Half-mast

From the land far towards the sunset Caine a message stern and brief, And the ligtit of hope was quenched In a bitter flood of grief. Half-mast are Learts as wellas flags, For oue has gone away Who will not coine back toinorrow Nor yet another day. For his boat has cast its anchor Ou a fairer shore than thip, Where uo darkneas mars the glory Ot the sun ol perfect bliss; But the shadow f the spectre Which laid its hand upon hls heart, Reaches unto us, his people, Of whom he was a part. Hushed the eloquence which thrilled us, Cold the ever bounteous hand That never closed to an appeal Froui the puorest of the land. From the lofty and the lowly Como rare tributes to his worth, - Richer than the sougs of conquerors. Better thau all fame of earth. For, though he climbed not upthehoights Wfaere the fained of ages stood, Yet his was a grander mission, His a nobler brotherhood, - A inission reaching far and wide Uuto poverty and sin, A brotherhood which gathered all üf the good God's children in. With a creed so plain and simple That all men understood, Yet broad in its humanity As the boundl3ss love of Ood, He strewed blesbings in hts pathway On the toiliug and the poor, And. though be comes no more among us, Yet öhall his deeds endure. We shall miss him in the councils, And the childreu of the state AJÍ will weep for him who loved them With a love so strong and great; But while all mourn him with that grief Which is nearest kin to pain, We mutely say, 'God's will be done," For our loss is his great gain.