; 
 Straightforward with a loyal heart he went, 
 With purpose high, and soul ablaze for right 
 Against all wrong. He never grasped at place 
 Or power, to serve himself, but gave his life 
 Ungrudgingly to further right. His heart 
 Was pure, his vision clear, religion was 
 For him no Sunday garb for outward show ; 
 It was absorbed into his soul as bread 
 Of life to nourish all his noble aims. 
 And when his heart was sore for loss of one 
 Whose love lit up his home, he thought of all 
 The sordid darkness of the hungry poor, 
 And overgrew his grief in efforts for 
 Their good ; their griefs he made his own, he was 
 " The people's Tribune." Now resting on his shield, 
 His retrospect is good, and He who gives 
 To His beloved rest, gives eulogy, "Well done" — 
 Thou good and faithful one, " WELL DONE." 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 359 
 
 W. M. D. 
 
 TTTHE flush of summer's prime, 
 
 The glow of harvest time 
 Were past when death drew near, 
 Unseen, with muffled feet, 
 And touched the weary brain 
 With rest, when all the leaves were sear. 
 And now, though wind and rain, 
 Upon the window pane, 
 Remind us of the heart's November, 
 Yet gladly can the heart remember 
 The opening of the fruitful year 
 
 When forth a sower went to sow. 
 And sowed until the leaves were sear ; 
 
 When, beckoning him to go, 
 Death raised him to a higher sphere 
 To reap the harvest of his seedtime here. 
 
 His seed fell everywhere, 
 
 And where it fell it grew ; 
 How large his harvest field 
 
 Mayhap he never knew. 
 How limitlessly, how endlessly 
 
 Its reproductions grow 
 
 He now may see and know. 
 
 The more a sower has to sow 
 The more he has to reap ; 
 The more he fills his neighbours' barnsj 
 
360 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 The more he has to keep ; 
 
 And he who takes most wealth away 
 
 Aye leaves most wealth behind, 
 For what we get makes rich the giver, 
 As rain from Heaven fills up the flowing river. 
 The river flows into the sea, 
 
 The sea is drawn to heaven. 
 
 And to the giver is regiven 
 In rains that fall upon the lea, 
 
 And on the seed 
 
 Of word and deed 
 That from the sower's hand 
 Is scattered o'er the land ; 
 And on a thousand tiny rills, 
 Whose crystal streams the river fills — 
 
 The river that grinds the grain 
 In a thousand mills 
 That man may eat and live, 
 And work, and get, and give. 
 
 O, happy he who so calmly went 
 After his task's accomplishment 
 
 To restful heights, 
 Where, looking on his life's work done, 
 
 He sees how God requites — 
 How crowns are won. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 361 
 
 JAMES MARTINEAU. 
 
 'ifAMES MARTINEAU, thy name is like a star, 
 And eyes that love the light look up to thee ; 
 The great presiding Love has filled thee with 
 A spirit, large and leal, and pure and good, 
 And strong to draw clear fire from Heaven into 
 Thy soul, whose light shines for the human race. 
 Healing goes forth from such an one as light 
 That shames the darkness, unasked, unhindered. 
 The spirit flies where words do lamely creep, 
 But thou hast winged thy words with healing verve, 
 That permeates the atmosphere we breathe 
 As light doth search the earth for flowers. 
 Thy spirit, drawn from God and ripened 
 Into mellowness, draws what is good in man 
 Into the fructifying light of Heaven 
 To bloom and seed, and spread and grow again 
 In endless harvest fields of loyalty. 
 The see-er said, in words as true as beautiful, 
 " They that be wise shall shine as shines on high 
 The firmament, and they that teach men to be 
 Wise shall be as stars in Heaven for ever." 
 Those calm, clear lights that shine upon the dark 
 And stormy sea of low and fretful life, 
 Light, wisdom, love, are one — life's trinal star, 
 That guides the weary traveller home at night. 
 A higher blessedness we do not know 
 Than shining 'mid the sons of God upon 
 The sons of men that fester in low slums. 
 
362 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Toil with hard hands, or strain to meet the hght 
 With eager eyes that widen with the dawn : 
 This blessedness is thine, James Martineau. 
 Thy fourscore years and three are beautiful ; 
 Thou art not old — the growing soul is young 
 Forever ; years as they come and go but add 
 A grander grace unto thy soul at one with God ; 
 And " the declining path of life " is strewn 
 With palms of victory, and leads through leafy lanes 
 Of love to opening gates of high advancement, 
 Where every noble soul with outstretched hands 
 Shall welcome home their noble brother. 
 
 BURNS. 
 
 "T^ ESTLESS feelings dumbly burned 
 In human hearts alive inurned 
 Till this man came, 
 With heart aflame, 
 And gave the voiceless yearning name. 
 
 The loves of every heart he flung, 
 Like birds uncaged, 
 
 From his melodious tongue ; 
 
 What man had dumbly felt before 
 
 He coined in words from his heart's core. 
 
 So much of love was in the strain, 
 
 It took away the curse of Cain ; 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 363 
 
 His songs all hearts can understand : 
 No need to climb the slippery steeps, 
 Where neither soul nor body sleeps, 
 
 Ere we can clasp a brother's hand. 
 
 O, leader of a mighty choir ! 
 
 Thy songs from countless hearts are gushing 
 
 Like all the streams of Scotland rushing 
 From Scotland's hills o'er Scotland's plains, 
 While other hills sound the refrains ; 
 
 Thy words so fitly speak for all, 
 
 All deem themselves poetical. 
 
 Impulsive heart of guilt and grace, 
 
 The weakness and the strength in thee 
 Make thee exponent of the race ; 
 
 While He who trod the shores of Galilee 
 Shews to what heights the race may rise 
 When love its service sanctifies. 
 
 Thus, what man is in Burns we see ; 
 
 In Jesus what he ought to be. 
 
 TENNYSON.— 6Tn August, 1889. 
 
 ORD TENNYSON has won his lordship o'er 
 Our minds and hearts by force of mind and 
 heart ; 
 
364 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 The seasons rolling round his fruitful life 
 
 For eighty years, have caught and stored the tones 
 
 Mellifluous that with a halo frames 
 
 His wise and precious Kohinoors of thought 
 
 That flash on man a rich inheritance. 
 
 The thoughts he clearly sees he firmly holds 
 
 In reason's honest grasp ; his thoughts hang on 
 
 The hearts of men as clear as drops of dew, 
 
 And as refreshing ; he winds them not 
 
 Through lists of dots and dashes, affecting depth. 
 
 With intricacies unthreadable. 
 
 No need to hide his thought in language vague, 
 
 Making it dearly bought by mental strain, 
 
 For it is pure and true and good. It glows 
 
 With kindly light on open eyes and hearts. 
 
 'Tis musical as are the winds of heaven 
 
 That blow through leafy trees 'mong singing birds. 
 
 No need of laurel crowns for Tennyson ; 
 
 His works do crown him with such kingliness 
 
 That we do bend the knee before the man 
 
 Honoured by God with such vicegerency. 
 
 6th October, 1892. 
 
 Life fleeing from Death, Death 
 Clutched at the robe he wore. 
 
 Life left it in his hand. 
 
 Only that and nothing more. 
 
 " Lord Tennyson is dead," you say ; not so. 
 He could not die. Folded in love, he lives 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 886 
 
 Within our hearts. His words so pure and wise 
 
 Ray from him as rays the blessed light 
 
 From day's great luminary. He gives, 
 
 Nor lesser grows by giving — he larger grows 
 
 By largely giving. He makes men pure 
 
 By shining purely on them. He gathers wealth 
 
 By strawing wealth. Strength nerves his arm 
 
 By helping on the weak. He cannot die, 
 
 He has so much of life — his tendrils take 
 
 Such hold on human lives Death hath no power 
 
 To root him out ! 'Tis life that rends the veil 
 
 And spreads his wings to soar above the clouds, 
 
 And meet the friend who made Death's darkness 
 
 beautiful — 
 To live with Heaven's plutocracy, and reign 
 Within the hearts and lives of men below. 
 
 When sailing o'er life's sea he strawed 
 
 His songs among the ships, and winds and waves 
 
 Retain the melody ; and souls that sail 
 
 From port to port absorb their beauty, 
 
 And grow more good and true and beautiful. 
 
 And now, leaving his gifts with us, he sails 
 
 Calmly, from friends still on the restless sea 
 
 Across the harbour bar, to friends who draw 
 
 Him home by love to fellowship with all 
 
 The kingly souls of every age and clime. 
 
366 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 J.G. 
 
 ///IHEN driving clouds began to lower, 
 
 Oor hearts grew faint wi' mony fears ; 
 Love melted into wailing tears 
 To see the storm burst o'er oor flower — 
 Oor ain wee man. 
 
 Love lent him for a little while 
 
 To brighten life, wi' prattle cheery ; 
 But when his little feet grew weary. 
 
 Love took him up at life's third mile 
 To rest — oor ain wee man. 
 
 But oh ! oor breaking hearts were sair — 
 We scarce could thole oor heavy loss ; 
 We bent beneath the crushing cross : 
 
 It seemed abune oor strength to bear 
 The loss o' oor wee man. 
 
 Now glintin' through the gates ajar 
 His memory sends a holy licht. 
 That speaks to us o' Heaven a' nicht ; 
 
 'Twill guide us ower the harbour bar 
 To oor wee man. 
 
 Frae winter's cauld and simmer's heat, 
 Wrapt in sweet love for ever more, 
 He lives, and in life's inmost core 
 
 He works to make oor lives mair meet 
 For Heaven an' oor wee man. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 367 
 
 THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 
 
 *T'NT0 the shadow of death 
 
 We follow the one we love, 
 And give her there to the angels 
 Waiting to bear her above. 
 
 Still while we say "Thy will be done," 
 
 Our tears are falling like rain ; 
 But He who knows best, and loves us. 
 
 Makes good have its root in pain. 
 
 This day we remember the sorrow 
 That wrung hot tears from our eyes, 
 
 As we yielded our dear one to God, 
 When He called for a sacrifice. 
 
 Maybe that glorified one 
 
 May come with the angels of light. 
 To guard, through the darkness, the soul 
 
 That is passing this night from our sight. 
 
 The gates of the new Jerusalem 
 
 Shall open for us ere long; 
 If now we are parting with tears. 
 
 We shall meet up there with song. 
 
 O, why should we look on death 
 
 As aught but the vestibule 
 Where the children leave their wraps, 
 
 When coming home from the school } 
 
368 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 J. H. 
 
 '|— [OR pilgrims at the close of the day, 
 
 Weary and worn and footsore, 
 When the calm sweet light of eventide 
 
 Shows, at last, the Father's door, 
 Is it the truest love to wish 
 
 For them even one mile more ? 
 
 Where the heart is, there is the home 
 That our friend has reached at last, 
 
 And we may not grudge the gladness 
 That crowns a beautiful past ; 
 
 She rests in peace where the clear light is 
 That no cloud can overcast. 
 
 Hers was the heart so leal and kind. 
 To the kingdom of Heaven the key ; 
 
 And hers were the bonds of love 
 That make the leal-hearted free ; 
 
 And hers the sweetness and grace 
 Through which the kingdom we see. 
 
 Through all the shadows of life 
 
 Her face was aye homeward bound ; 
 
 The shadows are still with us, 
 
 While she is with brightness crowned. 
 
 And raised from death to a purer life 
 Than ever on earth is found. 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 369 
 
 And he, the mate of her youth, 
 That her heart has missed so long, 
 
 Was waiting to meet her there 
 With a love 'more deep and strong 
 
 Than ever folded her soul in peace 
 With a quiet evensong. 
 
 W. T. P. Y. 
 
 /^UR home seems empty since he went who bore 
 
 About with him an atmosphere of love ; 
 
 So young, so fair, so full of life's sweet grace, 
 
 And, oh ! so dear, we could not let him go. 
 
 When first the cloud appeared, no bigger than 
 
 A hand it was — a small speck in the heavens, 
 
 It larger, darker grew, and all our fears 
 
 Grew with it, until our trembling hearts 
 
 Scarce dared to look ; but he was calm : 
 
 He saw the bow that bound the earth to heaven — 
 
 A glory made with darkness, tears and light — 
 
 The sweet home light of Fatherland. 
 
 The white-winged angels^ full of tender ruth, 
 
 Came, whispering words that fell on our poor hearts 
 
 Like snow on summer flowers. Angels of God 
 
 They were, and yet we could not welcome them ; 
 
 We sorely grudged to give to Heaven's safe keeping 
 
 What Heaven had kindly lent. He was so dear, 
 
 His soul so beautiful, no wonder that 
 
 The angels loved him, and wiled him from his home 
 
 2a 
 
370 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 Below to dwell with all the sons of God 
 
 In heaven where, sweeter than in mother's love, 
 
 His weary soul might rest in perfect peace. 
 
 Softly, in dreams, they said — ■" Come higher up," 
 
 His ready heart made quick response — 
 
 " I will arise and go to my Father ; " 
 
 And, when his feet grew weary with the road, 
 
 Love bore him on up to the pearly gate, 
 
 Where ripened for the higher life, like fruit that 
 
 mellows 
 Long ere the autumn comes to crown the year. 
 He laid aside his pilgrim staff and scallop shell. 
 And round him grew the white robe of "a blameless 
 
 life;" 
 While, full of faith, love yielded up her treasure, 
 Thanking the Love Supreme that her dear boy 
 Had reached his Father's home at last. 
 We laid him as a flower on God's own altar — 
 A flower that could not die, and, framed in love, 
 His image lives, treasured within our hearts 
 Forever young, and blythe, and beautiful ; 
 And round his feet are sweet forget-me-nots 
 Of gentle words and kindly deeds, that death 
 Is powerless to destroy. These are the charms we bear 
 About our souls to guard our lives from ill. 
 He shall be like a star that leads us on 
 O'er hill, and vale, and thorny brake. 
 Until the night is gone ; and if men ask 
 '* Why gaze ye up to heaven .-' " we shall reply — ■ 
 " Willie is there." 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 371 
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 ^ HUNDRED years ago a child was born. 
 Unnoted more than was the birth of such 
 As lived, and died, and were forgotten ; 
 Men saw no signs in heaven to prove 
 The advent of a king of men ; they heard 
 No angel's song hailing the birth of him 
 Whom God hath sent to preach the truth ; 
 No bonfires blazed to show a nation's gladness : 
 Only a father's care, a mother's love, 
 Were folded round this " man they'd gotten 
 From the Lord " — a holy trust most precious — 
 More precious than they knew. He grew as grows 
 The fruitful tree beside the flowing stream 
 Of life, and his leaves too were for 
 The nation's healing. But ere his life 
 Could write his embassage in altar fire 
 He had himself to pass through fires that burnt 
 The dross of life ; angels, with flaming swords, 
 Led him past doors that ope'd to meaner men, 
 But shut to him, until he felt like him 
 Who said — " All these things are against me ;" 
 While all the time, blindfolded, he was led, 
 Groping through rough and thorny ways, 
 By love unseen, into the inner court, to get 
 Writ on his soul the King's commission 
 As standard-bearer in the world's broad 
 Battle-field, where rebels fought against the truth. 
 Though fools rose up to flout him, unwaveringly 
 
372 BORDER RHYMES. 
 
 He bore aloft the ensign of the war 
 
 He waged with sham ; howe'er hard pressed and 
 
 weary- 
 He never trailed his colours in the dust ; 
 His master thought was to be loyal 
 To the trust reposed in him until 
 Recalled to hear the King's " Well done." And now 
 When his true thoughts take root in hearts akin, 
 We rise to honour him who strove to make 
 Us honourable by love of truth, and we 
 Who love him most honour him best 
 By living true, leal lives, yielding heart service 
 To the King who gave him his commission. 
 
 B. C. 
 Cf BRING walks the earth with flowery feet, 
 ■^ The daisies their white fringe unfold 
 
 To catch the sun in hearts of gold, 
 Earth waves to heaven her incense sweet. 
 
 The trees spread out their tender leaves, 
 The streams in many a crystal vein 
 Steal through the grassy hawthorn lane, 
 
 The swallows build below the eaves. 
 
 Full-throated birds their matins sing 
 In the grey dawn of dewy morn. 
 Above its nest among the corn 
 
 The lark exults on quivering wing ; 
 
BORDER RHYMES. 373 
 
 Its rapt song of ecstatic joy 
 
 With such abandon of delight 
 
 Comes down from heaven beyond our sight 
 Without a note of base alloy. 
 
 The glad spring wreathes with song and spray 
 
 The lovely form of laughing May ; 
 But through the pleasant leafy glade 
 Our hearts perceived a dreaded shade 
 
 That wiled our sweetest flower away 
 
 And filled our hearts with sore dismay. 
 
 Yet nature never ceased her song. 
 
 Why should she? Death but opes the portal 
 Of life for souls that are immortal ; 
 
 To keep them here might do them wrong. 
 
 If angels lift them by the way 
 Ere they are weary with the road, 
 To lay them in the love of God, 
 
 'Twere doubtful love to bid them stay. 
 
 'Tis want of faith obscures our sight, 
 And makes our timid hearts rebel; 
 Could we but see that all is well, 
 
 Our hearts would make our faces bright. 
 
 Through the rent veil could we but see 
 The gladness on each angel face 
 While clasping in a fond embrace 
 
 The soul we love, by death set free, 
 
3?4 Border rhymes. 
 
 Our straining eyes might weep glad tears 
 
 Of only love to see our own 
 
 Sweet flower, so pure and lovely grown, 
 Live in the hearts of all her peers. 
 
 AT EVENTIDE IT SHALL BE LIGHT. 
 TTTHE toilsome day is past, and now 
 
 In twilight calm 
 I greet the evening star 
 Above the harbour bar 
 
 With a glad psalm. 
 Supernal love has been my stay 
 
 And trusty guide, 
 Through all the weary toilsome day 
 
 Till eventide. 
 The watchful love that brought me here 
 
 Will never leave me now, 
 But safe into the haven steer 
 
 My barque, where sweet home light 
 
 On sweet home faces shining bright 
 With love's glad welcome waits for me 
 Beyond life's dark and troubled sea. 
 
 Printed by James Edgar, 5 High Street, Havnck. 
 
FEB 1 9 1986 
 
•£ SOUTHERN REG:., 
 
 A 000 560 787 
 
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