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THE ANGEL OF PATIENCE.

" Patience is the key of Content." —Mahomet,

To cheer, to help us, children of the dust,
More than one angel has Our Father given ;

But one alone is faithful to her trust —
The best, the brightest exile out of Heaven.

Her ways are not the ways of pleasantness ;
Her paths are not the lightsome paths of joy ;

She walks with wrongs that cannot find redress,
And dwells in mansions Time and Death destroy.

She waits until her stern precursor. Care,
Has lodged on foreheads, open as the morn.

To plough his deep, besieging trenches there —
The signs of struggles which the heart has borne.

But when the first cloud darkens in our sky,
And face to face with Life we stand alone,

Silent and swift, behold ! she draweth nigh,
And mutely makes our sufferings her own.

Though with its bitterness the heart runs o'er.
No words the sweetness of her lips divide ;

But when the eye looks up for light once more,
She turns the cloud and shows its golden side.

Unto rebellious souls, that, mad with Fate,
To question God's eternal justice dare.

She points above with looks that whisper, " Wait-
What seems confusion here is wisdom there."

To the vain challenges of doubt we send.
No answering comfort doth she minister \

Her face looks ever forward to the end.
And we, who see it not, are led by her.

She doth not chide, nor in reproachful guise
The griefs we cherish rudely thrust apart ;

But in the light of her immortal eyes
Revives the manly courage of the heart.

Daughter of God ! who walkest with us here.
Who mak'st our every tribulation thine.

Such light hast thou in Earth's dim atmosphere,
How must thy seat in Heaven exalted shine !

How fair thy presence by those living streams
Where Sin and Sorrow from their troubling cease !

Where on thy brow the crown of amaranth gleams,
And in thy hand the golden key of Peace !