Brave Men and Women Part 16

I can not efface The record of this wonder-working Word, Nor in my memory but faintly trace Stern voices I have heard.

Voices come by day Between life's lightning-flash and thunder-peal, And sooner heaven and earth shall pa.s.s away Than what they there reveal.

Voices come at night Amid the silence of deluding cares, And pain flows through the darkness and grows bright, And knowledge unawares.

Voices fill the strife To which I give the beauty of my days, And testify that sacrifice is life, Availing prayer and praise.

Life retained is lost, The tocsin of interminable war; And life relinquished is of life the cost, Which s.h.i.+neth as a star.

Tongue can never tell G.o.d's revelations in this mighty Word, Nor how the mystery of life they spell, With which all hearts are stirred.

I continue mute, In joyful awe before the Infinite, Until at length eternity trans.m.u.te My darkness into light.

I can only speak An earth-born language, that does not reveal The infinitude of duty which I seek To utter and but feel.

Duty! heart of joy!

Which giveth strength to suffer and endure, Till self-forgetfulness in G.o.d's employ Enthrones a life secure.

Shepherd of the sheep, To whom G.o.d gives the universal charge, I think of Thy devotion and I weep, Thy love appears so large!

And I think of all The grief which strengthened Thy exalting hand, Until great tears of Easter gladness fall, To think in Thee I stand,

Out of whose great heart So glorious is death's sacrificial knife-- To think I know Thee now somewhat, who art The way, the truth, the life;

Who art with Thine own, Where Thou hast been through immemorial years, In every touch of consolation known, In every flood of tears.

The Way of the Lord.

I cast my lot with the surging world, To find out the way of the Lord; A pebble hither and thither hurled, To find out the way of the Lord.

I sought where the foot of man was unknown, To find out the way of the Lord; In the desert alone, alone, alone, To find out the way of the Lord.

I bowed my heart to the voice of the sea, To find out the way of the Lord; To the sob of unuttered mystery, To find out the way of the Lord.

I went down into the depths of my soul, To find out the way of the Lord; Down where the years of eternity roll, To find out the way of the Lord.

Ah, me! I had no interpreter To tell me the way of the Lord; For Nature, it was not in her To tell me the way of the Lord.

I heard of One who came out from G.o.d To show me the way of the Lord; I entered the path which here He trod To show me the way of the Lord.

I walked the way of humility To find out the way Of the Lord; It turned to the way of sublimity, To show me the way of the Lord.

From grief and loss came joy and gain, To show me the way of the Lord; And the dead came back to life again, To show me the way of the Lord.

Yea, into the heaven of heavens He went, To show me the way of the Lord; And the Comforter from the Father He sent, To show me the way of the Lord.

I learned how for me He lived and died, To show me the way of the Lord; And bearing the cross, which He glorified, _I found out the way of the Lord_:

Via Crucis.

Cross uplifted, clouds are rifted, Vision clearer, G.o.d grown dearer!

_Via crucis via lucis_.[1]

Cross, thy way is where the day is; Thy surprises sweet sunrises!

_Via crucis via lucis_.

Life eternal, fair and vernal, Is the glory of the story, _Via crucis via lucis_;

Dawns in beauty, born of duty, Joins thereafter Heaven's sweet laughter-- _Via crucis via lucis_;

Finds probation tribulation, Onward presses and confesses, _Via crucis via lucis_;

Bursts the fetter of the letter, Reckons sorrow joy to-morrow-- _Via crucis via lucis_;

To the Master in disaster Bravely clinging, journeys singing, _Via crucis via lucis_;

Ranges crownward, never downward, Always loving, always proving, _Via crucis via lucis_;

Drinks forever from the river Everlasting, still forecasting, _Via crucis via lucis_;

And presages all the ages, Light-enfolden, growing golden, _Via crucis via lueis_.

O the s.h.i.+nings and refinings!

O the sweetness of completeness!

_Via crucis via lucis_!

XXI.

HEROES OF SCIENCE.

MICHAEL FARADAY--SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS--M. PASTEUR.