We live by Faith; but Faith is not the slave <br />Of text and legend. Reason's voice and God's, <br />Nature's and Duty's, never are at odds. <br />What asks our Father of His children, save <br />Justice and mercy and humility, <br />A reasonable service of good deeds, <br />Pure living, tenderness to human needs, <br />Reverence and trust, and prayer for light to see <br />The Master's footprints in our daily ways? <br />No knotted scourge nor sacrificial knife, <br />But the calm beauty of an ordered life <br />Whose very breathing is unworded praise!-- <br />A life that stands as all true lives have stood, <br />Firm-rooted in the faith that God is Good.<br /><br />John Greenleaf Whittier<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/requirement/
