PAX EI DORMIENTI

New Zealand Tablet, 10 April 1919, Page 37

PAX EI DORMIENTI

(For the X.Z. Tahiti.') You say you loved this man — mourn for him. Why weep that he is dead ? We all must die. And yet because you loved him do this thing. Ask this strange gift from the unweary God, Not for yourself, but for this man, your friend. He was so tired, ask just that he may sleep ; Ask God to drop on him a cloak of sleep, As fathers cover up a weary child. He was so tired. They tell that once a man Within a land of lilies tried to save The son of its unhappy, blundering king, From,men who sought his little royal head ; And when he failed they caught and tortured him, And would not let him sleep by night or day, Until he dropped his anguished lids and died. And yet your friend more weary was, more tired—■ It was a soul he strove for, not a child, — And in the sorry strife he knew no rest. Now he is. dead. Ask God to let him sleep, He cannot bear the greater glory yet, The stately flame that blinds the brows of saints, He is too tired. When he has slept awhile Rich angels clustering o’er him in the gloom May waken him and lead him to God’s door. But, ah! their rustling wings would tire him now. ...... —E. D.