345. The New World

‘That new world which is the old.’—TENNYSON.

A NEW world did Columbus find?

Ah! ’tis not so that world is found;

God’s golden harvest-sheaves who bind

Are tillers of another ground.

No new world like the old we need;

One thing suffices—one alone,

A garnered world-harvest from seed

The wounded Hands of Christ have sown.

No earthly Paradise avails,

No Eldorado in the West;

The Spirit’s Breath must fill their sails

Who seek the Highlands of the Blest.

By stripes is healing wrought, and stars

Point ever to a central Sun;

He flies the conquering flag, whose scars,

Transfigured, speak of Victory won.

O Royal Heart, Thy Kingdom come!

All else may change; all else may go:

Not eastward, westward, is our Home,

But onward, upward:—even so!

One Sign alone is love-designed,

God’s Evergreen, the Eternal Rood;

Happy the home-seekers who find

Its meaning plain—a world renewed!