The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1912-10-17
To a friend
On His Fiftieth Birthday.


Far DER the sea the sun still shines,
It's beams,still guild the spruce and pines
Of varmland's hills and dales.
From Rannberg's wooded heights that frown;
The little stream still tumbles down
To laugh through meadowd wales.
Still Ostmark stands besides the lake
With wide-hearthed homes that used to make
More bright thy boyhood hours;
And north the land of Midnight Sum-
Beneath whose stars great legends run
OF Viking Norsemen's powers.
There, aching hearts of kith and kin
Remember we'll the hour wherein
Thy life-light ceased to burn;
And dear old sisters wait for thee,
And longing look across the sea
With prayers for thy return
There parents rest from toll and tears
In grass grown graves for many years
Within the churchyard's gate;
And friends and neighbors passing by
Still stops to ask. with tear-dimmed eye,
Hast heard from him of later"
And while these visions still may throw
Some sunbeams for amoments glow
Through clouded skies above:
The ceaseless beat of times decree
Has rusted links of memory
That held thy past with love-
LIES hidden paths we cannot know.
AS why men journey to and fro
Seeking some fairer cline,
Perhaps tits freedom, land or wealth,
Or fame. adventure. joy or health,
All these employ mems time.
And then how often do we learn
100 late! That these entertainments turn
To life's most bitter pain;
For as we backward leaf each page
To read the past. in ripened age
Behold more loss than gain
How short the time that marks our fate
Sometimes minute is too late
TO change our destiny;
One sad mistake may seal our doom
Consign us to living tomb
And shut the gates of sympathy.
"Gethsemane can not atone
For mans misdeeds. nor tears alone
Wash out the soil and STAIN
"Colgotha and it's rugged cross
Must purge with death both gold and dross
And make repentance vain.''
Ungodlike is this ancient creed
1t holds no human want or need
To give to erring man:
For if the martyred Christ be true:
Forgive they know not what they do
Was his last prayer for man.
Is man more righteous than He.
Who made for sin that simple plea
To answer in eternity?
How weak your faith! we worldly wise
Whose visions comes through dim old eyes,
What power to Judge have We?
Vengence is mine. 1 will repay"
The centuries have heard him say.
His power with love is kind
Whereas the scepter that you WELD
Has neither power nor love to shield,
And error makes it blind.
Through nineteen summers glow and gloom
of saddest grieving known;
Through nineteen autumn's brown and gold,
And nineteen winters SHOWS and cold
Thy hopes have fainter grown.
The pardon now refused by men
Will not delay forgiveness. when
You ask the judge on high
Nor will that court postponment seek
OF years and months. day or week,
To hear thy humble cry.
He knows each heart-throb day by day,
The mete of shadows cold and gray
That strs the bondsman's CALL
For in the omnipotence of God
We know that every path we trod
Is noted with the sparrows fall.
oh dear old comrade! as note
The sadden'd lines that time has wrote
Upon thy cheek and brow.
And mark the bending of thy form
Beneath it's years of toll and storm,
And eyes near blinded now;
can but feel that thou hast paid
To justice. all the debt you made,
And paid with interest full.
For have learned to know thou art
In purity of deeds and heart.
Washed white as any WOOL.
Reincarnation may renew
The wasted years. mans justice slew
In thyslong service past;
And "Karma" will return the toll
Mans judgement levied on thy soul.
And make thee rich at last.
oh may some star yet shine for thee.
Some goodly angel set thee free
To walk the earth man.
Or guard and guide thee to that hour
When Gods great love shall give thee power.
To understand his plan.
If naught but death shall bring relief.
Then face itibravely without grief;
Let courage give thee cheer.
Times Christening hand shall point the way
To better lands and brighter day
Beyond this earthly sphere.
Addendum
The prisons but wayside inn
Where man is logged away for SIM
To satisfy the courts Of ortI.