Page images
PDF
EPUB

LINES TO THE MEMORY OF "ANNIE."
"In the fair gardens of celestial peace."

H. B. Stowe.

'Bryant's Library, 176

Elim. Rev. H. & T. Book, 751 Stedman.

SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN

66

They are going-only going."

"I have a little kinsman."

Schaff & Gilman, 879

THE DISCOVERER

FIRE

(An elder sister.)

A DEAD BABY

.

"Sweet maiden, for so calm a life."

John Keble.

Book of Praise, 204
Mrs. Mulock-Craik.

"Little soul, for such brief space that entered."

Poems, Old and New, 123

DYING, AND YET LIVING

Theo. Tilton.

"She died—yet is not dead."

Lyra Americana, 213

EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED

Geo. W. Bethune.

"Within her downy cradle there lay a little child."

[blocks in formation]

TO THE MEMORY OF WILLIAM POWER WATTS
"A cloud is on my heart and brow."

Putnam, 533

A. A. Watts.

Memory and Hope, 33
A. R. W.

C. H. Dall.

[merged small][ocr errors]

'Like broken thoughts in dreams."

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

O THOU before whose sight all generations of men pass over to their rest, to thee alone can we turn in this hour. Amid all life's changes thou art the same forever, and thy years shall have no end. Thou art the source of all life. Thou art the Power above all powers and Lord of Death. To thee we come, who dost clothe the grass of the field, and mark the falling sparrow. To thy unfailing compassion we look, thou who dost note thy children's pain and grief. We bring these empty hearts, this loneliness, this sorrow, and lay them at thy feet. Thou knowest it all, our Father, and because thou knowest, canst help us. Comfort us with thy love, greater than a mother's love for her child! Send thy pity to lighten the darkness; send thy patience that we may bear this trial bravely. Touch these wounds with thy hand of healing, and help us to be still.

Almighty Father, give us of thy strength that we may take up our lives more bravely for the sake of this dear one who has now done with earth. May we learn to be faithful in duty, thoughtful, tender of others, loyal to the service of holiness and truth, because of those who can work no longer here on earth. May we think not of our loss, our suffering, but of their release, of the peace that rests upon this mortal body, and the freedom wherein the soul has now found a higher joy.

Grant, we pray thee, the faith that these ties of affection

[ocr errors]

- the holiest thing thou givest us to know can never perish. Wheresoever this dear friend may go, he can not be forgetful of us, and henceforth we are no more strangers to the life beyond since these have entered to make it home.

Now, Almighty Creator, into thy hands we commend

the spirit thou didst give. We thank thee for the memory of his life. No longer can we care for him; but thou wilt care for him better than our love could do. By pastures green and by quiet waters, into new realms of purity and love and truth, into new and higher labors in thy service thou wilt lead him. Cherish and keep him, we pray thee, and through ways unknown to us bring him at last nearer to thy Presence, O God of the Living and the Dead!

And when we, too, are called to bid farewell to this world of love and beauty, of joy and sorrow, grant that we may follow after him. Grant that our love may grow

stronger in these years of absence. Bring us, if it be thy purpose with us, bring us together again where we may know each other better. May we trust the highest instincts of this human heart, telling us that the love which conquers death is forever immortal. We ask in the memory of Jesus, our Elder Brother. In memory of his tender heart, his courage and purity, we would be lifted up into his peace, and learn with him to pray: Thy will, not ours, O God! Thou didst give, and thou hast taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

C. J. S.

O THOU who art the Beginning and the End of all lives, in whom the living live and the dead sleep, grant that we in the presence of death may feel that our true life is in thee. Thou who hast made us as we are made, to love life, and to grieve and suffer in the presence of death, be near to us when we call upon thy name, feeling in that presence we have no help save in thee alone. It is our comfort and consolation in turning our hearts to thee, when they are made heavy by sorrow, that thou

art greater than our hearts and knowest all things. When our grief is too great to be uttered, and our need is more and deeper than we know or can express, thou knowest it altogether. Thy hand, Father Almighty, has fashioned the ties that bind us one to another in love and friendship, and when those ties are broken by death, that which we have to suffer is known to thee alone. We desire to feel, though we cannot know that thy will in trouble and affliction is not to punish us but to bless us; that alike in all we are born to suffer in our affections, and in all the happiness and enjoyment we derive from them, the pity and goodness of the Highest are manifested and expressed. We desire in our darkest hours to trust thee, and against doubts and fears that test us and perplex us, to cling to the belief that all is for the best, not meant to crush us or to extinguish our hopes and desires for those we love and for ourselves, but to work out for them and for us good beyond our belief and hope.

When our faith is weak, and heart and flesh faint and fail, good Lord, have mercy upon us; in thy mercy remember us; in thy pity visit us, that in the thought of thy pity we may be saved from despair of ourselves. Thou knowest how hard it is for us to assure ourselves, when those we love better than life are taken from us, that we are not forgotten or disowned by Him that made us, that our loss is not all loss, and our suffering and anguish not all vain and fruitless. Our affections cling to that which is earthly and familiar to us, so that it is hard for us to think and feel that our beloved dead, whose faces we shall no more behold, are still with thee, and that in thy presence and dɔminion death hath no more dominion over them.

« PreviousContinue »