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Poems (Denver)/Ministering Spirits

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For works with similar titles, see Ministering Spirits.
4524059Poems — Ministering SpiritsMary Caroline Denver and Jane Campbell Denver

MINISTERING SPIRITS.
In the calm and gentle hour,
When the silent stars look out
From their happy homes in heaven,
On this world of care and doubt;
When the gemmed sky smiles above us,
And the earth in shadow lies,
Come they, who in life did love us,
With their meek and starry eyes.

And they hover round us nightly,
Chasing each dark care away,
Such as on our bosom's substance
Creeps, with envious haste to prey;
And their eyes have learned a language
Which on earth they never knew;
Seeing heaven's greater glories,
They have caught its sweetness too.

Happy they who, in life's verdure,
Hold communion with the dead,
Listen to each spirit-warning,
Ere the better part hath fled;
Who have felt God's message written
On their bosom's inner page,
Ere the gold of youth has rusted
To the selfishness of age.