THE MYSTERY

RALPH HODGSON

He came and took me by the hand
Up to a red rose tree,

He kept His meaning to Himself,
But gave a rose to me.

I did not pray Him to lay bare
The mystery to me;

Enough the rose was heaven to smell,
And His own face to see.

GRADATIM

JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND

Heaven is not reached by a single bound;
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to its summit round by round.

I count this thing to be grandly true:

That a noble deed is a step toward God,
Lifting the soul from the common clod
To a purer air and a broader view.

We rise by the things that are under feet;
By what we have mastered of good and gain;
By the pride deposed and the passion slain,
And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet.

We hope, we aspire, we resolve, we trust,
When the morning calls us to life and light,
But our hearts grow weary, and, ere the night,
Our lives are trailing the sordid dust.

We hope, we resolve, we aspire, we pray,

And we think that we mount the air on wings

Beyond the recall of sensual things,

While our feet still cling to the heavy clay.

Wings for angels but feet for men!

We may borrow the wings to find the way— We may hope and resolve, and aspire, and pray; But our feet must rise or we fall again.

Only in dreams is a ladder thrown

From the weary earth to the sapphire walls; But the dreams depart, and the vision falls, And the sleeper wakes on his pillow of stone Heaven is not reached by a single bound;

But we build the ladder by which we rise From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, And we mount to its summit, round by round.

VIA, VERITAS, ET VITA

ALICE MEYNELL

"You never attained to Him." "If to attain
Be to abide, then that may be."

"Endless the way, followed with how much pain.”
"The way was He."

BEFORE DAY

SIEGFRIED SASSOON

Come in the hour to set my spirit free

When earth is no more mine though night goes out And stretching forth these arms I cannot be

Lord of winged sunrise and dim Arcady:

When fieldward boys far off with clack and shout
From orchards scare the birds in sudden rout,
Come, ere my heart grows cold and full of doubt
In the still summer dawns that waken me.

When the first lark goes up to look for day,
And morning glimmers out of dreams, come then,
Out of the songless valleys, over gray

Wide misty lands to bring me on my way:
For I am lone, a dweller among men,
Hungered for what my heart shall never say.

THE SEEKERS

CHARLES HAMILTON SORLEY

The gates are open on the road
That leads to beauty and to God.

Perhaps the gates are not so fair,
Nor quite so bright as once they were,
When God Himself on earth did stand
And gave to Abraham His hand

And led him to a better land.

For lo! the unclean walk therein,

And those that have been soiled with sin.

The publican and harlot pass

Along they do not stain its grass.

In it the needy has his share,

In it the foolish do not err.

Yes, spurned and fool and sinner stray
Along the highway and the way.

And what if all its ways are trod
By those whom sin brings near to God?
This journey soon will make them clean:
Their faith is greater than their sin.

For still they travel slowly by
Beneath the promise of the sky,
Scorned and rejected utterly;
Unhonoured; things of little worth
Upon the highroads of this earth;

Afflicted, destitute and weak:

Nor find the beauty that they seek,
The God they set their trust upon:
-Yet still they march rejoicing on.

From MARLBOROUGH

CHARLES HAMILTON SORLEY

So, there, when sunset made the downs look new
And earth gave up her colours to the sky,
And far away the little city grew

Half into sight, new-visioned was my eye.

I, who have lived, and trod her lovely earth, Raced with her winds and listened to her birds, Have cared but little for their worldy worth

Nor sought to put my passion into words.

But now it's different; and I have no rest Because my hand must search, dissect and spell The beauty that is better not expressed,

The thing that all can feel, but none can tell.

EPIGRAM

WILLIAM WATSON

When whelmed are altar, priest and creed;
When all the faiths are passed;

Perhaps from darkening incense freed,
God may emerge at last.

III. THE EXISTENCE AND IDEA OF GOD

a.

PRE-CHRISTIAN

b. EARLY CHRISTIAN AND MEDIÆVAL

C.

SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES

d. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

e. NINETEENTH CENTURY

f. TWENTIETH CENTURY