 | Lyrics: By Martin F. Tupper |  |
180
The Gone Before.
O spirits made perfect! How dear will ye be
In the bright happy world, where affections are free,
Unfetter'd from all the heart-slavery here,
Unwarp'd by the world in its love or its fear,
Uncheck'd in their impulses—misunderstood,
Unchill'd in their warmth, and all glowing for good.
O glorious and glad! when in fulness and power
The soul shall expand like an amaranth flower,
And open her beauties for every eye,
And shed out her fragrance on all that come nigh,
And freely fly forth on the wings of a dove,
And float in a rapture of purified love!
In the bright happy world, where affections are free,
Unfetter'd from all the heart-slavery here,
Unwarp'd by the world in its love or its fear,
Uncheck'd in their impulses—misunderstood,
Unchill'd in their warmth, and all glowing for good.
O glorious and glad! when in fulness and power
The soul shall expand like an amaranth flower,
And open her beauties for every eye,
And shed out her fragrance on all that come nigh,
And freely fly forth on the wings of a dove,
And float in a rapture of purified love!
182
—There, soon in the garments of praise shall I see
The spirits that here have been dearest to me,
Those beautiful darlings, by memory shrined
In the roots of the heart and the stem of the mind,
On the magical leaves of affection imprest
And burst into blossom, as spirits made blest!
How happy hereafter in union most sweet
Such cherish'd and glorified dear ones to meet!
And here, to look forward to those gone before
In the joy and the hope of such meeting once more!
And now, to look upward and feel without fear
That these are His messengers helping us here!
The spirits that here have been dearest to me,
Those beautiful darlings, by memory shrined
In the roots of the heart and the stem of the mind,
On the magical leaves of affection imprest
And burst into blossom, as spirits made blest!
How happy hereafter in union most sweet
Such cherish'd and glorified dear ones to meet!
And here, to look forward to those gone before
In the joy and the hope of such meeting once more!
And now, to look upward and feel without fear
That these are His messengers helping us here!
| Lyrics: By Martin F. Tupper | |