Questions & Answers
"He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. "— Mai.
For all the error dark and deep, Father, forgive: I did not know That this existence was a sleep In which the shadows come and go. I did not know that grief and pain, Those old-time chasteners named "the rod," Can no dominion hold again Over the happy child of God.
Emblem of mortal mind and evil power, Of seething sorrow and of man's deceit, Though passing fair in thine unangered hour, When the pale moon has paced with wanderings sweet Her pathway o'er thee: or when thy soft beat, Sifting the sand beneath thy lisping wave, Whispers of innocence—ah, wanton cheat! The morn will hear thee sing a different stave, When the wild north wind blows from Norway's blustering cave. Unsated tomb of earth's unhallowed hope And uncontrolled desire! thy plumbless deeps In their untried recesses give good scope To dreams of th' infinite: the plummet creeps To meads all marvel stored, where darkness keeps Thy hoarded lumber house, and leads us then To grottos where the treasure-galleon sleeps In ooze and slime, afar from earthly ken, And stored with gold and guns, and memories stark of men.
Oh , may we know Love at earth's midnight cold? Or see Love by the radiant light of day? Or doth God dwell in heavenly heights away, And all unseen His beauteous works unfold? Aye, we may see Him, like the seers of old, Through eyes that scorn the senses' darkening sway, By understanding's light illumined: nay, Look not afar, Love here thou mayest behold! Thou Love may'st see when mists of self depart, That hide God's image from thy slumbering eyes; When o'er the barren soil Love's stream doth start, And fertile make it till fresh flowers arise Of joy and tenderness upon the heart! Who loving lives, he Love alone espies!
When thine impatient heart has ceased to fret, When thine impatient hands are folded still, When thine impatient eyes no longer fill With tears of hope deferred and vain regret; When thou hast ceased on human aid to call, When thou for signs no more the sky dost scan, When thou hast ceased thy path to plot and plan,— Then shalt thou know that God is All-in-all! Thou art God's child and Love is close at hand, And knowing this why wilt thou fret and fume? Why gaze behind thee at the murk and gloom When straight before thee spreads the smiling land? O change thy dreary murmur into song! O change each fear to hope—each doubt to trust! And by this change of thought the truth shall thrust Out of thy pathway every seeming wrong!
If I today a ray of light have shed, From my small lamp have thrown some beams ahead; If hope I've given to some despairing one, Taught him to trust before the set of sun; If Truth I've shown to one whose eyes were blind, If to the poor and weak I have been kind, If I have loved my neighbor as I should, For evil given sent him naught but good; If I have watched each moment at my heart, And bade all unkind, sin-filled thought depart; If I've returned a smile for every frown, Knowing that evil could not cast me down,— Then I indeed can lay me down to sleep , Secure that Love divine the watch will keep.
In the name of our God who is perfect, We proclaim that perfection is ours; That who walks in the light of His presence Has absolute powers; That the sin which entangles our footsteps, The disease that bewilders the sight, Were not deeds of the days of creation, But mists of the night. By the works that we do shall men judge us, By the lives that we live may they see That the Science of Christ is within us, The truth makes us free.
What crisis in earth's life impelled The deed divine? What purpose high Broke through the unseen boundary, When sage and shepherd, awed, beheld From out the purpling breast of night The star rise, angel-heralded— The star that stands for light? High in the east, full-orbed it rose, And onward in its radiant course Resistless moved—a quickening force. And they who sank beneath earth's woes, Saw in that steadfast sign above, The lamp of God, new lighted— The star that stands for Love.
El-í-she-ba , God's worshiper, Whose eyes are starlit wells Filled from the depths with constancy,— Blue violets of the dells,— With strength of tone and faithfulness Their look a sweetness tells. Thou standest at the gates of night Where pass the toilers by; Some have wrought well, and happy go; Some halt in step, and sigh; Some trail in dust a broken wing— A multitude goes by.
O may I bring a willing heart To every simple task; O may I pluck the thought of self From every boon I ask. May I preserve a simple faith Amid life's surge and stress, Nor entertain a single sense That shall not bless.