THE ETERNAL GOODNESS.

189

O

THE ETERNAL GOODNESS.

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 hear 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.

190

THE ETERNAL GOODNESS.

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 which over-broods
A world of pain and loss:
I hear our Lord's beatitudes,
And prayer upon the cross.

More than your school-men 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.

THE ETERNAL GOODNESS.

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 stake my spirit clings, -
I know that God is good.

Not mine to look when 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.

191

192

THE ETERNAL GOODNESS.

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 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.

THE OTHER WORLD.

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.

193

J. G. WHITTier.

13

THE OTHER WORLD.

T lies around us like a cloud,

IT

The world we do not see

Yet the sweet closing of an eye
May bring us there to be.

Its gentle breezes fan our cheek
Amid our worldly cares :
Its gentle voices whisper love,

And mingle with our prayers.

་ན