Three Lessons

There are three lessons I would write--
  Three words as with a burning pen,
In tracings of eternal light,
  Upon the hearts of men.

Have Hope. Though clouds environ now,
  And gladness hides her face in scorn,
Put thou the shadow from thy brow--
  No night but hath its morn.

Have Faith. Where'er thy bark is driven--
  The calm's disport, the tempest's mirth--
Know this: God rules the host of heaven,
  The inhabitants of earth.

Have Love. Not love alone for one,
  But man as man thy brother call;
And scatter like the circling sun
  Thy charities on all.

Thus grave these lessons on thy soul--
  Faith, Hope, and Love--and thou shalt
    find
Strength when life's surges rudest roll,
  Light when thou else wert blind.

--Johann Christopher Friedrich von Schiller,
1759-1805