"And all the while in street or lane or byway In country lane, in city street or byway You walked among us and we did not see. Your feet were bleeding as You walked our pavements, How did we miss your footprints on our pavements? Can there be other folk as blind as we? "Now we remember, over here in Flanders (It isn't strange to think of you in Flanders) This hideous warfare seems to make things clear. We never thought about You much in England But now that we are far away from England We have no doubts, we know that you are here. "You helped us pass the jest along the trenches Where, in cold blood, we waited in the trenches You touched its ribaldry and made it fine. You stood beside us in our pain and weakness We're glad to think You understood our weakness Somehow it seems to help us not to whine. "We think about You kneeling in the garden Ah, God! the agony of that dread garden We know You prayed for us upon the cross. If anything could make us glad to bear it 'Twould be the knowledge that You willed to bear it the uttermost "Though we forget You, You will not forget us -- We feel so sure that You will not forget us But stay with us until this dream is past. strength, and pardon — Especially, I think, we ask for pardon And that You'll stand beside us to the last." L. W. T HERE is one great and welcome view of life in which we have a right to think that God commands us just to go on and do our clear duties, and He will see that they work out completely ultimately in the great design. When the whole great design grows dim before us, when we find it hard to trace any great purpose running through this snarl of life, when doubt of the great consummation makes us weak, then just to go on and do our duties one by one, even without knowing where they are leading us; make today's hard march, to fight today's hard battle, and leave the great campaign where it belongs, in the wise Captain's hands, - there is the only comfort; and when we take it in profound humility, behold! it is enough. Doing the duty that we see, we do not walk in darkness, but we have the light of life. to Phillips Brooks |