LOOKING BACK.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2155, 1 May 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOOKING BACK.

We are as pilgrims on a toilsome journey, Burdened with sin and overwrought with cares : Before us lies a path all steep and thorny, Around us lurk Life's pitfalls and its snares. But ever when we stay to look behind us i; How strangely fair the level landscape gleams — How few faint meiu'ries linger to remind us Of Childhood's sorrow or of Youth's vain dreams ! ,And no it m that from the chilling Present Back to imagined joys wo love to strayTo halcyon hours of Spring-time, fair and pleasant, "' When flow'rs unprized were blooming on our Way ; '^Vben o'er the future Hope shone all un clouded, As fulls the sparkling sunlight on the sea; 'Before the* path of coming yew's was shrouded : > By vague forebodings ef the strife to be, Then, as we listened to the midnight pealing Of Christmas bells our bosoms thrilled with joy, Nbr dreamed of death, or change, or altered feeling, , .That time, might bring, our gladness to destroy. Where are they now who used to stand • , beside u» When glad chimes heralded the New Year's, reign ? The love, that cheered, the strength that wa» to guide us Through Life's dim paths, one object to attainWhere we they now ? The years their flight are winging, Parted by more than distance are our ways, And only when the Christmas chimes are ringing Returns this memory of olden days ! Susannah J.