- Selected | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 9, 1900

— Selected

I MIGHT have said a word of cheer Before I let him go. His weary visage haunts me yet; But how could I foreknow The slightest chance would be the last To me in mercy given? My utmost yearnings can not send That word from earth to heaven.

I might have held in closer clasp The hand he laid in mine; The pulsing warmth of my rich life Had been as generous wine, Swelling a stream that, even then, Was ebbing faint and slow. Mine might have been (God knows) the art To stay the fatal flow.

Ah, friend, whose eyes to-day may look Love into living eyes, Whose tone and touch, perchance, may thrill Sad hearts with sweet surprise, Be instant, like our Lord, in love, And lavish as his grace, With light and dew and manna-fall, For night comes on apace.