Harmonies (Howe collection)/The Presence
THE PRESENCE
The vision seen from Patmos all may see:
Prophets and poets draw their pictures clear.
More strange the mystery that, beside God's throne,
Christ also dwells on earth. Where dwells He then?
These eyes that pierce the unseen may surely see
What stalks or steals along our trodden ways.
Where shall I seek, where find, the living Christ?
Prophets and poets draw their pictures clear.
More strange the mystery that, beside God's throne,
Christ also dwells on earth. Where dwells He then?
These eyes that pierce the unseen may surely see
What stalks or steals along our trodden ways.
Where shall I seek, where find, the living Christ?
Then hast thou sought where silent thousands kneel
'Neath immemorial arches heavenward wrought
As with God's hand from His own forest aisles?—
Where incense folds and lifts the floating prayer,
And music to the heart's cry lends a voice;
Where listening ears drink in the word of God,
Where wandering eyes rest en the changeless cross
And every symbol of the gentle faith
That made this Christian world the world it is?
There, to thy vision, o'er the multitude
Hovers no form of Christ the Comforter?
'Neath immemorial arches heavenward wrought
As with God's hand from His own forest aisles?—
Where incense folds and lifts the floating prayer,
And music to the heart's cry lends a voice;
Where listening ears drink in the word of God,
Where wandering eyes rest en the changeless cross
And every symbol of the gentle faith
That made this Christian world the world it is?
There, to thy vision, o'er the multitude
Hovers no form of Christ the Comforter?
A mystic shape? Yes—there it broods indeed;
Yet for a sign more intimate I yearn.
Yet for a sign more intimate I yearn.
Then hast thou marked the Doers of the Word,
Women and men of every clime and tongue,
Cribbed by no builded wall, no cramping name,
Wearing no badge but service to their kind,
Healing the sick and strengthening the poor,
Moulding just laws and ruling righteously,
Spending themselves till all be gladly spent
With opening darkened windows to the light;
Sharing the common lot of common men,
But to such ends that round them day by day
Heaven's kingdom spreads its earthly boundaries?
Mid all this soldiery, this countless host
Whose warfare is the victory of love,
Moves not the Captain plainly to and fro?
Women and men of every clime and tongue,
Cribbed by no builded wall, no cramping name,
Wearing no badge but service to their kind,
Healing the sick and strengthening the poor,
Moulding just laws and ruling righteously,
Spending themselves till all be gladly spent
With opening darkened windows to the light;
Sharing the common lot of common men,
But to such ends that round them day by day
Heaven's kingdom spreads its earthly boundaries?
Mid all this soldiery, this countless host
Whose warfare is the victory of love,
Moves not the Captain plainly to and fro?
Yes, surely He is there; yet in the press
Of them that minister and them that need,
One can but hearken, "There He passed—and there";
One may not stand as he who doubted stood
And marked, past peradventure, hands and side.
Of them that minister and them that need,
One can but hearken, "There He passed—and there";
One may not stand as he who doubted stood
And marked, past peradventure, hands and side.
Turn from the many; fix thy gaze on one,
One for whose path His footsteps mark the way—
For such a path must somewhere touch thine own;—
Look on the tokens of His presence there:
Heed in the voice that last sincerity
Which holds pure heart and speech in perfect tune;
Watch in the human eyes the loving look
Of Him whose deeds of mercy still are done.
Again in human weakness see Him brave
To bear the imminent cross, to walk in trust
That Love encompasseth and guideth all,
And so to walk in fearlessness and joy.
Ever more like in outward semblance they
Who move through years of inmost unison;
So to His image hourly grows each one
In whom the Christ His habitation makes,
For not in creed or deed shines He so clear
As in one radiant life aglow with Him;
And daily for a sign shalt thou behold
New Calvaries of self, and from its grave
New resurrections of the living Christ.
One for whose path His footsteps mark the way—
For such a path must somewhere touch thine own;—
Look on the tokens of His presence there:
Heed in the voice that last sincerity
Which holds pure heart and speech in perfect tune;
Watch in the human eyes the loving look
Of Him whose deeds of mercy still are done.
Again in human weakness see Him brave
To bear the imminent cross, to walk in trust
That Love encompasseth and guideth all,
And so to walk in fearlessness and joy.
Ever more like in outward semblance they
Who move through years of inmost unison;
So to His image hourly grows each one
In whom the Christ His habitation makes,
For not in creed or deed shines He so clear
As in one radiant life aglow with Him;
And daily for a sign shalt thou behold
New Calvaries of self, and from its grave
New resurrections of the living Christ.
So near, and yet I sought Him far,—all hid
Beneath a guise so plain I scanned it not!
Through all the seeming now His presence flames;
Now in the mortal flesh I feel the wounds.
Beneath a guise so plain I scanned it not!
Through all the seeming now His presence flames;
Now in the mortal flesh I feel the wounds.
(1908)