Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.
By Verse Musings on Nature, Faith, and Freedom (1889). I. Faith. IV. What is Faith?John Owen (1836–1896)
F
It boasts not of the sun at noonday bright,
While groping in the starlit haze of night.
Fierce vaunting of all Truth in accents loud,
Beguiling with bold words th’ unthinking crowd.
Seated in queenly robes upon her throne,
Meting the boundless with her claspèd zone.
The overweening claim that Truth must be
What we forecast from what we hear and see.
Faith does but muse
With heed upon the data she must use,
Nor Likelihood’s fair claim durst she refuse.
That walking on the Infinite’s dread brink,
She dare not mete its chain by one small link.
That which she deems all dimly, may be real,
On her blind guess she will not set Truth’s seal.
She shall see clear—whereas she doth but grope—
When earth’s dark vistas widen to heaven’s scope.
The healthful impulses she would instil
May, by heaven’s prospering, all good fulfil.
Her wistful craving for the True and Just,
Not only may be realised but must.