Friend After Friend Departs

( Originally Published Early 1900's )

JAMES MONTGOMERY.

Friend after friend departs ;
Who hath not ost a friend?
There is no union here of hearts
That finds not here an end:
Were this frail world our only rest, Living or dying, none were blest.

Beyond the flight of time,
Beyond this vale of death,
There surely is some blessed clime
Where life is not a breath,
Nor life's affections transient fire,
Whose sparks fly upward to expire.

There is a world above,
Where parting is unknown-
A whole eternity of ove,
Formed for the good alone ;
And faith beholds the dying here
Translated to that happier sphere.