Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Harp of Renfrewshire

407
And yoiirs a dateless birth ] What noble deeds
Do ye commemorate ? What name preserved,
Which even to utter makes the world rich
In all that dignifies our race, and warms
The hearts of many nations ? Where the name
Of patriot, toiling for his country's good,
And striking down some old and crushing wrong ?
Of martyr dying for the noblest truths 1
Or of the moral teacher who, amid
The grossest darkness, sheds the light of heaven '?
We look in vain along your granite blocks,
Or uncouth hieroglyphs, for any name
Entwined with generous, most heroic deeds
Of charity and faith. But why expect
Such names, such virtues, from an age without
The light of Christian truth ?
Who would compare
Your worth as records of a single act.
With the immortal honour which these words
Have fixed for ever on the scroll of fame.
Never to be effaced while time endures —
" This humble woman did whate'er she could " —
No monument on Egypt's plains like this.
Turn to that upper room where widows stood
And showed the garments which their friend, now dead,
Had made to cheer them in their lonely woe :
Though dead she lived, and spoke to many hearts,
And homes made glad ; and, as the widows gazed
Upon Tabitha stretched in death, and wept,
And showed again the garments which she wrought,
They raised a nobler monument than all
The Pyramids which ancient kings have reared.
When these shall all have crumbled into dust.
And every vestige disappeared from earth.
The sacred records of immortal fame
Ascribed to humble worth shall last for aye.