Bird Songs
The birds are happy, singing all day through
Their little psalms of praise,
And just because the sky is clear and blue,
The grasses green, the trees in leafage new;
Awake my heart, and be thou happy too,
These sunny days.
Sing, as the birds sing, just for love
Of God and song;
Make for His temple every leafy grove
That rears its frescoed canopy above.
Thy strength, thy freedom and thy gladness prove
O'er gloom and wrong.
One little songster taught me his lay
It was so sweet,
These were the warbled words he seemed to say:
'Earth is so joyous that I long to stay,
Heaven is so glorious, I would fly away.'
Still doth his song repeat.
Dreading to live, yet fearing more to die,
Take thy distress
To where the birds through field and forest fly,
Trilling their thankfulness to earth and sky,
And without gold, or lands or honor, buy
Such songs as this.
The birds are singing, not for gold or fame
Their songs may bring.
O, what care they for words of slight or blame,
For breathless listeners, or honored name!
To empty aisles they carol just the same
Because they love to sing.
The birds are happy, 'till their joy o'erflows
In minstrelsy;
No wealth for them in glittering treasure glows.
Awake, my heart, and know what nature knows
The ecstasy of life that is and was
And evermore shall be.
Easter Hymn
'Tis morn in Joseph's garden now
Where death and night and darkness were,
The lilies still in sadness bow
Around the Saviour's sepulcher,
Angels in shining garments clad
Speak first the word that mortals heed
'Till Nature, wrapt in gloom, is glad;
The Lord is risen, is risen indeed.
Gladly they bear the message on
Who stood beside His empty tomb,
The night is o'er, the darkness gone
The angels sing, the lilies bloom.
Powerless the chains of death to bind
The captive from their bondage freed,
Death's dreary dungeon left behind,
The Lord is risen, is risen indeed.
As rose the sun above the heights
Chasing the gloom from earth and skies
Behold above the night of nights
The Sun or Righteousness arise;
Burst are the chains of death and hell,
Go ye, who hear the message, speed,
Above the graves of nations tell
The Lord is risen, is risen indeed.
'Tis morn upon the earth, once more,
Sweet Easter morn when lilies spring
To greet the sun from shore to shore
And saints rejoice and angels sing;
All nature now breaks forth in song
And Easter anthem angels lead
With joyful hearts the strains prolong,
The Lord is risen, is risen indeed.
'Tis morn, the gospel light has streamed
From Africa's coast to India's strand,
The dawn of which the prophet dreamed
Is flooding each benighted land.
Above the vanities of men
O'er crumbling shrine and moldering creed
High o'er the mountain tops of sin
The Lord is risen, is risen indeed.
Easter Day
The happiest day of all the year is this
By song and sunshine ushered in,
Only the tyranny of sin
Can cloud her perfect joyousness,
Only the minor strain of wrongs
Can sadden her immortal songs.
Christmas we sang a Saviour's birth,
Today that Saviour crucified
Has risen triumphant, glorified,
And waked the Easter song of earth,
That song by Easter angels led
That Christ is risen from the dead.
And the fair Easter lilies rise
From the long burial underground,
Symbols of life in victory crowned
Of Earth responding to the skies,
Of Nature bursting Earth's brown crust,
Of beauty risen from the dust.
Each year the lilies hear the call
Of prophecy, of hope and trust,
Awake and sing who dwell in dust
And the fair lilies waken all,
And old Earth listens for the voice
That bids her waken and rejoice.
Softly the waking call doth come:-
Awake and sing, all hearts that dwell
Earth-burdened like the lily bell,
Wake glad hymn on tongue long dumb,
Let angels roll the stone away
From life and light and love today.
And may the voiceless lilies bear
To every soul a message breathed
In fragrance and with beauty wreathed,
To sorrow- hope; to sin- a prayer,
And happy hearts go forth to swell
The anthem of the lily bell.
And sweet shall sound the lily chime
Glad Easter coming, here, and gone,
'Till death and night and sin shall dawn
Into a nightless morning clime
With all Earth-darkness cast aside
And all Earth-brightness glorified.
