Not on the heights of England's proud estate,
Where its spoilt children keep their giddy round,
The other learned to weigh man and man's fate,
Studied life's lessons and life's labor found.
But in a frugal, pure, and peaceful home,
A place of sober learning, learned to see,
Through faith and trust in God's good time to come,
That where ill is, good may, and will, yet be.
Her parents' help, her sisters', brothers' guide,
She grew as high of heart, as mild of mood;
With power o'er youth's rebelliousness and pride,
As one that from her own youth up was good.
And early fixed her mind, and chose her part,
To work in the high faith which few can feel,
That there's a spring of good in every heart,
So you have love its fountain to unseal.
This faith it was that marked a course for her,
And braced her for its trouble and its toil,
Cheered her 'gainst proofs how much the best may err,
And kept her pure as snow from taint or soil.
Out of the scaffold's shadow and the dark
Of lives from youth up weaned of light and air,
She gathered sinking souls into her ark
Of love that rode the deluge of despair.
'Twas she first drew our city waifs and strays
Within the tending of the Christian fold,
With eyes of love for the averted gaze
Of a world prompt to scourge and shrill to scold.
From seeds she sowed — in season mattered not,
Or out — for good all seasons are the same —
Sprang new appliances, of love begot,
Lost lives to save, and wanderers reclaim.
Nor at home only; when her hair was white
She crossed the sea, on India to bestow
The love that England prized at length aright,
Following leads she was the first to show.
Not from far Pisgah only did she view
The promised land, but lived its soil to tread;
And dies bequeathing work for us to do,
While praise and blessing crown her reverend head!
