New Document
Theodic Optimism
By Charles Harpur
Man’s life is but a boastful weakness,
Pale with terrors unconfessed;
Yet Virtue may not lose her treasure,
And God is power exceeding measure—
Whereof all is for the best
In the end—
In that certain Godward end
Towards which all things, together working, tend.
The world is mountainous with danger,
And with failure, and unrest;
Yet is it isled in the supernal—
And God is peace—yea, peace eternal—
Wherefore all is for the best
In the end.
The world is interpathed with errors,
And with follies unredressed;
Yet even wise men are forecasting
And God is wisdom everlasting—
Wherefore all is for the best
In the end.
The world is sown with lies for lucre—
Lies that every heart infest;
Yet fraud is overcome by duty,
And God is truth, and truth is beauty—
Wherefore all is for the best
In the end.
Power, peace, wisdom, truth, and beauty,
These are God—and here we rest
Secure though weak: for these attest
That Evil must be self-consuming,
A bale-fire—Final Good illuming—
All then—all is for the best
In the end
In that certain Godward end
Tow’rds which all things, together working, tend.
But no man should less active be,
Believing thus—as not less free
To use his strength, skill, wit, to reach
The things attractive unto each:
And somewhat good will ever run
From all that’s well designed and done,
Though out beyond our range it go,
(Because by God’s hand prospered so)
Or wide of what we aimed at—lest
All should not be for the best.
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