Idle Moments : :: :: University of Virginia Library

Our hopes of life of every hue,
At noon are dead and blasted,
Our fruits of life we often view,
Are gone ere we have tasted.
And fondest hopes of coming bliss,
So bright at morning seeming,
Ere evening gives its parting kiss,
We find them but a dreaming.

If love doth give a promise sweet,
So full of hope and yearning,
'Tis turned from blissful waters sweet,
While we its joys are learning:
If wealth or fame or great estate,
Doth fill our hearts with gladness,
Ere we enjoy the hope it brings,
Our joy is turned to sadness.

And what though some have reached the goal,
And in its sunlight's basking,
Their joys, alas, must soon be told,
Life is not everlasting.
And soon the icy hand of death,
Will come our lives to sever,
Oh, may we, at our parting breath,
But dwell with Christ forever.

That spark within that can't be stilled,
And tells that we're immortal,
Is but the soul, by heaven willed,
To live beyond life's portal.
Where bathed in streams of purest bliss,
God's love is o'er us bending:
Where we shall dwell with spirits bright
In Sabbaths never ending.

Then may we choose that life above
Where disappointments never
Invade the precincts filled with bliss,
With God to dwell forever.
Then take the world with all its joys,
So transient and so fleeting,
Be thine to choose that perfect kiss
From God's own Son in greeting.

There friend again will meet with friends
And loved ones, sadly parted:
There God shall wipe away our tears,
And heal the broken hearted,
There ne'er to part, we meet at last
Young lives and grey hairs hoary
And bathe in blessed seas of rest
Within the realms of glory.