A Petition

(In behalf of Mrs. McKinley)

Lord, if upon the earth thou once didst fare
     To bind the broken heart, come now, come now!
Bend, Lord, in answer to a people’s prayer,
     And lay thy healing hand upon this brow!

Lead her faint spirit softly after him
     Who goes before into the clearer light
Where as great joy makes all our losses dim
     Thou, Lord, thyself, art all there is of light.

Give her throughout the shadow of her years
     Sense of the dear companionship she had
Before the skies became a mist of tears,
     Still going all her way, still sweet and glad.

So thy strong forces be to her the arm
     On which she leaned while pressing toward the mark
That shines o’er every sorrow and alarm,—
     She from great splendor fallen on the dark.

Let consciousness of a wide love today
     Mingle a drop less bitter with the myrrh
That brims her cup, while all a nation, nay,
     A multitude of nations, mourns with her.

And out of thy near heaven of heavens, oh thou
     Who art the source of life, the end of death,
To this afflicted, tossed with tempest, now
Give comfort as a mother comforteth!