THE NEW DISPENSATION.

OUT in the sun the buttercups are gold,

The daisies silver all the grassy lane,

And spring has given love a flower to hold,

And love lays blindness on the eyes of pain.

Within are still, chill aisles and blazoned panes

And carven tombs where memory weeps no more.

And from the lost and holy days remains

One saint beside the long-closed western door.

Outside the world goes laughing lest it weep,

With here and there some happy child at play;

A mother worshipping the babe asleep,

Or two young lovers dreaming‘ neath the May.

Within, the soul of love broods o'er the place;

The carven saint forgotten many a year

Still lifts to heaven his rapt adoring face

To pray, for those who leave him lonely here,

That once again the silent church may ring

With songs of joy triumphant over pain —

Ah! God, who makest the miracle of spring

Make Thou dead faith and love to rise again.