O Friends! with whom my feet have
The quiet aisles of prayer,
Glad witness to your zeal for
And love of man I bear.
I trace your lines of argument;
Your logic linked and strongI weigh as one who dreads dissent,
And fears a doubt as wrong.
But still my human hands are
To hold your iron creeds:
Against the words ye bid me
My heart within me pleads.
Who fathoms the Eternal Thought?
Who talks of scheme and plan?
The Lord is God!
He needeth
The poor device of man.
I walk with bare, hushed feet the
Ye tread with boldness shod;
I dare not fix with mete and
The love and power of God.
Ye praise His justice; even
His pitying love I deem:
Ye seek a king;
I fain would
The robe that hath no seam.
Ye see the curse which overbroodsA world of pain and loss;
I hear our Lord's
And prayer upon the cross.
More than your schoolmen teach,
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 storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
I know that God is good!
Not mine to look where
And seraphs may not see,
But nothing can be good in
Which evil is in me.
The wrong that pains my soul belowI dare not throne above,
I know not of His hate, - I
His goodness and His love.
I dimly guess from blessings
Of greater out of sight,
And, with the chastened Psalmist,
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.
I know not what the future
Of marvel or surprise,
Assured alone that life and
His mercy underlies.
And if my heart and flesh are
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 SeaI wait the muffled oar;
No harm from Him can come to
On ocean or on shore.
I know not where His islands
Their fronded palms in air;
I only know I cannot
Beyond His love and care.
O brothers! if my faith is vain,
If hopes like these betray,
Pray for me that my feet may
The sure and safer way.
And Thou,
O Lord! by whom are
Thy creatures as they be,
Forgive me if too close I
My human heart on Thee!
