World Voices :: :: University of Virginia Library

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 rarified
And perfect trust; and from that 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 hosts 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 bye and bye.”
God reigns on high;
Whatever is, is best.