The Heavenly Urge
No passing burden is our earthly sorrow,
That shall depart in some mysterious to-morrow.
‘Tis His one universe where’er we are—
One changeless law from sun to viewless star.
Were sorrow evil here, evil it were forever,
Beyond the scope and help of our most keen endeavor
God doth not dote,
His everlasting purpose shall not fail.
Here where our ears are weary with the wail
And weeping of the sufferers; there where the Pleiads float—
Here, there, forever, pain most dread and dire
Doth bring the intensest bliss, the dearest and most sure.
‘Tis not from life aside, it doth endure
Deep in the secret heart of all existence.
It is the inward fire,
The heavenly urge, and the divine insistence.
Uplift thine eyes, O Questioner, from the sod!
It were no longer life,
If ended were the strife;
Man were not man, God were not truly God.
—Richard Watson Gilder.
Alone With God
When you have shut your doors, and darkened your room, remember never to say you are alone, for you are not alone; but God is within, and your conscience is within,—and what need have they of light to see what you are doing?
—Epictetus.
Alternate Reading: I Peter 2: 11-25.