Serve and Reign

                            I.
Every soul was born to duty
     Every hand was shaped to labor;
Eyes allegiance are to Beauty
     Hearts to love, of kin and neighbor,
We are subjects of a Higher;
     None Is lord and none is master.
Fate is like a ring of fire
     Closing round us, fast and faster
In our struggling and resistance,—
For we are not, in the distance,
     Loving glances on us fall;
And forget in pain and trial,
Hope’s eclipse and Faith’s denial,
     God and Heaven are over all.

                            II.
We are free by full obedience,
     Masters by a glad submission,
Lords of life in our allegiance,
     Crowned by Love beyond Ambition.
Simple heart, and soul aspiring,
     Win the prize and garlands gather;
Trust discerns in Fate’s own fire-ring
     But the dear arms of Our Father.
Care and sorrow are the birth-throes
Of a gladness more than earth knows;
     Life and love escape the pall;
Calm and storm, the sad and joyous,
Are the poised wings that upbuoy us,
     God-ward, Heaven-ward, over all.