Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/301

Rh But oh, to be in from the open!
 * Where the limitless, unconfined

Immensities of time and space,
 * O'erwhelm the human mind;
 * As Heaven's host we scan,
 * Lord, what is man?—
 * The drudge of a day
 * In his house of clay—
 * A mite of earth's crust
 * Who returns to his dust!

Oh! well to be in from the open
 * Of the vastitudes profound,—

The terrors of eternities
 * In which man's thoughts are drowned;
 * With the Witness that tells
 * That the pure heart dwells

In the House of the Lord even here, With the Word Divine that is near,
 * Giving power to descry
 * The fair mansions on high,
 * Where at home we shall be
 * With God's whole family,
 * To behold all His grace
 * In the Son of Man's face.

J. P. Ritchie.