HARBINGERS by Mary H. Rowland

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 27, 1880

HARBINGERS

By Mary H. Rowland

A gleam of blue is in the sky, Where all was gray but now, And sweet and clear, a bird I hear From yonder budding bough.

One crocus by the garden walk, Sends up a ray of gold, As if a sunbeam earth had caught, And held in loving hold.

O glad and welcome harbingers Of bird, and flower, and tree, Ye are the messengers of spring, Of joys that are to be.

So, in the winter of the world, There come dark days between, Glad tokens from a fairer land, Which mortals have not seen;

A note of harmonies divine, That fill the heavenly space; The radiant brightness of a smile From hope's celestial face;

The upward reaching of the soul, Toward truth without alloy, A clearer vision of the right, A trace of Eden's joy.

Whence come these heavenly visitants, That all too quickly flee? Are they not precious harbingers Of Heaven yet to be?

—Mary H. Rowland, in Advance.