TO MOURNING PARENTS.

White Ribbon, Volume 22, Issue 259, 18 January 1917, Page 4

TO MOURNING PARENTS.

O friends, whose feet have lately trod In footprints of the Son of God ! And learned through sorrow’s mystic lore The bitter agony He bore, Shall suc h as I presume to shaie The depth of suffering you besr? O, weak indeed arc* words of mine To comfort sorrow like to thine! I ho’ jx>et sing in highest strain Immortal notes of love and pain, Or paint in glowing rhapsodies The morning land beyond the skies, Nor yet. may these cjiviner arts, Bring soothing balm to bleeding hearts, W hile tear-dimmed eyes, with longing glance, Turn to a grave “Somewhere in France. ”

Pass summer days of throbbing paiji To winter snow, thro’ autumn rain; And then again, spring bud and bloom, To scenes of vernal loveliness. Shall transform all the wintry gloom, When, yielding to the soft caress Of balmy winds and gentle showers, Earth breathes herself in smiling flowers. But never can the bird song sweet Make music like* the lost one’s feet, Not all the melody in store Can recompense for loss you bore. Since silence aches around your hearth, Where once rang songs of boyish mirth, The fairest depths of azure skies Shall hut remind you of dear eyes Asleep on France’s blood-wet breast. Yet, breaking hearts! God knoweth best. And He who in the p:*st bright years Lent you th s treasure, heeds your tears, And when anew your grief upstarts, W hen all ycur hard-won peace departs, Shall send His Comforter Divine W ith ministry of love, to shine Into your sad and chastened hearts, Till bitterness from grief departs., When Love shall triumph over pain, And Faith shall pierce the clouds again. For perfect life that never ends, And bliss that a?l earth’s joy transcends, Is now the blessed gift divine Tli him God asked you to resign.