WE see not God, yet while we grope, Some message, stealing softly in, Through little children, breathes of hope Amid the darkness and the din,— Some fragrant bloom or sunbeam ray At play. Oh, wondrous eyes, that often seem To look through all the veils of time,— Your tears and laughter all a dream, Your boundless love and trust sublime,— As though, through a mere Baby-child, Love smiled! Eternal Child! With joy we know That in the infinite of Love, Where heavenly fires, commingling, glow, Where broods the Comforter, the Dove, Within the Godhead's very heart Thou art! And still we love (we speak as fools), In all the greatest souls on earth, Beyond the wisdom of the schools, The immortal child; through pain or mirth, Their grave simplicities that shine, Divine. Therefore we needs must find in Him In whose fair image man was made, More beautiful what here is dim, All light what here is mixed with shade, And, in His symbol undefiled, A Child!— The Christmas Child, the Mother fain, And afterward, when time was ripe, The Man confronting all men's pain— A symbol and a threefold type:— These all in parable fulfil His will. If we, for party or for pelf, Or in our careless, supine ways, Despoil a child of childhood's self, That sin the Holy One betrays, Like Pilate's deed, that sacrificed The Christ. God! if we hunger for the bliss Of children toiled for and caressed, In Thee is all we seemed to miss: Oh, clasp us in Thy joy and rest, Still serving every child we see, For Thee! O Christmas joy and Christmas pain— What are they in the eternal sum? Love does not count of loss or gain, If only the beloved one come. Come, Heart-of-Peace amid the strife, Our Life! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE SHRUBBERY, WRITTEN IN A TIME OF AFFLICTION by WILLIAM COWPER THE SUGAR-PLUM TREE by EUGENE FIELD AT HOME IN HEAVEN by JAMES MONTGOMERY THE LOW-DOWN WHITE by ROBERT WILLIAM SERVICE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE: 2. SHADOW MARCH by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON THE LIGHT OF ASIA by EDWIN ARNOLD |