 | Love-Songs |  |
79
YEARNING.
Sad are all we to think
Of sorrows, and wasted lives
In the dim great towns, in the hives
Of the people; for one that thrives,
How many lost souls sink,
Sink each day, do you think?
Of sorrows, and wasted lives
In the dim great towns, in the hives
Of the people; for one that thrives,
How many lost souls sink,
Sink each day, do you think?
Why does He not stay His hand,
God, who knows of it all?
Was He strong to slacken the thrall
Of the Jews, and Jericho's wall
To shake for a Hebrew band—
Shortened for us is His hand?
God, who knows of it all?
Was He strong to slacken the thrall
Of the Jews, and Jericho's wall
To shake for a Hebrew band—
Shortened for us is His hand?
If we are too many, we protest;
If we are too many for His eye
To cover, for Him to espy,
Let us cease to be, let us die;
Let us sink in the sea to our rest,
And cease not, dying, to protest.
If we are too many for His eye
To cover, for Him to espy,
Let us cease to be, let us die;
Let us sink in the sea to our rest,
And cease not, dying, to protest.
To protest against high God who made
More souls than His hands could keep,
Who holdeth our sad tears cheap,
And agony all we reap,
The reward with which we are paid,
We, whom alive He has made.
More souls than His hands could keep,
Who holdeth our sad tears cheap,
And agony all we reap,
The reward with which we are paid,
We, whom alive He has made.
80
But, if He has not forgotten
Any whom His hands have made,
And no one, of all men, has strayed
From His sight; if He covers with His shade
Each of us, by Him begotten,
It is well, our torment is stayed.
Any whom His hands have made,
And no one, of all men, has strayed
From His sight; if He covers with His shade
Each of us, by Him begotten,
It is well, our torment is stayed.
Here, upon earth, it is wrong
For a father to leave his child
Without a provision; less mild
Than a mother is God who has smiled
The world into being? we are strong,
Were it so, to say it is wrong.
For a father to leave his child
Without a provision; less mild
Than a mother is God who has smiled
The world into being? we are strong,
Were it so, to say it is wrong.
Surely, in His hand, for each
Hidden, must our God have in store
Gifts He is willing to outpour,
Waiting, and willing, and more;
Waiting till He can reach
With His own, the hand of each.
Hidden, must our God have in store
Gifts He is willing to outpour,
Waiting, and willing, and more;
Waiting till He can reach
With His own, the hand of each.
Waiting until each cries
For his Father, and looks to His hand;
Then will His bounty expand,
And silent deserts of sand
Beneath sun, beneath blue sweet skies,
Shall be changed to a green glad land.
For his Father, and looks to His hand;
Then will His bounty expand,
And silent deserts of sand
Beneath sun, beneath blue sweet skies,
Shall be changed to a green glad land.
1870.
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