But when the self-abhorring thrill When tasks of life thy spirit fill, Risen from thy tears and dust, Then be the self-renouncing will I THOUGHT to meet no more, so dreary seem'd Thy place in Paradise Beyond where I could soar; Friend of this worthless heart! but happier thoughts Spring like unbidden violets from the sod, Where patiently thou tak'st Thy sweet and sure repose. The shadows fall more soothing: the soft air Lives o'er thy funeral day ; The deep knell dying down, the mourners' pause Waiting their Saviour's welcome at the gate.Sure with the words of Heaven Thy spirit met us there, And sought with us along th' accustom'd way So dear to Faith and Hope. O! hadst thou brought a strain from Paradise To cheer us, happy soul, thou hadst not touched The sacred springs of grief More tenderly and true, Than those deep-warbled anthems, high and low, Low as the grave, high as th' Eternal Throne, Guiding through light and gloom Our mourning fancies wild, Till gently, like soft golden clouds at eve, Around the western twilight, all subside Into a placid Faith, That even with beaming eye Counts thy sad honours, coffin, bier and pall; So many tokens dear Of endless love begun. Listen! it is no dream: th' Apostles' trump Gives earnest of th' Archangel's ;-calmly now Our hearts yet beating high To that victorious lay, Most like a warrior's to the martial dirge Of a true comrade, in the grave we trust And if a tear steal down, If human anguish o'er the shaded brow Pass shuddering, when the handful of pure earth Touches the coffin lid; If at our brother's name, G Once and again the thought, "for ever gone," Thou knowest us calm at heart. One look, and we have seen our last of thee, Till we too sleep and our long sleep be o'er ; That countenance pure again, THOU, who canst change the heart, and raise the dead; AS THOU art by to sooth our parting hour, Be ready when we meet, With Thy dear pardoning words. Y. |