Page:Near nature's heart; a volume of verse (IA nearnaturesheart00jack).pdf/72

 Meetest thou me as son or spirit? Yea; closer now than as tender offspring of thy loins, I sat upon thy knee, inquirer and receiver, In the long ago.

Yet fettered I by frailities of the flesh, With poor and halting language of mortal men, Miserable makeshift, the spirit's aphasia, This spoken or written word— I will fight through fetters all and fly! Mine is the inarticulate cry of love, Plea of a son's aspiring heart. Made more and more apt and musical By what thou wast and art, During all thy crowning years.

Again I see thy imaged face, O master man; Thy penetrating eye, that reads from soul to soul— Stern, inflexible; Yet merciful thou, and gentle with men. I wonder what thou hast become; What thoughts, what plans, achievements now? But three short months in a fourth-rate school, At twenty spelling and struggling on Through the Book Divine, Making marvelous mistakes and ludicrous— What man or angel climbed from less to more? What god?

Once teacher, tender, patient, firm; A preacher powerful of the Gospel everlasting; College president; thinker, deep and rare, Holding and molding many from thy conquered heights!

Whose soul ever sang oratorios Sweeter, richer in the hierarchy of Being and becoming? Who ever possessed more wondrous will, Power uppermost in God and man?

Thou didst express God-begotten longing To return and be guide to some lone, weary one— It is I—prayer proven. Oft and again thy fond fatherhood, One with the eternal Father, Who sends forth His spirits as ministers, Has converted my weakness into strength, My loneliness to fellowship free, My doubt and darkness to lovely light, My cup of bitterness to blessing— What father still, and guardian angel thou!