The Stake and the Plumb-Line

“One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward,Never doubted clouds would break,Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,Sleep to wake.”

“‘The end comes as came the beginning,And shadows fail into the past;And the goal, is it not worth the winning,If it brings us but home at the last?

“‘While far through the pain of waste placesWe tread, ‘tis a blossoming rodThat drives us to grace from disgraces,From the fens to the gardens of God!’”