He Giveth Power to the Faint
December 21.
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard,
that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator
of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have
no might he increaseth strength.
ISAIAH 40, verses 28, 29.
Workman of God! oh, lose not heart,
But learn what God is like;
And in the darkest battle-field
Thou shall know where to strike.
F. W. FABER.
For the rest, let that vain struggle to read the mystery
of the Infinite cease to harass us. It is a mystery
which, through all ages, we shall only read here a line of,
there another line of. Do we not already know that the
name of the Infinite is GOOD, is GOD? Here on earth
we are as soldiers, fighting in a foreign land, that
understand not the plan of the campaign, and have
no need to understand it; seeing well what is at our
hand to be done. Let us do it like soldiers, with
submission, with courage, with a heroic joy. Behind us,
behind each one of us, lie six thousand years of human,
effort, human conquest: before us is the boundless Time,
with its as yet uncreated and unconquered continents
and Eldorados, which we, even we, have to conquer, to
create; and from the bosom of Eternity there shine for us
celestial guiding stars.
Thomas CARLYLE.
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard,
that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator
of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have
no might he increaseth strength.
ISAIAH 40, verses 28, 29.
Workman of God! oh, lose not heart,
But learn what God is like;
And in the darkest battle-field
Thou shall know where to strike.
F. W. FABER.
For the rest, let that vain struggle to read the mystery
of the Infinite cease to harass us. It is a mystery
which, through all ages, we shall only read here a line of,
there another line of. Do we not already know that the
name of the Infinite is GOOD, is GOD? Here on earth
we are as soldiers, fighting in a foreign land, that
understand not the plan of the campaign, and have
no need to understand it; seeing well what is at our
hand to be done. Let us do it like soldiers, with
submission, with courage, with a heroic joy. Behind us,
behind each one of us, lie six thousand years of human,
effort, human conquest: before us is the boundless Time,
with its as yet uncreated and unconquered continents
and Eldorados, which we, even we, have to conquer, to
create; and from the bosom of Eternity there shine for us
celestial guiding stars.
Thomas CARLYLE.
