He loves and weeps—but more than tears
  Have sealed Thy welcome and his love -
One look lives in him, and endears
  Crosses and wrongs where'er he rove:

That gracious chiding look, Thy call
  To win him to himself and Thee,
Sweetening the sorrow of his fall
  Which else were rued too bitterly.

E'en through the veil of sheep it shines,
  The memory of that kindly glance; -
The Angel watching by, divines
  And spares awhile his blissful trance.

Or haply to his native lake
  His vision wafts him back, to talk
With JESUS, ere His flight He take,
  As in that solemn evening walk,

When to the bosom of His friend,
  The Shepherd, He whose name is Good.
Did His dear lambs and sheep commend,
  Both bought and nourished with His blood:

Then laid on him th' inverted tree,
  Which firm embraced with heart and arm,
Might cast o'er hope and memory,
  O'er life and death, its awful charm.

With brightening heart he bears it on,
  His passport through this eternal gates,
To his sweet home—so nearly won,
  He seems, as by the door he waits,

The unexpressive notes to hear
  Of angel song and angel motion,
Rising and falling on the ear
  Like waves in Joy's unbounded ocean. -

His dream is changed—the Tyrant's voice
  Calls to that last of glorious deeds -
But as he rises to rejoice,
  Not Herod but an Angel leads.

He dreams he sees a lamp flash bright,
  Glancing around his prison room -
But 'tis a gleam of heavenly light
  That fills up all the ample gloom.