Sorrow and Joy.

In sad procession borne away         To sound of funeral knell,     Affection's tribute thus we pay,     And in earth's shelt'ring bosom lay     The friend to whom but yesterday         We gave the sad farewell.     But scarce the melancholy sound         Has died upon the ear,     Before the mournful dirge is drowned     By wedding-anthems' glad rebound,     That stir the solemn air around         With merry peals and clear.     Within our home doth gladness tread         So closely upon grief     That, in the tears of sorrow shed     O'er our beloved, lamented dead,     We see reflected joy instead         That gives a blest relief.     A father and a daughter gone         Beyond our fireside -     For one we loved and leaned upon     The skillful archer Death had drawn     His bow; and one in life's sweet dawn         Went out a happy bride.     We gave to Heaven, in manhood's prime,         Him whose brave strength and worth     Life's rugged steeps had taught to climb;     And her, for whom a tuneful rhyme     The bells of promise sweetly chime,         We consecrate to earth.     Thus each a mystic path, untried,         Has entered - God is just!     We leave with him our friend who died,     With him we leave our fair young bride     Who shall no more with us abide,         And in His goodness trust.     Oh, life and death, uncertainty,         Bright hopes and anxious fears,     Commingle so bewilderingly,     That perfect joy we may not see     Till all shall reunited be         Beyond this vale of tears!