Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Hymns and Poems. VIII. Confidence

Sir John Bowring (1792–1872)

IS it not strange that men who loudest boast

Of the unshaken basis of their faith,

Are those who tremble most and threaten most,

If any thought or word of doubt gainsayeth

Their bold asseverations? They are lost

In their perplexities, if e’er the torch

Of light intrude into their dark recess;

They fly like midnight spectres from the porch

Of Truth’s resplendent temples, where the sun

Shines with mist-scattering majesty upon

Their fears, their follies, and their feebleness.

Sad contrast to that greatly gifted one

Whose counsel was, “Prove all things and hold fast

By what is good!—for what is good will last.”