THE PASTOR’S VISIT.
Reading edition
ILLUSTRATION OF A PICTURE.
The noon is past—the sun declines
Below the western hills;
Upon the peasant’s face joy shines.
And peace his bosom fills.
He stands beside the cottage door,
His wife and children round,
With that content which evermore
Doth with the true abound.
The pastor, pausing on his way,
Surveys the happy scene;
If all mankind were pure as they
Slights tasks for him, I ween!
Not in the peasant’s cottage dwell
Sin and her joyless train,
He thinks of palace, dome and cell,
And passes on again!