University of Virginia Library

The paths part here; 'tis time to say farewell.
Your eyes are sad, and turned away from mine
To hide their pain; and all the bitter tears
That shake your soul, and rend your youthful heart.
Your lips are smiling bravely, yet I know
Lips have no language fitly to portray
Their sorrow, and the sad half-uttered thoughts.
You will reserve your tears for silent days;
Your sorrow for some unknown hour of ill.
You will be brave, and smile a fond good-bye;
But if I fall, as fall full well I may
In duty's cause, then let no dark despair
O'erwhelm thee in thy grief; let not thy faith
Be shaken in thy God, for we can see
But dimly now and not unto the end.
God's purpose is too great for mortal minds
To comprehend. We have but faith, and trust
That all we see as but a ruined world,
A fallen temple, or a shattered dream,
Is not all purposeless and all unknown
To the eternal mind; a sacrifice
Unto the lords of Hell. Some future age
Shall read the meaning clear of all our pain,
Of all our splendid blood so nobly shed;
And, reaping all the liberties we win,
Shall read it not as vain and purposeless,
But as the travail of a mighty soul
To bring forth great and lasting perfect good.
Thus if I die, have courage to believe
That nought can mar the splendour of Farewell.
It shall remain a sacred memory
Through all the years to come; a legacy
Bequeathed by one who loved, and loving, died.

I would not have you sorrow overmuch
That death may part us far a little while,
For it is but the end of mortal pain,
When sorrows cease, and shadows flee away;
The soul's rebirth within the realms of God,
And not the end of all things that we love.
Man has no fear for death, for unto him
It has become the gateway unto life;
Unto a full perfection with his God.
In serving man I serve my God and King,
And if He wills that I shall not return
To where I lived, and played, a careless child,
He shall remember all the sacrifice;
Our splendid youth upon the altar laid
That truth, and His own kingdom should prevail.

And now farewell! for night is ageing fast,
And I am called to leave you ere the day.
To-morrow, lonely, you must stand alone,
And lonely weep, and make your prayer to God,
And lonely wander forth to be alone.
And when despair has fallen, and your soul
By sorrow is laid bare, be steadfast then.
Be steadfast and gaze upward to the sky,
That you may find a greater strength your own;
That you may learn to sing in your despair
Some song of hope, to cheer the broken heart,
To light the path thro' life upward to God;
And find in Him some healing for your pain,
And for your soul eternal peace and rest.