Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul. Various
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BE JUST AND FEAR NOT
Speak thou the truth. Let others fence,
And trim their words for pay:
In pleasant sunshine 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 God 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 noble 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 shield,
Heaven is thy chieftain, and the world thy field.
To be afraid to die, or wish for death,
Are words and passions 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 GOD 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 God 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 God and do the right.
Perish "policy" and cunning,
Perish all that fears the light;
Whether losing, whether winning,
Trust in God and do the right.
Shun all forms of guilty passion,
Fiends can look like angels bright;
Heed no custom, school, or fashion—
Trust in God 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 God and do the right.
Simple rule and safest guiding—
Inward peace and shining light—
Star upon our path abiding—
Trust in God 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!