September 23

The Kingdom of God is . . . Peace.

W F. say that repose has fled For ever the course of the river of Time;

That cities will crowd to its edge

In a blacker incessanter line;

That the din will be more on its banks,

Denser the trade on its stream,

Flatter the plain where it flows,

Fiercer the sun overhead.

That never will those on its breast

See an ennobling sight,

Drink of the feeling of quiet again.

But what was before us we know not,

And we know not what shall succeed.

Haply, the river of Time—

As it grows, as the towns on its marge

Fling their wavering lights

On a wider statelier stream—

May acquire, if not the calm

Of its early mountainous shore,

Yet a solemn peace of its own.

MATTHEW

ARNOLD

A CHARACTER