(To Miss E E.)
I cannot write, my tears are flowing fast,
Yet weeping is unnatural to me;
Oh! that this hour of bitterness was past--
The parting hour with all I love and thee
If I had never met or loved thee so,
To part would not have caused me this sharp pain;
Parting so oft occurring here below,
And they who part so seldom meet again.
Yet over land or sea, where'er I go,
My home, my friends, shall flit before my eyes--
And oft I anxiously shall wish to know,
If in thy bosom thoughts of me arise.
Oh, I will think of bygone days of glee,
Though on each point of bitter sorrow driven;
I will not bid thee to remember me,
But oh! see to it that we meet in Heaven.
1844.
WEEP WITH THOSE WHO WEEP.
(Mary Maud.)
O friends, I cannot comfort, but will share with you your grieving,
In the valley of the shadow where you sit in helpless tears;
Greater is the parting anguish, than the joy of first receiving
The sweet gift that was your treasure through five happy, golden
years
When I laid within your arms the dear babe that God had given,
There was hidden in the future all the tears that you must weep,
Ah! the little ones so tangled in our heart-strings, they are riven
In the parting, are but treasures lent not given us to keep
There's silence in the places her voice filled with happy laughter,
Stillness waiting for the echo of the patter of her feet,
You are gazing on her picture, and your heart is longing after
The tender touch of the little hands, the mouth that was most sweet
In the valley of the shadow, where by God's will you are sitting,
Earthly sounds shut out and stilled, yea, and heaven so very near,
That the little golden head, through the open doorway flitting,
Might come smiling any moment and be greeted without fear
With earthly toil and serving we will not get encumbered,
Our hearts rise to our treasures that are laid up with the King,
There your little maiden, Maud, with His jewels fair are numbered,
There she learns the songs of gladness that the heavenly children
sing
Among those pure and precious who have known no earthly sinning,
The Beloved's fair white lilies in the Paradise of God,
Those He looked upon and loved, when their lives were but beginning,
And brought home before their tender feet grew weary of the road
There clothed on with his beauty, round the child all bliss will
gather,
All the brightness of the Father's face when looking on His own;
For the little children's angels see the bright face of the Father,
And gather on the rainbow steps that are around the throne.
Pages:
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81