Part 3

Where labor faints and bows her head, And want consorts with crime; Or men grown faithless sadly say That evil is the time.

There is the field, the vantage ground For every earnest heart; To side with justice, truth and right And act a noble part.

To save from ignorance and vice The poorest, humblest child; To make our age the fairest one On which the sun has smiled;

To plant the roots of coming years In mercy, love and truth; And bid our weary, saddened earth Again renew her youth.

Oh! earnest hearts! toil on in hope, 'Till darkness shrinks from light; To fill the earth with peace and joy, Let youth and age unite:

DEDICATION POEM. 9

To stay the floods of sin and shame That sweep from shore to shore; And furl the banners stained with blood, 'Till war shall be no more.

Blame not the age, nor think it full Of evil and unrest; But say of every other age, "This one shall be the best."

The age to brighten every path By sin and sorrow trod; For loving hearts to usher in The commonwealth of God.

DEDICATION POEM.

Dedication Poem on the reception of the annex to the home for aged colored people, from the bequest of Mr. Edward T. Parker.

Outcast from her home in Syria In the lonely, dreary wild; Heavy hearted, sorrow stricken, Sat a mother and her child.

10 DEDICATION POEM.

There was not a voice to cheer her Not a soul to share her fate; She was weary, he was fainting, And life seemed so desolate.

Far away in sunny Egypt Was lone Hagar's native land; Where the Nile in kingly bounty Scatters bread with gracious hand.

In the tents of princely Abram She for years had found a home; Till the stern decree of Sarah Sent her forth the wild to roam.

Hour by hour she journeyed onward From the shelter of their tent, Till her footsteps slowly faltered And the water all was spent;

Then she veiled her face in sorrow, Feared her child would die of thirst Till her eyes with tears so holden Saw a sparkling fountain burst.

Oh! how happy was that mother, What a soothing of her pain;

DEDICATION POEM. 11

When she saw her child reviving, Life rejoicing through each vein

Does not life repeat this story, Tell it over day by day? Of the fountains of refreshment Ever springing by our way.

Here is one by which we gather, On this bright and happy day, Just to bask beside a fountain Making gladder life's highway.

Bringing unto hearts now aged Who have borne life's burdens long, Such a gift of love and mercy As deserves our sweetest song.

Such a gift that even heaven May rejoice with us below, If the pure and holy angels Join us in our joy and woe.

May the memory of the giver In this home where age may rest, Float like fragrance through the ages, Ever blessing, ever blest.

12 A DOUBLE STANDARD.

When the gates of pearl are opened May we there this friend behold, Drink with him from living fountains, Walk with him the streets of gold.