Longings

Sleep, gentle, mysterious healer,
Come down with thy balm-cup to me!
Come down, O thou mystic revealer
Of glories the day may not see!
For dark is the cloud that is o'er me,
And heavy the shadows that fall,
And lone is the pathway before me,
And far-off the voice that doth call -
Faintly, yet tenderly ever,
From over the dark river, call.
Let me bask for an hour in the sun-ray
That wraps him forever in light;
Awhile tread his flowery pathway
Through bowers of unfailing delight; -
Again clasp the hands I lost sight of
In the chill mist that hung o'er the tide,
What time, with the pale, silent boatman,
I saw him away from me glide -
Out into the fathomless myst'ry,
All silent and tranquillized, glide!
Let me look in those eyes so much brighter
For the years they have gazed on the Son, -
On that pure brow grown purer and whiter
In the smile of God's glorified One; -
Let me rest for a while with closed eyelids,
On the bank of Life's river, to hear
The song he has learned since he left me,
Breathed tenderly sweet in my ear -
The song he has learned of the angels
And saved ones, breathed soft in my ear!
Thou canst not? - what! hast thou not entered
The gates of yon city of light? -
Not walked in the flower-bordered pathway
Of the saved ones in raiment of white? -
Never stood on the bank of Life's River,
Where gather the glorified throng?
Or glowed with emotion ecstatic
'Neath the swell of their rapturous song -
That song he has learned since he left me,
The redeemed ones' exultant, new song?
O Saviour, the wounded heart's Healer!
I turn from my sorrow to thee,
The gracious and tender Revealer
Of glories thy ransomed shall see!
They will pass - the dark cloud that is o'er me,
The shadows that darken my sky,
And the desolate pathway before me
Will lead to thy mansions on high; -
And with him I shall rest in thy presence,
Forever and ever on high!