And there in the very midst of "Drake," that poem of a great sea fighter, comes this quatrain unexpectedly, showing the Christ always in the background of the poet's mind. He uses the Christ eagerly as a figure, as a help to his thought. He always puts the Christ and his cross to the fore: "Whence came the prentice carpenter whose voice Hath shaken kingdoms down, whose menial gibbet Rises triumphant o'er the wreck of Empires And stretches out its arms amongst the Stars?" Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes. Then in "The Old Skeptic" we hear these of the Christ in the concluding lines: "I will go back to my home and look at the wayside flowers, And hear from the wayside cabin the kind old hymns again, Where Christ holds out His arms in the quiet evening hours, And the light of the chapel porches broods on the peaceful lane. "And there I shall hear men praying the deep old foolish prayers, And there I shall see once more, the fond old faith confessed, And the strange old light on their faces who hear as a blind man hears-- 'Come unto me, ye weary, and I will give you rest.' "I will go back and believe in the deep old foolish tales, And pray the simple prayers that I learned at my mother's knee, Where the Sabbath tolls its peace, through the breathless mountain-vales, And the sunset's evening hymn hallows the listening sea." Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes. GODHOOD AT LAST AND SURELY He finds God. There is no uncertainty about it. From childhood to Godhood has the poet come, and we have come with him. It has been a triumphant journey upward. But we have not been afraid. Even the blinding light of God's face has not made us tremble. We have learned to know him through this climb upward and upward to his throne. At first it was uncertain. The poet had to challenge us to one great end in "The Paradox": "But one thing is needful; and ye shall be true To yourself and the goal and the God that ye seek; Yea, the day and the night shall requite it to you If ye love one another, if your love be not weak!" Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes. For he knew the heart hunger for God that was in every human breast: "I am full-fed, and yet I hunger! Who set this fiercer famine in my maw? Who set this fiercer hunger in my heart?" Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes. From "Drake" comes that scintillating line: "A scribble of God's finger in the sky"; and an admonition to the preacher: "Thou art God's minister, not God's oracle!" Nor did he forget that man, in his search for God, is, after all, but man, and weak! So from "Tales of a Mermaid Tavern": "... and of that other Ocean Where all men sail so blindly, and misjudge Their friends, their charts, their storms, their stars, their _God!_" Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes.