Looking upward every day,
Sunshine on our faces,
Pressing onward every day
Toward the heavenly places;
Growing every day in awe,
For thy name is holy;
Learning every day to love
With a love more lowly.
Walking every day more close
To our Elder Brother;
Growing every day more true
Unto one another;
Every day more gratefully
Kindnesses receiving,
Every day more readily
Injuries forgiving.
Leaving every day behind
Something which might hinder;
Running swifter every day,
Growing purer, kinder--
Lord, so pray we every day;
Hear us in thy pity,
That we enter in at last
To the holy city.
--Mary Butler.
Better to have the poet's heart than brain,
Feeling than song; but, better far than both,
To be a song, a music of God's making.
Or but a table on which God's finger of flame,
In words harmonious of triumphant verse,
That mingles joy and sorrow, sets down clear
That out of darkness he hath called the light.
It may be voice to such is after given
To tell the mighty tale to other worlds.
--George Macdonald.