777. L. M. E. H. Chapin.
Anniversary of a Charitable Association.
1When long the soul had slept in chains,
And man to man was stern and cold;
When love and worship were but strains
That swept the gifted chords of old--
By shady mount and peaceful lake,
meek and lowly stranger came,
The weary drank the words he spake,
The poor and feeble blessed his name.
2No shrine he reared in porch or grove,
No vested priests around him stood--
He went about to teach, and prove
The lofty work of doing good.
Said he, to those who with him trod,
"Would ye be my disciples? Then
Evince your ardent love for God
By the kind deeds ye do for men."
3He went where frenzy held its rule,
Where sickness breathed its spell of pain;
By famed Bethesda's mystic pool;
And by the darkened gate of Nain.
He soothed the mourner's troubled breast,
He raised the contrite, sinner's head,
And on the loved ones' lowly rest,
The light of better life he shed.
4Father, the spirit Jesus knew,
We humbly ask of thee to-night,
That we may be disciples too
Of him whose way was love and light.
Bright be the places where we tread
Amid earth's suffering and its poor,
Till we shall come where tears are shed
And broken sighs are heard no more.