Life-Death-Immortality by Mrs. H. I. Morse-Farnum

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · May 4, 1905

Life—Death—Immortality

By Mrs. H. I. Morse-Farnum

(A May Reverie at South Lancaster, Mass.)

MRS. H. I. MORSE-FARNUM

THE cherry-blooms of singing May, The trees of tender hue, The fragrant, purpling lilac spray, Yon arch of cloudless blue. The apple-trees in pink and snow (Anear dark evergreen), Where tree and shrub with carols flow, As happy birds careen,— All, all explain and paraphrase The love and tender care Appealing to our wond'ring gaze In beauty everywhere.

Yea, from the rounded velvet hills Unto the river's flow, This shimm'ring morn with fragrance fills, As fair the flowers glow. Yon dainty petals droop and weight Their chestnut trees adown. Where in the background rise in state The spires of Clinton town. These ancient elms on either side The broad and shady street Stretch miles away; in stately pride Their topmost branches meet.

'Tis o'er and o'er that distant years Brought forth this vernal sky; Grim spoiler's retinue appears, And all these beauties die. Then other beings loved these streams (Gliding by forever) Whose life was transient, too, as seems The never resting river. There, near the locomotive's track, Are stones bedecked with moss, And letters quaintly bringing back The story of their loss. Those word-lines hint of multitude Whose mold'ring tombs we see; An ancient one is plainly grooved With "sixteen eighty-three."

To-day this land is full of song, Aglow with roseate ray, As if no pain or death or wrong Had ever marred the May. In this aroma song and bloom, In valley, plain, and hill,

Peterboro, Ontario.

In sighing pine-trees' grateful gloom And each wee songster's trill, Footprints of pristine glory trace! Spell out the plan of God, That earth should be a sinless place, No grave to break the sod; And more; no chill and blighting frost, No plaintive autumn-tide, Nor tear for priceless treasures lost, As when our dear ones died.

Lo, that great plan proceeds apace! As knowledge lights the land, His wondrous agencies take place, Hast'ning finale grand, When evil's woful train must die, Pure joy its astral burn. And from the flaming, parted sky The Prince of Peace return! 'Tis then beloved forms in death— So many hid away— Will live again, as blooms the earth In this sweet time of May.

Though rest and desolation wait The worn earth's tott'ring form, While through the pearl and golden gate, All sheltered from the storm, A ransomed host from ev'ry clime, In everlasting bliss, Reach home, and ever-summer-time, Beyond the gales of this. Then will the old earth lay aside The mantle of its woe, And song and bloom on every side Abide, as long ago.

Redeemer and redeemed return (Probation-time no more); Bright hopes in grand fruition burn, And every ill is o'er. The mourner and the suff'rer come, The homeless and the old, Sharing the many-mansioned home, Treading the streets of gold! Decay or blight can never fall, Snow-drift or scorching sun! Immortal glory crowning all, The trial-time is done.