Meeting Above

William Leggett (1801–1839)

IF yon bright stars which gem the night

Be each a blissful dwelling-sphere

Where kindred spirits reunite

Whom death hath torn asunder here,—

How sweet it were at once to die,

To leave this blighted orb afar!

Mixt soul and soul to cleave the sky,

And soar away from star to star.

But oh, how dark, how drear, how lone,

Would seem the brightest world of bliss,

If, wandering through each radiant one,

We failed to meet the loved of this!

If there no more the ties shall twine

Which death’s cold hand alone could sever,

Ah, would those stars in mockery shine,

More joyless, as they shine forever!

It cannot be,—each hope, each fear

That lights the eye or clouds the brow,

Proclaims there is a happier sphere

Than this bleak world that holds us now.

There, Lord, thy wayworn saints shall find

The bliss for which they longed before;

And holiest sympathies shall bind

Thine own to thee forevermore.

O Jesus, bring us to that rest,

Where all the ransomed shall be found,

In thine eternal fulness blest,

While ages roll their cycles round.