Light on the Hidden Way

We think that heaven will not shut for evermore

Without a knocker left upon the door,

Lest some belated wanderer should come,

Heart-broken, asking just to be at home;

So that the Father will at last forgive,

And looking on his face that soul shall live.

We think there will be watchmen through the night,

Lest any, far off, tun them to the light;

That he who loved us into life must be

A Father, infinitely fatherly;

And groping for him, all shall find their way

From outer dark, through twilight, into perfect day.

Light on the Hidden Way, Ticknor & Company, Boston, 1886