A Prayer in Time of War

Thou whose deep ways are in the sea

Whose foot­steps are not known

Tonight a world that turned from Thee

Is wait­ing—at Thy throne.

The tow­er­ing Ba­bels that we raised

Where scoff­ing soph­ists brawl

The lit­tle An­ti­christs we praised—

The night is on them all.

The fool hath said…the fool hath said…

And we

who deemed him wise

We

who be­lieved that Thou wast dead

How should we seek Thine eyes?

How should we seek to Thee for pow­er

Who scorned Thee yes­ter­day?

How should we kneel in this dread hour?

Lord

teach us how to pray.

Grant us the sin­gle heart once more

That mocks no sac­red thing

The sword of truth our fa­thers wore

When Thou wast Lord and King.

Let dark­ness un­to dark­ness tell

Our deep un­spok­en pray­er;

For

while our souls in dark­ness dwell

We know that Thou art there.