Funeral Hymns, Second Series, 28

ON THE DEATH OF MRS. L, JULY 6,

Ah! lovely Christhke soul, adieu!
Darling of every heart that knew
Thy short-lived excellence!
Rest in the bosom of thy God,
Who just to gazing mortals show'd,
And snatch'd the wonder hence.

Unworthy of her longer stay.
Forbid to plead, forbid to pray,
We mournfully resign
Our friend, so suddenly removed;
We render to her Best-beloved
The heavenly loan Divine.

But need we now our grief conceal,
Forced in the tenderest nerve to feel
The. universal loss?
We cannot curb our swelling sighs,
Or stop the fountains of our eyes,
Remembering what she was.

She was (let all her worth confess.
Let all her precious memory bless,
And after her aspire!)
A burning and a shining light;
She was — to gild our land of night,
And set our world on fire.

She was (what words can never paint)
A spotless soul, a sinless saint.
In perfect love renew'd,
A mirror of the Deity,
A transcript of the One in Three,
A temple fill'd with God.

The witness of His hallowing grace,
Talk'd with her Maker face to face,
And mark'd with His new name.
His nature visibly express'd,
While all her even life confess'd
The meekness of the Lamb,

Bless'd with His lowly, loving mind,
One with the Friend of human kind,
In all His steps she trod;
In doing good, and bearing ill,
Fulfill'd her heavenly Father's will,
And lived and died to God.

Eager to drink His deepest cup,
She fiU'd her Lord's afflictions up,
Together crucified;
To nature's will entirely dead,
She languish'd till she bow'd her head,
And with her Saviour died.

Like Him, her thirty years and three
She finish'd on the sacred tree,
In sacrificial prayer,
Calmly without a lingering sigh
Dismiss' d her spirit to the sky.
And clasps her Jesus there!