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