Emerald Story Book

<h3><SPAN name="A_CHILDS_EASTER">A CHILD’S EASTER</SPAN></h3> <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Annie Trumbull Slosson</span></p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">Had I been there when Christ, our Lord, lay sleeping</div> <div class="verse indent0">Within that tomb in Joseph’s garden fair,</div> <div class="verse indent0">I would have watched all night beside my Saviour—</div> <div class="verse indent10">Had I been there.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">Close to the hard, cold stone my soft cheek pressing,</div> <div class="verse indent0">I should have thought my head lay on His breast;</div> <div class="verse indent0">And dreaming that His dear arms were about me,</div> <div class="verse indent10">Have sunk to rest.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">All through the long, dark night when others slumbered,</div> <div class="verse indent0">Close, close beside Him still I would have stayed,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="Page_360"></SPAN>[360]</span> <div class="verse indent0">And, knowing how He loved the little children,</div> <div class="verse indent10">Ne’er felt afraid.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“To-morrow,” to my heart I would have whispered,</div> <div class="verse indent0">“I will rise early in the morning hours,</div> <div class="verse indent0">And wand’ring o’er the hillside I will gather</div> <div class="verse indent10">The fairest flowers;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“Tall, slender lilies (for my Saviour loved them,</div> <div class="verse indent0">And tender words about their beauty spake),</div> <div class="verse indent0">And golden buttercups, and glad-eyed daisies,</div> <div class="verse indent10">But just awake:</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“‘Grass of the field’ in waving, feath’ry beauty,</div> <div class="verse indent0">He clothed it with that grace, so fair but brief,</div> <div class="verse indent0">Mosses all soft and green, and crimson berry,</div> <div class="verse indent10">With glossy leaf.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“While yet the dew is sparkling on the blossoms,</div> <div class="verse indent0">I’ll gather them and lay them at His feet,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="Page_361"></SPAN>[361]</span> <div class="verse indent0">And make the blessed place where He is sleeping</div> <div class="verse indent10">All fair and sweet.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“The birds will come, I know, and sing above Him,</div> <div class="verse indent0">The sparrows whom He cared for when awake,</div> <div class="verse indent0">And they will fill the air with joyous music</div> <div class="verse indent10">For His dear sake!”</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">And, thinking thus, the night would soon be passing,</div> <div class="verse indent0">Fast drawing near that first glad Easter light.</div> <div class="verse indent0">Ah, Lord, if I could but have seen Thee leaving</div> <div class="verse indent10">The grave’s dark night!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">I would have kept so still, so still, and clasping</div> <div class="verse indent0">My hands together as I do in prayer,</div> <div class="verse indent0">I would have knelt, reverent, but oh, so happy</div> <div class="verse indent10">Had I been there.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">Perhaps He would have bent one look upon me;</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="Page_362"></SPAN>[362]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Perhaps in pity for that weary night,</div> <div class="verse indent0">He would have laid on my uplifted forehead</div> <div class="verse indent10">A touch so light;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">And all the rest of life I should have felt it,</div> <div class="verse indent0">A sacred sign upon my brow imprest,</div> <div class="verse indent0">And ne’er forgot that precious, lonely vigil,</div> <div class="verse indent10">So richly blest.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">Dear Lord, through death and night I was not near Thee;</div> <div class="verse indent0">But in Thy risen glory can rejoice,</div> <div class="verse indent0">So, loud and glad in song this Easter morning,</div> <div class="verse indent10">Thou’lt hear my voice.</div> </div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <!--chapter--> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="Page_363"></SPAN>[363]</span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />