The World Within

O won­drous world with­in a world

How beau­ti­ful thou art!

What high de­sire

what ho­ly fire

Lie glow­ing at thy heart!

What beau­ty

like the si­lent stars

Hangs ev­er o’er thy brow;

What youth

as old as Pa­ra­dise

Springs death­less in thee now!

Where did we learn to love thy face—

The mu­sic of thy name?

A leafy door be­side the shore

Was op­ened—and we came.

Our lost ideals

grown more fair

Thronged back through all thy ways;

Another life—a real life—

Filled all our emp­ty days.

The world smiled

say­ing

These are they

Who live among the trees;

Whose thoughts rise high­er than the stars

And soar beyond the trees.

They do not weigh their wealth with gold

Or mea­sure it with fame;

They speak a lang­uage all their own

They bear a hid­den name.

So weighs the world its own true life

Nor knows it as its own

While

life of life

above all strife

God waits up­on His throne;

He waits until the world of things

And the world of thoughts shall be

Blent in that per­fect thing we call

The new hu­man­ity.

What joy is thine

O world with­in

To bear thy ban­ners out

And there to claim in God’s dear name

The last and least re­doubt!

The earth is His—the heav’ns are His

He stooped to make them one

When that great mys­te­ry was wrought

That gave us God the Son.

The world with­out is blind to thee

Thou world of the with­in

Yet through the years thy saints and seers

Its ora­cles have been.

Still trust them with thy pro­phe­cies;

Still through them breathe thy breath;

Till hon­or blos­soms from the dust

And life spring out of death.