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VI.
Longing after Death
Into the bosom of the earth!
Out of the Light's dominions!
Death's pains are but the bursting forth
Of glad Departure's pinions!
Swift in the narrow little boat,
Swift to the heavenly shore we float!
Blest be the everlasting Night,
And blest the endless Slumber!
We are heated with the day too bright,
And withered up with cumber!
We're weary of that life abroad:
Come, we will now go home to God!
Why longer in this world abide?
Why love and truth here cherish?
That which is old is set aside –
For us the new may perish!
Alone he stands and sore downcast
Who loves with pious warmth the Past.
The Past where yet the human spirit
In lofty flames did rise;
Where men the Father did inherit,
His countenance recognize;
And, in simplicity made ripe,
Many grew like their archetype.
The Past wherein, still rich in bloom,
Old stems did burgeon glorious;
And children, for the world to come,
Sought pain and death victorious;
And, though both life and pleasure spake,
Yet many a heart for love did break.
The Past, where to the flow of youth
God yet himself declaréd;
And early death, in loving truth
The young beheld, and daréd –
Anguish and torture patient bore
To prove they loved him as of yore.
With anxious yearning now we see
That Past in darkness drenchéd;
With this world's water never we
Shall find our hot thirst quenchéd:
To our old home we have to go
That blessed time again to know.
What yet doth hinder our return?
Long since repose our precious!
Their grave is of our life the bourn;
We shrink from times ungracious!
By not a hope are we decoyed:
The heart is full; the world is void!
Infinite and mysterious,
Thrills through me a sweet trembling,
As if from far there echoed thus
A sigh, our grief resembling:
The dear ones long as well as I,
And send to me their waiting sigh.
Down to the sweet bride, and away
To the belovéd Jesus!
Courage! the evening shades grow gray,
Of all our briefs to ease us!
A dream will dash our chains apart,
And lay us on the Father's heart.
(p. 22-24)
V.
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