'Prove what Life can give of gladness; <br />Seek for aught that merits trust — <br />All thy mirth will turn to sadness, <br />All thy bliss to cold disgust. <br />Soon revolving years will banish <br />Fairest hopes, in darkness laid; <br />Earthly treasures soon must vanish, <br />Strength and beauty fail and fade.' <br /> <br />Thus, life-weary, spake the preacher, <br />Closing his misguided quest. <br />Heed him not, the half-truth teacher, <br />Deaf to Love's supreme behest. <br />But with Faith thy life adorning, <br />Serve thy race as Heaven hath plann'd; <br />Sow thy seed at dawn of morning, <br />Nor at evening stay thy hand. <br />Never shall this path seem weary; <br />Never hath such purpose fail'd; <br />Nor the retrospect proved dreary, <br />When Life's furthest heights are scaled. <br />And in bright realms still above thee, <br />On some ever-verdant shore, <br />Those thou servest, and who love thee, <br />Shall rejoin, to part no more.<br /><br />Joseph Furphy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/autograph-verses/
