IV.

    “Ho!  Christian soldier,—­to the front! and boldly speak aloud
    The dear old truths denied by yonder Sadducean crowd,—­
    That every inch and every instant we are guided well
    By Him who made, and loved, and loves us more than tongue can tell;
    That, though there be dread mysteries of cruelty and crime,
    And marvellous long-suffering patience with these wrongs of time,
    Still, wait a little longer, and we soon shall know the cause
    For every seeming error in the Ruler’s righteous laws!

    V.

    “A little longer, and our faith and hope and works of love
    Shall reap munificent reward in those blest orbs above,
    Where He (who being God of old became our brother here)
    Shall welcome us and speed us on’ from glorious sphere to sphere,
    Until before His Father’s throne the Spirit with the Son
    Shall give to every Christian then the crown his Lord hath won;
    And through the ages in all worlds our wondrous ransomed race
    Shall bless the Universal King of Providence and Grace!”

For a third, my testimony as to the wonders that surround us:  I have called this poem The Infinities.

    I.

    “Lift up your eyes to yon star-jewelled sky,
    Gaze on that firmament caverned on high,—­
    Marvellous universe, infinite space,
    Studded with suns in fixt order and place,
    Each with its system of planets unseen,
    Meshed in their orbits by comets between,
    Worlds that are vaster than mind may believe,
    Whirling more swiftly than thought can conceive,
    O ye immensities!  Who shall declare
    The glory of God in His galaxies there?

    II.

    “Look too on this poor planet of ours,
    Torn by the storms of mysterious powers,
    Evil contending with good from its birth,
    Wrenching in battle the heartstrings of earth,—­
    Ah! what infinities circle us here,
    Strangeness and wonderment swathing the sphere! 
    Providence ruleth with care most minute,
    Yet is fell cruelty torturing the mute,
    Infinite marvels of wrong and of right,
    Blessing and blasting each day and each night.

    III.

    “All things in mystery; riddles unread;
    Nothing but dimness of guesses instead;
    Only beginning, where none see the end,
    Nor where these infinite energies tend;
    Saving that chrysalis-creatures are we,
    Till we grow wings in that aeon-to-be! 
    Everything infinite:  Nature, and Art,
    The schemes of man’s mind, and the throbs of his heart;
    Infinite cravings for better, and best,
    Tempered by infinite longings for rest.

    IV.