Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By The Prisoner of Love (1904). VII. Losing and Saving

Frederick William Orde Ward (1843–1922)

O IF we always love the good,

Yet stand upon the losing side

Where martyrs have before us stood,

And scorn the vulgar baits of pride;

Then shall we never know retreat,

Though suffering wrong and sore defeat.

If we still walk the narrow way

And stumble on the cruel stone,

Which telleth us to pause and pray,

While pilgrims are we left alone;

When we seem vanquished in the fight,

We must be victors for the right.

If we have not a helper near

And danger daily hems us round,

While everywhere some foe or fear

Encroacheth on our holiest ground;

Ah, though we suffer grimly thus,

The awful odds are yet with us.

If Heaven looks veiled and shadows fall

Upon the heart and cloud the sight,

Or weakness garrisons our wall

And darkness is the only light;

Though drifting hopeless with the tide,

We must be winners on God’s side.