There’s a clime of fadeless sunshine
Where the chill and blight ne’er come,
And perpetual bloom of summer
Is surrounding a great white throne.
I wonder, approaching the sunset,
When life and its cares are all done,
If we, though sinful and outcast,
May enter that beautiful home.
REMEMBRANCE.
I’m thinking of thee to-day, Jennie,
While the spring is young and fair,
And nature’s glad songs are ringing
Along the perfumed air;
And the winds are lightly playing
O’er earth and the far blue sea,
And floods of warm golden sunlight
Crown forest, and vale, and lea.
My heart is young to-day, Jennie,
Though years and years have flown,
And delusive dreams have perished,
And many dear friends are gone.
Yet to-day I revel in fancy
At memory’s fadeless shrine,
And the thoughts that stir my bosom
Are tender and half divine.
Over the hills to-day, Jennie,
The blooming, sun-crowned hills,
My footsteps lightly go, Jennie,
Where the pure sparkling rills
Merge in the stream’s soft murmur
The wind in its voiceful glee
Joins in the mystical music
Of nature’s own harmony.
Oh, how I sang to-day, Jennie,
The songs we loved so well;
Songs of the olden time, Jennie,
Ere we had said “farewell.”
I’m looking beyond the years, Jennie,
To a far-off golden shore,
Where life, like the fairest spring-time,
Will bloom on for evermore.
THE WORSHIPPERS.
I stood in a wide-arched portal
That led to the house of God,
And gazed on the assembling people
As up the aisles they trod;
And as with lofty bearing,
In ranks of proud array,
With garments all resplendent,
The worshippers bowed to pray.