Part 7 — “ARE THEY NOT ALL MINISTERING SPIRITS?”
Reading edition
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BY S. DRYDEN PHELPS.
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’Tis sweet to think that spirits pure and holy,
Are often hovering round the pilgrim here,
To banish thoughts of grief and melancholy,
And bid the trembling heart forget to fear.
Bright angel forms, on soft and airy pinions,
Like carrier birds, the messengers of love,
Leave the fair precincts of the blest dominions,
With choicest favors from the world above.
They come, and give to solitude its pleasures,
And throw a hallowed charm around the heart;
Bear up the thoughts to heaven’s unfading treasures,
Where kindred spirits meet no more to part.
They come, from those celestial hills descending,
Sent by the bounteous Ruler of the skies;
We feel their presence with our spirits blending,
When evening orisons to heaven arise.
They come, when o’er the sorrowing heart is stealing
The wasting blight of earth’s consuming wo;
They come, a ray of heavenly light revealing,
Amidst the darkness of our path below.
They come to dry the mourner’s fount of sadness,
To pour their blessings on the drooping head;
And bid the soul awake to hope and gladness,
Along the vistas of the future spread.
The mother, whose beloved infant slumbers,
Cold, in the silent chamber of the tomb,
Oft hears its pleasing voice, like seraph’s numbers,
Fall on her ear amidst surrounding gloom.
The lonely orphan, by the world forsaken,
Oft seems the kindness of the dead to share;
And feels a thrill of new-born joy awaken,
As if embraced with fond, parental care.
The saddened lover, and the joyless maiden,
Stript of their cherished ones by death’s chill hand,
Commune with their returning spirits, laden
With love undying from the glorious land.
Joy for the mission of those guileless creatures—
That Heaven to us such guardians should send;
Oh, wear they not the well-remembered features
Of many an early loved and long lost friend?
Ye sainted forms of dearest ones departed,
Methinks I hear your music in the breeze;
And oft, ’mid scenes of sadness, lonely-hearted,
My spirit’s eye your joyful presence sees.
Still, still around my chequered pathway hover—
’Tis sweet to hold communion with the pure;
And welcome me at last, when life is over,
Where love and joy eternal shall endure!