1875–1972

Introduction

Born: De­cem­ber 1, 1875, Camp­bell Coun­ty, Vir­gin­ia.

Biography

John, a Bap­tist min­is­ter, was the son of George Thomas Ross­er and Ke­zi­ah Pen­ick Ar­nold, and hus­band of Ev­elyn Craig (mar­ried 1909, Sel­ma, Ala­ba­ma).

He was liv­ing in Rust­burg, Vir­gin­ia, in 1908.

Works

poem

An Evening Sermon from Nature

As the wild bird at eve forspent
Folds his wide-wandering wings for rest,
The sun, forsaking sea and wold
And hill, enfolds the peaceful west.

The marble sands that fringe the coast
Receive the wavelets’ soft caress;
The ocean waters, rolling far,
Against the distant sky-line press.

And, rising from the under-world,
Shedding its leaves and flakes of light,
The moon, fair empress of the sky,
Bejewels all the orient night.

Across the vast from west to east,
I hear unspoken tidings roll;
The greater with the lesser light
Communion holds, as soul with soul.

In nature’s voiceless language calls
To coming moon the going sun:
My parting message hear and heed,
My day’s appointed task is done,

My banners bright must folded be;
Let now thy lamp in beauty burn,
Light thou the land, gild thou the sea,
And occupy till I return.

Ye ransomed souls, a lesson learn:
Your Master said, with heavenly ken,
Till I to earth return, My lights
Ye are to all the race of men.

John Leonidas Rossiter
Our Sou­thern Quin­tette, 1908

Lyrics

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