The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-17
THE STRANGER AT
OUR STARRY GATES

some pleasant world DESTROYED by such
a visitant. and tie route of the comet
across the path of earth has been truly
OWNED, and our small craft should be
just there as 4 dashed into our unfenc-
ed h:ghway-what then? If huge globe
of granite and red sandstone why, there
might be more asteroids. in our social
circle. and fragments, like the pieces OF
mirror shiyered by a blow might each
reflect the sun. and move in orbits OF
| their own. If such a thing could be,
and human life remain, how wilder than
d dream and sadder than a DEATH The
child playing in the garden among the
flowers might see the homestead circling
| far away the mother stretching forth
her hands in yaiu-the garden and the
homestead in two worlds the wife Just
parted from her husband might be di-
vorced by a broad abyss of empty, un-
| navigabIe air. The daughter of some
house and heart, who went with bless
ings from the sheltering roof, would
ne'er return. The hunted debtor on one
side the cleft might see his creditors
iafar as on their sandworid they drift
ed out to sea. May be, on one small
planet of their own, there would be two
that love, for whom alone the rain should
fall, a narrow ribbon of green spring be
woven, and the cloudy bow yet keep
upon. one atom Of a world alone. Juan
Fernandez in the sailless sea, soul
might dwell whose story no De Foe
should ever write
And such a thing might be, that this
bold Comet should entice away a simple
Satellite to wander in its train: should
hasten il beyond the had and line of
telescope ray; beyond the cloudy MageIt
Ian of Heaven; away where light has
just begun to be; beyond the stars; be-
yond the reach of summer and of sun
And then, what if these little planets
should move in curves SO very near,
that, like ships at sea, men could des-
cry their fellows on the glittering decks,
and with the trumpet speak" each
other as they met and parted! Signal
flags would wave upon this shore and
that and family the booming of a gun
might sound across the deep. But no
anchor to let go. no sail to reef. no hu-
man helmsman at the wheel. they can
not pause, they can not lower boat,
they can not clasp the hama, but on
ward move forever
But so it would not be. The earth
quake to that crash would be the faint
est shiver of dreaming child; an ague
thrill as if the golden chain that holds
the swinging world fast the throne of
God, the tip of some errand-angel's
wing unconsciously should touch, and
il should CULVER. link by link, from De-
ity to dust.
There are no outlaws mid the world
of God True as His word. the splenuIa
engine moves harmonious. docie our
far sentry Neptune. on his rounds sub
lime, the bright pfanet-dew poised on
the aSpen's leaf.
The world is going somewhere; our lit
Lei faY,, y,le,
and surely it is pleasant thus to travel
together. Away towards the uim north
west, where the constellation of the ca
gle spreads his starr wings, we are
moving-the kingly Sun and his splendid
company of retainers.
Along the highway. of Heaven we are
going; and to angels eyes it must be a
pageant worth beholding. Who knows
but We are bound to some far distant
court, ruled by an elder sun? Who knows
what grander groupings, by ard by, may
light the hollow of our cloudless nights ?
And these comets may be the couriers
of our radiant Prince, whose torches
flare afar; they ever and anon return
with tidings-..The way is clear-move
on and wheel again, and for a while
are seen no more. A fragment of their
route like an arc of Apollo's broken bow,
the astronomer has grasped with that
weak hand of his, and has completed
the orbit and calculated the return OF
these heralds of the King. If no world
beguiles them, and makes them Hotter by
the way, To- here their blazing torches
startle the watching world, true to the
prophet word. and again these tiuings
! come to Sciences listening ear-"The
highway clear; oh Liege the Sun, pass
onr'
No blind and laundering wanderers
are they to plunge among the peaceful
| fleets and wreck the craft wherein a
| God descended and an Eden smiled. On
| some high commission the Comet goes
! and comes To us, who swing upon the
! pendulum of the earth. whose souls q
summer zephyr may watt forever from
| our parted lips, it is even as some swift
cloud that drifts along the sky; in whose
pearly and crimson folds there may b'
death-hut what dover of beauty there
| is in the train; but what breadth o.
blessings in the shadow, what a toker
| of hope in the bow! In Gods good keep
ing ALL the sparrow's flight is guided
and the route of the falling leaf.
nv haS