THE TWO GATES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1043, 8 April 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE TWO GATES.

A. pilgrim once (so runs an aneiont tjile), ' Old,:worn and;spent, crept down a shadowed .■. Tale; ■ ;i . '; 1 i• ■ )n either hand rose mountains Weak and high'Ml was tho gusty air, and dark tho sky ; ' 'ho path was rugged and liMeetwere bare; i.ir lis faded clieok was seamed by pain and carp • - lis lioavy eyes upon the groumlwcre.cast, I ind every step seped ; iecblor than tip last, 'ho valloy.endcd ;l whcre;a naked rook : lose sheer from earth to heaven, as if to mock he pilgrim who hail <*rept. that toilsome way jut wliilc his dim anjl weary, eyes cssny 1 * 'o find an outlot, in the mountainside l ponderous sculptured, brazen door lie spied • md tottering toward it.witli Ihst-fallin" breath Aovc the port a read," Tho Gate of Doath;». ' 1c could not stay his feet that led thereto; J t yielded to his touch, and, passing through Ifi came into a world all bright and fair j- ' lluo wero the heavons, and balmy, was tho air Lnd, lo! the blood of youth ,was in his veins, ' ind he was clad In robes that held no stains; )f his long pilgrimage. Amazed, lie turned; iehold! a goldep'door behiiid.liim burned n that fair sunlight, and liisVondfiring eyes, fow lustorful and 'clear;as those not? sklw, ' '' 'ree from, the mists of age,'of earej and strife, Lbove tlioportal read, "Tho Gate of Life" •