Does it mean the stone-built altar, and the cleft-wood for its fire,
That with sacrificial offering shall the soul to God aspire,
Purged and pure from sin's defilement, lifting holy hands on high,
"Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and there
am I"?

Does it mean that toil and action are the price that man shall pay,
Striving the strait gait to enter, pressing on the narrow way,
Clearing it from shade and hindrance, with strong arm and purpose high,
"Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and there
am I"?

Does it mean that he who seeketh may Thy presence always see
In the common things around him, in the stone and in the tree,
Underlying, all-pervading, Soul of Nature, ever nigh,
"Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and there
am I"?

Yea, in all our work and worship, in our quiet, in our strife,
In the daily, busy handwork, in the soul's most ardent life,
Each may read his own true meaning of the Saying deep and high,
"Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and there
am I."

--Mrs. Henry B. Smith.

He's true to God, who's true to man; wherever wrong is done,
To the humblest and the weakest, 'neath the all-beholding sun,
That wrong is also done to us; and they are slaves most base
Whose love of right is for themselves, and not for all their race.

--James Russell Lowell.

HER CREED

She stood before a chosen few,
With modest air and eyes of blue;
A gentle creature, in whose face
Were mingled tenderness and grace.

"You wish to join our fold," they said;
"Do you believe in all that's read
From ritual and written creed,
Essential to our human need?"

A troubled look was in her eyes;
She answered, as in vague surprise,
As though the sense to her were dim.
"I only strive to follow Him."

They knew her life, how oft she stood,
Pure in her guileless maidenhood,
By dying bed, in hovel lone,
Whose sorrow she had made her own.

Oft had her voice in prayer been heard,
Sweet as the note of any bird;
Her hand been open in distress;
Her joy to brighten and to bless.

Yet still she answered, when they sought
To know her inmost, earnest thought,
With look as of the seraphim
"I only strive to follow Him."

--Sarah Knowl