Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul Part 140

Rise with his fear before thee, Tell of the love he bore thee, Sleep with his shadow o'er thee, Day by day.

Four things a man must learn to do If he would make his record true: To think without confusion clearly; To love his fellow-men sincerely; To act from honest motives purely; To trust in G.o.d and heaven securely.

--Henry van d.y.k.e.

Each moment holy is, for out from G.o.d Each moment flashes forth a human soul.

Holy each moment is, for back to him Some wandering soul each moment home returns.

--Richard Watson Gilder.

At thirty man suspects himself a fool; Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan; At fifty chides his infamous delay, Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve; In all the magnanimity of thought Resolves, and re-resolves; then dies the same.

--Edward Young.

Abundance is the blessing of the wise; The use of riches in discretion lies; Learn this, ye men of wealth: a heavy purse In a fool's pocket is a heavy curse.

--From the Greek.

FRIEND AND FOE

Dear is my friend, but my foe too Is friendly to my good; My friend the thing shows I _can_ do, My foe the thing I should.

--Johann C. F. von Schiller.

How does the soul grow? Not all in a minute; Now it may lose ground, and now it may win it; Now it resolves, and again the will faileth; Now it rejoiceth, and now it bewaileth; Now its hopes fructify, then they are blighted; Now it walks sunnily, now gropes benighted; Fed by discouragements, taught by disaster, So it goes forward, now slower, now faster; Till, all the pain past and failure made whole, It is full grown, and the Lord rules the soul.

--Susan Coolidge.

Life is too short to waste In critic peep or cynic bark, Quarrel, or reprimand.

'Twill soon be dark; Up! mind thine own aim, and G.o.d speed the mark!

--Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flower, its bloom is shed; Or like the snow-fall in the river, A moment white--then melts forever; Or like the borealis race, That flit ere you can point their place; Or like the rainbow's lovely form, Evanishing amid the storm.

--Robert Burns.

I saw a farmer plow his land who never came to sow; I saw a student filled with truth to practice never go; In land or mind I never saw the ripened harvest grow.

--Saadi, tr. by James Freeman Clarke.

CARES AND DAYS

To those who prattle of despair Some friend, methinks, might wisely say: Each day, no question, has its care, But also every care its day.

--John Sterling.

What imports Fasting or feasting? Do thy day's work; dare Refuse no help thereto; since help refused Is hindrance sought and found.

--Robert Browning.

I go to prove my soul!

I see my way as birds their trackless way.

I shall arrive! What time, what circuit first, I ask not; but unless G.o.d send his hail Or blinding fireb.a.l.l.s, sleet or stifling snow, In some time, his good time, I shall arrive: He guides me and the bird. In his good time.

--Robert Browning.

Art thou in misery, brother? Then, I pray, Be comforted; thy grief shall pa.s.s away.

Art thou elated? Ah! be not too gay; Temper thy joy; this, too, shall pa.s.s away.

Whate'er thou art, where'er thy footsteps stray, Heed the wise words: "This, too, shall pa.s.s away."

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths, In feelings, not in figures on a dial.

We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the n.o.blest, acts the best.

Life's but a means unto an end; that end Beginning, mean, and end to all things--G.o.d.

--Philip James Bailey.

WE DEFER THINGS

We say, and we say, and we say, We promise, engage, and declare, Till a year from to-morrow is yesterday And yesterday is--where?

--James Whitcomb Riley.

To be sincere. To look life in the eyes With calm, undrooping gaze. Always to mean The high and truthful thing. Never to screen Behind the unmeant word the sharp surprise Of cunning; never tell the little lies Of look or thought. Always to choose between The true and small, the true and large, serene And high above Life's cheap dishonesties.

The soul that steers by this unfading star Needs never other compa.s.s. All the far, Wide waste shall blaze with guiding light, though rocks And sirens meet and mock its straining gaze.

Secure from storms and all Life's battle-shocks It shall not veer from any righteous ways.

--Maurice Smiley.