Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Shadows.
longings , fruitless endeavours , and withered expectations . There are the shadoAvs , for instance , Avhich separation has cast so sternly over our Avhole moral being , and earthly lot ! We once had hoped to breast the breakers of life together ; but ours has been a severed and distant existence . We
have hardly met in the long flow of years ; the old , familiar face has past altogether out of sight , if not out of mind . Or there has fallen upon us the blight of a sorrowful A'isitation . We have lost from our sides , and from our homes , those who made life
itself enjoyable to us . The pleasant voice is still , the bright smile is missing , the fairy presence is seen no more , the loving heart , the true affection , the tender friendship , all are gone ; all but shadows now , which once shed such fragrance and such peace on our weary Avanderings , on our allotted weird . Then , too , there are all theshadoAvs which
an accusing memory will often fling over the most prosperous worldly life to-day , tho shadows of the haunting mystery Avhich poison our purest joys ; the shadows , which those veiled figures Avhich never leave us by day or by night , throw over our pathway to-day Avith their mocking
fingers , and their haunting remembrances of " bassesse , " of sinfulness , of falsehood , of chicanery , of profligacy-, and of Avrong . Some of us often live as if AVO could banish them from us by a stern effort of the willor forget them in the full tide of
, sensuous living , or escape from them in the circle of dissipation , or the gathering of gaiety . Hopeless delusion ! They follow us wherever Ave go , they are Avith us at every feast , they are near us in crowds or in solitude , they take tho vacant chair at the
board , and regard us iu their stillness and solemn masquerade , as if with Aveeping eyes , and tender hearts . Thus , then , there are shadoAvs of various sorts which belong
to every individual existence , some of one kind , some of another . Who , indeed , is exempt from them ? What lot of life is there Avhere they are not 1 They fall in darkening powers , they hover in shrouded solemnity over the palaces of the high , aud
the cottage of the humble ; they are near us in business , and in pleasure ; iu company and in retirement ; in the House of Prayer , and in the domestic circle . Remember for us all alike they have their meaning and their message . Let them
Shadows.
come to us all , then , and let us Avelcome them Avhen they do come . For they are messengers , after all , of another Avorld , denizens of another land , harbingers of another state of being . They AVOUIC ! seem to recall to us the past
withitsmanyremembrauces ; to soften , to control , to bless the present Avith their loving , if saddened presence ; to point to and tell us of that future , Avhen all shall be plain and clear , when the fog has lifted , Avhen the " shadoAvs flee away . " And if to-day , for you and me , for all
the toiling and troubled children of the dust , the shadoAvs of our being still are Avith us ever , in season and out of season as AVC often think ; if go where we will AVC cannot escape them , if do Avhat we may Ave cannot forget them ; depend upon it ,
One greater and Aviser than Ave all are , has a good and gracious end in view , in such an abiding dispensation . As long as we live here , tho shadows are Avith us , and float over us until the entrance of the dark valley . One day they will ha' * e left us ; on
that day and only on that day , in Avhich Avhen it at last dawns , no gloom or clouds , or haze , or fog , or shadows loAver any more , but all is pure and perfect , and undimmed in knoAvledge , in affection , iu truth , iu love , in light . W .
A Thought On A Summer Sea.
A THOUGHT ON A SUMMER SEA .
When the golden sun is sinking Down beneath the western sea , Oft there comes a solemn , silent , Brooding calm of mystery . Aud the ni ght shades slowly creeping
Up and over all the main , Cover up the old world softl y , So she goes to sleep again . Then the stars shiue out so SAveetly , Sadly oe ' r the quiet scene ,
"Till the glimmering , gleaming twilight , Comes and drowns them in its sheen . So they shut their bri ght eyes sloAvly , Very sloAvly , one b y one ; And the earth awaits the comin" -, Of her soverei gn lord the sun . EMEA HOLMES .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Shadows.
longings , fruitless endeavours , and withered expectations . There are the shadoAvs , for instance , Avhich separation has cast so sternly over our Avhole moral being , and earthly lot ! We once had hoped to breast the breakers of life together ; but ours has been a severed and distant existence . We
have hardly met in the long flow of years ; the old , familiar face has past altogether out of sight , if not out of mind . Or there has fallen upon us the blight of a sorrowful A'isitation . We have lost from our sides , and from our homes , those who made life
itself enjoyable to us . The pleasant voice is still , the bright smile is missing , the fairy presence is seen no more , the loving heart , the true affection , the tender friendship , all are gone ; all but shadows now , which once shed such fragrance and such peace on our weary Avanderings , on our allotted weird . Then , too , there are all theshadoAvs which
an accusing memory will often fling over the most prosperous worldly life to-day , tho shadows of the haunting mystery Avhich poison our purest joys ; the shadows , which those veiled figures Avhich never leave us by day or by night , throw over our pathway to-day Avith their mocking
fingers , and their haunting remembrances of " bassesse , " of sinfulness , of falsehood , of chicanery , of profligacy-, and of Avrong . Some of us often live as if AVO could banish them from us by a stern effort of the willor forget them in the full tide of
, sensuous living , or escape from them in the circle of dissipation , or the gathering of gaiety . Hopeless delusion ! They follow us wherever Ave go , they are Avith us at every feast , they are near us in crowds or in solitude , they take tho vacant chair at the
board , and regard us iu their stillness and solemn masquerade , as if with Aveeping eyes , and tender hearts . Thus , then , there are shadoAvs of various sorts which belong
to every individual existence , some of one kind , some of another . Who , indeed , is exempt from them ? What lot of life is there Avhere they are not 1 They fall in darkening powers , they hover in shrouded solemnity over the palaces of the high , aud
the cottage of the humble ; they are near us in business , and in pleasure ; iu company and in retirement ; in the House of Prayer , and in the domestic circle . Remember for us all alike they have their meaning and their message . Let them
Shadows.
come to us all , then , and let us Avelcome them Avhen they do come . For they are messengers , after all , of another Avorld , denizens of another land , harbingers of another state of being . They AVOUIC ! seem to recall to us the past
withitsmanyremembrauces ; to soften , to control , to bless the present Avith their loving , if saddened presence ; to point to and tell us of that future , Avhen all shall be plain and clear , when the fog has lifted , Avhen the " shadoAvs flee away . " And if to-day , for you and me , for all
the toiling and troubled children of the dust , the shadoAvs of our being still are Avith us ever , in season and out of season as AVC often think ; if go where we will AVC cannot escape them , if do Avhat we may Ave cannot forget them ; depend upon it ,
One greater and Aviser than Ave all are , has a good and gracious end in view , in such an abiding dispensation . As long as we live here , tho shadows are Avith us , and float over us until the entrance of the dark valley . One day they will ha' * e left us ; on
that day and only on that day , in Avhich Avhen it at last dawns , no gloom or clouds , or haze , or fog , or shadows loAver any more , but all is pure and perfect , and undimmed in knoAvledge , in affection , iu truth , iu love , in light . W .
A Thought On A Summer Sea.
A THOUGHT ON A SUMMER SEA .
When the golden sun is sinking Down beneath the western sea , Oft there comes a solemn , silent , Brooding calm of mystery . Aud the ni ght shades slowly creeping
Up and over all the main , Cover up the old world softl y , So she goes to sleep again . Then the stars shiue out so SAveetly , Sadly oe ' r the quiet scene ,
"Till the glimmering , gleaming twilight , Comes and drowns them in its sheen . So they shut their bri ght eyes sloAvly , Very sloAvly , one b y one ; And the earth awaits the comin" -, Of her soverei gn lord the sun . EMEA HOLMES .