Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886). The Kingdom of God. Henry Charles Beeching, ed. 1903. Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse

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Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.

The Kingdom of God

By Richard Chenevix Trench (1807–1886)


I SAY to thee, do thou repeat
To the first man thou mayest meet
In lane, highway, or open street—

That he and we and all men move
Under a canopy of love,	5
As broad as the blue sky above;

That doubt and trouble, fear and pain
And anguish, all are shadows vain,
That death itself shall not remain;

That dreary deserts we may tread,	10
A dreary labyrinth may thread,
Through dark ways underground be led;

Yet, if we will one Guide obey,
The dreariest path, the darkest way,
Shall issue out in heavenly day.	15

And we, on divers shores now cast,
Shall meet, our perilous voyage past.
All in our Father’s house at last.

And ere thou leave him, say thou this
Yet one word more—they only miss	20
The winning of that final bliss,

Who will not count it true that Love,
Blessing, not cursing, rules above,
And that in it we live and move.

And one thing further make him know,	25
That to believe these things are so,
This firm faith never to forgo,

Despite of all which seems at strife
With blessings, all with curses rife,
That this is blessing, this is life.	30