Lifetime of God— eternity—how vain
The hope to measure that which hath no end
And no beginning! Let the mind explain
Its curious structure, bid it comprehend
The ties that bind it to its home of clay,
Then may it circle heaven’s resplendent day!

Do the bright spirits of the land unseen
Live in one blissful, all-sufficient now?
Is there no past from which they daily glean?
No white-robed future, with its shining brow?
Is there no call for memory’s siren voice?
No room for hope in which we so rejoice?

Thou knowest, and the angels round the throne,
Thou, at whose bidding infant time was born!
To our vain questionings the world unknown
Is silent as the opening veil of morn!
Light, Father, light, to know and do Thy will.
That thus our doubting spirits may be still!

Hannah Jane Woodman Lewis (1816–1885)