 | [Poems by Hale in] The opal |  |
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THE GATHERED LILY-BUD.
BY THE EDITOR
A cloud has darkened o'er a home
Where happiness like sunshine lay,—
The angel of the Lord has come
And taken their lily-bud away!
Where happiness like sunshine lay,—
The angel of the Lord has come
And taken their lily-bud away!
As falls the blight of early frost
And seals the world for winter's doom,
One gone—the household band has lost
The charm that gives to life its bloom.
And seals the world for winter's doom,
One gone—the household band has lost
The charm that gives to life its bloom.
One gone—whose sweet caressing kiss
Could cheer the father's heaviest care,
And fill the mother's heart with bliss
A seraph might have wished to share!
Could cheer the father's heaviest care,
And fill the mother's heart with bliss
A seraph might have wished to share!
And yet to heaven the more we give,
The richer in its hopes we grow;—
It is not all of life to live,—
It is not here God's lilies blow.
The richer in its hopes we grow;—
It is not all of life to live,—
It is not here God's lilies blow.
The buds withdrawn from human care
Are set where crystal waters move,
And there they open—O! how fair—
Watched by the Saviour's tender love.
Are set where crystal waters move,
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Watched by the Saviour's tender love.
Then, sorrowing parents, look above,
And there behold your Lily-bud,
And while earth's emptiness ye prove,
Rejoice your treasures are with God.
And there behold your Lily-bud,
And while earth's emptiness ye prove,
Rejoice your treasures are with God.
| [Poems by Hale in] The opal | |