::R1407 : page 151::

O! THE DEPTH OF DIVINE WISDOM!

“I would not choose the garden fair
Which lieth full in view,
All square and trim with faultless beds
Of scarlet edged with blue.
I love to wander unobserved
Through many a leafy nook,
And where the fragrant woodbine path
Winds downward to the brook,
With flowers in ambush, shy and sweet,
Awaiting my returning feet.

“Old ocean, too, would lose her charm
Could I her depths explore,
Or with a powerful telescope
Discern her farther shore.
I love the boundless mystery,
The tireless ebb and flow,
I love the wondrous history
That hideth deep below:
If all her secrets she should tell
Old ocean would not please me well.

“My friends were less my friends, I trow,
If I could once suppose
They had no yearnings high and strong
They ne’er to me disclose.
Kind, truthful tones of trust (regard
Implied, yet not expressed)
We hold the longest in our hearts,
And value most and best;
For, where the floods are swift and great,
The waters sometimes will abate.

“And shall I love thee less, my God,
Because in thee I find
A majesty outstripping far
The finite human mind?
Nay, rather, while for all thy grace
I bless thee and adore,
Because thy name is ‘Wonderful,’
I praise thee even more.
This word within my heart I keep—
‘Thy judgments are a mighty deep.'”
—Selected.

====================

— May 15, 1892 —