Where night dissolves, and Spirit's cloudless day
Breaks forth in radiance; where grace is found;
Where heavy stones of rancor do not weigh
Upon the honest heart, nor death knells sound
Their note; where calm contentment sweeps the skies,
And beauty kneels in hushed humility—
There let my prayer of gratitude arise,
And let my humble cry come unto Thee.
Love's bright salvation calls the wanderer
From waste lands of despair and loneliness;
And Science speaks with mighty deeds to stir
The doubting ones who journey shepherdless.
O starless child, awake from mortal creeds.
Past ocean walls Love's flaming pillar leads.
Where dignity and law abide in Truth,
And logic drops its anchor deep in Soul:
Where matter's little clocks of transient youth
And age, of time and birth, have no control
Of man; where all is endless Life and Love;
Where consciousness abides in purity—
There let my ransomed thoughts return above,
And let my joyous cry come unto Thee.
Return is an awakening, a chart
And compass in the hand, a song upon
The lips, a spaceless rapture in the heart,
A flood of sunlight when the night has gone.
Each prodigal must some day homeward turn,
For in his breast the fires of heaven burn.
Where cruel, selfish habit cannot cage
The mind; where dim imagination ends;
Where force and fury cannot disengage
The gentle heart from peace; where faith ascends
On many wings, and gladness, like a star,
Shines on and on throughout eternity—
There let my alien heart come from afar,
And let my trusting cry come unto Thee.
Within Love's patterned heaven man remains
Forever God's dear child, the image bright,
The son beloved. There are no circling chains
To bind him to the dark frontiers of night.
Above the chaos and the raging foam,
Soul's clear horizons call the exile home.
