TO J. M. PENDLETON ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF
HIS GOLDEN WEDDING.

Hail! patriarch, hail! in honor's robes arrayed,
With self-poised powers and functions undecayed;
Erect amid the wrecks and waste of years,
Unbent by worldly cares, undimmed by idle tears.
Thy long, laborious life, by loftiest motives stirred,
True to thyself, to man, to God's inspired Word.

Hail! golden cycle, bright with wedded love;
Hail jubilee of joys; hail hallowed dove,
Whose snowy wings drop blessings on thine age.
Hail! husband, father, Christian, scholar, sage;
We meet thee in the gloaming of thy well-spent day,
All glowing in the glory of its golden ray.

Hail! home of love. The venerable bride,
For fifty summers nestling by thy side,
Though closed her outer vision, eyes of light
Glance from her white-robed soul, and through the night
Behold the beauty and the bounty spread
Through all the way God's guiding hand has led.

Though brows are furrow'd and though locks are gray,
Thy heart is golden; there, there's no decay.
Radiant the shadows, and the gloaming is not gloom;
Hope's golden halos crown the transient tomb,
And all beyond is rest and rich reward,
The beatific vision of thy blessed Lord.
____________

Central Baptist. - S. H. FORD.

[From Samuel H. Ford , editor, Ford's Christian Repository & Home Circle, Volume 46, 1888, p. 348. Document from Google Books. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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