No thanks to them--abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God's truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

--Martin Luther, tr. by Frederick H. Hedge.

STRENGTH

Be strong to hope, O heart!
Though day is bright,
The stars can only shine
In the dark night.
Be strong, O heart of mine,
Look toward the light.

Be strong to bear, O heart!
Nothing is vain:
Strive not, for life is care,
And God sends pain.
Heaven is above, and there
Rest will remain.

Be strong to love, O heart!
Love knows not wrong;
Didst thou love creatures even,
Life were not long;
Didst thou love God in heaven
Thou wouldst be strong.

Why comes temptation but for man to meet
And master and make crouch beneath his foot,
And so be pedestaled in triumph? Pray,
"Lead us into no such temptation, Lord!"
Yea, but, O thou whose servants are the bold,
Lead such temptations by the head and hair,
Reluctant dragons, up to who dares fight,
That so he may do battle and have praise.

--Robert Browning.

BE JUST AND FEAR NOT

Speak thou the truth. Let others fence,
And trim their words for pay:
In pleasant sunshine of pretense
Let others bask their day.

Guard thou the fact; though clouds of night
Down on thy watch tower stoop:
Though thou shouldst see thine heart's delight
Borne from thee by their swoop.

Face thou the wind. Though safer seem
In shelter to abide:
We were not made to sit and dream:
The safe must first be tried.

Where God hath set His thorns about,
Cry not, "The way is plain":
His path within for those without
Is paved with toil and pain.

One fragment of His blessed Word,
Into thy spirit burned,
Is better than the whole half-heard
And by thine interest turned.

Show thou thy light. If conscience gleam,
Set not thy bushel down;
The smallest spark may send his beam
O'er hamlet, tower, and town.

Woe, woe to him, on safety bent,
Who creeps to age from youth,
Failing to grasp his life's intent
Because he fears the truth.

Be true to every inmost thought,
And as thy thought, thy speech: