The Rose Still Grows Beyond the Wall

Near a shady wall a rose once grew,
   Budded and blossomed in God's free light,
Watered and fed by morning dew,
   Shedding its sweetness day and night.

As it grew and blossomed fair and tall,
   Slowly rising to loftier height,
It came to a crevice in the wall,
   Through which there shone a beam of light.

Onward it crept with added strength,
   With never a thought of fear or pride.
It followed the light through the crevice's length
   And unfolded itself on the other side.

The light, the dew, the broadening view
   Were found the same as they were before;
And it lost itself in beauties new,
   Breathing its fragrance more and more.

Shall claim of death cause us to grieve,
   And make our courage faint or fail?
Nay! Let us faith and hope receive:
   The rose still grows beyond the wall.

Scattering fragrance far and wide,
   Just as it did in days of yore,
Just as it did on the other side,
   Just as it will for evermore.

        ~ A. L. Frink

Silence

I need not shout my faith. Thrice
     eloquent
   Are quiet trees and the green listen-
     ing sod;
Hushed are the stars, whose power is
   never spent;
   The hills are mute: yet how they
     speak of God!

     ~ Charles Hanson Towne

The Larger Prayer

At first I prayed for Light:
   Could I but see the way,
How gladly, swiftly would I walk
   To everlasting day!

And next I prayed for Strength:
   That I might tread the road
With firm, unfaltering feet, and win
   The heaven's serene abode.

And then I asked for Faith:
   Could I but trust my God,
I'd live enfolded in His peace,
   Though foes were all abroad.

But now I pray for Love:
   Deep love to God and man,
A living love that will not fail,
   However dark His plan.

And Light and Strength and Faith
   Are opening everywhere;
God only waited for me, till
   I prayed the larger prayer.

                ~ Edna D. Cheney

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