The Open Door

O Mystery of life,     That, after all our strife,         Defeats, mistakes,     Just as, at last, we see     The road to victory,         The tired heart breaks.     Just as the long years give     Knowledge of how to live,         Life's end draws near;     As if, that gift being ours,     God needed our new powers         In worlds elsewhere.     There, if the soul whose wings     Were won in suffering, springs         To life anew,     Justice would have some room     For hope beyond the tomb,         And mercy, too.     And since, without this dream     No light, no faintest gleam         Answers our "why";     But earth and all its race     Must pass and leave no trace         On that blind sky;     Shall reason close that door     On all we struggled for,         Seal the soul's doom;     Make of this universe     One wild answering curse,         One lampless tomb?     Mine be the dream, the creed     That leaves for God, indeed,         For God, and man,     One open door whereby     To prove His world no lie         And crown His plan.