No More Sea. Life of our life, and Light of all our seeing, For still this sea of life, with endless wailing, Dashes above our heads its blinding spray, And ever round us swells the insatiate ocean And deep and dark the fearful gloom unlighted Yea! in thy life our little lives are ended, Into thy depths our trembling spirits fall; In thee enfolded, gathered, comprehended, As holds the sea her waves thou hold'st us all! Eliza Scudder. The Eternal Goodness. Within the maddening maze of things, I long for household voices gone, I know not what the future hath Of marvel or surprise, Assured alone that life and death And if my heart and flesh are weak The bruised reed he will not break, And so beside the silent sea I wait the muffled oar; No harm from him can come to me I know not where his islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond his love and care. John G. Whittier. Blessed are They that Mourn. Oh, deem not they are blessed alone The light of smiles shall fill again There is a day of sunny rest For every dark and troubled night: And grief may bide an evening guest, But joy shall come with early light. And thou who, o'er thy friend's low bier, Nor let the good man's trust depart, For God hath marked each sorrowing day And heaven's long age of bliss shall pay For all his children suffer here. William C. Bryant. Faith. I will not think the last farewell we hear, Is more than brief "good-bye" that a friend saith, I will not think the last looks of dear eyes, Weigh down their lids with beams too bright to bear. Our dead have left us for no dark, strange lands, I will not think the soul gropes dumb and blind, A brief space through our world, death-doomed from birth; I will not think that Love shall ever find A fairer heaven than he made of earth. Pakenham Beatty. 66 Good-bye, till morning come again! The shade of death brings thought of pain, 44 From 'The Excursion.” One adequate support For the calamities of mortal life The darts of anguish fix not where the seat M. G. T. Soul of our souls, and safeguard of the world, Venturi Salutamus. Our beloved have departed, In the dreary, empty house: They have ended life's brief story, They have reached the home of glory, Hush that sobbing, weep more lightly; To the rest that they have found. On more holy, happy ground? On we haste, to home invited, In a surer bond than here; Ah! the way is shining clearer, To the everlasting home; Comrades, who await our landing, Friends, who round the throne are standing, We salute you, and we come! From the German. (Littell's "Living Age.") From "My Psalm." All as God wills, who wisely heeds Than all my prayers have told! |