"Up over windy wastes and up
Went Alfred over the shaws,
Shaken of the joy of giants,
The joy without a cause."
And as his men saw him coming, they thought it was with the old vain word of a sure victory, and they were about to tell him in advance that if he came with such a message they would follow him no more. But not now was Alfred's word the easy word. No, but—
"This is the word of Mary,
The word of the world's desire;
'No more of comfort shall you get
Save that the sky grows darker yet,
And the sea rises higher.'"
And in front of that darkening sky and that rising sea his men rose up to go with him, and this time, from the darkest night they had ever known, came the bright morning of their lasting victory. Thank God, we are not called out on any soft errand under the incitement of bright choices, but challenged by great difficulties, black nights and rising storms, to work in the hope of that which is invisible and which lies beyond. It is by hope, and hope that lies behind impenetrable clouds, that men are nerved and empowered. It is because the world is so black and dark to-day that we walk out into it smiling in its face, knowing that behind all this the morning the more
