LIGHT IN DARKNESS.

     Oh! for the faintest glimmering of hope,
     To gild the pinions of Uncertainty
     Wherewith I mount to heaven’s topmost cope,
     To learn th’ Eternal Will regarding thee!
     No light! no light! a double darkness dread

     Englooms my spiritual sense, as when
     The midnight wraps her mantle o’er her head,
     Shrouding her glories from the gaze of men.
     Faith meets me midway up the starry slope,
     And lo! the intense Darkness disappears,

     And Charity comes smiling down the spheres
     On whitest wing to meet us; and my ears
     Drink in the heavenly words: “Give Reason scope,
Upheld by Faith, behold! how vast the Hope!” [Page 77]