Page:The Christian Year 1887.djvu/174



We must not mar with earthly praise What God's approving word hath sealed: Enough, if might our feeble lays Take up the promise He revealed;

"The child-like faith, that asks not sight,  Waits not for wonder or for sign, Believes, because it loves, aright -   Shall see things greater, things divine.

"Heaven to that gaze shall open wide,  And brightest angels to and fro On messages of love shall glide   'Twixt God above and Christ below."

So still the guileless man is blest, To him all crooked paths are straight, Him on his way to endless rest Fresh, ever-growing strengths await.

God's witnesses, a glorious host, Compass him daily like a cloud; Martyrs and seers, the saved and lost, Mercies and judgments cry aloud.

Yet shall to him the still small voice, That first into his bosom found A way, and fixed his wavering choice, Nearest and dearest ever sound.


 * And after these things He went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He said unto him, Follow Me.  And he left all, rose up, and followed Him.  St. Luke v. 27, 28.

Ye hermits blest, ye holy maids, The nearest Heaven on earth, Who talk with God in shadowy glades, Free from rude care and mirth; To whom some viewless teacher brings The secret lore of rural things, The moral of each fleeting cloud and gale, The whispers from above, that haunt the twilight vale:

Say, when in pity ye have gazed On the wreathed smoke afar,