ADDRESS TO THE MOON by Lilla D. Avery

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 11, 1877

ADDRESS TO THE MOON.

By Lilla D. Avery

O lovely planet! beauteous and bright, That sailest so proudly through the arching sky, And shedest o'er earth thy gentle, silvery light, When in repose her sons and daughters lie; I fain would know, bright satellite of earth, What thou hast seen since thine eventful birth.

Six thousand years have run their weary race— Six thousand years of sorrow, sin, and care, Since thou didst lighten with thy silvery face The verdant bowers of Eden's garden fair, When sinless man beheld thee proudly rise, And, wondering, marked thy path along the skies.

Stop, for one moment, beauteous wanderer, stay. Couldest thou but tell me what thou dost behold, What thou hast seen while on thy silent way, As o'er thy starry pathway thou hast rolled— What scenes of blood, what secret deeds of crime, Hast thou beheld in this unhallowed clime?

When ancient Israel, by the power of God, Was led away from Pharaoh's cruel hand, Thy cheering rays fell o'er the path they trod While journeying onward to the promised land. Thou didst behold the vapory clouds arise, From tented Israel's evening sacrifice.

Thy silver rays still fall in silence now, Where holy prophets once have lived and died. They visit still lone Sinai's cragged brow, And light the dark chasms in his awful side; And o'er the plains of ancient Palestine, Thou spreadest, as of old, thy silvery sheen.

Thou lookest down on Calvary's rugged hill; And on the foam-capped waves of Galilee, Where once our Saviour trod; thou shinest still, E'en in the garden of Gethsemane. Oft while he prayed thy mellow rays were shed In silvery radiance round his sacred head.

Thou didst behold proud Nero's cruel reign, And on Napoleon's bloody battle field Thy ghastly rays fell o'er the unburied slain, And glittered dimly on the warrior's shield. And now thou shinest o'er the exiled tomb Of the great emperor, mid Helena's gloom.

Thou sailest calmly o'er the sacred place Where holy martyrs yielded up their breath. Thou didst look down with sympathizing face On cruel scenes of suffering and death, When fiends incarnate smote with murderous hand, And, inquisitional tortures filled the land.

And when were ended those dark, trying days, As inspiration's pen had long foretold, The fiery sun withheld his genial rays, And darkening earth grew desolate and cold; And thou, O moon, didst hide thy face from sight, Nor cheered the darkness of that awful night.

Thou hast beheld earth's mighty kingdoms rise; But as the lapse of ages wore away, Thou markedst from thy watchtower in the skies Their slow decline and gradual decay. Thou hast beheld earth's brightest treasures rust, And fade, and fall, and crumble into dust.

Shall it be ever thus, O queen of night? How long shall weary earth her sorrows know? Say, wilt thou never cheer with mellow light A brighter clime where fadeless flowers grow? Ah, yes, fair orb! thou soon shalt hail the birth Of fadeless beauty in the glad new earth.

No sin, no death can ever enter there; No funeral train, no mourner's bitter sigh, No blight, shall mar earth's new-born beauties fair; And God shall wipe the tears from every eye; And pain and sorrow shall forever cease. Make haste and dawn! O glorious Reign of Peace!

LILLA D. AVERY.