Year: 1867

Loved and lostl Tis wall that is 60
ing up daily, aye hourly, unto Him who
sits on the great white throne, from be-
reaved hearts with their burden of sor-
row, too grIevous for human strength or
human hearts to bear.


Loved and lostl From your heart, oh,
stricken widow, as you stand by the
cold form of your once strong protector,
goes up the bitter cry. He who ever
shielded you with his protecting arm
who carefully smoothed the rough places
in your life path, lest they should bruise
your tender feet--whose tender voice
never addressed you save irlove, he who
ever stood between you and the great cold
world, breasting all its storms and cares
with his own manly bosom, that they
harmed him not, is gone forever; and you
kneeling beside his lifeless remains, with
your fatberless children clinging around
you realize more and more your utter
helplessness and the great loss you have
sustained, your pale lips burst the mourn
ful cry, "Loyed and lostl'


And you too, mourning husband, who
have laid your fair wife asleep in the en-
brace of mother earth. She went from
you ere yet her bloom faded with her
tiny babe Cher babe and yours) that but
opened its eyes on earth to close them in
death-clasped so close to her girlish bo-
som, mother and child, rose and bud; are
sleeping together beneath one coffin lid,
one grave holds them both now, while
your home has grown strangely desolate
since she whose light footsteps ever sprang
forward to Welcome your return to the
house which she presided over like a
queen--has gone from it to her lastearth-
ly home.


The grave yard is not SO lonely in your
eyes since she is among its silent inhab-
itants. You go to her lonely grave and
kneel beside it and while you water with
your tears lilies (ftemblems Of her pu-
rity) that bloom over the grassy mound
that holds all that you held dear on earth,
you feel the full significance Of those
dreary words, loved and lostl


Loved and lostl On your bowed head
oh, aged motherl you who gave your only
son and stay in your old age, unto your
country; on your head these words rest
like funeral pail. You read his name
among the list of the dead who fell be-
fore Richmond, and the terrible truth
that you were now childless, came home
to your heart with crushing truth, and
bowing your aged head, you too, echo
the bitter wall going up from SO many
hearts, sLoysd and lost!n


Loved and lost. Who that has ar
rived at years of discretion has not echo
ed these sad, sad words, that tell palmer
than the greatest flood of tears, hope
crushed and bruised beneath the coffin.
lid of broken hearts and blasted lives
gone forevermore. Loved and lost
Since the terrible flood of war rolled
over our own dear land, we have learned
the full meaning of those bitter words,
|"Loved and lost!p All over the land
there is mourning, mothers for their sons,
weeping wives for husbands, children
for fathers, maidens for lovers.


Loved and lostl The same cry that
went up from Israel's plain centuries ago
is being echoed and re-echoed through
out the world, fer from the rising of the
sun till its sitting, death is ever abroad,
busily gathering up his harvest; and not
until all things shall end will that weary
cry cease. Then all shall meet in the
Spirit Land = the Loved and Lost.