Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul. Various

port, well worth the cruise, is near,

      And every wave is charmed."

      —Ralph Waldo Emerson.

      

      ———

      DEMAND FOR MEN

      The world wants men—large-hearted, manly men;

      Men who shall join its chorus and prolong

      The psalm of labor, and the psalm of love.

      The times want scholars—scholars who shall shape

      The doubtful destinies of dubious years,

      And land the ark that bears our country's good

      Safe on some peaceful Ararat at last.

      The age wants heroes—heroes who shall dare

      To struggle in the solid ranks of truth;

      To clutch the monster error by the throat;

      To bear opinion to a loftier seat;

      To blot the era of oppression out,

      And lead a universal freedom on.

      And heaven wants souls—fresh and capacious souls;

      To taste its raptures, and expand, like flowers,

      Beneath the glory of its central sun.

      It wants fresh souls—not lean and shrivelled ones;

      It wants fresh souls, my brother, give it thine.

      If thou indeed wilt be what scholars should;

      If thou wilt be a hero, and wilt strive

      To help thy fellow and exalt thyself,

      Thy feet at last shall stand on jasper floors;

      Thy heart, at last, shall seem a thousand hearts—

      Each single heart with myriad raptures filled—

      While thou shalt sit with princes and with kings,

      Rich in the jewel of a ransomed soul.

      ———

      Blessed are they who die for God,

      And earn the martyr's crown of light;

      Yet he who lives for God may be

      A greater conqueror in his sight.

      ———

      Better to stem with heart and hand

      The roaring tide of life than lie,

      Unmindful, on its flowery strand,

      Of God's occasions drifting by!

      ———

      TRUTH

      Truth will prevail, though men abhor

      The glory of its light;

      And wage exterminating war

      And put all foes to flight.

      Though trodden under foot of men,

      Truth from the dust will spring,

      And from the press—the lip—the pen—

      In tones of thunder ring.

      Beware—beware, ye who resist

      The light that beams around,

      Lest, ere you look through error's mist,

      Truth strike you to the ground.

      —D. C. Colesworthy.

      ———

      TO A REFORMER

      Nay, now, if these things that you yearn to teach

      Bear wisdom, in your judgment, rich and strong,

      Give voice to them though no man heed your speech,

      Since right is right though all the world go wrong.

      The proof that you believe what you declare

      Is that you still stand firm though throngs pass by;

      Rather cry truth a lifetime to void air

      Than flatter listening millions with one lie!

      —Edgar Fawcett.

      ———

      TEACH ME THE TRUTH

      Teach me the truth, Lord, though it put to flight

      My cherished dreams and fondest fancy's play;

      Give me to know the darkness from the light,

      The night from day.

      Teach me the truth, Lord, though my heart may break

      In casting out the falsehood for the true;

      Help me to take my shattered life and make

      Its actions new.

      Teach me the truth, Lord, though my feet may fear

      The rocky path that opens out to me;

      Rough it may be, but let the way be clear

      That leads to thee.

      Teach me the truth, Lord. When false creeds decay,

      When man-made dogmas vanish with the night,

      Then, Lord, on thee my darkened soul shall stay,

      Thou living Light.

      —Frances Lockwood Green.

      ———

      HEROISM

      It takes great strength to train

      To modern service your ancestral brain;

      To lift the weight of the unnumbered years

      Of dead men's habits, methods, and ideas;

      To hold that back with one hand, and support

      With the other the weak steps of the new thought.

      It takes great strength to bring your life up square

      With your accepted thought and hold it there;

      Resisting the inertia that drags back

      From new attempts to the old habit's track.

      It is so easy to drift back, to sink;

      So hard to live abreast of what you think.

      It takes great strength to live where you belong

      When other people think that you are wrong;

      People you love, and who love you, and whose

      Approval is a pleasure you would choose.

      To bear this pressure and succeed at length

      In living your belief—well, it takes strength,

      And courage, too. But what does courage mean

      Save strength to help you face a pain foreseen?

      Courage to undertake this lifelong strain

      Of setting yours against your grand-sire's brain;

      Dangerous risk of walking lone and free

      Out of the easy paths that used