Grand Haven Daily Tribune  February 16, 1898

Soul-Drifting.

—

BY DAVID FLETCHER HUNTON

—

In fancy, I’m sailing tonight.

To regions of beauty on high;

To those wonderful realms so far from my sight,

Where worlds hang like diamonds of radiant light,

Above the domain of the sky.

My spirit flies on with my boat,

And I am so happy away!

Away to that ocean so dim and remote,

Where stars sang together when first sent afloat,

The morn of God’s limitless day.

I gaze o’er the rail with a sigh,

To see in distances below,

The earth, with its shadows, and storm-beaten sky;

Its cities, and oceans, and mountains so high,

Whose summits are covered with snow.

The moon, with her silvery hair,

Looks up with the face of a sun;

I think as I gaze on her bosom so bare,

That a pure and true heart has ever beat there,

Since Earth’s revolutions begun.

I’m drifting for millions of miles,

Away from the earth and its night;

And away to that world, where Eden’s fair isled,

Rejoice in the sunshine and bask in the smiles

Of God, and His infinite light.

*      *      *      *      *      *

And now my fair argosy waits!

Perhaps for a pilot, or guide!

Oh no!  We have come to the “Beautiful Gates!”

They’re opening for us, to splendid estates,

Where God, and His children reside.

O’ what rapture, to know and to feel—

As I cast to leeward my line—

That under my boat, and its trembling keel,

The “River of Life,” and its pure waters steal

While ent’ring the harbor divine!

And then a bright angel drew nigh―

I felt the soft touch of his wing;

He led me away to the “mansions’ on high,—

Where the beautiful fields of the infinite lie;

In the bloom of unending spring!

I saw where the great city lies!

Its courts of immaculate mold!

Beneath those magnificent glory-lit skies

I saw the bright dome of the Temple arise!

Its walls are of jasper, and gold!

I saw in this world of delight,

The “white-robed” who came from the sod

With palms in their hands, and with banners of light,

And beautiful raiment, all glistening and white,

They sang in the gardens of God!

And I was entranced with their song,

For love seemed each tongue to control!

The “River of Life,” as it murmured along,

Whispering nothing of death, and nothing of wrong,

In all that bright home of the soul!

I saw sweet groves, and the bowers—

The “Evergreen mountains” of light;

Fair Eden was there, with her temples and towers,

Her gardens of beauty, and sweet smelling flowers;

And the fair Tree of Life was in sight!

I met ‘neath these beautiful skies

One whom on the earth I had known;

“Oh thou wife of my youth!”  I said in surprise,

And kissed her sweet lips, and gazed in her eyes,

And clasped this bosom MY OWN!

I wondered why mortals should cling,

To earth and its desolate shore;

When the soul from the clay, can spread its glad wings,

And soar to a world of such glorious things,

Where sickness, and death are no more.

No sorrow—no heartache—no gloom;

No parting—no tears—and no strife;

Here’s rest among glories too bright for the tomb!

And life, where’s love’s roses eternally bloom,

On the banks of the “River of Life”!

 *      *      *      *      *      *

My soul is so thankful for this!

And Oh! I would drift there again!

But the friends I met there—the lips which I kissed,

Will seem to me here, like the dreamings of bliss,

And sooth all my sorrow, and pain.

Oh! long will my memory turn,

And dwell on that vision of love!

And oft, in this prison, my spirit will yearn,

To break from these fetters of clay, and return,

To those beautiful gardens above!

Grand Haven, Mich.,

January, A. D. 1869