Page:Poems Emma M. Ballard Bell.djvu/32

 And ever, O Earth! to the Christian I've comeA messenger sent from the spirit's own home,And angels have wafted the spirit awayAfar to the realms of an unending day.When by the clay temple where once the soul dweltBoth Sorrow and Love in their silence have knelt,Then Faith and her bright sister Hope have met there,Religion's bright daughters, so holy and fair.Then Faith spoke to Love of the glories of heav'n,Where ties of affection can never be riven,And Hope to her sorrowing sister hath said,"O Sorrow! weep not for the soul which is fled;Love's treasures she'll clasp yet,where on a bright shoreThe good and the beautiful dwell evermore." O Earth! by the dim solemn portals I standThat open from Time's to Eternity's land;And thus shall it be till the dawn of that dayWhen Earth and the heavens shall both pass away.

 Thou'st listened, O Earth! to Time and to Death:These words unto thee now Eternity saith.Beginning to me there hath never been known;I dwelt with the Infinite Being aloneWhen one void, all vast, without limit, was space,The finite within it had never held place.'Neath empire of Time, O Earth! thou art now;At last Time himself to my scepter shall bow;