HYMN.
THE MEEK.
‘Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.’
I
Meek souls! whose humble faith can prize
Those heavenliest gifts of man,
Obedience, and Self-sacrifice,
Life's first, last, only plan
By which we mount ‘from grace to grace’
Toward our celestial resting-place!
II
All hail! the haughty from their towers
Look down on you with scorn
On you, scarce seen like meadow flowers
Grass-hid, that perfume morn!
Unmarked the while for them ye pray:
Earth's salt that keeps her from decay.
III
Taught by the Church and by the Spirit
Ye know that all things good
Are yours, unsought; that ye inherit
By virtue of your blood
Old Adam's blood in Christ made pure
Whate'er is worthy to endure.
IV
Therefore while haughtier hands up-pile
Their towers of sun-burned clay
On yielding sand, volcanic isle,
A brief and perilous stay;
Ye dwell in tents, removed at will:
They fall; yet safe their inmates still!
V
‘What man shall reign’ No matter who!
Alas! we rave, and fret,
We press, we struggle, we pursue;
For what? for Power! And yet
On us submissive Angels wait,
Pleased with their mild Diaconate.
VI
O place us on the lowliest ground
That we, thus low, may see,
Upreared above us, and around,
Rank, Order, and Degree:
Terrace o'er terrace ranged on high
To lure and rest the heavenward eye!
VII
All Earth is yours; her mild increase;
Her lore through types laid bare;
Her generous toils; her grateful ease;
Her duties; and whate'er
To nature, with a ‘natural art’
Freedom and heavenly peace impart.
VIII
Nature to docile hearts, and minds
That sympathise with her
In sunniest calms or dreariest winds
Alike doth minister:
Dark days her fasts the Fancy calls
And bright her moving festivals.
IX
The soul uncumbered with a load
Of self-dependent care
Moves forth on equal plumes abroad,
A Spirit of the air:
Its own identity forsakes;
Its own all shapes of beauty makes.
X
How much that Genius boasts as hers
And fancies hers alone,
On you, meek Spirits, Faith confers!
The proud have further gone
Perhaps, through life's deep maze; but you
Alone possess the labyrinth's clue.
XI
To you the costliest spoils of Thought
Wisdom, unclaimed, yields up;
To you her far-sought pearl is brought
And melted in your cup.
To you her nard and myrrh she brings
Like orient gifts to infant kings.
XII
The ‘single eye’ alone can see
All Truths around us thrown
In their eternal unity:
The humble ear alone
Has power to grasp, and time to prize,
The sweetness of life's harmonies.
XIII
Notions, to Thought made visible
Are but the smallest part
Of those immortal Truths, which dwell
Self-radiant in man's heart.
With outward beams are others bright;
But God has made you ‘full of light.’
XIV
One science well ye know; the Will
Of God, to man laid bare:
One art have mastered; to fulfil
The part assigned you there:
If other, meaner lore ye sought,
This first ye learned—to need it not!
XV
Empiric Laws, that hide the grace
Of human life, as hard
As iron mask upon a face
From answering eyes debarred,
Form but a lucid veil to you
With all the Godhead shining through.
XVI
Yes, Angels prompt us, Spirits fence!
But ye, a Father's hand
Who trace through all His Providence,
Discern that Angel-band;
'Tis yours alone their choirs to mark
Descending to our precincts dark.
XVII
One half of all our cares and woes
Exist but in our thought;
And lightly fall the rest on those
With them who wrestle not.
The feather scarcely feels that gale
Which bursts the seaman's strongest sail.
XVIII
Yourselves not loving, room have ye
For love of all your kind:
And ye revere the mystery
Of Love Divine enshrined
In human ties that, day by day
Some portion lose of mortal clay.
XIX
And dearer far become the names
Of Father, Child, and Wife
To those who feel their heavenly claims:
And holier earthly Life
To those who in that myriad mirror
See thus their Lord undimmed by error.
XX
In Kings you see Him on His throne:
In Priests before the shrine:
In suffering men you hear Him groan:
Thus life becomes divine;
Each shower with Fontal grace imbued,
And Eucharistic all your food!
XXI
Your virtues shall not die with you
Or those you leave behind,
Destined each year to bloom anew,
And ampler space to find
For boughs o'er earth that spread and wave
Though centered in your silent grave.
XXII
That Race ordained so long to be
Sole witness here of God
Formed but a single Family,
Yea, scattered now abroad,
Are still his seed whose marvelling eyes
First saw them star-like in the skies!
XXIII
What, though the long-lived Patriarchs saw
Their offspring as the sands!
To those who see them not that Law
Unchanged and changeless stands,
That Law which honours in the dust
The Souls that placed with God their trust.
XXIV
Even now in each fair infant's face
The eye of Faith can see
A mild and patriarchal grace
A Regal dignity:
He sits by future throngs half hid;
His throne that living pyramid!
XXV
Hail, noble Spirits, hail, O hail!
While bleats the lamb or cooes the dove,
Your gentle kind shall never fail,
Nor earth wax faint in love.
Hail, kings of peace: to you are given
Flower-crowns on earth, star-crowns in Heaven!
