Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1861-03-14
Lines Addressed to Young Mother
Danifauf

He knelt alone Above him were the stars;
6lence Of the ynidaighE bons
I77 .55ll1l, was 'around him, like spell 4
Whose soleinn presence filled his soul with fear
That linked itself to reverence.
He had praved
In solitude, where none save God might hear
His earnest suppiicaton, and had wept
Hot tears OF shame, rcmorsc and penitence,
Hour after hour-for on his mind, the Past,
w lth It's dark catalogue OF sins, came back
With squandcred hours in mad ming revels passed
With golden opportunities misused-
w With tastes Perverted-ntcectual gifts,
Wasted in very wantonness-with hopes
Darkened while yet they shone, and joys that turned
10 sorrow In the grasp-with woes and shames
Born OF transgsession-all, and more than these,
Thronged back upon his mind, in that still hour
When Night had hushed the voices Of the Day.
And his soul shuddered at the retrospect
Once he was innocent-no thought Of guile,
No sinful wish, no perilous desire
,Pwelt in his heart, the home of happiness.
His was continual gladness-for the Joy
OF young spirit, filed with whitest thoughts,
And instinct with a love that freely flowed
Forth from gentle nature, might not be
As yet, by forms or fashion cur bed,
Yet this youth, innocent a child from sin,
Could not see, and live in this sad world
Forever, free from guilt; born of Adams son,
The world had beauties for him. Hecould not stand
The bewildering glare and temptations ofths world
Its vague philosophy, corrupt as vague,
So cunningly unfolded to his view, =
1t poisoned his mind with evil thoug ughts-his soul
staining WIN jOul desires, ull-WO Tor MN -.
The world triumphed, and the victim fell!
Years spent thus, to those around,
Who loved him foi himself, brought wo!
And those who loved him not, his compccrs,
in crime, left him when degradation came,
To himself, to battle still with sin,
Or, yielding to the tempter fall, and leave
His home desolate, his soul condemned
Awaked at length, from this bewildering dream
That had enthraled his senses, shuddering,
He saw the ruin of his hopes, and shrunk,
Blasted and blighted, overwhelmed with shame,
And an guish- h-stricken, from the gaze of men.
Yet he thought room might be found,
In mothers heart, though that heart
Was scared and almost broken by his acts,
And that there was One,
Whose love restor es the wandering, and forgives
The sorrowing spirit that retur MS to Him.
Still loved, erring youth not vanly hath
Thy supplication, voiced in agony,
Gone upward to the Father! He whose love
Brought Him in saddest fellowship with grief
Who to Samaria's guilty daughter gave
The waters of Eternal Life, and blest
The penitent Magdalen, as oer his feet
She poured hot tears, and with her golden hair
Dried them agan;-whose eye is quick to note
The first relentngs of the obdurate heart,
The starting of the penetential tear
w ho bids the weary, burdened with their sin,
Come and partake of rest, and know that peace
Sarths treasures cannot purchase, nor earths hate
Nor hell's intense malice, wrest away
Hath marked thy tears,-'mid solitude and night
Poured freely-all thy bitter groanings heard
Thine earnest cries for pardon-known thy thirst
Intense for purity and righteousness
And in the fullness of His pardoning grace,
Hath blotted out thy sins and healed thy soul
With free forgiveness!
Thus may he live on
In free forgiveness, and the blessed hope
OF endless joys, and Eternal Life,
Till dissolution comes, and the shades of death
Come DER his dimmed eye, and the dropping lid,
Shuts out this earth forever! to wake again,
In triumph round the Fathers thrcne!
"Guy HAVEN"