Classic Poem

If I should leave you, friend, and go beyond
The touch of hands, the strength of steady eyes,
The perfect understanding of your face,
I go in body but go not myself.

For in the hour of parting we shall turn
Back to the gentle Christ who went away
From all he loved, women and men and babes,
And firm caressing hands and tender lips.

He knew by living what we, too, must learn
Close in his arms who never yet has died,
Whose love outlives his beautiful cold limbs,
And the dim closing of his weary eyes.

I have not always known that Christ still walks
Beside us daily though we do not see,
I did not know that when men dare to love
The living Jesus has an arm round each.

I do not understand, and yet I know
The arms of Jesus have encircled me,
And I have felt his lips upon my own
And seen his eyes' immortal tenderness.

Not to each other but to him keep close,
Each to his labor where his task is set,
And He who brought the two of us together
Will watch between us though our roads diverge.

A little while,—what reckon we the years
Who have set out upon an endless way?
We shall yet walk together, you and I,
Shoulder to shoulder underneath the stars.