I PACED along
The dim cathedral wrapped in reverend gloom :
I heard the sweet child's song
Spring upwards like a fountain ; and the boom
Of the tempestuous organ-music swell ;
The hushed low voices and the silvery bell;
The incense-laden air ; the kneeling throng :
I knew them all, and seemed to hear the cry
Of countless myriads, rising deep and strong,
Help us ! we faint, we die.
Our knees are weak, our eyes are blind ;
We seek what we shall never find.
Show but Thy face, and we are Thine,
Unknown, Ineffable, Divine !
I heard the loud
Muezzin from the slender minaret call
' To prayer, To prayer;' and lo ! the busy crowd,
Merchant and prince and water-carrier, all
Turned from the world, and, rapt in worship, knelt,
Facing the holy city ; and I felt
That from those myriads kneeling, prostrate, bowed,
A low moan rises to the throne on high,
Not shut out quite by error's thickest cloud,
Help us ! we faint, we die.
Our knees are weak, our eyes are blind ;
We seek what we shall never find.
Show but Thy face, and we are Thine,
Unknown, Ineffable, Divine.
I stood before
The glaring temples on the burning plain ;
I heard the hideous roar
Rise to the stars to drown the shrieks of pain,
What time the murderous idol swept along.
I listened to the innocent, mystic song,
Breathed to the jewelled Lotus evermore,
In the elder lands, through the ages, like a sigh,
And heard in low, sweet chant, and hateful roar,
Help us ! we faint, we die.
Our knees are weak, our eyes arc blind ;
We seek what we shall never find.
Show but Thy face, and we are Thine,
Unknown, Ineffable, Divine !
Ay : everywhere
Echoes the same exceeding bitter cry.
Yet can the Father bear
To hide His presence from the children's eye;
Lets loose on good and bad the plague and sword ;
And though wrong triumph, answers not a word ?
Only deep down in the heart doth He declare
His constant presence ; there, though the outward sky
Be darkened, shines a little speck of fair,—
A light which cannot die.
Though knees be weak, and eyes be blind ;
Though we may seek, and never find ;
Here doth His hidden glory shine,
Unknown, Ineffable, Divine !