University of Virginia Library

What thin partitions joy and grief divide!
See, from her father's house, the pensive bride
To her new home the joyful bridegroom bears,
While her glad prospects check her falling tears.
Then, as her filial fond regrets remove
Before the healing power of happy love,
Although her heart may miss each earlier tie
A few short weeks on joy's light pinions fly.
But from her bridegroom's house, that distant bourne,
How does the bride to her first home return!
Where are the smiles expecting parents wear?
Say, why those friends in mourning robes appear?
Oh! say, what means that dark funereal train?
Whom does yon hearse, death's sable car contain?
Stretch'd on that bier, o'er which fond kindred mourn,
See the young, happy bride, a corpse return!
And he who sate the nuptial blessing gave,
Now prays with faltering voice beside her grave.
Short term of happiness! but was there nought
To soothe the anguish such bereavement brought?
Yes—gracious heaven, in tender mercy shed
The sweetest comfort o'er her dying bed.
Her's, the fond watchings of a husband's care,
A sister's tenderness—those tasks to share:
And her's, more precious far than earthly love,
The hope in Christ, all other hopes above!
Then balm for those she could no more behold,
Thus her last wish the dying sufferer told—
“Bear me,” she cried, “when death's last hour shall come,
Bear me, I charge you, to my father's home.”
Oh! with what tender zeal, whate'er she will'd,
Her mourning hearers faithfully fulfill'd.
A sister's hand her youthful limbs compos'd,
And in the dress she lov'd her form enclos'd;
Then flowers, fit emblems of her transient bloom,
Deck'd the pale tenant of an early tomb.
Thus, to that home, for which in death she sigh'd—
Thus, to her father's house return'd the bride.
“Her father's house!” O words with comfort fraught,
That raise above this earth aspiring thought;
The tenderest earthly parent can but give
A home where joy and grief alternate live;
Nor can that home abide, however dear;
Change, not duration, marks this nether sphere.
But there 's a home above yon vaulted sky;
A home beheld by faith's uplifted eye;
A home that's guarded by angelic bands,
Which in the heaven of heavens eternal stands!
Where entrance, purchas'd by the Saviour's blood
Awaits the spirits of the just and good.

Then, mourners, weep not by that early grave,
Which to your lov'd one heaven in favour gave.
Hope that a home is hers above the sky,
Where blessed spirits “Abba! Father!” cry.
Hope, to that “father's house,” thy child is come,
To dwell for ever in a heavenly home.