Zinzendorff and Other Poems/"I will arise and go unto my Father"
"I WILL ARISE AND GO UNTO MY FATHER."
Wanderer, amid the snares
Of Time's uncertain way,
Of thousand nameless fears the sport,
Of countless ills the prey:
A stranger 'mid the land
Where thy probation lies,
In peril from each adverse blast
And e'en from prosperous skies,
In peril from thy friends,
In peril from thy foes,
In peril from the rebel heart
That in thy bosom glows;
Hast thou no Father's house
Beyond this pilgrim scene,
That thou on Earth's delusive props
With bleeding breast dost lean?
Yet not a Mother's care
Who for her infant sighs,
When absence shuts it from her arms
Or sickness dims its eye,
Transcends the love divine,
The welcome full and free,
With which the glorious King of Heaven
Will stretch his arms to thee,
When thou with contrite tear
Shalt wait within his walls,
Imploring but the broken bread
That from his table falls.
No more his mansion shun,
No more distrust his grace,
Turn from the orphanage of earth
And find a Sire's embrace.