Psalms

I      I seem to be      Sundered from Thee,     Thou Harmony of all creation.      Am I disowned      For talents loaned     And useless hid in vain probation?      Now powerless,      In weariness,     Now in despair a beggar humble      For help, for cheer,      A voice, an ear,     To hear and guide, while on I stumble.      God, let me be.      Of use to Thee!     If vain my purpose and my powers,      Then sinks from sight      My star, - and night     Henceforth my steps enfolding lowers.      Then break and bind      My ravaged mind     The terrors dread of doubt and anguish.      I know the pack,      I drove them back; -     Only to-day does courage languish.      Oh, come now, peace!      Come faith's increase,     That life's strong chain shall ever bind me!      That not in vain      I strive and strain     Myself to seek until I find me!         II     Honor the springtide life ever adorning,      That all things has made!     Things smallest have some resurrectional morning,      The forms alone fade.      Life begets life,     Potencies higher surprise.      Kind begets kind,     Heedless of time as it flies.     Worlds pass away and arise.     Nothing so small but there's something still smaller,      No one can see.     Nothing so great but there's something still greater      Beyond it can be.      Worms in the earth -     Mountains to make they essay.      Dust without worth,     Sands with which sea-billows play, -     Founders of kingdoms were they.     Infinite all, where the smallest and greatest      Oneness unfold.     No one has seen what was first, - and the latest      None shall behold.      Laws underlie,     Order the all they maintain.      Need and supply     Bring one another; our bane     Boots to the general gain.     Eternity's offspring and germ are we all now.      Thoughts have their true     Roots in our race's first morning; they fall now,      Query and clue,      Freighted with seed     Into eternity's soil;      Joy be your meed,     That your brief life's fleeting toil     Fruit for eternity bears.     Join in the joy of all life, every being,      Brief bloom of its spring!     Honor th' eternal, our human lot freeing      From fetters that cling!      Adding your mite,     With the eternal unite!      Though you decay,     Breathe as a moment you may,     Air of eternity's day!         III         CHORUS     Who art Thou, whom a thousand names trace     Through all times that are gone and each tongue?     Thou wert infinite yearning's embrace,     Thou wert hope when the yoke heavy hung,     Thou wert darkening death-terror's guest,     Thou wert sun that with life-gladness blessed.     Still Thine image we changefully fashion,     And each form we would call revelation;     Each man holds his for true with deep passion, -     Till it crumbles in poignant negation.         SOLO         Who Thou art, none can tell.         But I know Thou dost dwell     As the limitless search in my soul - it is Thou! -         After justice and light,         After victory's right     For the new that's revealed, it is Thou, it is Thou!         Every law that we see         Or believe there may be,     Though we never can knowledge attain, it is Thou! -         As my armor and aid         Round my life they are laid,     And with joy I avow, it is Thou, it is Thou!         CHORUS     Since we never Thine essence can know,     We have thought mediators of Thee; -     But the ages their impotence show,     We stand still, while no way we can see.     If in sickness for succor we thirst,     Is there balm in the dreams that have burst?     Stars of hope and of longing eternal,     That we saw o'er life's sorrows arisen,     Shall they sink in death's terrors nocturnal,     Only turn into worms in our prison?         SOLO         He that liveth in me,         Needeth no one to be     Mediator; I own Him indeed: it is Thou!         Is eternal hope prized         As from Him; is baptized     By His spirit my own, - is it Thou, is it Thou - :         Shall not I, who am dust,         His eternity trust?     I take humbly my law; for I know, it is Thou!         Was I worth Thy word: Live!         Let Thy life power give,     When Thou wilt, as Thou wilt, - it is Thou, it is Thou!