The Weekly Miner

THE TRAMPLED PEARLS.

From heaven an angel passed down to the down-
cast earth,
Away from home in God, and life as intense
as flame;
Breaking his crystal sphere for a lonely burden
of birth,
To bring his kingdom bright to his lower kin
he came.

Out of love's fairyland, to a mother pure came
a child
Of marvelous powers foretold by the wistful
light in his eyes,
Wise because so simple, and strong because so
mild,
He left not heaven behind, for it shone through
human guise.

Man's garment of clay he donned * * * men
looked on his face with amaze.
In a few awakening hearts forgotten pulses
beat;
But the pride of the earth was hurt at a creature
of heavenly way
And when he let fall pearls, swine trampled
them under their feet.

He drank his martyr-cup. he toiled to the end,
then flew
Again to the realms which earth obscures with
a thickness of night;
Of the jewels dropped in the dust the children
had gathered a few
One gave to another a charm, a lamp of un-
quenchable light.

Anon the powerful came. and the power of the
pearl, they eyed,
And they took them and made them crowns
to fit their own brows with gold.
For the angel they made an image enthroned in
a shrine of pride.
As savior and lawful god, and ordered his
might to be told.

The children gazed on the throne. and were bidden
to bow the head
And the priest cried. " Lo, the pearls!" and
took the pay for the show ;
Far off an angel wept, but the eyes of the image
were dead,
And even the sun scarce dared to that painted
corner to go.

But the world was left unsaved, and the pearls
lost their spell in the crown.
Set up where none might reach,and shadowed
by many a cheat:
To one that looks from above, earth's glories
show upside down.
So the pearls raised on high are still in the
mire trampled under the feet.

University Magazine.