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Chapter 11 in George A. Blackburn’s The Life Work of John L. Girardeau, D.D., LL.D.: Late Professor in the Theological Seminary, Columbia, S.C. (1916) gives a guided tour of the poetry produced by the great Southern Presbyterian theologian. One representative poem given for purposes of devotional meditation today is his poem “The Flower of Hope.”
The Flower of Hope
When Eve, our first mother, forlorn,
Was banished the garden of God,
She plucked at the root of a thorn
A flower be-sprinkled with blood.And we, the sad children of Eve,
May find the same blood-tinctured rose;
The emblem of Hope when we grieve,
Midst thorny afflictions it blows.It blooms in the chamber of woe,
Where widows are drooping the head.
And little ones timidly go
A tip-toe to gaze on the dead.It grows where the stormy winds rave
In this valley of sin and of gloom;
It springs from the mould of the grave,
And twines rounds the gates of the tomb.Dear Fanny, ‘tis faith in the Cross
Which causes this flower divine
To bloom in the sepulchre’s moss;
Its promise of glory be thine!