THE COMET, 1901.

Otago Witness, Issue 2467, 26 June 1901, Page 64

THE COMET, 1901.

Biig'at, haibmger of better things lo be, I «cc thee in the tender western sky When day is dying. All the hills and fields Take their autumnal tints, but thou ait there To tell us that the go.den age returns. The loueiy watchers from a thousand toweis Turn hungry e3'es toward thee, speeding where Stupendous starry space is silent, while Their pigmy world is noisy iar below. O what are transient wondeis unto these Eternal solitudes! Sun over sun And system over system piled sublime, Stupendous, still, unutterably remote, Broad as the Cosmic Builder's mighty hand That wields the\sceptie of the universe, Far echoing tlie whisper of His wings From awful void to void. O what is man! O what the untold myriads of men Who people this poor planet! The central stars Will wheel beyond the pathless wilds opaque, Burn dim and flicker in the distance dun, But still the human spirit will survive, And God is Lord for ever. Unto Him With throbbing hearts we turn who stand upon The thieshold of the century. O look upon The patient wearer of the crown of thorns! O see Him smitten with the ciuel scourge! O see His agony and bloody sweat 1 0 Father, look on Thy beloved Son ! The lonely watchers from a thousand towers Arc crymg u«.to Thee. O God. to haste Thy coming and the gloiious harvest home. Bright haibmger of blessed days to be, 1 hail thy light with gladness. I have gone With Bailey far beyond the stellar spheies, With Milton to the bounds of Heaven and hell; I I have felt the hideous feais that haunt The fallen Lucifer, and 1 have '.pen The marytred spirits film amid the flames That blistered souls and bodies. I can hear The cry of sonow in these selfish times From hui'gry heaits that wait. Thou liangest theie, A wanderer from the fragrant hills of Heaven, To tell us battle days aie well nigh clone, That Gocl is Loid for ever, that the Chust Who suffers with and for us fallen men, Who hangs the symbol of his shame on high, Will touch the hilltops with His gleaming feet, The Bruisei oi the subtle serpent's head! The harbinger of blessed days to be. When Peace outspreads her placid wings for ever ; The Peace of God which passeth undeistanding. Fiorn woild to world and love-lit star to star. Thou smkest, and the solitaiy hills Are silent. To their solemn tasks return The lonely watcheis from a thousand towers. —Charles Oscar Palmer. May 6.