A Song of the Sinking Sun by Arthur W. Spaulding

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 20, 1913

A Song of the Sinking Sun

By Arthur W. Spaulding

ARTHUR W. SPAULDING

In shadow and in brightness God's doomed fair world doth lie; The low-dipped sun sinks swiftly upon the boding eye; The swales and the hills catch glory, the hollows and dales are dim, And thicker the shadows cluster, awesome, menacing, grim. But yet for your courage, comrades, remember, amid the fens, The sunlight bathes the hilltops, though purple are the glens.

O, but the night is gathering! Ominous fades day's light; Chill is the steel that the heavens, darkening, bare to the sight. The wail of the hoarse night-chorus — hounds of the nether world — Up from the shattered canyons flat on the ear is hurled. Yet, if the night grows darkly, and sight in the chasms fails, The sunlight rests on the hilltops, though blackness hides the vales.

Over and over the message strikes with the sun's swift beams: Courage! and let your vision rest where the glory streams. God plans a hastened sunrise; fear not the falling night. On with the work in patience; trust to the lingering light. And, when the lowlands fail you, look where the headland leaps; For the sunlight touches the hilltops, though lost in night are the deeps.