The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1891-07-25
OUR ALMA MATER,

So many places On the earth's wide breast
Gay with all charms that nature can bestow
And one tc say: mine are the lovliest
Because the dearest. thou wilt ever know!
So mary seats Of learning old in fame.
Some stem1niag times dark tide, thousand
years,
Aud one, regarding not their worth or name,
To hold of us q tie that most endears!
Yet so it is-in this secluded spot
Nigh half encircled with woodland wild
There is beauty ne'er to be forgot,
For on our home both art and nature smiled.
Affair, one sees the piles of commerce rise,
Affair, the laboring engine bears its load;
The urban noise and bciskness and surprise
Are felt not in our silent, still abode.
And round us here one finds Sylvan bloom,
far famed river nearing. as it flows,
A much loved wood where classic feet oft roam,
fond resort for study and repoae;
Hard by, q pretty lake with islands green
Der which the sun. drawn shadows fall remote,
About whose devious banks are daily seen 80
The busy swallow and the lazy boat.
And from it, breaths of lawn or winding walk.
Darkened and decked with oak Or poplar tree
Where thronging come the cass-worn youth to
talk
Whene'er the glad bell sounds their liberty;
Beyond, in branching lines, an avenue
Swept with the glittering wheels Of restless life
Wherefrom world-troubled minds, in passing,
view
Our cool retreat, q stranger to their strife.
All those, familiar scenes to us,-and thine
Oh Alma Mater-they embosOm thee
jewel sylvan-set, a fruitful vine,
A golden promise of the years to be.
Yet dearer than thy velvet lawn or streams
Or aught Of beauty that our sense enthralls
Are those large truths whereof the scholar
dreams,
Made the rich dover of those VINO leave thy
walls.
A varied knowledge is tbs priceless gift.
And wisdom garnered Of the cycled years,
And Gods Chief science tending to uplift
Our lowy hearts from earth born joys or fears.
Nor vert thou partial toward the mind Or soul
But gave to each its due of nourishment
That, in onr being. happiness be whole,
Our mind with truth ,our soul with God content
An anxious world is mindful now to hear
That science aud religion disagree.
One strongly holding: God is ever near,
The other proving that He cannot be.
The world would know if it could move along
Without God or worship of his name,
Without religion marking right or wrong.
With but the inner voice to praise or blame.
49, 10
That morals in an atheist-heart will die,
And light of conscience be of little aid
If to the soul it's birth-right we deny;
That this short life Of ours is incomplete
And holds 6. common bond with life to be
In that Eleeyian home where all may meet,
Where spirits dwell, forever blest and free
And science should not wear heavenly mask
But kindly keep it's useful earthly place,
Yoked with rel gion toea common task
And common aim-the progress of our race.
So up the mount of wisdom high we trod,
And past the flags of science sadly furled
Where morn like CLEAN those awful truths of God
EWide-spread as heavens blue vault above the
world;
Whence flow the matters of the higher birth
Whence well the fountains of pure JOY and
force
Which freshen toll, makes glad and fair the
earth
And gives to hope and lovea God-ward course
These truths 'mong others taught. oh! Mother
dear.
Are golden links that bind our hearts to thee;
For knowing not that God is ever near,
What lore availe? how bear LIES misery?
How bear reverses of the changeful year!
What time the cloud of sorrow deepens down
Whose voice shall whisper be of better cheer,
In other worlds thv highest hopes are sown.
Forever hallowed be, oh sacred home.
Forever faithful to thy holy trust,
And loved and honored thro' the years to como
When we who speak thy praise to-day. are dust.
And ever let thy beauty please the eye
And ever. loving children sing thy praise
Long may thy gold cross gljttering to the sky
Point out to youth their glorious destiniee.
WIN. sHERAH, st. Thomas Seminary.