The Home Circle by Henry Burton

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 30, 1881

The Home Circle.

By Henry Burton

ALTERNATIONS.

If all our world were one broad, level plain, Each vale exalted and each hill made low, The rivers then would stagnate, and the rain Would turn the fields into a reedy slough.

If skies were cloudless, ever clear and bright, And all our days were one incessant glare, The flowers would droop just through excess of light And dearth and death would meet us everywhere.

Or if the sky were always dark with cloud, Making the sunlight only dull and dim, The wail of famine would wax long and loud, Earth's cup of sorrow filled up to the brim.

If all the seasons were one summer day, With harvest ripening in the sunshine warm, How we should miss the winter cold and gray, And long to hear the voices of the storm!

If all our life were one exultant psalm, With no soft interlude of minor tone, Methinks its music soon would cease to charm, And we would weary of its monotone.

If all our days were one unbroken joy, The very joy would ripen it to pain; For as the gold must have its base alloy, So sorrow blesses, and our loss is gain.

Creation's law is still the law of life— The evening and the morning round our days; While through the changing chords of rest and strife, Prayer sings responsive to her sister Praise. —Henry Burton.