Classic Poem

We can not hear the fall of gentle feet
Beyond the river they may cross no more,
Nor see familiar faces, angel sweet,
Through the dim distance on the other shore.

Where are the friends, companions down the years,
Who shared our care and labor, gain and loss,
Who wept with us, in sorrow, bitter tears
Who knelt beside us at the Savior's cross?

Some were a-weary of the world, and old;
And some had scarcely passed meridian prime;
And some were gathered to the blessed fold
In all the beauty of life's morning time.

A few had climbed the heights not many gain,
And battled nobly for the good and true;
Many wrought humbly, on life's common plane,
But all accomplished what they came to do.

And as we walked together, by the way,
They turned and left us — left us, one by one;
Love followed weeping, but they might not stay
For all her pleading, when their work was done.

Shall we not meet again, or soon, or late?
Meet at the entrance to the final goal?
Did the Pale Angel, at the shadowy gate,
Undo the tie that bound us, soul to soul?

Nay. By the holy instincts of our love —
By every hope humanity holds dear,
I trust in God to meet my treasures trove,
Tenderly loving, as we parted here.

It must be so, if deathless mind retain
The noblest attributes that God has given;
Love, hope and memory count but little gain.
If what they win on earth be lost in Heaven.

And if the human love, that underlies
All that is true and good, in man's estate —
All that remains to us of paradise,
Were lacking there, Heaven would be desolate.

Nay. As the rich man knew, on Abraham's breast,
The whilom beggar, at his palace gate;
As Saul knew Samuel, when, at God's behest,
He came to warn the monarch of his fate;

As Moses and Elias, heavenly bright,
Were recognized upon the mount sublime,
Shall we know our beloved, in the light
That lies beyond the shores of death and time.