Yesterday was a bundle of grass. He is free and libertine, Pouring of his power the wine The world is the ring of his spells, As he giveth to all to drink, Thus or thus they are and think. The third adds heat's indulgent spark; And conscious Law is King of kings. Or the stars of eternity? Alike to him the better, the worse,― And his mind is the sky, Than all it holds more deep, more high.' THE BOHEMIAN HYMN RALPH WALDO EMERSON In many forms we try To utter God's infinity, But the boundless hath no form, And the Universal Friend Doth as far transcend An angel as a worm. The great Idea baffles wit, It leaves the learned in the lurch; THE LIVING GOD CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN The Living God. The God that made the world Made it and stood aside to watch and wait. Arranging a predestined plan To save the erring soul of man Undying destiny-unswerving fate. His love divine in the hopes that shine His care that sendeth sun and rain, His wisdom giving rest, His price of sin that we may not win Not near enough! Not clear enough! O God, come nearer still! I long for thee! Be strong for me! The Living God. The God that makes the world, His spirit speaking sure and slow In the real universe we know,- I feel His breath in the blowing wind, And the sunlit sod is the breast of God His living love in the sun above,— Not near enough! Not clear enough! I long for Thee! Be strong for me! The Living God. The God that is the world. Then-dare I follow what I see?— Then-By Thy Glory-it must be That we are in thy plan! That strength divine in the work we do? That love in our mothers' eyes? That wisdom clear in our thinking here? That power to help us rise? God in the daily work we've done, In the daily path we've trod? Stand still, my heart, for I am a part I too of the Living God! Ah, clear as light! As near! As bright! BRAND SPEAKS HENDRIK IBSEN Translated by C. H. Herford As Catholics make of the Redeemer Make God a dotard and a dreamer, And as the Pope on Peter's throne His voice rang through the dazzled night As by a pygmy's pygmy stood. Day dawn'd on both, and possibly, Day may on both of them descend. Whereby from Flesh it climbed to God. But from these scraps and from these shreds, From THE TEST OF MANHOOD GEORGE MEREDITH In fellowship Religion has its founts; Our hungers or our fears. As only for the numbers Nature's care Is shown, and she the personal nothing heeds, So to Divinity the spring of prayer From brotherhood the one way upward leads. Like the sustaining air Are both for flowers and weeds: But he who claims in spirit to be flower Will find them both an air that doth devour. |