_by William J. Lampton_.
Good God,
What is our living?
What is our thought and deed?
Have we, professed believers,
No substance for our creed?
Belief is ours, and mighty,
They tell us, faith is, yet
The things we seem to live for
Have made us all forget.
And love of wealth and station
Shines bright above the goal
That we have set for gaining
At sacrifice of soul.
Oh, God,
How vast the distance
Between the earth and sky,
Between man and his Maker
Is measured by that cry!
The hollow vault of silence
Rounds o’er us and we stare
Up through the depths and wonder
If echo answers prayer.
So far as Strength from Weakness,
So far is Day from Night;
Faith stumbles in its groping
Through Darkness toward the Light.
By God
We shall do better;
Be better, we must rise
Above the low horizon
Of selfish enterprise;
Be men and women, truly,
As we were made to be,
With souls for high ideals
And hearts of bravery
To lead us to the summits
Above the sordid strife
That make mankind forgetful
Of what is best in life:
To lead us to the summits
Of spirit and of mind,
Where man, close to his Maker,
Comes closer to his kind.