Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul Part 8

STRENGTH

Be strong to hope, O heart!

Though day is bright, The stars can only s.h.i.+ne In the dark night.

Be strong, O heart of mine, Look toward the light.

Be strong to bear, O heart!

Nothing is vain: Strive not, for life is care, And G.o.d sends pain.

Heaven is above, and there Rest will remain.

Be strong to love, O heart!

Love knows not wrong; Didst thou love creatures even, Life were not long; Didst thou love G.o.d in heaven Thou wouldst be strong.

Why comes temptation but for man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestaled in triumph? Pray, "Lead us into no such temptation, Lord!"

Yea, but, O thou whose servants are the bold, Lead such temptations by the head and hair, Reluctant dragons, up to who dares fight, That so he may do battle and have praise.

--Robert Browning.

BE JUST AND FEAR NOT

Speak thou the truth. Let others fence, And trim their words for pay: In pleasant suns.h.i.+ne of pretense Let others bask their day.

Guard thou the fact; though clouds of night Down on thy watch tower stoop: Though thou shouldst see thine heart's delight Borne from thee by their swoop.

Face thou the wind. Though safer seem In shelter to abide: We were not made to sit and dream: The safe must first be tried.

Where G.o.d hath set His thorns about, Cry not, "The way is plain": His path within for those without Is paved with toil and pain.

One fragment of His blessed Word, Into thy spirit burned, Is better than the whole half-heard And by thine interest turned.

Show thou thy light. If conscience gleam, Set not thy bushel down; The smallest spark may send his beam O'er hamlet, tower, and town.

Woe, woe to him, on safety bent, Who creeps to age from youth, Failing to grasp his life's intent Because he fears the truth.

Be true to every inmost thought, And as thy thought, thy speech: What thou hast not by suffering bought, Presume thou not to teach.

Hold on, hold on--thou hast the rock, The foes are on the sand: The first world tempest's ruthless shock Scatters their drifting strand:

While each wild gust the mist shall clear We now see darkly through, And justified at last appear The true, in Him that's True.

--Henry Alford.

COURAGE DEFINED

The brave man is not he who feels no fear, For that were stupid and irrational; But he whose n.o.ble soul its fear subdues, And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.

As for your youth whom blood and blows delight, Away with them! there is not in their crew One valiant spirit.

--Joanna Baillie.

DEMAND FOR COURAGE

Thy life's a warfare, thou a soldier art; Satan's thy foeman, and a faithful heart Thy two-edged weapon; patience is thy s.h.i.+eld, Heaven is thy chieftain, and the world thy field.

To be afraid to die, or wish for death, Are words and pa.s.sions of despairing breath.

Who doth the first the day doth faintly yield; And who the second basely flies the field.

--Francis Quarles.

When falls the hour of evil chance-- And hours of evil chance will fall-- Strike, though with but a broken lance!

Strike, though you have no lance at all!

Shrink not, however great the odds; Shrink not, however dark the hour-- The barest possibility of good Demands your utmost power.

They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak; They are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think; They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three.

--James Russell Lowell.

TRUST IN G.o.d AND DO THE RIGHT

Courage, brother, do not stumble, Though thy path be dark as night; There's a star to guide the humble-- Trust in G.o.d and do the right.

Though the road be long and dreary, And the end be out of sight; Foot it bravely, strong or weary-- Trust in G.o.d and do the right.

Perish "policy" and cunning, Perish all that fears the light; Whether losing, whether winning, Trust in G.o.d and do the right.

Shun all forms of guilty pa.s.sion, Fiends can look like angels bright; Heed no custom, school, or fas.h.i.+on-- Trust in G.o.d and do the right.

Some will hate thee, some will love thee, Some will flatter, some will slight; Cease from man and look above thee, Trust in G.o.d and do the right.

Simple rule and safest guiding-- Inward peace and s.h.i.+ning light-- Star upon our path abiding-- TRUST IN G.o.d AND DO THE RIGHT.

--Norman Macleod.

THE PRESENT CRISIS

We are living, we are dwelling, in a grand and awful time.

In an age on ages telling to be living is sublime.

Hark! the waking up of nations; Gog and Magog to the fray.

Hark! what soundeth? 'Tis creation groaning for its latter day.

Will ye play, then, will ye dally, with your music and your wine?

Up! it is Jehovah's rally; G.o.d's own arm hath need of thine; Hark! the onset! will ye fold your faith-clad arms in lazy lock?

Up! O up, thou drowsy soldier! Worlds are charging to the shock.