THE ETERNAL GOODNESS O friends! with whom my feet have trod Glad witness to your zeal for God I trace your lines of argument; But still my human hands are weak Who fathoms the Eternal Thought? I walk with bare, hushed feet the ground I dare not fix with mete and bound Ye praise His justice; even such Ye seek a king; I fain would touch Ye see the curse that overbroods More than your schoolmen teach, within Too dark ye cannot paint the sin, I bow my forehead to the dust, I see the wrong that round me lies, I hear, with groan and travail-cries, Yet, in the maddening maze of things, Not mine to look where cherubim The wrong that pains my soul below I know not of His hate, I know I dimly guess from blessings known. And, with the chastened Psalmist, own I long for household voices gone, 1 I know not what the future hath And if my heart and flesh are weak The bruised reed He will not break, No offering of my own I have, And so beside the Silent Sea No harm from Him can come to me I know not where His islands lift O brothers! if my faith is vain, Pray for me that my feet may gain And Thou, O Lord! by whom are seen. 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 Ring, O bells! Every stroke exulting tells Loud and long, that all may hear, Ring for every listening ear 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 ears have heard the sound! For the Lord On the whirlwind is abroad; And the gates of brass are broken! Loud and long Lift the old exulting song; He has cast the mighty down ; Did we dare, In our agony of prayer, Ask for more than He has done? 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 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! |