--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Baggarley, Maud collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 11 number: 5 published: 1908-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Maud Baggarley, "The Cross of Sorrow: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 11, no. 5 (March 1908): 378.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1105unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1105unse start_page: 378 end_page: 378 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1908-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1105unse publication_year: 1908 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1908, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Cross of Sorrow: A Poem THE CROSS OF SORROW. {For the Improvement Era.) They bore thee, dear, to the hill-side, And laid thee beneath the sod. While the birds were joyfully singing, While youth fared forth a-Maying, I felt the chastening rod. Calmly I turned from thy grave-side, But the sky was no longer blue ; The hills were veiled in grayness, The sun was shadow' d too. My heart cried out from its prison, I lifted my hands and prayed ; Then, softly, there came from the heaves, " "Tis I, be not afraid;' Thou shalt be no longer lonely, For the chosen of God you stand ; You bear the cross of sorrow. And now that you understand, Go forth, on errands of mercy; Lift up the fallen and faint; Comfort the sad and friendless ; List to the prisoner's plaint; When thy heart is filled with compassion, While the wounds of the suffering you bind, Ere the bells sound the call to vespers, Joy, thou shalt surely find." Maud Baggarley Salt Lake City, Utah.