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DEATH OF A YOUNG MAN DEVOTED TO MISSIONS.
Or deep devotion, China's millions stole,
Blind—wandering—lost.
So, then, thou didst dismiss
The host of pleasant fancies, which so long
Had made thy pilgrimage a music strain,
And for the outcast heathen pledge thy life,
A diamond to the treasury of thy Lord.
Heaven took the pledge, yet not for weary years
Of toil, and pain, and age.
There was a flush
On thy young cheek, a fire within thine eye,
A failing of the footstep, that was wont
To tread green earth so light and buoyantly,
A wasting of the half ethereal clay:
Heaven took the pledge, and thou art all its own.
