Page:Poems Rice.djvu/207

To pastor still I owe a debt
 Of gratitude I ne'er can pay;
How can the youthful heart forget
 Who first revealed the heavenly way,
Who first awoke, or lit the flame
With pictures painted in His name?

I felt I never more should stray,
 Temptation never more should harm,
While here I learned the heavenly way,
 And drank the purifying balm
Which flows for all from Calvary's side,
For all who will in Him confide.

The chancel and the altar rail
 Suggest a sadder picture now,—
'Twas here my lovely sisters knelt,
 Knelt for the rite, baptismal vow;
And holy hands lay on each head;
Long since they've slumbered with the dead.

And from the window I behold
 A little grave with tablet rise;
The story I have often told,
 How Mary left for Paradise;
My playmate through those fleeting hours;
Mine strewn much more with thorns than flowers.

My pen can scarcely now convey
 The scenes this old church brings to view;