Alone And Repentant (To A Friend Since Deceased)

(See Note 9) A friend I possess, whose whispers just said, "God's peace!" to my night-watching mind. When daylight is gone and darkness brings dread, He ever the way can find. He utters no word to smite and to score; He, too, has known sin and its grief. He heals with his look the place that is sore, And stays till I have relief. He takes for his own the deed that is such That sorrows of heart increase. He cleanses the wound with so gentle a touch, The pain must give way to peace. He followed each hope the heights that would scale Reproached not a hapless descent. He stands here just now, so mild, but so pale;— In time he shall know what it meant.