Page:Fugitive Poetry 1600-1878.djvu/92

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LIFE COMPARED TO A RIVER.
Secure from every mortal care, By sin and sorrow vexed no more,Eternal happiness they share, Who are not lost, hut gone before.
To Zion's peaceful courts above, In faith triumphant may we soar,Embracing in the arms of love The friends not lost, but gone before.
On Jordan's bank, whene'er we come, And hear the swelling waters roar,Jesus, convey us safely home, To friends not lost, but gone before.
Lost Days.
The lost days of my life until to-day, What were they, could I see them on the street Lie as. they fell f Would they be ears of wheatSown once for food, but trodden into clay?Or golden coins squandered and still to pay? Or drops of blood dabbling the guilty feet? Or such spilt water as in dreams must cheatThe throats of men in hell, who thirst alway?I do not see them here; but after death God knows I know the faces I shall see,Each one a murdered self, with low lost breath: "I am thyself—what hast thou done to me?""And I—and I—thyself" (lo! each one saith), "And thou thyself to all eternity!"
Life Compared to a River.
River, river, little river,Bright you sparkle on your way, O'er the yellow pebbles dancing,Through the flowers and foliage glancing,        Like a child at play.
River, river, swelling river, On you rush, o'er rough and smooth,Louder, faster, brawling, leapingOver rocks, by rose-banks sweeping        Like impetuous youth.
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