Love’s Riches
Rich blessings are scattered around us—
Why heedlessly trample them down
And ask for the millionaire’s coffers,
Or sigh for a kingdom and crown?
We’ve ever the sunshine of loving,
Unmixed with the drosses of gold—
Its pleasures are not in wealth’s giving
Or e’en in its power to withhold.
The jewels, whose splendors we covet,
Gain much of their sparkle and glow
From the flutter and tumult of bosoms
Where heart-aches are throbbing below;
In palaces, often, is hidden
A skeleton presence of dread,
That quenches the flame on Love’s altar
While hope in the darkness lies dead.
A queen may be rich in dominions,
Have crown and a scepter and throne,
Yet all of the riches of loving
To her be forever unknown;
Far greater the kingdom for woman
Where love is the power—her throne
In a heart of unswerving devotion,
Its measureless realms her own.
Thro’ the tapestried halls of the mansion
The ghost of dead honor may glide—
A sense of life’s holiest joys departed
In the lordliest castle abide.
Tho’ the chalice wealth drains should be golden,
No sweeter to him is the draught
Than the cup with the sparkle of water,
That humble contentment has quaffed.
Earth’s mines, and her jewel-strewn caverns,
With the station that title confers,
All poured at her feet, would not purchase
The treasure a mother counts hers.
Ay, hid in your home you will find them—
Love’s riches—vast treasures untold;
More precious than worldly possessions,
Though counted, by millions, in gold.
Then let not the demon of envy
E’er enter the soul to enthrall;
The Father is tenderly watching—
Is keeping a record of all.
Rewards we have missed in our earth-life
We’ll find in that mansion above,
All decked with the beauties of Heaven
And lighted with Infinite Love.