FAITH IN WORKS.
My faith begins where your religion ends:
In service to mankind. This single thread
Is given to guide us through the maze of life.
You start at one end, I the other;—you,
With eyes fixed only upon God, begin
With lofty faith, and seeking but to know
And do His will who guides the universe,
You find the slender and mysterious thread
Leads down to earth, with God’s divine command
To help your fellow-men; but this to me
Is something strangely vague; I see alone
The fellow-men, the suffering fellow-men.
Yet with a cup of water in my hand
For all who thirst, who knows but I one day,
Following faithfully the slender thread,
May reach its other end, and kneel at last
With you in heaven at the feet of God?
“No. 33—A PORTRAIT.”
FOR R. H. L.
With careless step I wander through the hall
Scarce heeding many a work of lovely art;
Till with a sudden thrill my listless heart
Leaps up to greet upon a stranger’s wall
Those dear remembered eyes;—her face, with all
The dreamy charm that made so sweet a part
Of my life once;—and tender memories start
To meet her at her unexpected call.
True portrait of the unforgotten face,
How do I thank thee, that dost give me here
Tidings from her, so distant yet still dear
To me;—for as I bid the painting tell
If all be well with her, its pictured grace
Answers beyond all doubting, “It is well!”