OH, if this living soul, that many a time Above the low things of the earth doth climb, Up to the mountain-top of faith sublime, If she could only stay In that high place alway, And hear, in reverence bowed, God's voice behind the cloud: Or if descending to the earth again Its lesson in the heart might still remain; If we could keep the vision, clear and plain, Nor let one jot escape, So that we still might shape Our lives to deeds sublime By that exalted time: Ah! what a world were ours to journey through! What deeds of love and mercy we should do: Making our lives so beautiful and true, That in our face would shine The light of love divine, Showing that we had stood Upon the mount of God. But earthy of the earth, we downward tend, From the pure height of faith our feet descend, The hour of exaltation hath its end. And we, alas! forget, In life's turmoil and fret, The pattern to us shown, When on the mount alone. Yea, we forget the rapture we had known, Forget the voice that talked to us alone, Forget the brightness past, the cloud that shone; We have no need to veil Our faces, dim and pale, So soon from out them dies The sweet light of the skies. We come down from the height where we have been, And build our tabernacles low and mean, Not by the pattern in the vision seen Remembering no more, When once the hour is o'er, How in the safe cleft of the rock on high, The shadow of the Lord has passed us by. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOVERS, AND A REFLECTION by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY SEVEN TIMES FOUR [ - MATERNITY] by JEAN INGELOW THE STORY OF URIAH by RUDYARD KIPLING EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 41. LOVE REQUIRES NO ENTREATIES by PHILIP AYRES PIONEERS OF DETROIT by LEVI BISHOP |