Stillness Reigns

Stillness reigns—the va­pors steal

Slowly down the mount­ain’s brow

And the ev­en­ing sha­dows veil

Nature’s face of bright­ness now;

Flowers put off their glo­ri­ous dress

All the morn­ing smiles are fled

Earth is wrapped in lone­li­ness

And the si­lence of the dead.

Thus be­neath the hand of God

Nature wakes and sleeps; but still

All obe­di­ent to His nod

All sub­miss­ive to His will.

So we flour­ish

so we fade;

Drinking now life’s cup of joy

Now on na­ture’s bo­som laid

Treasured for eter­ni­ty.

All is mor­tal but the soul

Whose un­dy­ing en­er­gy

Spurns the fet­ter­ing world’s con­trol

And up­soars

my God

to Thee.

When life’s ev­en­ing twi­light shrouds

All our thoughts with care and gloom

When Thy sun­shine breaks the clouds

Gathered o’er the win­try tomb.

Desolate the path ap­pears

To the dim and dist­ant eye;

Yet that path of dark­ness bears

Flowers of im­mor­tal­ity.

O’er it shine eter­nal lamps;

And the mists so dark that seem

Are like morn­ing’s chil­ly damps

Heralding the sun­ny beam.

Father! Thy pa­ter­nal care

Has my guard­ian been

my guide;

Every hal­lowed wish and pray­er

Has Thy hand of love sup­plied;

Thine is ev­ery thought of bliss

Left by hours and days gone by;

Every hope Thine of­fspring is

Beaming from fu­tur­ity.

Every sun of splen­did ray;

Every moon that shines se­rene;

Every morn that wel­comes day;

Every ev­en­ing’s twi­light scene;

Every hour which wis­dom brings;

Every in­cense at Thy shrine;

These—and all life’s ho­li­est things

And its fair­est—all are Thine.

And for all my hymns shall rise

Daily to Thy gra­cious throne:

Thither let my ask­ing eyes

Turn un­wear­ied—righ­teous One!

Thro’ life’s strange vi­cis­si­tude

There re­pos­ing all my care

Trusting still

thro’ ill and good

Fixed and cheered and coun­seled there.

All be­sides is weak in­deed

Dreams of fol­ly—base­less hope;

Earth is but a brok­en reed:

Heaven the best

the on­ly prop.

Who would live

to raise on earth

Some frail pile of dust—and die?

Man is of im­mor­tal birth

Living for eter­ni­ty.