In Memoriam: A Poem

In Memoriam Yea, all the dead of ages slumber still, And their lost voices come to us no more They rise not up, come forth on plain or hill, Ascend to life from ocean's sunken floor.

They lie, the friend and foe, as they have lain To time of peace the time of tumult yields Who died for Thee or in Thy name were slain, In grassy mounds on countless battlefields.

Wing we our eager feet, or weigh, with lead With deeper knowledge shall the game be won ? In trust shall we above our cherished dead,

With ashen lips repeat, "Thy will be done"?

Yet not Thy words, O Christ, nor love shall fail, More sweet with years Thy teaching ever sounds ;

May we the heights of Thy completeness scale, And know beyond dead formalism's bounds?

Yea, unto doubt itself Thou bring'st a hope, Unbound by selfish or by narrow creed Yea, still thy mighty love of boundless scope, With cross we follow where Thy footsteps lead

ALFRED LAMBOURNE