SOUL***


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Transcriber's note:

   Spelling mistakes have been left in the text to match the original,
   except for obvious typographical errors, which have been corrected.





POEMS WITH POWER TO STRENGTHEN THE SOUL

Compiled and Edited by

JAMES MUDGE

Revised and Enlarged Edition







The Abingdon Press
New York        Cincinnati        Chicago

Copyright, 1907, 1909, by
Eaton & Mains

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition Printed November, 1907
Second Printing, March, 1909
Third Printing, October, 1911
Fourth Printing, July, 1915
Fifth Printing, May, 1919
Sixth Printing, January, 1922
Seventh Printing, April, 1925
Eighth Printing, March, 1928
Ninth Printing, October, 1930
Tenth Printing, September, 1934




                       TO ALL
              WHO ARE AT THE SAME TIME
  LOVERS OF GOOD POETRY AND LOVERS OF GOOD CHARACTER,
  DEVOTED TO GOD AND THEIR FELLOW-MEN, AS WELL AS TO
     LITERATURE, THE COMPILER, WHO CLAIMS A LITTLE
            PLACE IN THIS LARGE COMPANY,
      DEDICATES THE RESULT OF HIS PLEASANT LABORS




CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE
PREFACE                                                              vii

SUBJECTS:

HEROISM--CHIVALRY, NOBILITY, HONOR, TRUTH                              1

COURAGE--CONSTANCY, CONFIDENCE, STRENGTH, VALOR                       14

INDEPENDENCE--MANHOOD, FIRMNESS, EARNESTNESS, RESOLUTION              22

GREATNESS--FAME, SUCCESS, PROGRESS, VICTORY                           28

DUTY--LOYALTY, FAITHFULNESS, CONSCIENCE, ZEAL                         41

SERVICE--USEFULNESS, BENEVOLENCE, LABOR                               50

BROTHERHOOD--CHARITY, SYMPATHY, EXAMPLE, INFLUENCE                    66

CONSECRATION--SUBMISSION, DEVOTION, PURITY                            79

PEACE--REST, CALM, STILLNESS                                          88

HUMILITY--MEEKNESS, WEAKNESS, SELFLESSNESS                            95

CONTENTMENT--RESIGNATION, PATIENCE, COMPENSATION                     103

ASPIRATION--DESIRE, SUPPLICATION, GROWTH                             115

PRAYER--WORSHIP, COMMUNION, DEVOTION                                 123

JOY--PRAISE, CHEERFULNESS, HAPPINESS                                 138

AFFLICTION--CONSOLATION, TRIAL, ENDURANCE                            149

LOVE--DIVINE GOODNESS, UNSELFISHNESS                                 163

HOPE--PROGRESS, OPTIMISM, ENTHUSIASM                                 170

FAITH--ASSURANCE, DOUBT, UNBELIEF                                    177

TRUST--GUIDANCE, SAFETY, GLADNESS                                    187

GOD'S CARE--PROVIDENCE, GOD'S KNOWLEDGE AND BENEFICENCE              199

GOD'S WILL--OBEDIENCE, DIVINE UNION                                  209

GOD'S PRESENCE--POSSESSION, SATISFACTION, REFLECTION                 221

JESUS--HIS PRECIOUSNESS, AND BEAUTY, AND LOVE                        233

LIFE--TIME, OPPORTUNITY, EXPERIENCE, CHARACTER                       250

AGE AND DEATH--MATURITY, VICTORY, HEAVEN                             267

APPENDIX--MISCELLANEOUS SELECTIONS                                   278

INDEX TO AUTHORS                                                     288

INDEX TO TITLES                                                      292

INDEX TO FIRST LINES                                                 298




PREFACE


This is not like other collections of religious verse; still less is it
a hymnal. The present volume is directed to a very specific and wholly
practical end, the production of high personal character; and only those
poems which have an immediate bearing in this direction have been
admitted. We know of no other book published which has followed this
special line. There are fine hymnals, deservedly dear to the Church, but
they are necessarily devoted in large measure to institutional and
theological subjects, are adapted to the wants of the general
congregation and to purposes of song; while many poetical productions
that touch the heart the closest are for that very reason unsuited to
the hymnal. There are many anthologies and plentiful volumes of
religious poetry, but not one coming within our ken has been made up as
this has been. We have sought far and wide, through many libraries,
carefully conning hundreds of books and glancing through hundreds more,
to find just those lines which would have the most tonic and stimulating
effect in the direction of holier, nobler living. We have coveted verses
whose influence would be directly on daily life and would help to form
the very best habits of thought and conduct, which would have intrinsic
spiritual value and elevating power; those whose immediate tendency
would be to make people better, toughening their moral fibre and helping
them heavenward; those which they could hardly read attentively without
feeling an impulse toward the things which are pure and true and
honorable and lovely and of good report, things virtuous and
praiseworthy.

It is surprising to one who has not made the search how very many poets
there are whose voluminous and popular works yield nothing, or scarcely
anything, of this sort. We have looked carefully through many scores of
volumes of poetry without finding a line that could be of the slightest
use in this collection. They were taken up altogether with other topics.
They contained many pretty conceits, pleasant descriptions, lovely or
lively narrations--these in abundance, but words that would send the
spirit heavenward, or even earthward with any added love for humanity,
not one. On the other hand, in papers and periodicals, even in books,
are great multitudes of verses, unexceptionable in sentiment and helpful
in influence, which bear so little of the true poetic afflatus, are so
careless in construction or so faulty in diction, so imperfect in rhyme
or rhythm, so much mingled with colloquialisms or so hopelessly
commonplace in thought, as to be unworthy of a permanent place in a book
like this. They would not bear reading many times. They would offend a
properly educated taste. They would not so capture the ear as to linger
on the memory with compelling persistence, nor strike the intellect as
an exceptional presentation of important truth. The combination of fine
form and deep or inspiring thought is by no means common, but, when
found, very precious. We will not claim that this has been secured in
all the poems here presented. Not all will approve our choice in all
respects. There is nothing in which tastes more differ than in matters
of this kind. And we will admit that in some cases we have let
in--because of the important truth which they so well voiced--stanzas
not fully up to the mark in point of poetic merit. Where it has not been
possible to get the two desirable things together, as it has not always,
we have been more solicitous for the sentiment that would benefit than
for mere prettiness or perfection of form. Helpfulness has been the test
oftener than a high literary standard. The labored workmanship of the
vessel has not weighed so much with us as its perfect fitness to convey
the water of life wherewith the thirsty soul of man has been or may be
refreshed. If poets are properly judged, as has been alleged, by the
frame of mind they induce, then some who have not gained great literary
fame may still hold up their heads and claim a worthy crown.

Some poems fully within the scope of the book--like Longfellow's "Psalm
of Life"--have been omitted because of their exceeding commonness and
their accessibility. Many hymns of very high value--like "Jesus, Lover
of my soul," "My faith looks up to thee," "Nearer, my God, to thee,"
"When all thy mercies, O my God," "How firm a foundation"--have also
been omitted because they are found in all the hymnals, and to include
them would unduly swell the size of the book. A few others, although
similarly familiar, like "Jesus, I my cross have taken," and "God moves
in a mysterious way," have been inserted from a feeling that even yet
their depth and richness are not properly appreciated and that they can
never be sufficiently pondered. A few poems we have been unable to
procure permission to use; but in nearly all cases we have met with most
generous treatment from both authors and publishers owning copyrights,
and we take this occasion to express our hearty thanks for the kindness
afforded in the following instances:

     Houghton, Mifflin & Company, for the use of the poems and stanzas
     here found from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell,
     John Greenleaf Whittier, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell
     Holmes, Edward Rowland Sill, Celia Thaxter, Caroline Atherton
     Mason, Edna Dean Proctor, Edmund Clarence Stedman, John Burroughs,
     John Hay, William Dean Howells, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lucy Larcom,
     Margaret E. Sangster, Francis Bret Harte, James Freeman Clarke,
     Samuel Longfellow, Samuel Johnson, Christopher Pearse Cranch,
     Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and John Vance
     Cheney.

     Little, Brown & Company, for poems by Helen Hunt Jackson, Louise
     Chandler Moulton, William Rounseville Alger, "Susan Coolidge"
     [Sarah Chauncey Woolsey], and John White Chadwick.

     Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, for poems by Sam Walter Foss.

     D. Appleton & Company, for poems by William Cullen Bryant.

     T. Y. Crowell & Company, for poems by Sarah Knowles Bolton.

     Charles Scribner's Sons, for poems by Josiah Gilbert Holland.

     The Century Company, for poems by Richard Watson Gilder.

     The Bobbs-Merrill Company, for poems by James Whitcomb Riley.

     Harper & Brothers, for poems by Edward Sandford Martin.

     Small, Maynard & Co., for poems by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

     The Rev. D. C. Knowles, for poems by Frederic Lawrence Knowles,
     especially from "Love Triumphant," published by Dana, Estes &
     Company.

     The Rev. Frederic Rowland Marvin, for poems from his "Flowers of
     Song from Many Lands."

     Professor Amos R. Wells, for poems from his "Just to Help."

     Mr. Nixon Waterman, for poems from "In Merry Mood," published by
     Forbes & Co., of Chicago.

The selections from the above American authors are used by special
arrangements with the firms mentioned, who are the only authorized
publishers of their works. Many other poems used have been found in
papers or other places which gave no indication of the original source.
In spite of much effort to trace these things it is quite likely we have
failed in some cases to give due credit or obtain the usual permission;
and we hope that if such omissions, due to ignorance or inadvertence,
are noticed they will be pardoned. Many unknown writers have left behind
them some things of value, but their names have become detached from
them or perhaps never were appended. Many volumes consulted have been
long out of print.

We are glad to record our large indebtedness to the custodians of the
Boston, Cambridge, Malden, Natick, Brookline, Jamaica Plain, Somerville,
and Newton Public Libraries, the Boston Athenaeum, the Congregational
Library, the General Theological Library, and the Library of Harvard
College, for free access to their treasures.

By far the greater part of the contents are from British and other
foreign authors, such as William Wordsworth, Alfred Tennyson, Robert
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, Mrs.
S. F. Adams, Anna Letitia Barbauld, Mrs. Charles, Frances Ridley
Havergal, Anna Letitia Waring, Jean Ingelow, Adelaide Anne Procter, Mme.
Guyon, Theodore Monod, Matthew Arnold, Edwin Arnold, William
Shakespeare, John Milton, George Gordon Byron, Robert Burns, William
Cowper, George Herbert, Robert Herrick, Francis Quarles, Frederick W.
Faber, John Keble, Charles Kingsley, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison,
John Gay, Edward Young, Thomas Moore, John Newton, John Bunyan, H. Kirke
White, Horatius Bonar, James Montgomery, Charles Wesley, Richard Baxter,
Norman Macleod, George Heber, Richard Chenevix Trench, Henry Alford,
Charles Mackay, Gerald Massey, Alfred Austin, Robert Louis Stevenson,
Arthur Hugh Clough, Henry Burton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Hartley
Coleridge, Joseph Anstice, George Macdonald, Robert Leighton, John Henry
Newman, John Sterling, Edward H. Bickersteth, Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
and many others. Of German authors there are not a few, including Johann
W. von Goethe, Johann C. F. Schiller, George A. Neumarck, Paul Gerhardt,
Benjamin Schmolke, S. C. Schoener, Scheffler, Karl Rudolf Hagenbach, S.
Rodigast, Novalis, Wolfgang C. Dessler, L. Gedicke, Martin Luther, and
Johann G. von Herder.

The number of American poets drawn upon is small compared with this
list. It is the case in all such collections. According to an analysis
of the hymns contained in the most widely used American hymnals down to
1880 the average number of hymns of purely American origin was not quite
one in seven; the proportion would be a little larger now. And the
number of Methodist poets is almost nil, in spite of the fact that the
compiler is a Methodist and the volume is issued from the official
Methodist Publishing House. But if we thought that this would be any
barrier to its wide circulation in Methodist homes we should be deeply
ashamed for our church. We are confident it will not be. For mere
denominational tenets do not at all enter into these great matters of
the soul's life. A book like this speaks loudly for the real oneness,
not only of all branches of the Christian Church, but of all religions,
in some respects. Not only do we find the various Protestant
denominations amply represented here; not only have we most inspiring
words from Roman Catholic writers like Francis Xavier, Madame Guyon,
Alexander Pope, John Henry Newman, Frederick W. Faber, and Adelaide Anne
Procter; but from Mohammedan sources, from Sufi saints of Persia, and
the Moslem devotees of Arabia, and even from Hinduism, there are
utterances of noblest truth which we cannot read without a kindling
heart. These are all brought together from the ends of the earth into a
delightful "upper chamber," where the warring discords of opinion cease
and an exceedingly precious peace prevails.

It should be said, though it is perhaps hardly necessary, that this is
by no means a book to be read at a sitting. It furnishes very
concentrated nourishment. It can be taken with largest profit only a
little at a time, according as the mood demands and circumstances
appoint. There should be very much meditation mingled with the perusal,
an attempt to penetrate the deep meaning of the lines and have them
enter into the soul for practical benefit. Some of these hymns have
great histories: they are the war cries of combatants on hard-fought
battle fields; they are living words of deep experience pressed out of
the heart by strong feeling; they are the embodiment of visions caught
on some Pisgah's glowing top. Here will be found and furnished hope for
the faint-hearted, rest for the weary, courage for the trembling, cheer
for the despondent, power for the weak, comfort for the afflicted,
guidance in times of difficulty, wise counsel for moments of perplexity,
a stimulant to faithfulness, a cure for the blues, exhilaration,
jubilation. Everything of a depressing nature has been scrupulously
ruled out. The keynote, persistently followed through all the pages, is
optimistic, bright, buoyant. Trumpet calls and bugle notes are furnished
in abundance, but no dirges or elegies. Large space, it will be seen, is
given to such topics as Heroism, True Greatness, the Care and Presence
of God, the blessings of Brotherliness, the privilege of Service, the
path of Peace, the secret of Contentment, the mission of Prayer, the joy
of Jesus, the meaning of Life, the glory of Love, the promise of Faith,
the happy aspect of old Age and Death; for these subjects come very
close home to the heart, and are illustrated in daily experience. Anyone
who feels a special need in any of these directions is confidently
recommended to turn to the proper sections and read the selections.

Very much that is here may easily and suitably be committed to memory,
that thus it may the more permanently penetrate into the inmost depth of
being. It may be used with most telling effect in sermons to give point
and pungency to the thought of the preacher. Alike in popular discourse
and public testimony or in private meditation these gems of sentiment
and thought will come into play with great advantage. The benefit which
may be derived from them can scarcely be overestimated. President Eliot,
of Harvard University, has said: "There are bits of poetry in my mind
learned in infancy that have stood by me in keeping me true to my ideas
of duty and life. Rather than lose these I would have missed all the
sermons I have ever heard." Many another can say substantially the same,
can trace his best deeds very largely to the influence of some little
stanza or couplet early stored away in his memory and coming ever
freshly to mind in after years as the embodiment of truest wisdom.

We cannot guarantee in all cases the absolute correctness of the forms
of the poems given, though much pains have been taken to ensure
accuracy; but authors themselves make changes in their productions at
different times in different editions. Nor have we always been able to
trace the poem to its source. Slips and errors of various kinds can
hardly be avoided in such matters. Even so competent an editor as John
G. Whittier, in his "Songs of Three Centuries," ascribes "Love divine,
all love excelling" to that bitter Calvinist, Augustus M. Toplady,
giving it as the sole specimen of his verse; when it was really written
by the ardent Arminian, Charles Wesley, with whom Toplady was on
anything but friendly terms. If Whittier could make a blunder of this
magnitude we may be pardoned if possibly a keen-eyed critic spies
something in our book almost as grossly incorrect. In some cases we have
been obliged to change the titles of poems so as to avoid reduplication
in our index, or to adapt them the better to the small extract taken
from the much longer form in the original. In a few cases we have made
(indicated) alterations in poems to fit them more fully to the purpose
of the book.

The volume will be found not only a readable one, we think, but also an
uncommonly useful one for presentation by those who would do good and
give gratification to their serious-minded friends with a taste for
religious poetry and a love for wandering in the "holy land of song." He
who would put before another the essential elements of religion would do
better to give him such a book as this than a treatise on theology. He
who would himself get a clear idea of what the religious life really is
will do better to pore over these pages than to dip into some
philosophical discussion. Here the best life is expressed rather than
analyzed, exhibited rather than explained. Mrs. Browning has well said,
"Plant a poet's word deep enough in any man's breast, looking presently
for offshoots, and you have done more for the man than if you dressed
him in a broadcloth coat and warmed his Sunday pottage at your fire." We
who, by preparing or circulating such volumes, aid the poets in finding
a larger circle to whom to give their message, may claim a part of the
blessing which comes to those who in any way aid humanity. George
Herbert has said,

    "A verse may find him who a sermon flies,
    And turn delight into a sacrifice."

He himself most excellently illustrated the sentiment by bequeathing to
the world many beautiful verses that are sermons of the most picturesque
sort.

One definition of poetry is "a record of the best thoughts and best
moments of the best and happiest minds." This in itself would almost be
sufficient to establish the connection between poetry and religion. It
is certain that the two have very close and vital relations. Dr.
Washington Gladden has admirably remarked, "Poetry is indebted to
religion for its largest and loftiest inspirations, and religion is
indebted to poetry for its subtlest and most luminous interpretations."
No doubt a man may be truly, deeply religious who has little or no
development on the aesthetic side, to whom poetry makes no special
appeal. But it is certain that he whose soul is deaf to the "concord of
sweet sounds" misses a mighty aid in the spiritual life. For a hymn is a
wing by which the spirit soars above earthly cares and trials into a
purer air and a clearer sunshine. Nothing can better scatter the devils
of melancholy and gloom or doubt and fear. When praise and prayer, trust
and love, faith and hope, and similar sentiments, have passed into and
through some poet's passionate soul, until he has become so charged with
them that he has been able to fix them in a form of expression where
beauty is united to strength, where concentration and ornamentation are
alike secured, then the deepest needs of great numbers are fully met.
What was vague and dim is brought into light. What was only half
conceived, and so but half felt, is made to grip the soul with power.
Poetry is of the very highest value for the inspiration and guidance of
life, for calling out the emotions and opening up spiritual visions. It
carries truths not only into the understanding, but into the heart,
where they are likely to have the most direct effect on conduct.

In the language of Robert Southey, I commit these pages to the Christian
public, with a sincere belief that much benefit will result to all who
shall read them:

    "Go forth, little book, from this my solitude;
      I cast thee on the waters,--go thy ways;
    And if, as I believe, thy vein be good,
      The world will find thee after many days.
    Be it with thee according to thy worth;
    Go, little book! in faith I send thee forth."

                                                  JAMES MUDGE.
  Malden, Mass.




HEROISM

CHIVALRY, NOBILITY, HONOR, TRUTH


THE INEVITABLE

    I like the man who faces what he must,
      With step triumphant and a heart of cheer;
      Who fights the daily battle without fear;
    Sees his hopes fail, yet keeps unfaltering trust
    That God is God; that somehow, true and just,
      His plans work out for mortals; not a tear
      Is shed when fortune, which the world holds dear,
    Falls from his grasp: better, with love, a crust
      Than living in dishonor: envies not,
    Nor loses faith in man; but does his best,
      Nor ever murmurs at his humbler lot,
    But, with a smile and words of hope, gives zest
      To every toiler: he alone is great
      Who by a life heroic conquers fate.

    --Sarah Knowles Bolton.


DEFEATED YET TRIUMPHANT

      They never fail who die
    In a great cause. The block may soak their gore;
    Their heads may sodden in the sun; their limbs
    Be strung to city gates and castle walls;
    But still their spirit walks abroad.
      Though years
    Elapse and others share as dark a doom,
    They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts
    Which overpower all others and conduct
    The world, at last, to freedom.

    --George Gordon Byron.


A HERO GONE

    He has done the work of a true man--
      Crown him, honor him, love him;
    Weep over him, tears of woman,
      Stoop, manliest brows, above him!

    For the warmest of hearts is frozen;
      The freest of hands is still;
    And the gap in our picked and chosen
      The long years may not fill.

    No duty could overtask him,
      No need his will outrun:
    Or ever our lips could ask him,
      His hands the work had done.

    He forgot his own life for others,
      Himself to his neighbor lending.
    Found the Lord in his suffering brothers,
      And not in the clouds descending.

    And he saw, ere his eye was darkened,
      The sheaves of the harvest-bringing;
    And knew, while his ear yet hearkened,
      The voice of the reapers singing.

    Never rode to the wrong's redressing
      A worthier paladin.
    He has heard the Master's blessing,
      "Good and faithful, enter in!"

    --John Greenleaf Whittier.


THE CHARGE

    They outtalked thee, hissed thee, tore thee?
    Better men fared thus before thee;
    Fired their ringing shot and pass'd,
    Hotly charged--and sank at last.
    Charge once more, then, and be dumb!
    Let the victors, when they come,
    When the forts of folly fall,
    Find thy body by the wall!

    --Matthew Arnold.


THE REFORMER

    Before the monstrous wrong he sets him down--
    One man against a stone-walled city of sin.
    For centuries those walls have been abuilding;
    Smooth porphyry, they <DW72> and coldly glass
    The flying storm and wheeling sun. No chink,
    No crevice, lets the thinnest arrow in.
    He fights alone, and from the cloudy ramparts
    A thousand evil faces gibe and jeer him.
    Let him lie down and die: what is the right,
    And where is justice, in a world like this?
    But by and by earth shakes herself, impatient;
    And down, in one great roar of ruin, crash
    Watch-tower and citadel and battlements.
    When the red dust has cleared, the lonely soldier
    Stands with strange thoughts beneath the friendly stars.

    --Edward Rowland Sill.


LIFE AND DEATH

    So he died for his faith. That is fine--
      More than most of us do.
    But, say, can you add to that line
      That he lived for it, too?
    In his death he bore witness at last
      As a martyr to truth.
    Did his life do the same in the past
      From the days of his youth?
    It is easy to die. Men have died
      For a wish or a whim--
    From bravado or passion or pride.
      Was it harder for him?
    But to live--every day to live out
      All the truth that he dreamt,
    While his friends met his conduct with doubt
      And the world with contempt.
    Was it thus that he plodded ahead,
      Never turning aside?
    Then we'll talk of the life that he lived.
      Never mind how he died.

    --Ernest Crosby.


THE RED PLANET MARS

    The star of the unconquered will,
      He rises in my breast,
    Serene, and resolute, and still,
      And calm, and self-possessed.

    And thou, too, whosoe'er thou art,
      That readest this brief psalm,
    As one by one thy hopes depart,
      Be resolute and calm.

    Oh, fear not in a world like this,
      And thou shalt know erelong,--
    Know how sublime a thing it is
      To suffer and be strong.

    --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.


THE NOBLE ARMY OF MARTYRS PRAISE THEE

    Not they alone who from the bitter strife
      Came forth victorious, yielding willingly
    That which they deem most precious, even life,
      Content to suffer all things, Christ, for Thee;
    Not they alone whose feet so firmly trod
      The pathway ending in rack, sword and flame,
    Foreseeing death, yet faithful to their Lord,
      Enduring for His sake the pain and shame;
    Not they alone have won the martyr's palm,
    Not only from their life proceeds the eternal psalm.

    For earth hath martyrs now, a saintly throng;
      Each day unnoticed do we pass them by;
    'Mid busy crowds they calmly move along,
      Bearing a hidden cross, how patiently!
    Not theirs the sudden anguish, swift and keen,
      Their hearts are worn and wasted with small cares,
    With daily griefs and thrusts from foes unseen;
      Troubles and trials that take them unawares;
    Theirs is a lingering, silent martyrdom;
    They weep through weary years, and long for rest to come.

    They weep, but murmur not; it is God's will,
      And they have learned to bend their own to his;
    Simply enduring, knowing that each ill
      Is but the herald of some future bliss;
    Striving and suffering, yet so silently
      They know it least who seem to know them best.
    Faithful and true through long adversity
      They work and wait until God gives them rest;
    These surely share with those of bygone days
    The palm-branch and the crown, and swell their song of praise.


THE HAPPY WARRIOR

    'Tis, finally, the man, who, lifted high,
    Conspicuous object in a nation's eye,
    Or left unthought of in obscurity,
    Who, with a toward or untoward lot,
    Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not,--
    Plays, in the many games of life, that one
    Where what he most doth value must be won;
    Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
    Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
    Who, not content that former work stand fast,
    Looks forward, persevering to the last,
    From well to better, daily self-surpast;
    Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
    Forever, and to noble deeds give birth,
    Or he must fall, to sleep without his fame,
    And leave a dead, unprofitable name--
    Finds comfort in himself and in his cause,
    And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
    His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause:
    This is the happy warrior; this is he
    That every man in arms should wish to be.

    --William Wordsworth.


    Aground the man who seeks a noble end
    Not angels but divinities attend.

    --Ralph Waldo Emerson.


ROBERT BROWNING'S MESSAGE

    Grow old along with me!
    The best is yet to be,
    The last of life, for which the first was made;
    Our times are in His hand
    Who saith, "A whole I planned,
    Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"

    Poor vaunt of life indeed,
    Were man but formed to feed
    On joy, to solely seek and find and feast;
    Such feasting ended, then
    As sure an end to men:
    Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast?

    Then welcome each rebuff
    That turns earth's smoothness rough,
    Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go!
    Be our joys three parts pain!
    Strive, and hold cheap the strain;
    Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!

    For thence--a paradox
    Which comforts while it mocks--
    Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
    What I aspired to be,
    And was not, comforts me:
    A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.

    * * * * *

    Not on the vulgar mass
    Called "work" must sentence pass,
      Things done, that took the eye and had the price;
    O'er which, from level stand,
    The low world laid its hand,
      Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice:

    But all, the world's coarse thumb
    And finger failed to plumb,
      So passed in making up the main account;
    All instincts immature,
    All purposes unsure,
      That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount:

    Thoughts hardly to be packed
    Into a narrow act,
      Fancies that broke through language and escaped;
    All I could never be,
    All, men ignored in me,
      This I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.

    * * * * *

    Fool! All that is, at all,
    Lasts ever, past recall;
      Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure:
    What entered into thee
    _That_ was, is, and shall be:
      Time's wheel runs back or stops; Potter and clay endure.

    --From "Rabbi Ben Ezra."


TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD

    Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
    In the strife of Truth with False