January 10
Companions of the Way (Evening)To be spiritually minded is Life and Peace.
I, THAT still pray at morning and at eve, Loving those roots that feed us from the past, And prizing, more than Plato, things I learned At that best academe, a mother's knee, Thrice in my life perhaps have truly prayed, Thrice, stirred below my conscious self, have felt That perfect disenthralment which is God; Nor know I which to hold worst enemy,— Him who on speculation's windy waste Would turn me loose, stript of the raiment warm By Faith contrived against our nakedness; Or him who, cruel-kind, would fain obscure, With painted saints and paraphrase of God, The soul's east window of divine surprise.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
A REASONABLE FAITH