A Golden Wedding Song

The links of fifty golden years
Reach to the golden ring
Which now, with glad and grateful tears,
We celebrate and sing.
O chain of love! O ring of gold!
That have the years defied;
And still in happy bondage hold
The old man and his bride!

The locks are white that once were black
The sight is feebler grown;
But through the long and weary track
The heart has held its own!
O chain of love! O ring of gold!
That time could not divide;
That kept through changes manifo!
The old man and his bride!

The little ones have come and gone;
The old have passed away;
But love—immortal love—lives on,
And blossoms 'mid decay.
O chain of love! O ring of gold!
That have the years defied;
And still with growing strength infold
The old man and his bride!

The golden bridal! ah, how sweet
The music of its bell,
To those whose hearts the vows repeat
Their lives have kept so well!
O chain of love! O ring of gold!
O marriage true and tried!
That bind with tenderness untold
The old man and his bride!