In calm and cool and silence, once again I find my old accustomed place among My brethren, where, perchance, no human tongue Shall utter words; where never hymn is sung, Nor deep-toned organ blown, nor censer swung, Nor dim light falling through the pictured pane! There, syllabled by silence, let me hear The still small voice which reached the prophet's ear; Read in my heart a still diviner law Than Israel's leader on his tables saw! There let me strive with each besetting sin, Recall my wandering fancies, and restrain The sore disquiet of a restless brain; And, as the path of duty is made plain, May grace be given that I may walk therein, Not like the hireling, for his selfish gain, With backward glances and reluctant tread, Making a merit of his coward dread, But, cheerful, in the light around me thrown, Walking as one to pleasant service led; Doing God's will as if it were my own, Yet trusting not in mine, but in His strength alone! 1852. TRUST. The same old baffling questions! O my friend, I cannot answer them. In vain I send My soul into the dark, where never burn The lamps of science, nor the natural light Of Reason's sun and stars! I cannot learn Their great and solemn meanings, nor discern The awful secrets of the eyes which turn Evermore on us through the day and night With silent challenge and a dumb demand, Proffering the riddles of the dread unknown, Like the calm Sphinxes, with their eyes of stone, Questioning the centuries from their veils of sand! I have no answer for myself or thee, Save that I learned beside my mother's knee; "All is of God that is, and is to be; And God is good." Let this suffice us still, Resting in childlike trust upon His will Who moves to His great ends unthwarted by the ill. 1853. TRINITAS. At morn I prayed, "I fain would see How Three are One, and One is Three; Read the dark riddle unto me." I wandered forth, the sun and air I saw bestowed with equal care On good and evil, foul and fair. No partial favor dropped the rain; Alike the righteous and profane Rejoiced above their heading grain. And my heart murmured, "Is it meet That blindfold Nature thus should treat With equal hand the tares and wheat?" A presence melted through my mood,-- A warmth, a light, a sense of good, Like sunshine through a winter wood. I saw that presence, mailed complete In her white innocence, pause to greet A fallen sister of the street. Upon her bosom snowy pure The lost one clung, as if secure From inward guilt or outward lure. "Beware!" I said; "in this I see No gain to her, but loss to thee Who touches pitch defiled must be." I passed the haunts of shame and sin, And a voice whispered, "Who therein Shall these lost souls to Heaven's peace win? "Who there shall hope and health dispense, And lift the ladder up from thence Whose rounds are prayers of penitence?" I said, "No higher life they know; These earth-worms love to have it so. Who stoops to raise them sinks as low."