Now is the time for folding the hands time to rest and rest is sweet 

 when rest is needed. Now is the time to watch the day dim and the 

 night darken, until, at the end, you, who began your dreamings in the 

 day, find you end them in the night. 



For years I have planned to spend this too-brief gloaming alone, 

 not thinking, but letting thoughts drift over me like summer clouds, 

 which drop their passing shadows on the field and stream. This is 

 mv hour to banish care; to leave the hush of prayer on the spirit and 

 let God walk silent in the heart, as in a garden. 



"To wander lonely as a cloud," 



as Wordsworth phrases it. If I may, in the open, with the neighborly 

 sky and the companionable stars, and hear the moan of winter winds 

 through naked trees, or feel the touch of summer's lips; or, if I may 

 not be Out-of-Doors, to be Out-of-Doors in spirit and watch, as I sit 

 in my study before the lights are lit, the droop of ashen hues into the 

 sky, and the shadow these ashen tints cast across our spirit. 



Floating, floating, from dawn to dusk, 



Till the pearly twilight dies, 

 And the mists float up from the sapphire sea 



And cloud all the sapphire skies. 

 Hooting, floating, while golden stars 



Seem to float in a sea overhead, 

 And starry lights from a sea below 



Glow orange, and purple, and red : 

 Till we seem floating out from the sea of life, 

 The tempests of passion, the storm winds of strife, 

 Out into a strange, mysterious space, 

 Till God shall find us a landing-place. 



Drifting, drifting, to lands unknown, 



From a world of love and care. 

 Drifting away to a home untried 



And a heart that is waiting there. 

 ship! sail swiftly waters deep! 



Bear me safe to that haven unknown 

 Safe to that tender love that waits 



To be forever my own; 

 Till we drift away from the sea of life, 

 The tempests of passion, the storm winds of strife, 

 Out to a haven, out to a shore 



Where life is love for evermore. 



-GOOD WORDS. 



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