Once More Upon the Earth

Now shall I take my sorrows and my joys

And like a blanket of peace and tenderness

Lightly upon this bed of earthly cares

Cover them and hide from prying eyes

The beauty and the sweetness I have known

Late when the advancing years have crept

Stealthily into this ageing house.

Protect you r dreams my children from the world

That would devour truth and good and right.

The way before you opens like a rose

With morning's first caress upon its buds.

To live in light beyond the reason's scope,

To labour for the world that is to be

As we watch the dying generations fall,

The spirit calls and our consent awaits,

Let not the human passions sway your soul

Or tempt you from the pathway to the Dawn,

Trust in your heart that you have come to leap

The barriers of moral rectitude,

To live in beauty and ever to embrace

The heights that lean to pilgrim souls that dare,

Who shun deception's ways, look straight at death

That God may walk once more upon the earth,

And all heaven's glory here descend.