Volume 16 — On A Picture Of S. Mary Bearing Doves To Sacrifice.

My eyes climb slowly up, as by a stair,

To seek a picture on my chamber wall—

A picture of the Mother of our Lord,

Hung where the latest twilight shadows fall.

My lifted eyes behold a childlike face,

Under a veil of woman's holiest thought,

O'ershadowed by the mystery of grace,

And mystery of mercy—God hath wrought.

Down through the dim old temple, moving slow,

Her drooping lids scarce lifted from the ground,

As if she faintly heard the distant flow

Of far-off seas of grief she could not sound.

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I think archangels would not count it sin

If, underneath the veil that hides her eyes,

They, seeing all things, saw the soul within

Held more of mother-love than sacrifice.

She walks erect, the virgin undefiled,

Back from her throat the loose robe falls apart,

And e'en as she would clasp her royal Child,

She holds the dovelets to her tender heart.

No white wing trembles 'neath her pitying palm,

No feather flutters in this last warm nest,

And thus she bears them on—while solemn psalm

Wakes dim, prophetic stirrings in her breast.

Sweet Hebrew mother! many a woman shares,

Thy crucifixion of her hopes and loves,

And in her arms to death unshrinking bears

Her precious things—even her turtle-doves.

But often, ere the temple's marble floor

Has ceased the echo of her parting feet,

Her gifts prove worthless—thine is ever more

The gift of gifts—transcendent and complete.

We mothers, too, have treasures all our own,

And, one by one, oft see them sacrificed:

Thou, Blessed among women—thou alone

Hast held within thine arms the dear Child-Christ.

Therefore, mine eyes mount up, as by a stair,

To seek the picture on my chamber wall;

Therefore my soul climbs oft the steeps of prayer,

To rest where shadows of thy Son's cross fall.

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