Select Poetry.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3660, 18 September 1880, Page 1

Select Poetry.

THE ETERNAL WISDOM AND GOODNESS.

0 Friends, with whom thy feet ha?e trod/the quiet aisles of prayer, Glad witness to your zeal for God and lore of men I bear. 1 trace your lines of argument; your<logio linked and strong, I weigh as one who dreads distent, and fern a doubt as wrong. But still my human hands are weak to hold your iron creeds; ' Against the words ye bid me speak my heart within me pleads. Who fathoms the Eternal Thought f Who talks of scheme and plan t The Lord is God! He needeth not the pom device of man. ' - I walk with bare, hushed feet the ground je tread with boldness shod; I dare not fix with mete and bound (he tore and power of God. Ye praise his justice; eren such his pitying lore I deem; Ye seek a Ling; I fain would touch the robe that hath no seam... Yeses the curse that. OTerbroods aworldif, pain and loss; , ' " '"" *" I hear our Lord's beatitudes and prayerunon the cross. " >'.[''','.. More than your schoolmen teach, within: mi« ielf, alas! I know: ' '.-. "^ ) Too dark ye cannot paint the sin", too IVtlLr the merit show. , . : ,1^; libowmr forehead to the tiust,lTeil nine eyes for shame, -„■-'' :*' '■''-' And urge,- in trembling selMistrust, a prayer \' : without a claim. ~ ~ v^ " , I see the wrong that round me lies/ I feel the

guilt within? •- ■ : ,*" i! hear,; with; groan, and traWail*«iM, the world .confess id tin r «'■:'". ' : Yet, in the maddening sum c»f things, and ' tosied by storm and flood, , v„_ . To one fixed state my spirit clings; I know , that God is good. ; -v] - ; J . Not mine to look when cherubim .and. seraph* , may not see,. But pothißg can be good, in Him which etil . ; is in me. , • /'.'',.-. ' The wrong that pains my sool below I due not throne above: '•. !'' I know not of His hate—l know His goodness . and HisloTe! - - \ . - , I', dimly -gue'rs from .blessings £nown of ; greater out of sight, . . And, with the chastened Psalmist, own Hit judgments too are right' - . . I [long for household voices gone, for vanished > - smiles I long; < : >• But God bath led my dear onw on, «nd He ' can do no wrong. "-- I know not what the future hath of 4n«rrelor sarprise, ■ " Assured alike that life and death His mercy underlies., ~ And if my heart and fleta-*» weak to bear an untried pain, ' > •>•.•-'.,. k . The.bruised reed He will not break,'but , strengthen and custaln. No offering of my own I have, nor works* nvr faith to prore; I dan but give the gifts He gave, and plead \ - His lore for lore. And 10 beside th« Silent Sea I wait lb« muffled oar; . r ,- ,'.- , ]-" N6 harm from Him can oome ttome- on ooean .

\ or onshore.' ' ' ' y~~ I nottwhere his islands lift their fronded : : palms in sir; I only know I.cannot.drift beyond His. love - and care.' ."'"-'* O Brothers ! if my faith is vain, if hope* like : ', these betray, - • ■ ••. Pray for me, that my feet may gain the. sure | and safer way! . ', ■ , . ' " And thou, O Lord ! by whom are seen Tby 1 creatures as they be, . .„ ' Forgive me if too' close I lean my human heart on Thee! ' I Johk Q. YTBivrin.