God in All Things
For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,—
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thought; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thoughts,
And rolls through all things.
—William Wordsworth.
I will Find God
I said, “I will find God!” and forth I went
To seek Him in the clearness of the sky,
But before me stood unendurably
Only a pitiless sapphire firmament
Ringing the world,—blank splendor; yet intent
Still to find God, “I will go seek,” said I,
“His way upon the waters,” and drew nigh
An ocean marge weed-strewn and foam-besprent;
And the waves dashed on idle sand and stone,
And very vacant was the long, blue sea;
But in the evening as I sat alone,
My window open to the vanishing day,
Dear God! my own dear God!
I could not choose but kneel and pray,
And it sufficed that I was found of Thee.
—Edward Dowden.
I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.
—Francis Bacon.
Alternate Reading: II Corinthians 11: 19-33.