Page:Home; or, The unlost paradise (IA homeorunlostpara00palm).pdf/88

Home's dearest ministries and purest bliss.
Not less with mortal pleasures innocent,
Than mortal pains and tears, thy loving heart
Hath sympathy, for Thou art Goodness' self!

  Next for the household comes the opening year
With greetings fervent, wishes true and kind,
From each to each, of countless happy days!
With the old year deep buried all neglects,
Now friendship's record, as on a fresh page
Unsullied, the New Year once more begins.
As with a chastened tenderness, farewell
Is said to the departed months, whose round,
On Time's great calendar, has been fulfilled.
Age, ripe in piety, with faith confirmed,
All thankfully recalls the past, yet still
Looks onward to the Father's House on high,
Well pleased the golden gates more near to see.
Childhood and youth, exultant, note how fast
Years bear them forward to the longed-for scenes
So gorgeous to their thought, of life's broad stage,