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drous love alone
That prompted Thee again
To smite me so.
My heart and all I have
Is still Thine own,
Cling close beside and comfort me,
And help me do the work
That still remains for me to do,
Until I, too, am summoned home
To meet my loved ones
At the "Golden Gate" beyond the Blue.
Oh! Father, help Thou me
In this dark hour of grief and lonliness [sic]
To bow submissive to Thy
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My Prayer.
My cry is unto Thee, oh God,
From out this dark abyss of woe
In which, a second time,
Thy loving hand hath plunged me.
The gloom is thick about me,
And I cannot see my way.
Hold Thou my hand
And lead me gently out
Into the light once more
Where I can see Thy face
And know Thy smile is on me still,
And that 'tis love, Thy won
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Oh! Father, help Thou me.
'Twas hard to give our Leland up,
So young, so fair, so good.
But in submission
To Thy righteous will who never errs,
We bowed our stricken hearts
Beneath the smiting rod
And sought in other's good
Our chiefest joy
To still our troubled hearts
And fill the aching void
His absence made.
The cross was heavy;
Thou, alone, oh! blessed Christ,
Did know its weight.
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wisdom and Thy will.
What must I do? Oh! help Thou me!
Thou knowest best why I am stricken thus
A second time;
Bereft of both my loved ones -
Leland, my husband,
Lover, friend;
Companion of my grief, my joy, my fears; -
Leland, my son, my only son,
Whom Thou did'st give
In answer to our prayer
And then so strangely take away!
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Blossomed into fruitage
Since that bitter hour when first we thought
That all our joy had fled,
And darkness fell across our sunny path,
I might, it seemeth me grow strong again,
And stoop to take the burden up
Where it was left for me,
And bear it onward to the journey's end;
And yet I know that cannot be,
For my poor eyes so dim with tears,
Would not withstand the sight Thou coulds't reveal to me.
