Poems (Trask)/From Nature unto God

by Clara Augusta Jones Trask

FROM NATURE UNTO GOD.

The wind that sweeps the fragrant waste
 Of billowy clover seas,
And breathes its mystic music through
 The greenery of the trees;
The summer sun that drops its gold
 On hill and plain and sea,
The cooling shadows as they pass
 So still and noiselessly,—
All these familiar sights and sounds
 Are beautiful to me.

The far blue hills that in the haze
 Of distance fade away,
The fleecy white clouds, mountain-born,
 That love at home to stay;
The stretch of mellow purple sky
 Arching in peace o'er all,—
Building between the earth and heaven
 A thin dividing wall,—
So thin that God can hear our prayers
 And answer when we call:

All these delightful things I love,
 Of earth, and sky, and air;
They fill my soul with images
 Of light divinely fair!
If such is earth beneath the curse
 Of lust, and pride, and sin,
Earth where the threatening power of death
 Throughout all time has been,—
What must be heaven, where naught of this
 Can ever enter in?

In all these gracious works I see
 God's mercy and His care;
The world holds no place so remote
 His love cannot reach there.
I cannot stray so far away
 Prayer will not find His ear;
In every place I know and feel
 His strengthening Presence near;
And if He loves and cares for me,
 What cause have I for fear?