George Shepard Burleigh (1821–1903)

THE LAW which spheres the hugest sun

That blazes in the deeps of blue,

And binds unnumbered worlds in one,

So rounds the tiniest drop of dew.

The God who sowed the midnight gloom

With stars that blossom evermore,

Still lights the lowliest lily-bloom

That nestles by the cottage door.

An atom of the self-same fire

That burned in Zoroaster’s soul,

Kindles the humblest heart’s desire,

And beacons our eternal goal.

What Jesus felt, what Moses saw

On Sinai, on Gennesaret,

Love’s boundless glow, the lightning Law,

Our hearts have known, our vision met.

For God in every nature folds

The perfect future of its kind;

The eternal love thy bosom holds,

And thrills thy thought the Eternal Mind.

Oh, not in overweening pride,

But calm in holy trust alone,

Put every alien law aside,

And walk serenely by thy own.

Cathayan clogs, Judean creeds,

Deform and fetter limb and soul;

Life only from within proceeds,

Evolving one harmonious whole.

The heart, self-centred, that alone

Obeys what God within it bids,

Holds firmly its inviolate throne

As Andes and the Pyramids.