THE FUTURE LIFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2197, 7 August 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE FUTURE LIFE.

How shall I know thee in the sphere which keeps '.The disembodied spirits of the dead, When all of thee that time can wither sleeps, And perishes among the dust we tread ? For I shall feel the sting of ceaseless pain If there I meet thy gentle presence not, Nor hear the voice 1 love nor read again In thy serenest eyes the tender thought. Will not my own meek heart demand me there — That heart whose fondest throbs to me were given ? My name on earth was ever in thy prayer And wilt thou never utter it in Heaven ? In meadows fanned by Heaven's life-breath-ing wind, In the resplendence of that glorious sphere, And larger movements of the unfettered . mind Wilt thou forget the love that joins us here ? The ! lov« thas lived through all the stormy - ' past, And meekly with my harsher na ure bore, And deeper gerw, and tenderer to tho lastShall it expire with life and be no more ? A happer lot.than mine and larger light Awa}t thee there ; for thou hast bowed thy will In cheerful homage to the rule of right, And lovest all and renderest good for ill. For me, the sordid cares it which I dwell Shrink and oonsume my heart as heat the scroll 1 And wrath has left its scar—that fire of hell Hasleft its frightful scar upon my soul. . Yet though thou wear'at the glory of tteh c sky, , Wilt thou not keep the same beloved name, , , ■ The same wide thoughtful brow and gentle eye,. Lovlier in Heaven's sweet climate, yet the same ? Shalt fchou not teach me in that calmer home The wisdom that I learned so ill in this—' Thn wisdom which is love— till I become Thy tit companion in that land of bliss ? '

—William Cul£em Bryant.