THE FUNERAL OF HOPE by Richard Liles

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 8, 1879

THE FUNERAL OF HOPE.

By Richard Liles

THE following sad but beautiful lines were written by the late Richard Liles, Esq., of Danville, Va., a gentleman of genius, a fine scholar, and a lawyer of distinction. The lines speak of the sad experience and fate of the author:—

I have been to the funeral of all my hopes, And entombed them one by one; Not a word was said, Not a tear was shed When the mournful task was done.

Slowly and sadly I turned me round, And sought my silent room; And there alone By the cold hearth stone I wooed the midnight gloom.

And as the night wind's deepening shade Lowered above my brow, I wept o'er days When manhood's rays Were brighter far than now.

The dying embers on the hearth Gave out their flickering light, As if to say, This is the way Thy life shall close in night.

I wept aloud in anguish sore O'er the blight of prospects fair; While demons laughed, And eager quaffed My tears like nectar rare.

Through hell's red halls an echo ran, An echo loud and long, As in the bowl I plunged my soul, In the might of madness strong.

And there within that sparkling glass I knew the cause to lie; This all men own, From zone to zone, Yet millions drink and die.