Watchman Of The South

From the Episcopal Recorder.

MAN DIETH AND WHERE IS HE?

The spirit who can tell
The mystery of its birth?

Or who explain the hidden chains,
Which bind it to the earth?

And when those chains dissolve,
Oh whither does it fly?

Are guardian angels ever near,
To bear it to the sky?

Or does it hover still
Around the loved of earth?

Or slumber in the grave until
The Archangel calls it forth?

I asked the learned of earth.
Alas! they cannot tell;
They have not seen the spirits' home
And know not where they dwell

I asked the whispering breeze,
As it kissed the opening flowers;
It answered not, it had not breathed
Among the spirits' bowers.

The traveller returns
From earth's remotest strand.
But none have e'er come back to tell
Us of the spirit's land.

But see, the shadows fly,
Which gathered round the tomb;
Rays from the Prophet's deathless page,
Its darkness now illume.

Thanks for the glorious truth,
By revelation given;
That when the spirit leaves the earth.
Its home is then in heaven.

V.G. M.