God My Creator and Benefactor

I.

M Y Maker, and my King,
To thee my all I owe;
Thy sovereign bounty is the spring,
From whence my blessings flow.

II.

Thou ever good, and kind,
A thousand reasons move,
A thousand obligations bind,
My heart to grateful love.

III.

The creature of thy hand,
On thee alone I live:

Songs to be Said While Walking

I

Let the day come out of the night
And the night come out of the day —
Night from day, and day from night,
And let the hours be a flight
Or wild birds winging away.

And whether the night or whether the day,
As the hours forever fly,
Holding the sun on their wings, or grey
With the dusk of night, let them go their way
Calling across the sky.

II

Love cannot stay, love cannot pass.
For every love that dies,
Swift as a flower from the grass,
A newer love shall rise.

The Poet and the Fisher

I. P. —

O Fisher , who dost ever love to stand
By waters streaming! F. —
O Poet, who dost lie, at Love's command,
In azure dreaming! P. —
What is it bids us face, 'midst rain and wind,
The wild Spring weather? F. —
What strange and unknown the doth help to bind
Such souls together?

II. F. —

What know'st thou, Poet, of the tedious time
The fisher loseth? P. —
What know'st thou, Fisher, of the precious rhyme
The bard abuseth? F. —

The Handmaid

Why rests a shadow on her woman's heart?
In life's more girlish hours it was not so;
Ill hath she learned to hide with harmless art
The soundings of the plummet-line of wo!

Oh, what a world of tenderness looks through
The melting sapphire of her mournful eyes!
Less softly moist are violets full of dew,
And the delicious color of the skies.

Serenely amid worship doth she move,
Counting its passionate tenderness as dross;
And tempering the pleadings of earth's love,
In the still, solemn shadows of the cross.

Love and Light

It is not in the quality of Love
To be relieved from human error quite;
Nor quite unsullied is yon Orb above,
That fills the o'erhanging heavens with warmth and light,
And, from its vast and ever-burning fountains,
Sheds on the slumbering earth those summer showers,
Which clothe her meads with green, and bid her mountains
Shoot forests forth, in joy. And yet, O Love! O Sun!
What a world were ours,
Did ye not both your radiant journies run,
And touch us with your brightness, pure and kind!

Masonic Training

Oh, Ladies, when you bend above
The cradled offspring of your love,
And bless the child whom you would see
A man of truth and constancy, —
Believe there is in Mason's lore,
A fund of wisdom, beauty, power,
Enriching every soul of man
Who comprehends the mystic plan.

Then train your boy in Mason's truth;
Lay deep the cornerstone in youth;
Teach him to walk by virtue's line,
To square his acts by SQUARE Divine ;
The cement of true love to spread,
And paths of Scripture truth to tread;

Salem

Salem, peaceful city, blest,
Where the Ark of God did rest, —
Where the voice of prayer ascended,
With the silver trumpets blended, —
Where the incense, daily given,
Rose and reached the courts of Heaven, —
Peaceful city, home of love,
Type of better things above!

Here be peace, like that bestowed,
Salem, here from Israel's God!
Here the voice of daily prayer,
Sweetest music on the air,
From each angel hither come, —
Fill the chambers of our home;
Here be felt Jehovah's power,

L'Envoi

I heard Love's footfall muffled, faltering —
Love of the friendly eyes —
All eagerly I bade him in
And made him room to bide,
My home to be his sheltering
I flung him wide the door,
And still Love of the friendly eyes
Asked more.

I spread my hoarded treasuries,
Poured music's mounting wine,
Nor spared the purple of my hills —
Great moons athwart my pines,
I filled his glass with suns and stars
All out of reach before —
And still Love of the hungry eyes
Craved more.

Sonnet

On verdant bank, 'neath beechen tree
I sit, and sing of love and thee,
To thee, and love attune the lay,
Soft warbling thro' the live-long day,
And when the evening shades prevail,
Unwearied I pursue the tale.

When night in slumbers seals my eyes
Thy love-inspiring beauties rise,
In fancy's vivid colorings drest,
The radiant semblance stands confest:
And when at dappled dawn of day
The gentle vision steals away —
I rise — and 'neath the beechen tree
Retune the lyre to love and thee.

The Loving Tie

The loving tie we feel,
No language can reveal —
'Tis seen in the sheen of a fond Brother's eye.
It trembles on the ear
When melting with a tear,
A Brother bids us cease to sigh.

Behold how good and how pleasant
For Brothers in unity to dwell!
As Heaven's dew are shed
On Sion's sacred head,
The blessings of the Lord we feel.

'Twas at the sufferer's bed
Now moldering with the dead,
This Bond , ah, so fond, was discovered first to me!
I saw his dying eye,

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