| TO God, the everlasting, who abides, | |
| One Life within things infinite that die: | |
| To Him whose unity no thought divides: | |
| Whose breath is breathèd through immensity. | |
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| Him neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard; | 5 |
| Nor reason, seated in the souls of men, | |
| Though pondering oft on the mysterious word, | |
| Hath e’er revealed His Being to mortal ken. | |
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| Earth changes, and the starry wheels roll round; | |
| The seasons come and go, moons wax and wane; | 10 |
| The nations rise and fall, and fill the ground, | |
| Storing the sure results of joy and pain: | |
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| Slow knowledge widens toward a perfect whole, | |
| From that first man who named the name of heaven, | |
| To him who weighs the planets as they roll, | 15 |
| And knows what laws to every life are given. | |
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| Yet He appears not. Round the extreme sphere | |
| Of science still thin ether floats unseen: | |
| Darkness still wraps Him round; and ignorant fear | |
| Remains of what we are, and what have been. | 20 |
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| Only we feel Him; and in aching dreams, | |
| Swift intuitions, pangs of keen delight, | |
| The sudden vision of His glory seems | |
| To sear our souls, dividing the dull night: | |
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| And we yearn toward Him. Beauty, Goodness, Truth; | 25 |
| These three are one; one life, one thought, one being; | |
| One source of still rejuvenescent youth; | |
| One light for endless and unclouded seeing. | |
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| Mere symbols we perceive—the dying beauty, | |
| The partial truth that few can comprehend, | 30 |
| The vacillating faith, the painful duty, | |
| The virtue labouring to a dubious end. | |
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| O God, unknown, invisible, secure, | |
| Whose being by dim resemblances we guess, | |
| Who in man’s fear and love abidest sure, | 35 |
| Whose power we feel in darkness and confess! | |
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| Without Thee nothing is, and Thou art nought | |
| When on Thy substance we gaze curiously: | |
| By Thee impalpable, named Force and Thought, | |
| The solid world still ceases not to be. | 40 |
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| Lead Thou me God, Law, Reason, Duty, Life! | |
| All names for Thee alike are vain and hollow— | |
| Lead me, for I will follow without strife; | |
| Or, if I strive, still must I blindly follow. | |
