Classic Poem

How hard to walk in sorrow's echoing chambers,
E'en with uncovered feet!
How hard to speak amid severe affliction
E'en words of comfort sweet!

What can we say when bitter tears are falling
From a fond mother's eyes,
Since one whose baby-form lay in her bosom
Now in the deep sea lies?

No words can give that wrung heart consolation
Save His of old who spake
To the sad sister of his friend departed, —
" Thy brother shall awake. "

This thought, then, only, to thee do I offer, —
A balm for thy torn heart, —
Our loved ones die not, when, the body sleeping,
Their souls to new life start.

They live whom now we mourn, — aye, live more truly
Than we who here may sing,
Far from our Father's house, the songs of Zion,
With drooping, folded wing.

There comes a day, — my spirit hails its dawning, —
When, fetterless and free,
Our souls shall grasp the idea of the mansion
Where all God's children be.

In God's great hand each child of earth is lying:
He loveth every soul.
Christ died for all; and, o'er the heights of glory,
Eternal anthems roll

From souls redeemed by him who hears to answer
Each fervent, faith-breathed prayer;
And we may hope to meet, through grace and mercy,
All, all, our loved ones there.