University of Virginia Library

previous section The Prisoner of Love
next section
343

October 28 BY STAGES

“Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life.”—St. Matt. vii. 14.

We climb by stages
Perilous and sharp,
By lonesome ledges in this haunted sleep
Of brute beliefs with many a jangled harp,
To bright and broader ages'
Boundless Deep.
And they that still in somewhat true have trusted
Find at each onward step their life adjusted,
Through all its inwardness, to Life more high;
They see new links
On the most awful brinks,
That bring the very poles of being nigh.
The taint of sinning
In our human roots
Lies dark and deep, and is a constant stain;
But now therewith we mark the better shoots,
In dreadful shade beginning
Birth again.
For our real nature has a wider orbing,
Through the Redemption of the Christ, absorbing
Into its inmost essence His sweet Blood;
By channels dull
And from the mouldering skull,
The tides of Love can only reach the flood.
previous section The Prisoner of Love
next section