Before Dawn.

God, dear God, come again, come again!
I heard your voice in the silver rain;
Your whispering came, so clear, so clear
It wakened my sleeping soul to hear.
The dream doors opened and I came through
And waked to the dim hushed house and You.
The world was waiting, so quiet, so grey,
That list'ning time before dawn of day—
It knew the wind would a message bring—
The wind that wakens the birds to sing—
But did they know, the grass and the tree
That God was speaking that day to me?
I knelt by the window. Close He came
He touched my forehead and breathed my name,
He passed in a silver mist of rain........
I oped my eyes to the world again—
To the wind of dawn and birds awake
And Day in the East about to break,
And holy joy filling full my heart
That God had spoken to me apart.

—Y.X.Z.