FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITV
Methought I once upon a summer ev'nWas seated on a verdant, flow'ry plain;When lo! three lovely beings glided by.With rapture on their faces did I gaze,With heav'nly beauty stamped. Upon their browsWere silver coronets, whereon was traced,In characters divine, the name of each.Faith, Hope, and Charity, sweet sisters three,Were they who to my raptured vision nowAppeared, encircled all with holy light. Then Faith, the eldest of the trio, said,"I come, O child of earth! to bless mankind.When all around is dark, and sadness castsIts gloomy mantle o'er the souls of men,When joy's last sunny ray has fled the soul,And even Hope's bright eye is dimmed with tears,Oh, then I bid desponding souls look up,And wait, believing, till God's hand shall partThe clouds of sorrow in His own good time." Then Hope—with voice like music-chimes of bellsO'er placid waters borne at eventide:—"Through all the mazes of earth's wilderness
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