| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | X. The Pity of It
Vesta | | By John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) |
| | | O CHRIST of God! whose life and death | |
| Our own have reconciled, | |
| Most quietly, most tenderly | |
| Take home Thy star-named child! | |
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| Thy grace is in her patient eyes, | 5 |
| Thy words are on her tongue; | |
| The very silence round her seems | |
| As if the angels sung. | |
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| Her smile is as a listening child’s | |
| Who hears its mother call; | 10 |
| The lilies of Thy perfect peace | |
| About her pillow fall. | |
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| She leans from out our clinging arms | |
| To rest herself in Thine; | |
| Alone to Thee, dear Lord, can we | 15 |
| Our well-beloved resign! | |
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| Oh, less for her than for ourselves | |
| We bow our heads and pray; | |
| Her setting star, like Bethlehem’s, | |
| To Thee shall point the way! | 20 | | | |
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