Begone, unbelief, my Saviour is near,
And for my relief will surely appear.
His love in time past forbids me to think
He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink.
Since all that I meet shall work for my good,
The bitter is sweet, the medicine food;
Though painful at present, 'twill cease before long,
And then, oh, how pleasant the conqueror's song!
--John Newton.
As yonder tower outstretches to the earth
The dark triangle of its shade alone
When the clear day is shining on its top,
So, darkness in the pathway of man's life
Is but the shadow of God's providence,
By the great Sun of Wisdom cast therein;
And what is dark below is light in Heaven.
--John Greenleaf Whittier.
Faith is a grasping of Almighty power;
The hand of man laid on the arm of God;
The grand and blessed hour
In which the things impossible to me
Become the possible, O Lord, through thee.
--Anna E. Hamilton.
There is no faith in seeing. Were we led
Like children here,
And lifted over rock and river bed,
No care, no fear,
We should be useless in the busy throng,
Life's work undone;
Lord, make us brave and earnest, in faith strong,
Till heaven is won.
The cross on Golgotha can never save
Thy soul from deepest hell;
Unless with loving faith thou setts't it up
Within thy heart as well.
--Scheffler, tr. by Frederic Rowland Marvin.
In vain they smite me. Men but do
What God permits with different view.
To outward sight they hold the rod,
But faith proclaims it all of God.
--Madame Guyon.
Talk Faith. The world is better off without
Your uttered ignorance and morbid doubt.
If you have faith in God, or man, or self,
Say so; if not, push back upon the shelf
Of silence lower thoughts till faith shall come.
The body sins not, 'tis the will
That makes the action good or ill.
--Robert Herrick.
Who never doubted, never half believed;
Where doubt, there truth is--'tis her shadow.
--Philip James Bailey.
'Tis not the grapes of Canaan that repay,
But the high faith that failed not by the way.
--James Russell Lowell.
No more with downcast eyes go faltering on,
Alone and sick at heart, and closely pressed.
Thy chains shall break, thy heavy heart is gone,
For he who calls thee, he will "give thee rest."
--Mary Lowe Dickinson.
My God, I would not live
Save that I think this gross hard-seeming world
Is our misshaping vision of the Powers
Behind the world that make our griefs our gains.
--Alfred Tennyson.
And all is well, though faith and form
Be sundered in the night of fear.
Well roars the storm to those that hear
A deeper voice across the storm.
--Alfred Tennyson.
The crowd of cares, the weightiest cross,
Seem trifles less than light;
Earth looks so little and so low,
When faith shines full and bright.
--Frederick William Faber.
A faith that shines by night and day
Will lighten every earthly load.
Grant us, O God, in love to thee--
Clear eyes to measure things below,
Faith the invisible to see,
And wisdom thee in all to know.
Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt.
--William Shakespeare.