In search of greener shores The Northmen braved the seas And reached, those faith-illumined rowers, Our dear Hesperides. And when Oblivion Swept all their work away, And left for faith to feed upon But shadows lean and gray, Columbus dreamed the dream Which fired a southern clime And hailed a world--O toil supreme!-- As from the womb of Time. God's dauntless witnesses For toil invincible, They gazed across uncharted seas On the invisible. * * * * * God's Order. In gazing into heaven In idle ecstacy, What progress make ye to the haven Where ye at length would be? In heaven-appointed work The sure ascension lies. O, never yet did drone or shirk Make headway to the skies. Who in his heart rebels Has never ears to hear The morning and the evening bells On yonder shores so clear. For work communion is With God's one order here, And all the secret melodies Which fill our lives with cheer. * * * * * David. In action day by day King David's manhood grew, A character to live for aye, It was so strong and true. Hordes of misrule became As stubble to the fire, Till songs of praise like leaping flame Burst from his sacred lyre. He grappled with all rude And unpropitious things: A garden from the solitude Smiled to the King of kings. And fiercer yet the strife With mighty foes within, Who stormed the fortress of his life And triumphed in his sin. * * * * * Good out of Evil. True David halted not When sin had cast him down, Upon his royal life a blot, Death reaching for his crown. His work was but half done; A man of action still, He struggled in the gloaming sun To do his Maker's will; Till in the golden light Great words began to shine: _In sorrow is exalting might, Repentance is divine_. And now the shepherd king We count the human sire Of One who turns our hungering Into achieved desire. * * * * * Elijah. Elijah, through the night Which shrouded Israel In toiling, groping for the light, Foretold Immanuel. And in heroic trust That night would yield to day-- His imperfections thick as dust Along the desert way; His bold, rebuking cry Heard in the wilderness. Till from the chariot of the sky His mantle fell to bless-- The stern, half-savage seer Became a prophecy Of gladness and the Golden Year, In all high minstrelsy. * * * * * Aelemaehus the Monk. How well he wrought who stood Against an ancient wrong, And left the spangles of his blood To light the sky of song!