Classic Poem

C HRISTIAN ! when, overwhelmed with grief and care,
Thou prayest for the help that thou dost need,
As shipwrecked mariner for life will plead:
O, then, for faith pour forth the fervent prayer!
'T is faith alone, life's heavy ills can bear.
O, mark her calm, far-seeing, quickening eye,
Full of the light of immortality:
It tells of worlds unseen, and calls us there;
That look of hers can save thee from despair.
When sorrow, like thick darkness, gathers round,
" And all life's flowers are fading in the dust,
Faith lifts our drooping vision from the ground, —
Says, that the hand that smites us yet is just;
That human agony hath ever found
The mighty God a never-failing trust.