Scanning each soul as it landeth;

Over the floods He bendeth,

With a face that hath once been dead.

. . . . . . . . . .

“And when the children come

To pass through the dreary River,

Christ stretcheth forth His hand,

A gentle piercèd hand,

And draws them safe to Land.”

To those who know nothing of this loss, my grief may seem unreasonable; but the fathers and mothers who have turned away from an open grave, blind with tears, and with heart and flesh failing them, they will understand.