“Strong Son of God, immortal Love”

From “In Memoriam”: Introduction STRONG Son of God, immortal Love,   Whom we, that have not seen thy face,   By faith, and faith alone, embrace, Believing where we cannot prove; Thine are these orbs of light and shade;   Thou madest Life in man and brute;   Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot Is on the skull which thou hast made. Thou wilt not leave us in the dust:   Thou madest man, he knows not why;   He thinks he was not made to die; And thou hast made him: thou art just. Thou seemest human and divine,   The highest, holiest manhood, thou:   Our wills are ours, we know not how; Our wills are ours, to make them thine. Our little systems have their day;   They have their day and cease to be:   They are but broken lights of thee, And thou, O Lord, art more than they. We have but faith: we cannot know;   For knowledge is of things we see;   And yet we trust it comes from thee, A beam in darkness: let it grow. Let knowledge grow from more to more,   But more of reverence in us dwell;   That mind and soul, according well, May make one music as before, But vaster. We are fools and slight;   We mock thee when we do not fear:   But help thy foolish ones to bear; Help thy vain worlds to bear thy light. Forgive what seemed my sin in me;   What seemed my worth since I began;   For merit lives from man to man, And not from man, O Lord, to thee. Forgive my grief for one removed,   Thy creature, whom I found so fair.   I trust he lives in thee, and there I find him worthier to be loved. Forgive these wild and wandering cries,   Confusions of a wasted youth;   Forgive them where they fail in truth, And in thy wisdom make me wise.