The heavenly guest with other unpublished writings

O restless soul of man, unsatisfied
With the world's empty noise and feverish glare,
Sick with its hopes of happiness denied,
The dust and ashes of its promise fair,

Baffled and buffeted, thy days perplexed,
Thy cherished treasures profitless and vain,
What comfort hast thou, captive, thwarted, vexed,
Mocked by mirage of joys that merge in pain?

Though Love be sweet. yet Death is strong, and still
Inexorable Change will follow thee,
Yea,—though thou vanquish every mortal ill
Thou shalt not conquer Mutability!

The human tide goes rushing down to death,
Turn thou a moment from its current broad
And listen, what is this that silence saith,
O Soul? “Be still, and know that I am God!”

The mighty God! Here shalt thou find thy rest,
O weary one! There is naught else to know,
Naught else to seek,—here thou mayest cease thy quest;
Give thyself up, He leads where thou shalt go.

The changeless God! Into thy troubled life
Steals strange, sweet peace; the pride that drove thee on,
The hot ambition and the selfish strife
That made thy misery, like mist are gone,

And in their place, a bliss beyond all speech,
The patient resignation of the will
That lifts thee out of bondage, out of reach
Of death and change, above all earthly ill.

University of Virginia Library

AND HIS WILL IS OUR PEACE