My Faith

My faith is rooted in no written creed;     And there are those who call me heretic;     Yet year on year, though I be well or sick     Or opulent, or in the slough of need,     If, light of foot, fair Life trips by me pleasuring,     Or, by the rule of pain, old Time stands measuring     The dull, drab moments - still ascends my cry:     'God reigns on high!     He doeth all things well!'     Not much I prize, or one, or any brand     Of theologic lore; nor think too well     Of generally accepted heaven and hell.     But faith and knowledge build at Love's command     A beauteous heaven; a heaven of thought all clarified     Of hate and fear and doubt; a heaven of rarefied     And perfect trust; and from the heaven I cry:     'God reigns on high!     Whatever is, is best.'     My faith refuses to accept the 'fall'!     It sees man ever as a child of God,     Growing in wisdom as new realms are trod,     Until the Christ in him is One with All.     From this full consciousness my faith is borrowing     Light to illuminate Life's darkest sorrowing,     Whatever woes assail me still I cry:     'God reigns on high!     He doeth all things well.'     My faith finds prayer the language of the heart,     Which gives us converse with the host unseen;     And those who linger in the vales between     The Here and Yonder, in these prayers take part.     My dead come near, and say:    'Death means not perishing;     Cherish us in your thoughts, for by that cherishing     Shall severed links be welded by and by.'     'God reigns on high!     Whatever is, is best.'