University of Virginia Library

LINES

WRITTEN IN MY BROTHER'S ALBUM

You ask that I should write, brother,
Oh! say, what shall it be?
Shall I not twine a chaplet
From by-gone days for thee?
I know thy heart still clings, brother,
Unto thy childhood's home,
The consecrated places
Where once thou loved'st to roam.
I mind me of the time, brother,
Within the darksome wood,
Or when we crossed the meadows
And culled the sweet wild flowers,
All thoughtlessly beguiling
The happy, swift-winged hours.
Remember you the orchard,
Where grew the loaded trees,
Whose heavy-laden branches
Bowed gently to the breeze?
And do you not remember
The green and wooded way
That led us where so quietly,
A sparkling springlet lay?
And where its little rivulets,
By willow-trees o'erhung,
Leaped gladly o'er the shaded grass,
The mossy rocks among?
Oh! happy were those days, brother,
Though shadows came and went,
And o'er some childish moments
A flickering darkness sent.
The old haunts echo now, brother,
No more to merry feet
And the faces are not there, brother,
That once I loved to greet;
The green trees wave their branches
As erst they used to wave.
And the bright streams lave the rocks, brother,
As erst they used to lave.
But the “Life of life” hath fled, brother,
From all those sunny nooks,
And changes there have come, brother,
Affection hardly brooks.
For stranger feet now tread, brother,
Each well-remembered place,
And on those ever hallowed scenes
Have left their heartless trace.
But still within the soul, brother,
Is painted every spot
In such true, life-like hues, brother,
They'll never be forget.
The beauty of our childhood's home
Will shortly pass away;
The lines deep graven in the soul
Will never more decay.
Thus are we passing on, brother,
We're passing quick away,
But there's a life within, brother,
That never shall decay.
The soul's life is a mystic one,
“'Tis strange, 'tis passing strange,”
And wondrous, high and holy
Is its aspiring range.
Still, the soul is bound on earth, brother,
By its unwieldy load,
But it will don celestial robes,
Before the Throne of God.
And when the soul is freed, brother,
From its material state,
And doffed with joyful gladness
Its cumbrous earthly weight,
There will appear to us, brother,
In clear and sparkling light,
Our spiritual life on earth.
How wonderful the sight!
And when your soul thus stands, brother,
In its own veil-less view,
Oh! may no unrepented sin
Come betwixt God and you.
And though each thought be seen, brother,
May nought impure be found;
But may you, washed in Jesus' blood,
List to the welcome sound,
That from the Highest ever comes
To all who do His word—
“Well done, now enter, faithful one,
The presence of thy Lord.”
And may you, ever freed, brother,
From all impure alloy,
Spend an eternity of bliss
In ever flowing joy.
And may your spirit rove, brother,
O'er Heaven's celestial shore,
With Christ and sinless beings
To dwell forevermore.