William Baxter Clouds (1852)

FROM

THE

MILLENNIAL HARBINGER:

FOURTH SERIES.

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VOL. II.] BETHANY, VA. MARCH, 1852. [NO. III.
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C L O U D S.

The clouds are floating in the upper air,
And to my gaze the fleecy masses seem
Gorgeous as temples for the praise of God;
Or palaces, through which we rove in dreams.

Beneath those shining alabaster domes,
May not a race of sinless dwellers be,
To whom we mortals are an open book,
While they to us are but a mystery?

Sailing serenely down the steep of heaven,
They often near our earthly dwellings lie;
Like ships becalmed upon a waveless sea;
So sit they in the soft blue summer sky.

Call them pure temples; I would worship there
When on their altars falls the rosy light
Of glowing dawn, or lovely tinge of eve,
Making the pearly hue glow golden bright.

Call them swift ships; upon the deep above,
Among the starry isles, then let me sail;
For in that sea, there are no rocks to wreck;
Nor rise the winds there to a furious gale.

Some stand like castles in the evening sky;
Others, like winged steeds, rush through the air;
Others, like angels, bearing up to God
The feeble accents of a mortal's prayer.

Some seem the homes, the bright, the happy homes,
Which angel hands have reared for saints above,
Homes, where the hearts which death has severed here,
Again shall meet; again unite in love.

Some I have seen, like white robed ones to earth
Speeding their flight, from the pure courts on high,
And thought they came to gladden fainting hearts,
With the sweet message they brought from the sky.

May not some be the shadows which are flung
From that eternal city of the blest,
Whose happy bowers and crystal palaces,
Shall for God's chosen, be the final rest?

May not those golden pillars in the west,
Be the bright entrance to that land of light,
Where the bright scenes, which John in Patmos saw,
Shall burst forever on our raptured sight?

WILLIAM BAXTER.      

[The Millennial Harbinger (March 1852): 180.]

ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC EDITION

      William Baxter's "Clouds" was first published in The Millennial Harbinger, Fourth Series, Vol. 2, No. 3, March 1852. The electronic version of the poem has been produced from the College Press reprint (1976) of The Millennial Harbinger, ed. Alexander Campbell (Bethany, VA: A. Campbell, 1852), p. 180.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 21 June 1998.
Updated 28 June 2003.

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