1844-54- LINES ON DR. JOHN REID. Ip5 



Thou wert so meek and reverent, 



So resolute of will, 

 So bold to bear the uttermost, 



And yet so calm and still. 



We think of thee with sorrow, 



Thy sad untimely end ; 

 We speak of thee with pity, 



Our sore-tried suffering friend : - 



We cheat ourselves with idle words, 



We are the poor ones here ; 

 Sorrow and Sin and Suffering still 



Surround our steps with fear. 



Our life is yet before us, 



The bitter cup of woe, 

 How deep it is, which each must drink, 



No one of us doth know. 



The Shadow of the Valley, 



Whose gateway is the tomb, 

 Spreads backwards over all of us 



Its curtain cloud of gloom. , 



Some stand but at the inlet, 



And some have passed within, 

 O'er all the shadow hourly creeps, 



And we move farther in. 



Thou art beyond the shadow ; 



Why should we weep for thee, 

 That thou from Care, and Pain, and Death, 



Art set for ever free ? 



Well may we cease to sorrow ; 



Or, if we weep at all, 

 Not for thy fate, but for our own, 



Our bitter tears should fall. 



'Twere better still to follow on 



The path that thou hast trod, 

 The path thy Saviour trod before, 



That led thee up to God. 



O 2, 



