263. The Unknown God

ONE of the crowd went up,

And knelt before the Paten and the Cup,

Received the Lord, returned in peace, and prayed

Close to my side; then in my heart I said:

‘O Christ, in this man’s life—

This stranger who is Thine—in all his strife,

All his felicity, his good and ill,

In the assaulted stronghold of his will,

‘I do confess Thee here,

Alive within this life; I know Thee near

Within this lonely conscience, closed away

Within this brother’s solitary day.

‘Christ in his unknown heart,

His intellect unknown—this love, this art,

This battle and this peace, this destiny

That I shall never know, look upon me!

‘Christ in his numbered breath,

Christ in his beating heart and in his death,

Christ in his mystery! From that secret place

And from that separate dwelling, give me grace.’