Reginald Heber
(1783-1826)
Oh weep not o'er thy children's tomb,
O Rachel, weep not so;
The bud is cropt by martyrdom,
The flower in heaven shall blow!
Firstlings of faith! The murderer's knife
Has miss'd its deadliest aim;
The God for whom they gave their life,
For them to suffer came!
Though feeble were their days and few,
Baptized in blood and pain,
He knows them, whom they never knew,
And they shall live again.
Then weep not o'er thy children's tomb,
O Rachel, weep not so!
The bud is cropt by martyrdom,
The flower in heaven shall blow!
(Special thanks to our friend Pastor Bruce Wasson for his special gift of
The Poetical Works of Reginald Heber, Late Lord Bishop of Calcutta
by M. A. DeWolfe Howe [1857], from which this poem was taken.)