1 Thus one by one our loved ones go,
From year to year, from snow to snow;
The buds of springtime hardly bloom
Ere winter plucks them for the tomb.
2 The sweetest songsters soonest fly,
The fondest hopes the soonest die,
And harps but once to gladness strung
Are on the weeping-willows hung.
3 How much of grief, how little joy,
How little gold, how much alloy,
How many doubts, how many fears
Ye bring us, O ye passing years.
4 Though sorrow dims our vision here,
Faith points beyond this mortal sphere,
Where tears of anguish never flow,
Where pain and death none ever know.
Source: The Seventh-Day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book: for use in divine worship #921
Belden was born in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1858. He began writing music in his late teenage years after moving to California with his family. For health reasons he later moved to Colorado. He returned to Battle Creek with his wife in the early 1880s, and there he became involved in Adventist Church publishing. F. E. Belden wrote many hymn tunes, gospel songs, and related texts in the early years of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Belden was able to rapidly write both music and poetry together which enabled him to write a song to fit a sermon while it was still being delivered. He also wrote songs for evangelist Billy Sunday. Though Belden’s later years were marred by misunderstandings with the church leadership over his royal… Go to person page >
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