O Hand that leads yon Star that shall not fail! O Eye that watches through each guiding ray! O Home, beyond our habitations frail! O Church, complete in Heaven's eternal day! Be ever for us all 'above the place,' Bringing all comfort, joy, assurance, peace! Healing the desperate sorrow of the race, From all earth's discords gaining glad release! O Lord of Light and Life, grant us to know, Through windows crystal-clear of faith and love, Beyond our winter night of grief and woe, The steadfast Star still shines our world above! VII. Over the House-Tops _Above the house-tops of a big, modern city, with its skyscrapers and its factory chimneys, the vision passes across the clouds of the Wise Men on their way to Bethlehem._ Over the House-tops God knew no wings were mine; I could not soar Into the unplumb'd heavens' ethereal vault. E'en could I climb the hills, the infinite more Of space above had left me still at fault. Yet hath He will'd that I should reach the light, Accepting steps let downward to my feet, That I should find His ladder in the night From shop and office, factory and street. Yea, when the heavy-headed toilers sleep-- Life from day's fret and fume awhile immune,-- When darkling shrouds of night their sentry keep, The heavens with the house-tops hold commune. Then am I one with all the quests of old, With all the wise ones whom the stars of night, No wandering waifs of space, their message told And crowned their heads with aureole of light. These loved not earth the less that she provides Foothold for souls whose gaze may pierce the skies; Time's many travailings and changing tides Made past and future equal in their eyes. And this the song that, soundless, thrills the air-- One with the voice of human hearts that beat Their living diapason to the prayer, One with snow peaks that soar, still waters at our feet: (1) Up to the house-tops of Faith, ye sons and daughters of Doubt, Up from the dungeons of Time, where sick and imprisoned ye lie! Out from your wilderment waken, Deem not the world God-forsaken! Come ye, for, piercing the night, see the star in the sky shining out, Splendid o'er mountain and moonlight, Faith's witness which none may deny. See, we are here, for your helping, your bodiless pilots of old, We whose example and aid all the world's patient pilgrims made bold. Slow Science has humbled her pride; She takes us and trusts as her guide; For we are the prophets and seers Who lead on the hesitant years; We follow the spirit's surmise, We hear the voices of night; Already there dawns on our prescient eyes The Sun of Eternity's morn, the kingdom of limitless light! (2)