Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/492

460   “Hush, child!” the father answered,
 * “By His decree man fell;

His ways are in clouds and darkness,
 * But He doeth all things well.

“And whether by His ordaining
 * To us Cometh good or ill,

Joy or pain, or light or shadow,
 * We must fear and love Him still.”

“Oh, I fear Him!” said the daughter,
 * “And I try to love Him, too;

But I wish He was good and gentle,
 * Kind and loving as you.”

The minister groaned in spirit
 * As the tremulous lips of pain

And wide, wet eyes uplifted
 * Questioned his own in vain.

Bowing his head he pondered
 * The words of the little one;

Had he erred in his life-long teaching?
 * Had he wrong to his Master done?

To what grim and dreadful idol
 * Had he lent the holiest name?

Did his own heart, loving and human,
 * The God of his worship shame?

And lo! from the bloom and greenness,
 * From the tender skies above,

And the face of his little daughter,
 * He read a lesson of love.

No more as the cloudy terror
 * Of Sinai’s mount of law,

But as Christ in the Syrian lilies
 * The vision of God he saw.

And, as when, in the clefts of Horeb,
 * Of old was His presence known,

The dread Ineffable Glory
 * Was Infinite Goodness alone.

Thereafter his hearers noted
 * In his prayers a tenderer strain,

And never the gospel of hatred
 * Burned on his lips again.

And the scoffing tongue was prayerful,
 * And the blinded eyes found sight,

And hearts, as flint aforetime,
 * Grew soft in his warmth and light.

of sacred pictures manifold,
 * A minster rich in holy effigies,
 * And bearing on entablature and frieze

The hieroglyphic oracles of old. Along its transept aureoled martyrs sit;
 * And the low chancel side-lights half acquaint
 * The eye with shrines of prophet, bard, and saint,

Their age-dimmed tablets traced in doubtful writ!