HOLD FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD.
By Bonar
This is the day of motion; history
Fast and yet faster moveth; but all motion
Is not advancement. Thought is now adrift,
And who shall anchor it or hold the helm?
The anchored barques are tugging at their chains,
And the unanchored are all out upon
A sea of tumult, striking each the other.
Slow, and yet slower! for I hear afar
The sound of the fog-signals—slower yet!
The air is thick, and peril on all sides
Warns us to watch and keep the helm in hand,
The years are wiser than the days; let us
Be still and wait; the mist will rise ere long. Meanwhile in silence the recumbent earth
Moves on, unconscious of the hurricane,
Round its old self, and round the constant sun,
Impelled by laws it knows not, yet obeys.
So let us glide upon our tranquil path,
Unswerving, with our eye upon the goal,
And in obedience to a law which sweetly
Draweth us onward, yet in doing so
Keeps us unshaken,—says to us, Be still!
—Bonar.