GRAINS OF GOLD THE VOICE OF DEATH.

New Zealand Tablet, 3 September 1908, Page 3

GRAINS OF GOLD THE VOICE OF DEATH.

O weary lids and weary eyes, No longer, vigil keep .'- The dark that is agathering Is made for eyes that weep ; My touch will fold you round with peace And give you gentle sleep. O weary hands, with "labor worn, Relinquish now life's quest ! " - My touch will still the pulse of toil That hath ,so long oppressed ; * The hush of labor's eventide Is' full of quiet rest. O weary soul, God calleth thee From struggle and from strife ! He knows the sorrow and the sin - That in this wprld are rife ; And so He sendeth me, kind Death, To lead theef into life... - ' •-. — Aye Maria.

It really does not count for much what the world thinks- or says of us. The world is usually mistaken. Often i,t is so involved as to feel compelled to bear false witness. It has raised this man or that to some pedestal, and rather than acknowledge its own blindness it goes on holding -him there despite his unfitness for the place. But time always peels off the veneer and shows us what really exists under the shell.

The human soul is immortal. Men stand to-day at the foot of Calvary looking at the vacant cross above and the vacanttomb below. The journey of every life finds its road winding about Calvary and passing the vacant tomb; and' every pilgrim must stop, for a moment at least, to realise the meaning of the ; world's greatest tragedy, and to ask the inevitable questions: ■ Was Christ the Son of God? Is the soul of man immortal? Did Christ rise from death as He foretold; and is His resurrection the prophecy of man's everlasting' glory in the life -beyond thj grave? As each soul answers these questions,, so shall its destiny be. The Catholic multitude answers every question with an affirmative that has resounded in every age, vibrant wit'h_ the power of God ; sometimes the cry came from the arena, where"' » torture and death tried in vain to smother it; sometimes At camel" from the wilderness where religion foffght with savagery! again^ from the bloody battlefield; often from the forum. of the ? philo-"~ sophers, where sophistry thought to conquer; but "wherever it came from, it has remained : the dominant note in the history of the world.