LOVE'S RECORD by Belle W. Cooke

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 18, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 11.

LOVE'S RECORD.

By Belle W. Cooke

Those dear, dear hands that I scarce can see As I look through blinding tears, Day in and day out they have worked for me For nearly fifty years!

By the struggle with pain, they are seamed and marred, And parts have been cut away By saw and plane—they are battered and scarred, But what do they tell to-day?

For me and the children God gave us They have toiled unselfishly, They have guarded from dangers perilous, And won victoriously; No comeliness that another could see, Not a line of beauty is there, No form of grace—but they have for me A charm that is more than fair.

They have gathered for me the roses of life, And stripped their thorns away, They have given caress and kept off strife Through many a sorrowful day; They have raised the cup to my fevered lip With a touch that never jarred; They have held me up when I feared to slip O’er ways both dark and hard.

O, could we see with the new-found rays The meanings of marks and forms, Or read the record of weary days On hands that have dared the storms! One-half the cost, we may not here know Of the sacrifices of love. What this life has lost, heaven’s light may show When the record appears above.

—Belle W. Cooke.