We paused, as if from that bright shore And filled our beating hearts to hear Sudden our pathway turned from night; Through their green gates the sunfhine fhowed, Down glade and glen and bank it rolled; And, borne on piers of mift, allied "So," prayed we, "when our feet draw near The river, dark with mortal fear, "And the night cometh chill with dew, "So let the hills of doubt divide, "So let the eyes that fail on earth On thy eternal hills look forth; "And in thy beckoning angels know The dear ones whom we loved below! "AT EVENING THERE SHALL BE LIGHT." O° UR pathway oft is wet with tears, And worldly cares and worldly fears Go with us to the laft; Not to the laft! God's word hath said, Could we but read aright: O pilgrim lift in hope thy head, At eve it fhall be light! Though earth-born fhadows now may shroud Our toilsome path awhile, God's bleffed word can part each cloud, If we but truft in living faith, Then, though our sun may set in death, When tempeft-clouds are dark on high, Then keep we on, with hope unchilled, And we shall own His word fulfilled, Bernard Barton. RACIOUS Source of every bleffing! Guard our breafts from anxious fears; Let us each, thy care poffeffing, All our hopes on thee reclining, DEATH. EVENING LIGHT. BEH EHOLD the western evening light! So calmly Chriftians fink away, The winds breathe low; the withering leaf Scarce whispers from the tree : So gently flows the parting breath, How beautiful on all the hills How mildly on the wandering cloud 'Tis like the memory left behind, When loved ones breathe their laft. And now above the dews of night So faith springs in the heart of those But soon the morning's happier light And eyelids that are sealed in death Shall wake to close no more. W. B. O. Peabody. 1840. IN VIEW OF DEATH. TH HE hour, the hour, the parting hour, And lays at once the thorn and flower How sweet, while on this broken lyre To feel it ftrung with chords of fire To praise the Immortal One, my soul! |