Questions & Answers
The time shall come when man shall hold His brother more dear than sordid gold, When the fierce and false alike shall fall, And mercy and truth encircle all. Toil, brothers, till the world is free, Till mercy and truth holds jubilee.
Life means—learning to abhor The false, and love the true, truth treasured snatch by snatch, Waifs counted at their work. And when with strays they match I' the parti-colored world—when, under foul, shines fair, And truth, displayed i' the point, flashes forth everywhere I' the circle, manifest to soul, though hid from sense, And no obstruction more affects this confidence— When faith is ripe for sight—why, reasonably, then Comes the great clearing-up.
Time was when none presumed to say that they Could greater nature lover be than I; And yet ofttimes beneath serenest sky Beheld I deadliest strife that held at bay A sense of peace: for with intent to slay, It seemed, all creatures great and small did lie In wait, their strength against the weak to try, With none their cruel ravages to stay. Ah, now I know how mortal sense beclouds The true creation wherein all is peace: Like scroll there rolleth back that which enshrouds The prophet vision of all pain's surcease, And with enraptured vision I behold The lion and the lamb within one fold.
There's a song whose notes are forming in the hearts of all mankind; And the clamors of the hammers in the foundries and the mills, And furnaces reverberant that roar like rushing wind While subduing for man's using the ore-treasures of the hills, Make the throbbing diapason for the song. When the flasks are laid in rows upon the blackened foundry floor, And the ladles pour the hissing molten steel like golden oil, Then each workman thrills with caring for the others, friends or foes, While the lurid smoke is soaring, And the trembling furnace roaring, Dust and heat and grime ignoring, There are eyes that light with kindness in the comradeship of toil.
Eternal Science, pure, divine, Our waking hope looks up to thee. Thy healing light, with power benign, Falls on our eyes, and lo! we see.
Dost thou through matter hope to gain The bliss that only Love can give? O friend, thy labor is in vain: Awaken thou, and learn to live! The broad expanse of Love's blue skies Awaits each upward soaring heart: O'er mist of worldly purpose rise, From error's dark illusions part! For Truth thy lasting strength shall be, Thy joy and hope, thy fountain pure; And all that erring sense doth see Give place to all that shall endure. Truth gives no scanty recompense To yield the false, accept the true: None would e'er cling to dreams of sense If e'en a glimpse of Truth he knew.
With thunderings, smoke, and leaping flame, The Mosaic law on Mount Sinai came; And all the tribes, of Abraham begot, Trembled and feared before God's "Thou shalt not. " When, heralded by star and angel song, The gentle Jesus taught the silent throng, Their stony hearts were melted as they saw That "love is the fulfilling of the law.
Oh, the morn is bright and the song is gay That flows from each tuneful throat, While the storms and snows of yesterday Are forgot in the birds' clear note; And joyous the song each heart may sing That sees God's love in everything. Oh, life is sweet, now the way looks clear And each day in gladness breaks; For the dream-clouds melt with their ghosts of fear As each to the truth awakes, Singing the song that all may sing Who see Love mirrored in everything.
Fresh and green from the rotting roots Of primal forest the young growth shoots; From the death of the old the new proceeds, And the life of truth from the rot of creeds: On the ladder of God, which upward leads, The steps of progress are human needs. For His judgments still are a mighty deep, And the eyes of His providence never sleep: When the night is darkest He gives the morn; When the famine is sorest, the wine and corn! Whittier.
When I have bowed my every thought to Thine, When I can see with inner light divine That all Thou art is here and now and mine,— Then I am free. When I above all sin and passion rise, And thought with Thee is raised unto the skies, And trustingly my hand within Thine lies,— Then I am free.