178

A LITTLE WHILE.

Oh! with this hope before us set, this prospect drawing near,

With every changing season, with each brief revolving year,

How gladly may we labor on, how earnestly

obey,

How lightly think of trials or of dangers by the way!

H. H. L.

A LITTLE WHILE.

B

EYOND the smiling and the weeping,
I shall be soon;

Beyond the waking and the sleeping,
Beyond the sowing and the reaping,

I shall be soon;

Love, rest, and home!

Sweet hope!

Lord, tarry not, but come.

Beyond the blooming and the fading,
I shall be soon;

Beyond the shining and the shading,

Beyond the hoping and the dreading,

A LITTLE WHILE.

179

I shall be soon;

Love, rest, and home!

Sweet hope!

Lord, tarry not, but come.

Beyond the rising and the setting,
I shall be soon;

Beyond the calming and the fretting,
Beyond remembering and forgetting,
I shall be soon.

Love, rest, and hope!

Sweet hope!

Lord, tarry not, but come.

Beyond the parting and the meeting,
I shall be soon;

Beyond the farewell and the greeting,
Beyond the pulse's fever beating,

I shall be soon.

Love, rest, and home!

Sweet hope!

Lord, tarry not, but come.

Beyond the frost-chain and the fever,
I shall be soon,

Beyond the rock-waste and the river,
Beyond the ever and the never,

I shall be soon.

Love, rest, and home!

Sweet hope!

Lord, tarry not, but come.

H. Bonar.

SONG OF THE SILENT LAND.

NTO the Silent Land!

Ah! who shall lead us thither?

Clouds in evening sky more darkly gather,

And shattered wrecks lie thicker on the strand. Who leads us with a gentle hand

Thither, O, thither,

Into the Silent Land?

Into the Silent Land!

To you, ye boundless regions

Of all perfection! Tender morning visions Of beauteous souls! The Future's pledge

and band!

Who in Life's battle firm doth stand,

Shall bear Hope's tender blossoms

Into the Silent Land.

ONE SWEETLY SOLEMN THOUGHT. 181

O, Land! O, Land! For all the broken-hearted,

The mildest herald by our fate allotted Beckon's, and with inverted torch doth stand To lead us with a gentle hand

To the land of the great Departed,

Into the Silent Land!

From the German by Longfellow.

ONE SWEETLY SOLEMN THOUGHT.

NE sweetly solemn thought

Comes to me o'er and o'er

I'm nearer home to-day

Than I have ever been before..

Nearer my Father's house,

Where many mansions be;

Nearer the great white throne;

Nearer the crystal sea.

Nearer the bound of life,

Where we lay our burdens down;

Nearer leaving the cross;

Nearer gaining the crown.

182

THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY.

Jesus my perfect trust,

Strengthen the hand of my faith ; Let me feel Thee near when I stand On the edge of the shore of death.

Feel Thee near when my feet
Are slipping over the brink;
For, it may be I'm nearer home,
Nearer than now I think.

Phoebe Cary.

THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY.

166

HERE is the unknown country?

I whispered sad and slow,
"The strange and awful country
To which I soon must go, must go,
To which I soon must go?"

Out of the unknown country
A voice sang soft and slow :
"O, pleasant is that country
And sweet it is to go, to go,

And sweet it is to go.