Idols.

I.     Mouths have they, but they speak not:         Yet something in the certainty of faith         To their disciples saith:     "Believe on me and vengeance I will wreak not."     The word that conquers death--         The immutable and boundless gift of grace--         Dwells in that stony face,     And every supplication answereth.     Mouths have they, but they speak not;         Yet one supernal will that shapes to suit     A great decree that can not be belied     Utters from voiceless lips those creeds that guide         The tribes that never heard         The living, saving Word,--     That have their dead gods and are satisfied.     II.     Eyes have they, but they see not:         Yet the pagan builds his shrine,         And keeps his fires divine     Forever bright, nor darkly doubts there be not         Enough of grace and power         Within those eyes that glower     To read his soul. To him they are not blind,     For some dim, undefined         Reward of faith that thrills his untaught breast     Links up his baser mind     To the clear eyes of God that burn behind         The stony brow. It is a creed professed     Before a deity not quenched in space,         But one to whom his bands         Can lift adoring hands,     And see and touch and worship face to face.     III.     Ears have they, but they hear not:         Yet the heathen kneel and pray,         Nor in their madness say:     "Thou art no god, and therefore I will fear not;         What if I disobey?         Thou art but stone or clay."     They hear not, but their worshippers impute     Them faculties to suit         The divination of the prayers they say;     And Christ, who understands     His children in all lands     When from the dark their dying souls have cried,         Shrines His great heart of love within the clod         The savage calls his god     And all idolatry is deified.