Poems (Carter)/"Lift up your eyes!"
"LIFT UP YOUR EYES!"
The Master's words ring clear across the years,"Lift up your eyes! Behold the fields for theyAre to the harvest white." Ah! Thou couldst see,Dear Saviour, that which was from all men hidden,When came the call and promise: blind and sealedSeemed hearts of men and courage came to few—To those great souls who saw with Thy clear eyes,Who thought with Thy great thoughts, and loved with Thee.They went—one here, one there—the ages through,Where'er men hopeless toiled, and women wept;Where men, tho' speechless, longed for light and life,And braved much hardship and performed much toilTo satisfy the spirit's unquenched thirstFor God—some God!—for Light—some light to guideThro' mist and labyrinth—thro' life and death.Arrived among Thy children, scattered wide,What welcome met they?—heralds of the Cross?Hatred, suspicion, persecution, loss!—And yet they persevered, year after year,Dauntless, unmoved and sure of the result,With longer patience than the husbandman,Because the Lord of the Diviner harvestUpheld them and they could endure as seeingHim they served! Oh! what has earth to offer To rank with God's divinest gift to man?This faith sublime to see with God's clear eyes!To think with His great thoughts! To love like Him!
Gt. Barrington, Aug., 1914,