Farewell, Old Year by Mary A. Davis

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Dec 19, 1878

Farewell, Old Year.

By Mary A. Davis

A LONG farewell, old year, to thee, With thy days of sorrow, thy days of glee; We part with the regretfully.

How many who greeted us with thy dawn, In life's twilight gray, in the flush of morn, From their place in our circle to-day are gone.

On the lone hillside, 'neath the cyprus bough, Their lifework closed, they are sleeping now, The seal of death on each pallid brow.

Perchance ere long we too may stand, With failing heart and powerless hand. Beside the gate of the silent land.

What promise of life would we leave unbroken? What words we have said would we have unspoken? What shall we ask for as sign or token?

To-day let the noble deed be wrought, To-day be uttered the kindly thought, To-day be the precious token sought.

We are sweeping on with life's rushing river— Our frail boat thrills like an aspen quiver— On to the sea of the vast forever.

Would'st thou, fellow-sailor, the storm outride? Choose the Mighty One as thy friend and guide, For the raging torrent is deep and wide.

Wreck not thy hopes on the shifting sand, Nor stay thy course at an earthly strand: Seek thou a port in the better land.

There's a fount thy soul thirst to allay, There are treasures that know naught of decay, There the loved pass not from thy grasp away.

Soon shall the weary there find release, Soon shall the soul's deep yearnings cease, In joy unending, and perfect peace.

Farewell, old year, a glad farewell; Thy faintly dying echoes tell, We are nearing the land where our fond hopes dwell. —Mary A. Davis.