A Brighter World than This.
O, WHEN I trod life's early ways,
Hope winged my fleeting hours,
I saw no shadow in her rays,
No serpent in her flowers;
I thought on days of present joy,
And years of future bliss,
Nor deemed that sorrow could alloy
So bright a world as this. Alas! the fairy dreams I wove
Soon from my fancy fled,
The friends who owned my tender love,
Were numbered with the dead;
Upon their pallid lips I pressed
Affection's parting kiss,
To meet no more till we shall reach
A brighter world than this. Nor did the spacious world supply
Those ties of opening life,
False was its mocking flattery,
Keen was its bitter strife;
And then I first began to look
For purer, truer bliss,
And loved to trace in God's own book,
A brighter world than this. My wounded heart desired relief,
I found the good I sought;
And now in trial and in grief,
I feel the soothing thought,
That though the worldling may despair,
When robbed of earthly bliss,
The Christian humbly hopes to share
A brighter world than this.