HE Quaker of the olden time!
How calm and firm and true,
Unspotted by its wrong and crime,
He walked the dark earth through.
The lust of power, the love of gain,
The thousand lures of
Around him, had no power to
The purity within.
With that deep insight which
All great things in the small,
And knows how each man's life
The spiritual life of all,
He walked by faith and not by sight,
By love and not by law;
The presence of the wrong or
He rather felt than saw.
He felt that wrong with wrong partakes,
That nothing stands alone,
That whoso gives the motive,
His brother's sin his own.
And, pausing not for doubtful
Of evils great or small,
He listened to that inward
Which called away from all.
O Spirit of that early day,
So pure and strong and true,
Be with us in the narrow
Our faithful fathers knew.
Give strength the evil to forsake,
The cross of Truth to bear,
And love and reverent fear to
Our daily lives a prayer!
