"Easter Day," said I, "should be observed
With reverent thanks for life renewed."
At church I heard the holy Word
And sang glad hymns of gratitude,
Then meditated on love too great
For lips to speak or words to say.
"It is good," said I, "to glorify
The Master thus on Easter Day."
But when the day had turned to night,
Somehow I felt an unnamed gloom.
I tossed and turned and strangely yearned
To learn the lesson of a tomb—
An empty tomb, within whose walls
The crucified no longer lay.
What holy prayer was uttered there
To bring about an Easter Day?
There Life shone through the dark of death
And its false promise of relief;
The wonder of that faultless love
That would not yield to hate or grief!
Ah, well indeed that men should raise
Their hymns of gladness and should pray;
But, oh, my heart, have you had part
With Truth and known Christ's Easter Day?
