Life's mystery - deep, restless as the ocean - <br />Hath surged and wailed for ages to and fro; <br />Earth's generations watch its ceaseless motion, <br />As in and out its hollow moanings flow. <br />Shivering and yearning by that unknown sea, <br />Let my soul calm itself, O Christ, in thee! <br /> <br />Life's sorrows, with inexorable power, <br />Sweep desolation o'er this mortal plain; <br />And human loves and hopes fly as the chaff <br />Borne by the whirlwind from the ripened grain. <br />Ah! when before that blast my hopes all flee, <br />Let my soul calm itself, O Christ, in thee! <br /> <br />Between the mysteries of death and life <br />Thou standest, loving, guiding, not explaining; <br />We ask, and thou art silent; yet we gaze, <br />And our charmed hearts forget their drear complaining. <br />No crushing fate, no stony destiny, <br />O Lamb that hast been slain, we find in thee! <br /> <br />The many waves of thought, the mighty tides, <br />The ground-swell that rolls up from other lands, <br />From far-off worlds, from dim, eternal shores, <br />Whose echo dashes on life's wave-worn strands, <br />This vague, dark tumult of the inner sea <br />Grows calm, grows bright, O risen Lord, in thee! <br /> <br />Thy piercèd hand guides the mysterious wheels; <br />Thy thorn-crowned brow now wears the crown of power; <br />And when the dread enigma presseth sore, <br />Thy patient voice saith, 'Watch with me one hour.' <br />As sinks the moaning river in the sea <br />In silver peace, so sinks my soul in thee!<br /><br />Harriet Beecher Stowe<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-mystery-of-life-3/
