| Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | Miscellaneous Poems.
I. Friends (“Friend after friend departs”) | | By James Montgomery (1771–1854) |
| | 1824
FRIEND after friend departs: | |
| Who hath not lost a friend? | |
| There is no union here of hearts, | |
| Which finds not here an end. | |
| Were this frail world our only rest, | 5 |
| Living or dying, none were blest. | |
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| Beyond the flight of time, | |
| Beyond the vale of death, | |
| There surely is some blessèd clime | |
| Where life is not a breath; | 10 |
| Nor life’s affections, transient fire, | |
| Whose sparks fly upwards and expire. | |
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| There is a world above, | |
| Where parting is unknown; | |
| A whole eternity of love, | 15 |
| Form’d for the good alone; | |
| And faith beholds the dying here | |
| Translated to that glorious sphere. | |
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| Thus star by star declines, | |
| Till all are pass’d away; | 20 |
| As morning high and higher shines | |
| To pure and perfect day: | |
| Nor sink those stars in empty night, | |
| They hide themselves in heaven’s own light. | | | | |
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