Questions & Answers
Oh hated envy! 'tis thine to criticise The well-meant efforts of the good and wise. To blight the hopes of him whose aim is higher Than thou thyself wouldst venture to aspire; To cast a slur upon each honest deed, And grudgingly allow the well-earned meed; Most reprehensible, in great minds seen; Most lamentable, in the weak and mean; Thou art the foster-mother of foul hate That scoffs because it cannot imitate.
With thought wide open to error's sea Is heard the billow's roar. While Truth's unbroken harmony Rolls on its peaceful shore.
Again across a night of doubt and sin Dawns the pure beam of Truth, and its bright star Has led the wise men from the strife and din Of error's wide domain, to journey far; To where in humble guise the fair Christ-child, Conceived in purity, brought forth in Love, Waits to redeem a world, by sense defiled, And step by step to guide to joys above. Unchanging Truth the wonder doth repeat Of "word made flesh" for weary mortals cheer; A new-born light reveals the chain complete That circles round the everlasting years.
With joy and unalloyed delight, We greet thee, Christian Science; And gladly join thee in the fight, That bids disease defiance. That bids mankind look up and hope, God's truth at last revealing.
OH , wanderer in the valley of matter and of sin, Hearest thou the loving message: "Beloved, enter in?" The call is now and ever: "Come unto me and rest," From sorrow, sin and sickness,—oh, listen and be blest. This valley is enveloped in shadows weird and dim, And they who tread its mazes, see never aught of him Who walked the vale of shadows, and climbed the Mountain height, And showed the world the pathway from darkness unto light.
"And from the silence multiplied By these still forms on every side, The world that time and sense have known Falls off and leaves us God alone. So to the calmly gathered thought The innermost of Truth is taught, The mystery dimly understood That love of God is love of Good; That Book and Church and Day are given For man, not God; for earth, not heaven; The blessed means to holier ends Not masters, but benignant friends; That the dear Christ dwells not afar The King of some remoter star, Listening at times, with flattered ear To homage wrung from selfish fear; But here amidst the poor and blind, The bound and suffering of our kind; In works we do, in prayers we pray, Life of our life, He lives to-day.
WE are workers in one vineyard; Some are strong and some are weak; But the smiling of the vintage Is the common joy we seek. Some must trail the vine and prune it, Some must stoop to dress the mould; But the few can pluck the clusters, In the autumn's haze and gold.
I HAVE set my lights on a thousand hills. I've illumined field and lane, To guide you out of the summer-land Into Autumn's grand domain; For the days are sweet, in this sunny realm, They shine with glory, all; So, come, I will show you, oh, weary ones, The way to this kingdom of Fall! There are asters waiting beside the brooks, There are grapes in the sunny dulls, And a crimson light in the apple trees Where the wren's soft choral swells; There are; nuts grown tawny with many suns, In this kingdom grand and free, And they all shall be yours, my weary friend, If you'll seek this realm with me.
Men of thought, be up and stirring night and day: Sow the seed — withdraw the curtain — clear the way! Men of action, aid and cheer them, as ye may! There's a fount about to stream, There's a light about to beam, There's a warmth about to glow, There's a flower about to blow; There's a midnight blackness changing into gray. Men of thought and men of action, CLEAR THE WAY! Lo! a cloud's about to vanish from the day; And a brazen wrong to crumble into clay.
HUNGRY and naked, cold and poor, All full of grief and sin, I dragged myself to the temple door, Where sat one high within. Her lofty brow was stern and white, Her eyes saw nothing here, But gazed above, beyond my plight, Into some distant sphere.