FOR EVER.

“No rest for the weary soul!”
Cried a child of sin and shame.
“Always sinking and despairing,
Nothing heeding, nothing caring;
None to love me if I cry,
Nor a tongue to bless
In all life’s wilderness:
And is this life, and it there nought can sever
The sin from a varied soul? – Must I live thus?”
And a voice from the darkness cried, “For ever!”
There are spirits good and evil
Bound this mortal world of ours;

The one doth whisper words of gladness,
And he other words of sorrow:
The evil one doth bring us weeds,
But the good one bringeth flowers;
And it was the evil spirit
Which from the darkness cried, “For ever!”
But the one with hair like waving gold
Had compassion on the child of shame,
And whisper’d “Sister, there is that can sever
The sin from a wearied soul:
Redeem the past, and thy life shall be
Peaceful and calm, and like a river
Flowing through shaded woods,
And singing of joy for ever!”

J. O.