TO WHAT END?

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue I, 6 July 1895, Page 12

TO WHAT END?

Tub heat of the day and the hurry are o'er ; The labour is finished, the hands let go ; The thing we have done, we may do no more, To-morrow, forever ; incapable, slow, Inert and enfeebled, we halt to a seat In the warmth of the sun, there to maunder and prate, Re-repeating old tales ; unashamed of defeat, Quite content with mere food and mere warmth ; — though the weight Of the grasshopper wearies ; we drowse and we nod, Sinking slow to the depths of our graves. Mighty God ! Just for this —from beginningless safety, the bliss Of deep peace, hast Thou haled us and held us —for this ?

Shall we slip from our holdings unhurt, when the flesh, 11l entreated, abandoned, forlorn shall return, Unattended, to dust ? Shall we break through the mesh Of our follies and fears ? Shall we learn to unlearn Our old lessons of error, when, clear as the glow Of high noon in fair skies, conies the knowledge that life Liveth, loveth, rejoiceth, abideth ? And oh ! Shall the silence he stirred, shall the wide air be rife With the music of welcomes, old songs that shall move Us to tears and to laughter? Thou infinite love ! Up to this —out of loss and the dreary abyss Of the grave, dost thou lift us and lead us—to this ? Verona Coe Holmes.