Reminiscences Lyrics


"I thought through this life my time will be my own

The step I now am taking's for eternity alone

No one need be the wiser, through time I shall be free

And as the past hath been the future still will be

To my guileless heart all free from worldly care

And full of blissful hopes and youthful visions rare

The world seamed bright the thret'ning clouds were kept

From sight and all looked fair but pitying angels wept

They saw my youthful friends grow shy and cold

And poisonous darts from sland'rous tongues were hurled

Untutor'd heart in thy gen'rous sacrafise

Thou dids't not weigh the cost nor know the bitter price

Thy happy dreams all o'er thou'st doom'd also to be

Bar'd out from social scenes by this thy destiny

And o'er thy sad'nd mem'ries of sweet departed joys

Thy sicken'd heart will brood and imagine future woes

And like a fetter'd bird with wild and longing heart

Thou'lt dayly pine for freedom and murmor at thy lot

But could'st thou see the future and view that glorious crown

Awaiting you in Heaven you would not weep nor mourn

Pure and exalted was thy father's aim, he saw

A glory in obeying this high celestial law

For to thousands who've died without the light

I will bring eternal joy & make thy crown more bright

I'd been taught to reveire the Prophet of God

And receive every word as the word of the Lord

But had this not come through my dear father's mouth

I should ne'r have received it as God's sacred truth"

- Helen Mar Kimball, 1881