SAFE TO THE LAND I KNOW not if the dark or bright If that wherein my hopes delight, It may be mine to drag for years Or day or night, my meat be tears, Dear faces may surround my hearth With smile and glee, Or I may dwell alone, and mirth Be strange to me. My barque is wafted to the strand By breath divine; And on the helm there rests a hand Other than mine. SAFE TO THE LAND One who has ever known to sail He holds me; when the billows smite If sharp, 'tis short; if long, 'tis light; Safe to the land, safe to the land! And then with Him go hand in hand, Far into bliss. Henry Alford. INTO THE SILENT LAND INTO the Silent Land our friends are passing, Out of the strife of tongues, the Babel of earth's voices, They go beyond the reach of time and care. Into the Summer Land our friends are passing, Where tempests beat no more on brow or breast, Where weariness and woe cannot o'ertake them, And wayworn travellers find their Sabbath rest, Into the dear Home Land our friends are passing, They were but strangers and sojourners here, Their feet have found the Everlasting City, And, saw we that, there should not be a tear. Charles C. Albertson. BEYOND THE SMILING AND THE WEEPING BEYOND the smiling and the weeping, Beyond the waking and the sleeping, Beyond the blooming and the fading, Beyond the shining and the shading, Beyond the parting and the meeting, Beyond the farewell and the greeting, I shall be soon. |