“Where thou art gone Adieus and farewells are a sound unknown.”
COWPER ON HIS MOTHER'S PICTURE.
FRIENDSHIP! however sweet thine art
To soothe the suffering, breaking heart,
With kindly word or sigh,
Thine hour of comfort soon is past,
And sympathy herself at last,
Will languish, faint, and die.
Yet to one ever-listening ear
The weakest sigh of Faith is dear,
Nor will be lost in air:
Far less that ear will turn away
From souls who plead from day to day,
Victorious o'er despair.
Thus have I pray'd while others slept,
I've pray'd, and pray'd again, and wept,
Through half the live-long night,
For one whose bright and beauteous brow
Waits for a crown of glory now,
A blessed saint in light.
Ah! 'twas a mother, greatly loved,
Who thus my fervent spirit moved,
To seek a Savior's aid;
And ye who love your parents well,
Who love their souls, ye best can tell,
How deeply I have pray'd.
Ye too may fancy all I felt,
To watch her softening spirit melt
Beneath a Savior's love;
To see her, in her hour of need,
From every doubt and shadow freed,
Sure of a home above.
Yes! when the Lamb of God I named,
Her own beloved lips proclaim! d
Her fleeting soul forgiven;
While every heavenward look and prayer
Show'd all was calm and happy there,
And breathed alone of heaven.
What resting-place is half so meet
For dying saints, so calm and sweet,
As Jesu's holy breast?
She pillow'd there her drooping head,
And when her gentle spirit fled,
I knew that she was blest.
Ye praying souls! who long to lead
The loved ones of your hearts to feed
Within the fold of love,
For you who wait a Father's will,
A treasury of mercy still
Is richly stored above.
The Lord of love is now the same
As when the Gentile mother came,
And pleaded for her child:
His words at first might seem severe,
But made his last reply appear
More loving and more mild.
Though distant from the heavenly way
The souls you love, for whom you pray,
Ah! why need ye despair?
Plead on—and ye shall live to prove
That God is power, that God is love,
And loves to answer prayer.