THE ETERNAL GOODNESS

O friends! with whom my feet have trod
The quiet aisles of prayer,

Glad witness to your zeal for God
And love of man I bear.

I trace your lines of argument;
Your logic linked and strong
I weigh as one who dreads dissent,
And fears a doubt as wrong.

But still my human hands are weak
To hold your iron creeds:
Against the words ye bid me speak
My heart within me pleads.

Who fathoms the Eternal Thought?
Who talks of scheme and plan?
The Lord is God! He needeth not
The poor device of man.

I walk with bare, hushed feet the ground
Ye tread with boldness shod;

I dare not fix with mete and bound
The love and power of God.

Ye praise His justice; even such
His pitying love I deem:

Ye seek a king; I fain would touch
The robe that hath no seam.

Ye see the curse that overbroods
A world of pain and loss;
I hear our Lord's beatitudes
And prayer upon the cross.

More than your schoolmen teach, within
Myself, alas! I know:

Too dark ye cannot paint the sin,
Too small the merit show.

I bow my forehead to the dust,
I veil mine eyes for shame,
And urge, in trembling self-distrust,
A prayer without a claim.

I see the wrong that round me lies,
I feel the guilt within;

I hear, with groan and travail-cries,
The world confess its sin.

Yet, in the maddening maze of things,
And tossed by storms and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
I know that God is good!

Not mine to look where cherubim
And seraphs may not see,
But nothing can be good in Him
Which evil is in me.

The wrong that pains my soul below
I dare not throne above,

I know not of His hate, I know
His goodness and His love.

I dimly guess from blessings known.
Of greater out of sight,

And, with the chastened Psalmist, own
His judgments too are right.

I long for household voices gone,
For vanished smiles I long,
But God hath led my dear ones on,
And He can do no wrong.

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I know not what the future hath
Of marvel or surprise,
Assured alone that life and death.
His mercy underlies.

And if my heart and flesh are weak
To bear an untried pain,

The bruised reed He will not break,
But strengthen and sustain.

No offering of my own I have,
Nor works my faith to prove;
I can but give the gifts He gave,
And plead His love for love.

And so beside the Silent Sea
I wait the muffled oar;

No harm from Him can come to me
On ocean or on shore.

I know not where His islands lift
Their fronded palms in air;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care.

O brothers! if my faith is vain,
If hopes like these betray,

Pray for me that my feet may gain
The sure and safer way.

And Thou, O Lord! by whom are seen.
Thy creatures as they be,
Forgive me if too close I lean

My human heart on Thee!

LAUS DEO!

WRITTEN ON HEARING the Bells RING ON THE PASSING of the AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION ABOLISHING SLAVERY

It is done!

Clang of bell and roar of gun
Send the tidings up and down.
How the belfries rock and reel!
How the great guns, peal on peal,
Fling the joy from town to town!

Ring, O bells!

Every stroke exulting tells
Of the burial hour of crime.

Loud and long, that all may hear,

Ring for every listening ear
Of Eternity and Time!

Let us kneel:

God's own voice is in that peal,

And this spot is holy ground.

Lord, forgive us! What are we,
That our eyes this glory see,

That our ears have heard the sound!

For the Lord

On the whirlwind is abroad;
In the earthquake he has spoken;
He has smitten with His thunder
The iron walls asunder,

And the gates of brass are broken!

Loud and long

Lift the old exulting song;
Sing with Miriam by the sea,

He has cast the mighty down ;
Horse and rider sink and drown;
"He hath triumphed gloriously!"

Did we dare,

In our agony of prayer,

Ask for more than He has done?
When was ever His right hand
Over any time or land

Stretched as now beneath the sun?

How they pale,

Ancient myth and song and tale, In this wonder of our days,

When the cruel rod of war

Blossoms white with righteous law, And the wrath of man is praise !

Blotted out!

All within and all about Shall a fresher life begin;

Freer breathe the universe As it rolls its heavy curse On the dead and buried sin !

It is done!

In the circuit of the sun
Shall the sound thereof go forth.
It shall bid the sad rejoice,
It shall give the dumb a voice,
It shall belt with joy the earth!

Ring and swing,

Bells of joy! On morning's wing Send the sound of praise abroad! With a sound of broken chains Tell the nation that He reigns, Who alone is Lord and God!