Faith And Fact

THERE is no gleam of glory gone,
For those who read in Nature's Book;
No lack of triumph in their look
Who stand in Her Eternal Dawn.

Friends of a failing Faith! while your
Lighthouses of eternal life
Hold tremulous lamps across the strife,
That die and darken hour by hour;

And higher climb the waves that drench,
And on the rocks the breakers roar;
While Light for you opes no new door;
And higher climb the waves that quench,—

While Heaven-scalers in the dust
Sit, with their hopes dead or discrowned;
Their splendid dreams all shivered round,
And broken every reed of trust,—

While timid souls that sail the sea
Of Time are fearful lest yon band
Of Cloud should not be solid Land,
To step on for Eternity,—

And faint hearts flutter 'twixt a nest
That is not sealed to wind and wet,
And one that is not ready yet,
With wandering wings, and find no rest.—

There is no gleam of glory gone
For those who read in Nature's Book;
No lack of triumph in their look,
Who live in her Eternal Dawn!