Poems (Trask)/My Faith

by Clara Augusta Jones Trask

MY FAITH.

When quiet reigns upon the earth,
 And placid is the sky,
With not an angry cloud to dim
 The crystal vault on high;
When gentle happiness is mine,
 And care has fled my breast,
When not a stormy trouble tears
 The calm sea of my rest,
God, I fear that I ignore
 Thy goodness and thy grace,
And turn to other shrines, away
 From thy resplendent face!

When all around me is serene,
 No threatening peril nigh,
And loving ones are by my side
 To bid all trials fly,
1 greatly fear me that I put
 Aside my sacred trust,
And place my faith in other gods
 Formed out of clay and dust;
Though well I know all power but thine
 Is impotent to save,
And that thy love, and thine alone,
 Can find me in the grave.

But when grim danger glowers at me,
 And chills my blood to stone;
When fickle friends flee from my side
 And leave me all alone;
When heart and spirit faint and fail,
 And flesh grows sorely weak:—
What can I do but come to Thee,
 All broken, contrite, meek?
For when the storms arise, and beat
 My life-bark out to sea,
Whom have I, Lord, on earth beside,
 And whom in heaven, but Thee?