REVELATIONS OF THE MORNING.
By Sel.
Dark and dense night's curtain folded o'er each spot,
'Neath it rarest beauties, though we see them not:
Graceful forms of foliage, twigs and branches fair,
Hidden from our vision, yet they still are there. What though, lone and cheerless, gloomy reigns the night?
What though all around thee darkness palls thy sight?
Morning lifts the curtain. Now behold revealed
All the glorious beauty that the night concealed. So when life's night ended, morning dawns at last,
We shall see the beauty of these trials past;
Oh, 'tis not when favored, not when joys caress,
That we turn us heavenward—'tis when griefs oppress. When ties binding earthward one by one are riven,
Helpless and forsaken, turn we last to Heaven;
So through life we're watching, waiting, for the day,
Then, though worn and weary, faint not by the way. But when toil and trouble dim thy path with tears,
Think thou of the glories of the coming years;
How can we be lonely while we have one Friend
Who'll be with us “alway, even to the end?” Close in Him abiding, He shall give us light;
All in him confiding, he shall be our might;
Though we cannot see him, God is ever near;
Ere life's work is ended morning shall appear.