VI
The morning lifts its saffron veil,
And smiles with happiness replete,
With Sabbath peace it doth us greet,
And with the risen Lord’s “All Hail!”
It mingles with the mellow sound
Of church bells calling man to prayer,
It falls upon the altar-stair,
Where souls disconsolate are found.
No more along the aisles shall move
His stately figure, cloth in black,
On days when other folk seemed slack
In the expression of their love.
Not to repeat a senseless creed,
Did he the house of God attend,
But none like he his ear did lend,
To truth of heart and human need.
He was a seeker after truth,
Pursuing it on flights of thought,
His mind to keenness had been wrought
By constant study, even from youth.
He loved the truth in thought and life,
He hated sham and cunning cant,
And had a scornful smile for rant,
Whose purpose was to gender strife.
The Protestant and Catholic
He judged alike from human view,
Both were his friends, if only true,
The false alone a heretic.
No honest Faith he e’er did scorn,
But saw the human heart in all,
The upward reaching of the soul,
The waiting for a better morn.
Though he with Burns did sometimes laugh
While reading “Holy Willie’s Prayer,”
Or satires, like the “Holy Fair,”
Or “Holy Willie’s Epitaph.”
For when we cease to fear and dread
The phantoms of a darker age,
We read them like a comic page,
And smile to think that they are dead.
The darkness from man’s faith cast out,
And truth and love alone its good,
Then he shall know that brotherhood,
God’s greatest prophets speak about.
Then man the Father’s heart shall know,
The “larger Hope” and nobler meed,
Then shall his life be one grand creed,
The measure of what he doth trow.
Was this his faith? He never told,
Except in modest daily deeds,
He said no prayers, nor counted beads,
Yet was he one of God’s true fold.